After the windsock, whats the next first step?

[katwhisperer]

I recently bought an unfinished home on 23 heavily wooded acres which I want to take off grid. I finally have the doors in the house and now I have a kitchen. The next step is establishing solar/wind turbine/propane backup to run the house. OK, I have my weather station and windsock, is the next step building a battery shed? I once thought I knew a bit about homesteading, but this has me stumped! Thanks so much!

[fantasymaker]

The FIRST STEP IS RESERCH!
Plan a bit for what you want and can do on the site. Buy the time you get a idea of what you want to do you will proably know how you want to do it.
Is this place on the grid now?

[Windy in Kansas]

I agree, research. Can you afford or conserve enough to use alternative power? It isn't as cheap as grid power in most situations but is becoming more into line as time passes.

Sounds like you are leaning toward wind power. You may want to pick up a copy of Home Power magazine to learn what is available. Perhaps your library carries it.

There are some of the "for Dummies" books that may serve to help educate you. I don't know how in-depth they go.

Can I assume that you are posting on the alternative energy site of these forums?

In addition to wind monitoring have you gotten the average daily wind speed for your area from established tests/records? Your reference librarian should be able to help you acquire it if you can't find it. At least in a good library which is a blessing in and of itself.

[BobDFL]

Also make sure it is worth it for you.

I just went through and because my house is so well insulated and the payback for going off the grid is somewhere in the 10-15 year range at best.

Just solar hot water had a 3 year payback (that's more like I was hoping for).

This is even including the State and Federal rebates and Tax Credits (our system would have cost $25,000 after rebates in credits, not counting the hot water , add another $2500 for that). Total out of pocket expense before Rebates/Credits was in the $50,000+ range.

The other gotcha here in FL. is that you need to have it installed by a professional and get it permitted and inspected, so homegrown systems are out of the question.

I'm not totally against the idea, as a matter of fact I'm looking to do the hot water in Nov/Dec (less waiting on Tax Credits) since it would be a better payback.

Hopefully your state is a little more forward thinking.

[wy_white_wolf]

As others have said 1st step is research. Which actually does work with thw weather station and wind sock. No point in building a battery shed if you can't generate the power. Find out what you can generate before proceeding. Second step is making the house as energy effiecent as possible. Every watt, BTU, or any unit of energy that you don't use is power you don't have to generate. Also that will tell you how much you are going to need. No since in building the battery shed then finding out it's too small or way to large that you waste energy keeping the batteries warm in the winter.

[Maura]

You can get a small windmill for $2,000. It doesn't need nearly the wind that a big windmill needs as it is much smaller and lighter. It is supposed to supplement your present electric needs, but if your needs are small I'll bet it could take care of you off grid, especially if you don't use electricity all day (like, if you are at work) and you have enough batteries. I don't remember the name of it, but somebody on the forum might.

[WisJim]

A small wind machine that you can get for $2000 including tower and installation and electronics will require lots of wind--don't believe what you read about some of the cr*p being sold on the internet!! Do research!! It is hard to make recomendations without knowing what part of the world you are in. Talk to qualified installers and dealers and folks in your area who have wind machines in use. Go to energy fairs and look at stuff that really works. Read Home Power magazine, get the back issues (available on CD or DVD, I think).