OFF GRID - ELECTRIC WATER HEATER

So now we have hot water at the tap thanks to our solar system. 
When we started this journey we never imagined we would be heating our water using our batteries. We sold many of our kitchen appliances before moving north figuring we just wouldn't have the capacity to use them. What a surprise to have such a surplus that we now have two small water heaters to supplement our hot water use.

Glen was here early to hook the water lines up.

The tank on the left is electric and will preheat the water going into the larger propane tank on the right.

Sean came later to do the electrical connections.

Each tank is on a timer and will only come on when we activate the system during sunny days.

So that is our system in a nutshell, simple, easy and hopefully effective. I will monitor our frequency of use and report if I notice a decline in our propane consumption.

If you have a question send it along and we will get back to you asap.

Thanks for stopping by and safe travels everyone.

SOLAR BATTERIES

Living off grid isn't free but so far it is cheaper. Our system does require some work and checking the batteries every three months is just part of the routine maintenance anyone living off grid needs to be aware of.

Here I'm checking the water level in each cell and topping them up. Checking your batteries is critical as allowing even one cell to go dry would ruin the battery.

We have a 2.8kw system and the power generated by our solar panels is stored in 16 East Penn 8L16, 6 volt batteries housed in a sealed, vented plywood box in our mechanical room.

The white box is our Magnum MS4448PAE 4400 watt inverter/charger. The black box is our Outback FM60- MPPT controller and meter. That little black box (top right) is the relay control for the generator.

In the hall where it is convenient we have a display monitor which tells us the status of our system at a glance. There are five reports shown, this one being F1 the SOC (state of charge) of the batteries. We don't want to see this number below 50%

F2 tells us how many amps are going in (positive number) or how many are going out (negative number) Yesterday when these photos were taken it was very overcast and yet we were still putting power into our batteries, more than we were taking out to run the house.

F5 is the state of our generator. As you can see we have it turned off as we are home and can monitor the batteries for ourselves. If we go away we set this for automatic and if the battery SOC drops below 50% then the generator will come on by itself to charge up the batteries.

Of course if we go away for any length of time our neighbour checks on our system every day and can call our installer if there is a problem.

So that's our battery setup in one short post. If you have any questions or are considering a solar system send us your questions and we will try and answer as best we can.

Thanks for stopping by and safe travels everyone.

Day One

The roar of the diesel engine woke me yesterday and I pulled the curtains aside to see who had arrived.  It was the salvage truck, here to take the damaged "Airstream" to the junk-yard.

This is what an "Airstream" looks like after you've rolled it across the highway. Not a pretty sight.

Now it was time to work on our trailer and the first job of the day was removing the battery box and re-attaching the front panel to the frame of the trailer.

We pulled back the moulding strip, added sealent under the panels, put sealant on the new pop-rivets and put it back together, better than new. Fortunately there was no floor rot or water damage.

While we worked the two Marys chatted and visited outside.

Here Paul is working on the "transfer" switch, located at the back of the trailer in our bedroom. This switch will sense the shore power hook-up and prevent the electrical system from trying to draw power  from the batteries at the same time as shore power is available.

Today we have the controller, inverter and battery box to install. Then if we have time we need to fabricate the frame for the solar panels and the mounting system for the roof.

Check back tomorrow to see how we are progressing.

Green Energy

California has invested big time in "green energy" These wind towers are just a few of the thousands that filled this valley as we drove into Pasadena.

At the rally the past few days we have been impressed with the solar set-up on the trailer behind us. Frank (trailer owner) gave us a tour and explained what was installed and how it was installed. I have contacted his installer in Texas and hope to get a system installed before we return home. This will make our life on the road and back home in the trailer so much "Greener" No more generators! No more noise, fumes or spilling gas. Frank and his wife Carol have been living comfortably behind us for 4 days. They have watched TV, used their toaster, coffee maker, hair dryer and furnace without even turning on their generator once. Truth is they don't HAVE a generator. Now that's the kind of solar set-up I want.

Enjoy the party tonight and I'll try and post pictures after the Rose Bowl Parade tomorrow.