Looking to go off grid

Hi everyone,

I’m looking to build my homestead. Working on finding the right piece of land for me right now. Like no less than 2-5. Just for myself to live on, grow some bees, and work my way up to hens someday.

First things first, I’ve watched the videos on how to setup a solar array and doing the inverter setup. However, I’m just now seeing these all in one things.

I’m glad I learned how to build everything from the ground up but it seems these all in one systems are cheaper? Since I plan to live in my land and do the whole water collecting, greenhouse, compost solar setup etc. I’m not wealthy by any means so when I arrive to my land I’ll pickup about 800w worth of solar panels to start myself off. What’s the difference between some of these systems and what would you recommend for an amateur who plans to scale up?

Also what other advice and checklists would you recommend I do?

Recommend you read more of these forum threads as your question gets asked A LOT.

Search for AiO in the forums and you will learn a lot as they have been and still are discussed A LOT, like even yesterday and today and all week. Pros and cons to them, so it depends.....

Search for info on doing an energy audit.

Once things start to make sense, LOOK FOR USED equipment. My low frequency inverter/ charger is 20+ years old and they can be found at low costs sometimes and is super reliable pure sine wave long high surge capable and can run anything and with a low idle draw of 16 watts vs high frequency AiO's at 50-60 watts.

I live comfortably with a 100 AH 2.5 KW LiFePO4 battery and 2.28 KW of solar panels. Could do with less solar panels but on dark cloudy days, panels output can drop to just 5-10%, so more panels really helps on short cloudy winter days.

Read, read, read, watch YouTube videos, do your energy audit, go slow and don't buy anything until you get it and are prepared.

Links #1 and #5 in my sig.

Living off-grid, you want redundancy and easy to fix. To me, that is a component system of a profitable manufacturer today that was making a compatible product 10 years ago.

Sure you can stack smaller AIO's for redundancy, and they are easy to swap out. However, they tend to be stackable only with like units. Who knows if the same unit will be available in 10 years when you need to fix it.

You could just have one large AIO with a spare you can swap out. Without a lot of work, you can swap out X with Y, when you buy the replacement backup.

I'd build a portable (hand-truck) solar generator ... an AIO, LiFePO4 battery, and a solar panel or two of your choice. This is the project you use to garner all knowledge about your future system, and it is usable now, for camping, site work, etc. If you spec right, all components transfer over to home effort (utility shed), or you go smaller, for less cost, and leave it as a portable power source (around the property, camping, etc.)

Starting from raw land, and discussing just power, you'll want a "master" plan (at least a site plan). Don't actually need the real land yet, because you can start blocking out the elements of where things go, and then fit to the final land shape later. Helps to be thinking everything out now ...

For any raw land, you'll want: roads, structure pad locations, and with that done, site propane (get a site tank installed from a local propane service). Then put in a propane generator, running from the big site tank. Now you have power for all future construction and use. This can also become a backup to solar, and backups are critical. This would run all the time you need power, unless you use it mainly to recharge your solar generator (batteries), at which point propane generator only runs a few hours for recharge, or for when you need big power tools or such.

Next up is your "utilities" building (insulated shed), to hold water tank, electric equipment, and anything else that needs to be warm/dry. When that is done, you are ready to install solar equipment. Site the shed to take advantage of solar, and hang a few panels off the south side. All wiring between batteries, inverter/mppt, and panels are close together. Later on, you'll run power from here over to home.

AIO's are perhaps not as long-lived as Tier-1 (LF) inverters, so plan for more than one (a stacked or parallel design). Nets both "more power" if needed, and "backup" in case one of the AIO's craps out. Choose wisely, to get around support and warranty issues. For AIO's, I think I would buy only from CurrentConnected.com, Watts24x7.com, or similar USA vendor with good standing in forums.. My current power projects utilize AIO's (MPP Solar, from watts24x7.com).

Not sure what others are thinking, but I'm currently lumping all AIO's into the "Tier-2" (or worse) category, at least until I get some projects with some longevity and experience.

This is basically the order in which we did things to get power on our raw acreage, where grid power wasn't in the cards.

Hope this helps ...

Note: forums have been a lifesaver in terms of purchasing "the right stuff" ... where I've purchased the wrong stuff, it was because I didn't do the homework in the relevant forums *first*. Fuel generators, solar batteries, etc. ... do your homework, and stay away from things where others are reporting some kind of grief. There's a forum for just about anything ...

Blurb time!

Well, I'll start the default answer to these questions and we can work from there. Here's you To-Do list:

1: Power audit! This will give you some important information on how big your inverter needs to be as well as how much battery capacity you'll need. There is a link in the FAQ section (I think, or someone here will post it shortly) so fill in the blanks and see what it comes up with. You'll probably need some sort of Kill-A-Watt to get accurate measurements. Are you going to be running a 12v system? 24v system? 48v system? What are the specs on your solar panels? VoC? Vmp? Being as this is a new build, throw together a wish list of what you want and estimate on the high side.

1a: Where do you live? Speccing out a system for Scotland is a LOT different numbers than Arizona due to the amount of light you actually get. Someone here can post the link to the PVwatts.com or JCR Solar Uber-Sun-Hours calculator sites to help figure out how much you'll have to work with. That will be a box in the Power Audit form.

2: Parts list: You don't need a make & model list, just a parts list to start from for reference. You'll need an inverter, a MPPT charge controller, fuses, shunt, buck converter, batteries, wire, etc. Once you have a basic list it can be fine tuned to make & models after that. If you're looking at the All-In-Ones check for correct voltage outputs (120v or 240v Split Phase for North America, 220v Single Phase for European type areas) and make sure it has enough capacity for a little bit of growth and fudge factor.

3: Budget!: Steak is great but doesn't mean anything if your wallet says hamburger. Figure out what you're able to spend now vs what you'll have to cheap out on now and upgrade later.

4: Tape measure! Figure out where you're going to stick all the stuff you'll need. A dozen 3000AH batteries sounds great until you're sleeping on the floor because there's no room left for a bed. Is there a compartment that can house all this stuff? Will the server rack batteries fit? Are you going to have to make space? Physics can be pretty unforgiving.

5: Pencil out what you think you need and throw it at us so we can tell you what you've missed (because we ALL miss stuff the first go-round ) and help figure out which parts and pieces you're going to want to get.

Well that's the thing about solar systems, there is no 1-Size-Fits-All answer. Your system will need to be designed to fit YOUR needs. When you design and built the system, it's not going to be the perfect system for me, or Will or 12vInstall or anyone else, but it Will be the right system for You and that's the goal.

As for where to get started, let me throw my standard blurb in here to help point you in the right direction. There's going to be a lot of math and research involved, but that's going to be a LOT cheaper than just buying parts off of someone's list and finding out that it doesn't do what you need.

Don't panic on the Power Audit, you'll actually be doing that a few times. When you do the first pass put in ALL the Things that you might want. AirCon? Sure. Jacuzzi? Why not. MargaritaMaster-9000? Go for it.

The second pass will be the "I Absolutely Need This To Survive" list that isn't going to have much on there.

The third pass will be the "This is what is realistic" audit that you'll use to design the rest of the system.

The Power Audit is going to tell you 3 primary things: 1: How big does your inverter need to be to power your loads? 2: How much battery bank do you need to last $N number of days with krappy weather? and 3: How much solar panel will I need to install to refill those batteries in a 4 hour day (the average usable sun hours rule-of-thumb).

Once you know what you Want and what you Need and what your budget can Afford there will be somewhere in that Venn diagram where those three things meet.

After that, THEN you can start looking at parts.

Yes, it's a long drawn out process, but it's worth it in the end. Not every house has the exact same floorplan, not every vehicle is the same make & model, and not every solar system is designed the same.

Being a homesteader myself, I'd say go with more land than what you are thinking about. Instead of 2-5 acres, I'd say 10-20. With just 2 acres, you can't get physically farther than 150' from the neighbors. Smaller parcels typically have more restrictions placed on them.

Initially the wife and I were shopping for ~20 acres, and then found a 50 acre property that meets all our needs. Specifically, the more land, the more potential firewood you can get for off-grid heating. Less complaints from neighbors that don't like to listen to your rooster every morning. Less likely that a stray bullet will pass through a wall.

In any case, draft up a complete plan before you start buying stuff. So, hold off on rushing out to buy 800$ of solar panels. For lights, TV, a computer, and a frig running 24/7, I'd suggest you need ~ 3kWh of power per day. A 24V system is likely to meet all your needs initially, but can grow and expand as time goes by. Shop for panels on Craigslist. Excellent deals there. Buy your electronics online, but pick up batteries locally.

Personally, I'd skip 12V completely. This is something I've suggested to people before, as a relatively cheap starter system.....

Four high-voltage 250W residential grid-tie style panels. ~80$ each on Craigslist right now. Wire them 2S2P.

40A charge controller. Look at Epever's Tracer 4210AN. A better model is the Tracer 5420AN. Better still, an Outback, or Midnight, or MorningStar

Four 6V golf-cart batteries. CostCo has 210Ah golf-carts for 110$ each. Wire the four in series to get 24V. Upgrade to bigger batteries in a few years.

Sine-wave 24V inverter. Take a look at the Samlex PST1500 and PST2000. They are high frequency and don't have strong starting surge, but if the biggest thing you have is the frig, it should be fine. If you expect to be running a lot of big power tools, look at my inverter, the Conext SW4024. Handles everything I've loaded on it, including a 1.6hp air compressor. All of these are UL-listed.

Throw in an extaa 200-400$ for wire, breakers, electrical boxes, and spit.

All that together would be <2000$±.

MichaelK said:

Being a homesteader myself, I'd say go with more land than what you are thinking about. Instead of 2-5 acres, I'd say 10-20.

Click to expand...

You can hide the ground mount solar on a clearing in the back 10 acres, and let the neighbors enjoy the view.

Have an answer ready for this question:

What am I going to do when component x fails?

Substitute in EVERY component in your system for component x.

Where i live everyone is off-grid for power, it is becoming more frequent that people have power system failures and rely on the installers to fix the issue (the installers rarely return).