Hello! I’m going to build a house in Colorado Rockies north of Silt Co.
would like to be off grid with wind and solar and thoughts on how it works would be nice to hear from u.
Welcome to the forum.
Rule 1 DO NOT BUY ANYTHING until you have a PLAN in Hand ! No such thing as a once in a lifetime deal, they happen all the time.
Rule 2 MAKE A PLAN, failure to Plan IS a Plan for Failure. (if married possible divorce too).
Rule 3 There is no such thing as a Dumb Question, except for the question Not Asked ! ask lots of questions be sure you understand everything.
The truest Axiom: Conservation is far cheaper than Generation & Storage. An Energy-Efficient build will save you more over the years than most realize and the home comfort factors into this as well.
Solar Systems are NOT that hard to figure out & setup. Wind Systems are a LOT more complicated and far more involved with equipment requirements & maintenance as well. Solar & Wind CAN Coexist with diligent planning. Wind is NOT Appropriate for many places and mountain regions really can chuck a wrench into those plans. My advice is to consider the Wind option for later down the road.
Before starting anything you will need to do an Energy Audit to work out how much power you will use daily. Then you need to figure out how many days of storage you want available. Like building a house, the energy usage & storage requirements are the Foundation of the System that you build upon to support your needs. Once you know how much battery is required, then you size the Solar Controller(s) to support charging the batteries and the amount of solar panels to feed the SCC's. The Inverter/Charger set to the appropriate battery voltage supports the AC required.
Choices: 120V or 240V ? With current costs there is no longer a premium for 240VAC over 120VAC, therefore the simplest choice for future proofing is to wire for 240VAC which still provides 2 legs of 120V. Consider the average North American house uses a 240VAC/200A Main Panel current yet many are wired for only 100A. The Excessive's have monster 300A+ service, that's their problem.
Limits: Solar & Battery can be as big as you want, provided your wallet supports it.
Assuming you want 240VAC/200A service. That is 48,000W (48Kw) or 1,000A off a 48V Battery Bank. This would require 4x 12,000W Inverters paralleled so as to pull 250A Max Each from a very large battery bank. This should show you how far things can get really quickly.
Your energy audit. There are different ways to do this, a spreadsheet with your appliances & devices and a lot of crunching. Using an existing power bill to see current usages (only works really if converting existing household to Solar). IF Building new and starting with fresh appliances etc that is yet another game to work it out.
ABOUT THE BUILD:
Consider if roof mounting solar or mounting on ground mount the solar apsects of the property. The advantages & disadvantages of Roof vs Ground Mount (which can often be an adjustable type for seasonal optimization).
Any outbuilding or such you may want to power OR maybe use as a Powerhouse (many of us do that, have separate powerhouse) because it is much easier (and cheaper) to run VAC over distance than DC which should be kept as short as possible.
House Build Efficiencies that can be done during construction the reduce operational loads on the home such as heating & cooling should also be considered and factored in.
Hope it helps, Good Luck