Off the Grid

I am house sitting in Aztec, NM in an off grid house. Aside from a couple of short stints living on boats this is my first time living off the grid. So far so good. I kept track of my electricity use the last few years, and I typically use what could be generated by a modest PV system in MA. 

The basic set up:

6 PV panels feed DC electricity to charge a battery bank. The battery bank runs to an inverter which changes the electricity to use household type electricity instead of battery type electricity (AC vs. DC). The panels, batteries, and inverter are in the garage. 

The garage is heated with a solar hot water system. Solar hot water panels on the garage roof have water in tubes, which receive heat from the sun, and then the water is pumped to run to the tubes in the cement slab of the garage. The slab gets warms and releases heat into the garage. This keeps the batteries from freezing, and allows Carl to build boats in his garage in the winter without being cold. 

The house has no electricity coming in from the grid, (No More Paying The Man!), but it does have natural gas. 

There is a regular gas stove, hot water is made without a tank, as needed the water is heated, and the house is heated by gas. The clothes washer is a washer/dryer unit, but since it is desert dry, I can hang my clothes to dry and they are ready to go in a couple of hours. This will work in winter here as well. 

The house was not set up to be off the grid originally. So the the only solar hot water usage is for the boat shed/garage/utility room for the battery bank (it's great if you can remove them from living quarters, but not required).  

The house is well insulated. At night I open windows, close them in the morning. It stays cool inside all day. Last week the temps were highs of about 85F (26C) and lows varied between 65F (16C) and 38F (2C). At peak summer there is a "swamp cooler" instead of A/C. I'll describe that later. These are not used much in the Northeast, and I hear they have LOT'S of issues. That's ok, the fridge holds plenty of cold beer, chilled by the sun. 

  

Yes I froze riding my bike to school on the morning it was 38. I was in denial and I already have to carry 30 lb (15k) pack with books, clothes, etc. so I did not want to stop and track down a jacket, cap, and gloves, although I wished I had once I was under way. It's June in the desert - I can't need a cap!

It's a great little house, and functions just like a "regular" home. I don't use much electric, but in the summer there is more than ample even if I wasted it. I check the state of charge on the batteries in the morning and afternoon/evening. It is pretty cool to see that after I've been off to school, the batteries have soaked up the sun, and are reading 99% or 100% charged up. 

He owns "water rights" to the property which is not always the case in the southwest.  That means he has access to run-off water for use in watering plants outside. They have a great mix of desert plants and since they have ditch water for irrigation, they also have roses, grapes, herbs, onions, tomatoes, and such. It's a great spot in a climate that is perfect for a lot of outdoor living. I spend hours each week studying and reading in different shaded spots in the backyard.