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diy solar

Cons of going off grid?

You have to find out what the Grid Abandoment rules are for your area/PowCo You might get your house red-tagged by a building inspector if the PowCo reports it. The PowCo usually enters into a "arrangement" with the goverment to insure they will have enough customers to make running cables and building power plants worthwhile.
That’s a problem.
Being mandated to require a public Utility if you don’t need it.

Government overreach at its best..
 
And THAT is what many people in the US of A yell & scream about as a Free Country With Liberty and Freedom of Choice.

Thank the good lord I'm CANADIAN. In a "socialist" nation with free universal health care, public (citizen owned) infrastructures including most Power, water, etc which is very limited to small portions being semi- privatised.

Case in point, I've been in critical care with surgeries, specialist flown in and for almost 3,5 weeks now... About to be released. Cost = $0!!!

I live 100 % off grid rural. & Remote and no fuss... Was even air lifted from regional hospital to Canada's Capitol's top medical facility.

What's Freedom & Liberty again ???

Sorry if offends anyone but horseshit political profiteering has destroyed a once Great Nation. Time to revolt and take it back for All citizen's.
 
One of the things I did not see mentioned is that in some jurisdictions, if there is power available you must have a connection for safety reasons according to some building codes. There is nothing that requires you to use that connection. As mentioned earlier in that case, even if there is a small fee, it might be practical to have a connection.
The problem is even if you have it then they can Mandate and do mandate stupid rules and equipment even though you never use it.

Duke power tried this crap a few years ago mandating if you developed your own power you had to buy and install this “anti backfeed ” device to the tune of like $3000.

Like the Nazis said”Für euer sischerheit.”

Government has simply and fully overstepped its mandate.
 
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Free, wow. Doctors, hopitals, suppliers, etc. All give away their labor, macinery, supplies and medicine for no remuneration. Utopia!
 
And THAT is what many people in the US of A yell & scream about as a Free Country With Liberty and Freedom of Choice.

Thank the good lord I'm CANADIAN. In a "socialist" nation with free universal health care, public (citizen owned) infrastructures including most Power, water, etc which is very limited to small portions being semi- privatised.

Case in point, I've been in critical care with surgeries, specialist flown in and for almost 3,5 weeks now... About to be released. Cost = $0!!!

I live 100 % off grid rural. & Remote and no fuss... Was even air lifted from regional hospital to Canada's Capitol's top medical facility.

What's Freedom & Liberty again ???

Sorry if offends anyone but horseshit political profiteering has destroyed a once Great Nation. Time to revolt and take it back for All citizen's.
Hey I’m all for that.
Need to move the Government back to its original mandate.

I meet an awful lot of Canadians here at our hospitals because they can’t get treatment or specialist so something doesn’t jive here.

I’m not saying you don’t get your treatment but it’s pretty obvious that not everyone is getting that level of service or they wouldn’t be here..
 
You have to find out what the Grid Abandoment rules are for your area/PowCo

would love to figure out how to do this for my county (Hendricks County, Indiana). They make finding regulations nearly impossible online. So many regulations I need to find, print out, and understand. That way when the county complains about something, I can ask them which code they are referring to - which they usually don't know - and I can quote code back to them. (Funny how upset government folks get when you do that - I did that with a military contract at work.)
 
NC is a great solar state.
Full net metering, and zero off grid subsidies.
 

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As for property taxes they go away if you're 65 and have lived in your home for 10 years (I'm 65)
https://www.denvergov.org/Governmen...ssessors-Office/Senior-Property-Tax-Exemption

Whoa, that's one of the most amazing things I've ever head of! I would save almost $1,000 a month! We don't have state income tax here in Texas, but even if we had an income tax as high as yours in Colorado, I would still save a ton vs the property taxes. Do they have exclusions on your income tax for being 65 as well?
 
Cons of going off grid, I got a good one for those really far out off grid. You end up with trailer trash living near you running generators all the time, trashing the place, uncontrolled animals running around and abandoned travel trailers. So bad the city folks who do contracting work won't even come out.
 
judging from the posts here, I clearly see this is a rather touchy and emotional topic…I feel the same way but have no solid answers to many of the problems I am hearing expressed.
BUT, its probably best to not reveal any of the cards you hold until you have to.
I just wish everyone the best of luck on the path they choose to take …….J.
 
From my experience, there is off grid as in you pull the plug from utilities company and you still can walk to local 7-11 then there is off grid as in nothing exists there and nothing within a hour drive. I live latter of the two and love it even with it's cons.
 
I had an employee who's Husband decided to go off grid after building his Solar system.
I warned her that this might be a bad idea but she said he was adamant about it and told her that the breaker has been off for several weeks and he sees no need for it and that he had already contacted the utility.

After about a month she came back to me and said they had a major argument because the batteries had died several times in the wee hours of the morning and it was hot and miserable. This was due to sporadic days of bad weather as it was now the rainy season.

Long story short he evidently is a very stubborn man so he kept on updating the system. From what she told me he added more batteries, then he still had some issues with the Inverter tripping due to her using multiple appliances, so he got a much larger Inverter which then lead him to getting more panels and more batteries. I would sometimes ask her how it was going and she would kind of grunt and say OK.

After about three years into it he dumped all the Lead Acid batteries and got LFP batteries. God only knows how much he spent but I figure if he had just kept the utility his wife would have been happy and he probably would have saved a ton of money.

During the last discussion we had she said he had enough batteries for 3 days of power and about three times as many panels as what they had when he had started. She said it works ok but there are occasional times when he would plug out the Fridge and the freezer before going to bed.

As for me, I still need the grid because I do not have enough batteries to make it through the night.
Even if I get the batteries there is no way am I getting rid of the Grid. I have a generator but the Grid is almost like having a free backup system. Also it costs less per KWh than running the generator.
I have calculated the ROI for getting more batteries to zero my bill and it really does not make sense.
 
Will need about 3 miles of lines to put power in here, so I know it's cheaper for solar than grid tie. If the power goes out here, utility company won't be back out here in dead of the winter to fix it in 2 feet of snow for a few days maybe weeks.
Power has went out less times than grid power according to my wife who works part time in town, score is 0-13 in a year.
 
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From my experience, there is off grid as in you pull the plug from utilities company and you still can walk to local 7-11 then there is off grid as in nothing exists there and nothing within a hour drive. I live latter of the two and love it even with it's cons.
I do too… except there is no cons at all here except the extra gas to go to town couple times a month or possibly 2 -3 feet of snow now and then..that will slow ya up a bit..
.I am not trying to be off grid ,while there is a real grid…I just want my OWN grid in case there is no other grid.
I have been through that and it ain’t no fun..
simple things for a simple man …
that’s my goal.
 
Forgive me. But I never understand the attraction of fully off-grid. I can understand people wanting to have largely independent power generation but the not have the backup of the grid is nuts.

Here we have no legal requirement to connect to the grid ( and property taxes amount to $120 a year ! ) if you do connect to the grid , ie have a meter the daily standing charge is about the equivalent of $50 a month even if you consume nothing, you can terminate your contract and disconnect for a small disconnection fee.

Water and sewerage where available are covered by general taxation and therefore free at the point of supply.

Everytime i run thd numbers for a substantial PV system the payback is 12 + years. I’ve never stayed in the same house that long !!!! . Solar is great where you can’t access the grid outside of that I struggle to see justification.

In 8 years I’ve suffered one grid failure 3 hours one Saturday, living of grid when I was a boy was not unusual , it was called “ being poor “

As an aside having lived in the US , it’s not the land of the free at all. It’s one of the most rule bound bureaucratic societies I’ve ever lived in. ( with more police then any other place I’ve lived ) I agree something needs to change. It was worse then Germany and they have a rule for everything !!
 
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Forgive me. But I never understand the attraction of fully off-grid. I can understand people wanting to have largely independent power generation but the not have the backup of the grid is nuts.

Here we have no legal requirement to connect to the grid ( and property taxes amount to $120 a year ! ) if you do connect to the grid , ie have a meter the daily standing charge is about the equivalent of $50 a month even if you consume nothing

Everytime i run thd numbers for a substantial PV system the payback is 12 + years. I’ve never stayed in the same house that long !!!! . Solar is great where you can’t access the grid outside of that I struggle to see justification.

In 8 years I’ve suffered one grid failure 3 hours one Saturday

As an aside having lived in the US , it’s not the land of the free at all. It’s one of the most rule bound bureaucratic societies I’ve ever lived in. ( with more police then any other place I’ve lived ) I agree something needs to change.
It's over a mile to power for me and an uncooperative electric company. So maybe $150k? Including poles, wire, clearing of the right away. Plus making it more of a pain in the ass for the neighbors to farm row crop ground (more of a slight annoyance for this one). The bright point is no zoning, no code enforcement, no permissions, no restrictions.
 
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