diy solar

diy solar

Don't read this, you'll be jealous...

Tom C

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Joined
Sep 15, 2021
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12
Hi - I recently escaped California and bought 40 acres of "sage farm" in NV. It's just dirt, no house, no water, no power. Living in a trailer, which has 4 6v golf cart batteries and a generator. We do plan on building, but that may be 5 years out. There are power lines nearby, but NVenergy is guesstimating adding 3 poles, so 30-35k to get grid power...guess what I say to that?! I'm going to build a complete system from scratch, for 15-20k. (that's the goal...) The 48v system Will has done a couple of videos about will do just fine. Although much of the hardware is plug-n-play, I'll undoubtedly have questions... Anyway, glad to be here!
 
I guess I'm not jealous exactly, but welcome to the forum. It's a fabulous place to learn and grow.
 
look at the system @upnorthandpersonal has build, documented and beem running for the last year, it was under 10k , and seema to do him well

My one year review:

Component list and cost (at the time) at the beginning of the thread.
 
Hi - I recently escaped California and bought 40 acres of "sage farm" in NV. It's just dirt, no house, no water, no power. Living in a trailer, which has 4 6v golf cart batteries and a generator. We do plan on building, but that may be 5 years out. There are power lines nearby, but NVenergy is guesstimating adding 3 poles, so 30-35k to get grid power...guess what I say to that?! I'm going to build a complete system from scratch, for 15-20k. (that's the goal...) The 48v system Will has done a couple of videos about will do just fine. Although much of the hardware is plug-n-play, I'll undoubtedly have questions... Anyway, glad to be here!
Why in the world would you like to have 40 acres? Sounds like a lot of maintenance? I have 2 ha (about 5 acres) and that´s more than plenty for anybody who´s not a farmer :)

I´m new to solar, but have been investigating a lot and I think it doesn´t sound unreasonable in regards to economy, depending on your power needs.

But you´ll definitely have to take the headaches into consideration too, I don´t know your experience with electricity, but there´s a lot to learn.

Batteries for example is not a simple matter. I guess the golf cart batteries are lead-acid, they are cheap, at least in the short run, but there´s more maintenance. If you need to have them inside where you live, then you´ll have to be extremely careful with lead-acid (gasses), then maybe AGM is better. Personally I go for lithium, but that´s because of very specific reasons to my particular case.
 
Hi - I recently escaped California and bought 40 acres of "sage farm" in NV. It's just dirt, no house, no water, no power. Living in a trailer, which has 4 6v golf cart batteries and a generator. We do plan on building, but that may be 5 years out. There are power lines nearby, but NVenergy is guesstimating adding 3 poles, so 30-35k to get grid power...guess what I say to that?! I'm going to build a complete system from scratch, for 15-20k. (that's the goal...) The 48v system Will has done a couple of videos about will do just fine. Although much of the hardware is plug-n-play, I'll undoubtedly have questions... Anyway, glad to be here!
I'm jelly jelly. 40 acres.... *mouth waters*
 
Why in the world would you like to have 40 acres? Sounds like a lot of maintenance? I have 2 ha (about 5 acres) and that´s more than plenty for anybody who´s not a farmer :)

I´m new to solar, but have been investigating a lot and I think it doesn´t sound unreasonable in regards to economy, depending on your power needs.

But you´ll definitely have to take the headaches into consideration too, I don´t know your experience with electricity, but there´s a lot to learn.

Batteries for example is not a simple matter. I guess the golf cart batteries are lead-acid, they are cheap, at least in the short run, but there´s more maintenance. If you need to have them inside where you live, then you´ll have to be extremely careful with lead-acid (gasses), then maybe AGM is better. Personally I go for lithium, but that´s because of very specific reasons to my particular case.
I've been living in my current location for 13 years, and there are still places on my property I have not gone.

You can't have too much property.. no such thing.
 
I've been living in my current location for 13 years, and there are still places on my property I have not gone.

You can't have too much property.. no such thing.
Lol :-D

But you´re right, today it´s getting increasingly difficult to have money with inflation, negative/zero interest and Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) coming. A piece of land stays under the feet :)
 
Lol :-D

But you´re right, today it´s getting increasingly difficult to have money with inflation, negative/zero interest and Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) coming. A piece of land stays under the feet :)
There is no substitute for land.. Grow your own food, energy, storage, and a place to stretch out and play.

Every time I drive through towns and cities, I just cringe.. how the hell do people live like that? Packed in like sardines.

When I first moved out here, I asked the local cop if I could fire a rifle in this area.. His response was "You can fire a bazooka if you want, just make sure you're shooting at a target"

Our police don't even give out tickets.. if they catch you without a seat belt or speeding, so long as you're not being a total a-hole, they just warn you and send you on your way.. We drive ATV's and golf carts down the road and they just wave as they go by.
 
Maybe just a little social responsibility like clearing out the underbrush, hopefully preventing any large fires that spread rapidly and consume everything in their path.

Fires are rare here, but with the changing climate this is bound to change. We've had a pretty decent forest fire here last summer:


It's pretty difficult to 'clear the underbrush' when 75% of the country is forest.
 
I live in Nevada and love it here. Lots of sun for solar year round. We went solar two years ago. Our power bills have been only the service charges ($13 even in the summer with full air cond running. Down from $280 in summer).

Have 27 panels with micro inverters. in Grid-Tie system.

With your off-grid and 40 acres I would look into geothermal to assist in heat and cooling. You only have to go down a few feet to get to 55 to 60 degree temps year round. Even going with part of house underground.
 
There is no substitute for land.. Grow your own food, energy, storage, and a place to stretch out and play.

Every time I drive through towns and cities, I just cringe.. how the hell do people live like that? Packed in like sardines.

When I first moved out here, I asked the local cop if I could fire a rifle in this area.. His response was "You can fire a bazooka if you want, just make sure you're shooting at a target"

Our police don't even give out tickets.. if they catch you without a seat belt or speeding, so long as you're not being a total a-hole, they just warn you and send you on your way.. We drive ATV's and golf carts down the road and they just wave as they go by.
Love it! ?

I moved from Denmark to Uruguay, 1 km outside a small sleepy town.

I noticed exactly the same as you. Denmark had become a fascist police state, they are really chasing people for nothing. While at the same time they let the big criminals run.

Where I live now I know the police is here to help me, they would go out of their way not to fine anyone. We have a small comisaría (local police) 100 meter from where we live and people go hunting from vehicles in front of the police station. I also saw a couple of boys with two airguns on a scooter, no helmets, going on the back wheel in front of the police station. The police woman standing in the doorway shook her head and got busy looking the other way.

On the other hand, if you do something criminal, you're in trouble. They really catch people fast here and they go to jail for long.

Also all through the pandemic, we were free to do whatever we wanted.

We're so free here and I love it!
 
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