Big dreams, small living, off-grid homestead from scratch

[G00SE]

Well, let me preface this with advance notice of the following:

I can be wordy, sometimes I may post a novel of a comment
I can be reactionary, sometimes I don’t exhibit the greatest self control so if I reply to someone rudely, I’m probably already dwelling on it

This thread will be in waves. Sometimes I will have rapid fire updates, other times I may be dormant for a month or so.

Anything I choose to post, comment, share, or retort should not be taken as legal advise, electrical advise, code compliance, or really in any shape/form/fashion in accordance with any alphabet governmental agency

I intend to utilize this thread as both a build thread for others to view, learn, armchair quarterback, squirm at my idiocy, and provide valuable insights when I may be inadvertently about to shock myself with 1.21 gigawatts, as well as a type of personal journal, to document my achievements, progressions, set backs, milestones, and overall offgrid living adjustments.

I’ve been circling that burning ball of plasma in space for nearly 4 decades, and about 5 years ago took a long look at my life, the world, and the overall design of this thing we call society. I started planting seeds with the family on living intentionally (didn’t know this term at the time), acquiring some land, and becoming self sustainable.

Enter: March 2020 and suddenly, very quickly, our plans began to take hold with the realization that we live in an absolute loony place (earth) surrounded by loony people that pretend to want to “help” the masses
We owned a home in Phoenix. Fortunately, we also accumulated roughly 150k in equity.
We sold our house, bought a 36ft camper to live in temporarily, packed up our “needs” into the various enclosed trailers we possess and headed north.

It took a while to figure out where we wanted to be, but we finally found our own little slice of heaven.
We wanted rural, acreage, minimal restrictions (no HOA, odball zoning, etc) cooler weather, and we needed water. We wan to never have a “bill” again. (Unavoidable with cellphone and starlink, but I think that’s it)
Over the following summer, in a 3 week span, I flew across country to Hattiesburg Mississippi to meet a fella with the camper. I bought his truck too, so that I could haul everything back.

Upon reaching my destination I became very uncomfortable with the big blue oval in the steering wheel, so the truck has since been sold and replaced with a GMC hah
I then drove 2 weeks later to Coweta Oklahoma to purchase a Branson 2515h Tractor, Loader, Backhoe. That same GMC lost an alternator at 11pm in Grants New Mexico, on my sons birthday, with 8k hooked behind me I lost all lights going 70mph on I-40. I was 4-6 hours from home.

We limped into town, every single hotel was sold out. Apparently some biker rally that happens every year or other year. We slept in the parking lot.

Now that I’ve replaced the alternator and other maintenance this ol 2002 8.1L still puts my old 2011 6.2L ford to shame.

Yes, I often times find myself driving across country for “deals” hence the frugality in my title. This was also at a time where old Ford 8n tractors were selling for 10k+ and anything made in the last decade was 20k+. Buying new, with a “Cummins” made sense.

Armed with newly to me acquired tools, a wave of ambition, and endless desire to search the internet, I picked up 2-champion 5500w inverter generators and called it good ?
Throughout all of this, I drew, designed, specd, and ordered a metal building to erect on our land to make our forever home a “barndominium”

Then came the permit process: it took months to get the parcel surveyed and split (we subd to 2-20ac parcels) we are now awaiting our septic permit.
Unfortunately, in the 2 years that have passed, labor rates and the trades in general have inclined significantly and I now must pay 30k for a 40x80 monolithic slab to be poured. Outside of the foundation, we will self build and fund the entirety.

So for now, plan B is to simply build our solar as a portable power station that can follow us wherever we take the trailer (I didn’t want to ground mount yet as we don’t full time on our property and didn’t want things to grow legs) we are also digging our own septic and installing 2,500 gallon tank for water storage from the well.

Once the septic and solar trailer are done, we will fulltime at the property in the RV until we finish the house.

Although at this rate: it may be 3-4 tiny houses as my kids keep getting older and if I don’t pick up the pace, will be ready to move out before headquarters is erected.

Continued

 

[G00SE]

The land:

Located at roughly 6500ft elevation is nearly entirely flat. There is an abandoned camper, abandoned Toyota Tercel, and some other odds and ends. We’ve got juniper, scrub oak, and some other small bush growth. The ground isn’t the most fertile ever, but we can make some improvements in that regard. There is about a 90ft tall ridge that slices the land in half. That’s what sold us.

After some perseverance we stumbled upon this 40ac parcel. It was fenced and had a private well that no one knew the history of.

We began negotiations, and the sellers were of no help in the well inspection process.

I paid a well company to come out and inspect. They gave me a quote of $2200 for preliminary repair. I used this to further negotiate and was shut down by the seller.

We were at a crossroads. I didn’t want to piss away my new found cash cushion on a hasty buy. at the same time, finding land with water within budget was proving a challenge, and the 2 local well diggers wanted 40k and 18 months of lead time.

I called the well company back and asked the owner to give it to me straight. What are the odds I will have a functioning well and what are the odds it’s just bunk, dry, or in disrepair. And he gave it to me straight.

5 days later we closed on the property without knowing the state of the water situation. I paid the company 2200 bucks and he called me and said GREAT NEWS!!!! We then tested the water, pure artisan gold! Just needed a new pump and roughly 30ft of pipe replaced. The well is 490ft deep.

We are 3 miles from the nearest power line. No plans or desires to ever connect to any public utility service.

 

[G00SE]

The power plan:

As much as I preach about Tier 1, and I strongly desire a schneider, Victron, or Outback system: those plans must go on the back burner until I actually have a dried in structure.

My requirements were: split phase, not manufactured by voltronic (I truly feel for the Markus’ of the world that had to work thru that), ideally low frequency (oops) 40 amp output, and less than $3k for an inverter. I will have a 3.7hp 60 gallon compressor and a hobart multiprocess 200 welder that I need to start.

I actually had a heck of a time in this part of the process. I located a gentleman in St. George Utah with an Outback Radian 8048A with load center, 2 flexmax 80s, and 8fla batteries for $3k that I nearly jumped on. His system was commissioned in 2016 and just replaced with a solark and Sok system. Unfortunately, I got cold feet due to the age and unknown working conditions of the system when it was live. I believe it’s still for sale if anyone is interested.

I then found a guy outside of Salt Lake with a cabinet from a DC solar trailer that had 2-SMA sunny island 6048, a midnite 250/60, and all necessary wiring to plug and play my camper, batteries, and panels. He was willing to let it go for $3850. Unfortunately, I wasn’t confident in my own abilities to make SMA work how I desired in a fully DC coupled system and the REC BMS prices gave me pause. Although I did pester @Hedges (the resident Sma guru) for a few nights straight about my ponderings. Super smart member, thanks for all your insights. I believe this guys set up is also still for sale.

Then, at the 11th hour, Solar-Electric (northern Arizona wind and sun) had 3-Victron Multiplus ii 48/5000 120v inverters as “scratch and dent” for $1572 each. I put those in my “shopping cart” 3 separate times. I then began to bounce my ponderings off @sunshine_eggo (the resident Victron guru) and in the end determined that while I’d save roughly a grand on these inverters, the charge controllers would cost nearly as much as the inverters, and I’d be 5k in all over again. But he too, very helpful, cordial, and I think subliminally motivating me somehow. I’ll work on a hypothesis for this and follow up. I even discovered that @Adam De Lay had a YouTube of the bundled @HighTechLab set up which I was basically wanting to recreate. Awesome stuff too. That video nearly sealed the deal. But I think I need 2-10ks
I then found, a few days ago in Palm Desert CA a dual magnum 4448pae with load center, e-panel, and dual midnite 150/100s for $1500. I actually found this after buying the Sungold and almost drove to get it anyways. Talk about a steal! Unfortunately, magnum seems to have gone by the wayside, parts are now unobtainable, this set up was purchased 10 years ago, used for 3 years and then pulled and boxed up in favor of dual schneiders. It’s been in the same boxes for 7 years. I again, declined

Hopefully I don’t regret any of the above “missed opportunities” I wish I could buy them all and just go to town testing and comparing.

weeks prior, I attempted to purchase a refurbished Growatt SPF80000TDVM-MPV from signature solar. but couldn’t get the site to function properly, the deal was missed. Blessing in disguise, I had heard the shortcomings with this inverter, but it was LF so I was willing to try. And replacement parts are everywhere. Then I started reading of peoples issues with their SCC and runaway voltage and didn’t want to risk my expensive (to me) batteries.


Enter @fafrd and @42OhmsPA posts and I am made aware of the SRNE 10kw new to the market.

I figure since the eventual plan is 2 10kw Quattros that I should go full poser and just start with blue now. So on Friday, sept 29 I ordered the Sungold version and it arrived in 5 days

$1745 to my door. I had some apprehensions about this vendor, they don’t have a great track record of fulfilling orders in a timely manner. I think it was @OffGridForGood or @EastTexCowboy mentioned ordering their products on Amazon to alleviate this. Unfortunately, this product is so new it’s not yet on their Amazon. I emailed sales and within 90 minutes, Crystal replied saying if I wanted to order on Amazon, it would be available in October, but that they did in fact have supply in stock in their California warehouse and would assure me of delivery within a week. So I purchased from their website, emailed her my confirmation number, she promptly provided an update via FedEx and here I am.

As you can see, I’m not married to a brand, I just have 2 that I won’t buy. One rhymes with Noah’s Arc and the other rhymes with tectonic. Although, I’d buy the former one second hand no problem, just wouldn’t give the company my money. There’s a lot of people with success with the latter, but seems they aren’t building them as solid anymore. And I feel like I pretty well scrutinized most any option. Did I make the “best” choice? Time will tell.

My battery goal is a minimum of 4-304ah batteries, ideally 6, and a slew of other 50ah and 100ah server rack style packs (for portability, more on that later)

Thanks to users such as @Alkaline @Pieh0 and @houseofancients I overcame my buyers anxiety and purchased 33 grade B 305ah envision cells from 18650batterystore at a price of $79 each, total to my door was $2996

I then debated on purchasing a seplos mason kit, but couldn’t find any stateside. I’ve never used Alibaba so I decided to go with EEL. They had a sale on their v2 boxes as the v3 have just come out. They each came with their own 200a seplos BMS. Cost to my door was $1064. So at minimum I’ll have 2 batteries as my foundation.

Then, I began researching panels. Santan solar is a days drive for me, and they always seem to have good reviews. Last month they had a promo of 100 off 1000, 200 off 2000, and 300 off 3000. I put the Grade B SSB 380w all black panels in my cart. List price of 125 each. 16 put me at exactly $2000. Meaning after promo, I’d pay 1800 for 6080w of panels. Or 29 cents/watt. Not bad!!!

But again, I analysis paralysised myself until I woke up the next morning and the coupon was expired.

So I started digging more.

But they had some good deals on used panels as well and I nearly purchased 16 360w JA panels (maybe they were Longi, idk, either way they weren’t all black and I didn’t want any visible metal)

I heard signature solar was doing free shipping. and their pallet pricing (while extremely competitive and fair) was more than I had currently budgeted.

This led me to dive to the last resort: REDDIT.

In my digging, I discovered a number of other self proclaimed autists like myself, that seemingly scrape the depths of the interweb to make decisions,

This is where I discovered the website “Inxeption” and I promptly became overwhelmed with what I saw.

Seemed too good to be true! So, yep, I started digging more. Found people that had actually ordered and received product from them.

And lo and behold I find, a 36 panel pallet of all black brand new 370w NE Solar panels for $2824 to a commercial address. BUY! (21 cents/watt)

So far, I am in ~$8600 for a 10kw split phase 48v inverter, 13,320w in panels, and 31kwh of battery. Now I need to accumulate all the incidentals, wiring components, breakers, mounting, etc. it would be amazing to come in under 10k for phase 1 completion. It’ll be close.

 

[G00SE]

What’s next:

My power desires are too much to build a system within the RV. But we have a few other trailers in our possession. I wanted to do the 6x10 so that our GX470 could tow it without issue, but it wasn’t wide enough for my panel idea. And it wasn’t long enough inside either for my portable rack idea. So we will use the 7x14 instead.

My father in law retired as a small business owner as a residential electrician and solar installer. He used this trailer on some of his APS jobs. About 10 years ago, he offered the idea for me to learn his trade. Whether it be big or small. He had more work than he could handle, and he’s infinitely wiser than me, so he probably knew it’d be a nice skill in the tool belt.

I’m a gear head thru and thru. Electrical never interested me. I joined the military and my civilian career in medical is because of my military training.

So on my off days I say sure, what the heck. I’ll go help on some jobs. Mind you I’m out of shape and just rounding 30 at the time. My joints are all torn up and I had a million excuses to not do physical labor. So on day one when he gave me a shovel and told me to dig a conduit trench across this lady’s yard, and I knew the gas trencher was sitting in his backyard, I was a little sad. And old me lacked a lot of discipline (I still have a gazillion improvements to make, but I feel comfortable thinking that I’m a better person today than 5-10yrs ago) later, he had me learning how to wire breakers at the mains, and silly me didn’t pay close enough attention and I guess one hand or tool went from one contact point to the other and I felt that lovely jolt of electricity in my bones hahahaha. that afternoon was an APS solar install which wasn’t so bad but the following day, laying in bed sounded much better, and thus ended my electrician career aspirations.

Anyways, he no longer had a use for the trailer and I thought hell that’ll do. If I use 60/120 cell panels then that’s roughly 11ft long 6.8ft wide for a 2x2 array. That means I can put 4 panels on the roof, 4 panels on the road side wall, and then 2 racks of 4 panels to store/haul inside that I can deploy once at my destination.

The goal here is, I need enough panel to keep my bank full and 16 panels at 370 watts at 70% production for 5hrs/day still only nets me 20kwh

So both the 4 on the roof, and the 4 on the road wall will tilt from 0-30 degrees. I’d also like to acquire a Nissan leaf OR e-golf along with more battery to use the trailer as an EV charger if/when I have surplus energy.

If I hang 4 panels portrait for the moveable racks, I can get away with a frame of 6ftx13.5ft. If I design it as a 30/60 degree triangle then I can stow them in the trailer in the 60 degree mode as the rack would be 5.2ft tall and 3ft wide. Back to back would make them 6ft wide. Which means I can pull them in and out of the trailer. Rotate them from the 60* to the 30* and have them orient due south with the trailer mounted panels, or keep them at 60 and run them east/west.

This gives me 2-8 panel strings with a VOC of 328 and a VOC @-30 degrees of 380 with a VMP at 274.

I’ve been keenly watching @LT. Dan build, I envy the cleanliness of it. I hope I can only hope to do even 80% as good.

Once we are done building, we will transition these existing panels, and the remainder of the pallet to 16 panels due south, 8due east, and 8 due west. Whether it be ground mount or loafing shed, chicken coop, or power house shed.

The 2 current batteries and inverter will be housed on the curbside wall to assist with weight distribution. 4 panels on roadside wall are still not as heavy but the generator will be housed on that side as well. I am hesitant to put anything more up front on that wall as it will greatly increase tongue weight. My truck doesn’t care, the trailer and my other vehicles do. The 9000btu heat pump mini split will be mounted above the tongue as well as 2-33lb propane tanks. The reason for not mirroring a rack on the curbside exterior wall, is it would obstruct the entrance unless lifted as an awning. This creates complications in string design, differing panel angles, and then a potential for TWO wind sails if both sides were “deployed” with the roadside wall containing a rack, in high winds if the trailer is positioned the correct direction, I can still gain energy with them vertical and not “deployed” I’ve also considered doing a “double decker” on the roof with the bottom rack designed to be an awning when pulled from HD drawer slides, in the end the added weight and complexity decided against it.

The remaining 4 panels (providing none are damaged in shipping)? I hope to transition them to my wife’s coffee trailer and power it with a Sungold 5000w inverter and 2 Sok or similar 100ah batteries. Said inverters and batteries will likely either be portable via handcart like @Will Prowse has demonstrated, or more permanent and then I will build a separate hand truck. This way I can have power on the go around the property or out camping or at an expo.

 

[G00SE]

The homestead:

we worked with Absolute Steel to create our vision. It is a 40x80structure. 10ft wall height, 6/12 roof pitch. Enclosed is 40x68. The south gable end has a 12ft patio/extended roof. It has 13 windows overall. The house will orient N/S. The southern gable wall has a 16ft wide triple sliding door and with the roof extension, should capture radiant light in the winter, yet block and direct light in the summer. That door along with the north door should function as a breezeway to promote airflow. The north section of the house is the “shop” 40x28 and living quarters are 40x40. With the 10ft wall height, 6/12 roof pitch, and scissor trusses we can squeeze a loft above the kitchen. The west wall will be the “front door” and contains a 10ft long leanto above the entry to also help keep radiant heat down inside. We received delivery of all steel, hardware, and stamped engineered plans in December 2022.

HVAC will be 4 heads of mini splits (each bedroom and main room) along with a wood burning stove for the winter. Original plan was propane for many appliances but we have pivoted to a heat pump water heater as well as washer dryer. Leaving only the range/stove as propane. I simply tire of paying for fuel.

This means the only split phase need I have is: well pump, air compressor, and welder.

We plan to start small with the garden, goats, and chicken. Our neighbors no longer want their young pack of Nubian and Nigerians so we may acquire them. For chicks I’m looking at keeping both Rhode Island Reds as well as Barred Rocks.

No other animal plans except a donkey and our house pets. We are also planning an orchard and small vineyard. Our aim is simply for ourselves and those close to us. If we produce enough for a roadside stand for the kids to run, even better.

Seeing @Rednecktek clean up post I guess inspired me to kick off a thread of my own. I know there are many others on here with like minds, like ambitions, like goals.

I feel it’s still a bit premature as all I have is a bunch of boxes and empty words on a screen. But hopefully this will help myself, as well as others.

And of course, I hope we have plenty of fun times and contributions from others. I love the banter and I hope more than one time someone says “we are off topic”

I only ever added dollars to anything above because that was something that frustrated me when first cursory researching. I’m a numbers person, it helps me pinch Pennies.

Thanks to everyone I’ve tagged above for in some form or fashion helped me even wrap my head around solar. Time will tell how smart or dumb I really am. There are plenty of others who’ve been a beacon of knowledge of positive influence as well. Tim, ksmith, kromc5, farm boy, filter guy, ghostwriter, 1201, zapper, hwy17, supraspl, SamG, zwy, quattrohead, Steve S., Sanwizard, crowz, TK, Will of course, jrh, om617yota, many many more. Truly, y’all have been amazing.

Cheers, until next time.

 

[Philip53]

Yep, you are on your way to quite a journey.

Good Luck!

 

[Quattrohead]

Leaving only the range/stove as propane. I simply tire of paying for fuel.

Can the propane entirely, trust your solar system 100% like I am. Get a PTO generator for those oh shit moments.

 

[houseofancients]

seems you won't be bored for quit some time , good luck !

 

[G00SE]

Can the propane entirely, trust your solar system 100% like I am. Get a PTO generator for those oh shit moments.

Maybe. I just don’t prefer cooking on electric cook tops

 

[1201]

Following. Love this!

 

[42OhmsPA]

Subscribed and honored to be mentioned. I'll glad the little I have given back to the community, so far, has been helpful to others.
Thanks for the motivation to break out the welder and see if I can't finally get a new battery rack stuck together.
Looking forward to see how you progress and borrow great ideas.
?? ?? ?.

 

[Danke]

I think you said total cost, but what was the shipping charge from Inxeption?

 

[G00SE]

I think you said total cost, but what was the shipping charge from Inxeption?

Shipping was free

 

[HLB]

This sounds really good.

Orchard is priceless. My soil was bad also but your chickens should help with that.

Propane is good as it never goes bad. One large tank and a propane generator will serve as backup. No carburetor residue problems like with gasoline. Watch your minimum temperature though as it is gaseous flow limited as it approaches liquid equilibrium temperature. Below ground tank or enclosed building to be considered.

Go for it.

HLB

 

[Solarcabin Channel]

Looking good!

Everything takes time and money!

I went with a 200sqft dry cabin I could build for under $2k and a small solar power system.

Lots of work clearing the land then chickens, garden and orchard.

My plan was to not work for other people after 20 years of that, burned out and diagnosed with PTSD,

So I started a local pest control business that gave me the time to work on my homestead and have my adventures with the dogs.

Because I had no house payments and no utility bills living was cheap and I was able to retire at 49 just write books, design cabins for other people and make vids of my off grid adventures,

If I can do it anybody can do it.

Life is good!

 

[HLB]

Did you get your solar panels? I see the model number as NESE 370-60MH-M6 on Inxeption.

HLB

 

[G00SE]

Did you get your solar panels? I see the model number as NESE 370-60MH-M6 on Inxeption.

HLB

I got cold feet and canceled my order prior to shipment. I didn’t want to be a Guinea pig with that much money (originally ordered 2 pallets)

I ended up taking advantage of the Santan sale and bought 16 360w Trina panels for 94 bucks a panel. Ended up being close to 26 cents a watt. I hope to go pick them up next weekend

 

[HLB]

Thanks for that. I really want what I see at Inxeption, but I can not bring my self to pull that internet trigger. Their web site lists the places that they have stock and how many items for each model. The prices are really, really, good. They have some believable videos showing the pallets in their warehouse with a good readable view of the various labels on them. I called them over a 3 day period, left my name and number, pressed every choice on their robot phone system and always got, "Sorry, we missed your call". Once, I entered extension 102 and got some one, but that did not last long. I am thinking that they are real to some extent, and they are disposing of unwanted commercial stock, but they are not very business worthy. I read that Edge Solar company has had a number of cancelled or "pushed back" orders in Europe, which might be leading to stock in transit being dumped. I will try to post that as a new topic.

The only way I might verify Inxeption's "flash sale" advertisements would be to order one pallet on a credit card and see what happens. If I did not get it, I could have the card company cancel the order. If I did get it, I think it might be one of the pallets I saw in the video. Hmmm.

HLB

 

[NCislander]

Just discovered your thread here G00SE. Interesting to follow along. Keep up the great work.

 

[50ShadesOfDirt]

Don't know where you are in the overall scheme of things, but I did pretty much everything you are wanting to do, only 10 years earlier. We started with raw land (40 acres), and built mortgage-free and off-grid. My suggestions are:

1. get propane onsite, in bulk (we have two 500-gal tanks)
2. get a propane generator (I now use only Westinghouse wgen9500df's)

Now, you have all the power you need for the construction phase, without having to try and power everything with solar from the start ... there will always be things that need more power than your solar gear will provide, and all of the above becomes an essential part of your solar gear anyway. You'll have a complete backup plan for solar.

Good luck with everything! We don't regret doing this, and would do it all over again (if somehow forced off of our land) ...

We went with a Magnum 4024 (sorta like an AIO, as it was magnum, prewired, midnite solar 150) ... still running these days, and the things this unit can do, and the abuse it has taken, is incredible. I expect this LF inverter to outlast me, and would not hesitate to buy it again. It is that well-engineered, regardless of wherever it is that they are now made ... it's a great design.

We've since built a tiny home (on skids) for our oldest daughter, who is now starting out mortgage-free and off-grid in her life ... I love building these things. More are planned ... and I wish I had known then to just build these.

Hope this helps ...