Off Grid Home

[Bishopknight]

I'm sure everyone has a kil-a-watt device right?  For those who don't already know about them, they can tell you how much watts, volts, amps ect a device is using, on or off. Its really great , I have one.

Newegg has it for only $18, a good deal

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882715001

[jan nikolajsen]

10000 watt hours a DAY!! (i have never, ever used a smilie before. hate them in fact. but this warrants a break to the tradition)

Unbelievable. Seriously, how can that be possible? We once used close to 100, and that took a lot of power tools in the shop, hooked up to dust collection etc. We still talk about that day around dinner!

We just rounded 40000 watt charged from the panels in 5 years. Add to this maybe 1500 from the generator. That's what Glenn uses in less than a week.  He must be growing herbs.

jan

[MountainDon]

Well, let's see. The last 30 day period (02/11 to 03/12) shows we used a gross of 533 Kwh of power. That's lights, furnace blower, some electric heater in the cold bathroom, a couple computers on most of the day, several hours with the TV on, yard lights than run all night (two 26 watt CFL's), some workshop tools, a number of phantom loads, microwave, big refrigerator and a freezer, oven, cloths ironing, washing machine, dryer (motor... drying done by gas heat), and leaving a light or two or three on when we might leave a room.

533,000 / 30 = 17766 per day average.

And that comes out as less than average for homes in our area. Total metered cost with sundry taxes would work out to be about $48

[jan nikolajsen]

gosh, i forgot what goes on in the real world. time to step back into the bubble, before jan gets too overwhelmed.

[glenn kangiser]

10000 watt hours a DAY!! (i have never, ever used a smilie before. hate them in fact. but this warrants a break to the tradition)

Unbelievable. Seriously, how can that be possible? We once used close to 100, and that took a lot of power tools in the shop, hooked up to dust collection etc. We still talk about that day around dinner!

We just rounded 40000 watt charged from the panels in 5 years. Add to this maybe 1500 from the generator. That's what Glenn uses in less than a week.  He must be growing herbs.

jan

You are right, Jan.

We grow a lot of basil in the summer, a bit of rosemary, fennel etc.

We use most of the power pumping water for the garden -- about 500 to 600 gallons from about 320 feet deep with a standard 1.5 hp 240 v pump.  I have 2- 4000 watt sine wave inverters running 24 hrs per day - a 20 cu ft freezer - and 8 cu ft freezer and a refrigerator all running every day -- occasional standard wash machine and electric/propane drier.

I can run a welder in the shop also if not for a long period , or kick the generator on and keep at it.  I also run my 50 ton press, metal chop saw, rock crusher, garbage compactor, band saw, grinder, table saw, vacuum cleane, 2 computers, stereo ...I guess what I am saying is that it is set up to run as any average house without too much worry of being real conservative.

Look --- I use way less power than Don.

BoB, come on in.  The water's fine.