bluebell Posted July 21, 2009 Report Share Posted July 21, 2009 Hi All I was wondering if I could pick your brains please? I am looking for a property and most of the ones I like are not on mains anything. Do any of you guys live off mains? How different is it? What does it cost to generate your own electricity? What about running things like a freezer? Guess a tumble drier is out of the question...May well need to run some sort of a pump for water in to the house. And all so I can fulfill a dream of living with no near neighbours! Cheers Jan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarinePMI Posted July 21, 2009 Report Share Posted July 21, 2009 BB, I used to live off the grid here in the States. We had a sun tracking, solar panel array that went to a battery house, that also had a back up generator (for those days when there's little or no sun). We also had a well with a water tower that was pumped via a solar powered pump in the barn (and also topped off the horse's water tanks in the loft of the barn). The clothes dryer was propane, and we had a 500 gal tank in the back of the house. Only thing that went to the house was the phone line. In California, if you choose to live off the grid, but still have access to county power (which we did) the power company can (and did) run a line to the battery house that ran to the float switch. On the sunny days in the summer, they paid us for our excess electricity by sucking off our solar panel when the battery house was fully charged. The only pain...having to drive 30 mins to town for horse feed and cigarettes. That and filling petrol cans for the back up genrator in the winter (just in case). We used a product called "Stabil" in the petrol (during late winter) to make sure it kept for months, in the event that we didn't need to use it right away. It was nice not having neighbors; saddling up the horses to get out when ever we wanted, and being able to go small game hunting right out the back door. (I remember not having any chicken in the freezer one night, also propane powered, so a rabbit 10 mins later made a nice substitute. ) Don't know if that helps at all, but just figured I'd pipe in with how we did it here... For those who have ever visited the San Diego Wild Animal Park, the house was behind it, up in the mountains that surround the park. One thing's for sure, you could see every star in the sky out there. Fond memories... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarinePMI Posted July 21, 2009 Report Share Posted July 21, 2009 A couple things I forgot to add... First, it's not very cost effective for most to pursue this route without a serious reason. For us, having several (six) horses, the cost savings in boarding them somewhere else justified it. Secondly, the other thing that was almost a must (indispensable), was a portable generator (hand carry type) for running power tools around the barn and the fence line when work needed to be accomplished. With battery powered tools these days, this may not be as required. But back then though, it was a worth while investment. Too bad that area now is practically a sub urban development now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ratwhiskers Posted July 21, 2009 Report Share Posted July 21, 2009 BB l've a pal who lives in Kielder that lives "Off Grid" on about an 8.5KVA genny and a dirty geart load of batteries. To my knowledge he gets on ok with the system, but as M' PMI says you'd need to be very determined to do so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluebell Posted July 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 22, 2009 Thanks guys. I never knew that you could get a gas fridge! Have to say that I think hydroelectric or wind is a more likley option than solar in Wales! Oh and the estimate to connect mains was around £20k - enough reasons for me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mossy-dog Posted July 22, 2009 Report Share Posted July 22, 2009 Bluebell I work for the National Trust up in North Wales and we have a couple of houses that dont have electricity, phone, water etc. Our properties are run off gas canisters at the moment but that it getting increasingly hard with the new regulations. We have been looking at some options for modernising the places when the current tenants vacate and mains is all out of the question so we have been looking at solar, wind and hydro and they are all good options with a back up genny. Im not sure how soon you would be looking at doing this but if you send me an email dannewcombe@hotmail.com then i can find out some more and even put you on a list if you would be interested. Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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