I'm thinking about making a tiny home

[PZ]

I don't know about what is happening with you gents but every year I see an increase in power outages in my area causing me to want to fix up a home generator to stay afloat. My water comes from a well so I need electricity for it, fridge and freezer, and all my devices. Sometimes the power is gone for a week or so leading to spoiled food and the question of where to get water. I usually drive to the lake to fill 5-gallon jugs for toilet water and I have a Culligan water account for drinking water.

The climate is changing in my area (for whatever reason) - formerly slow, it is now somewhat exponential in change. I'm now in my 34th year living in my place and I've been told that the lake formerly froze over. I have not seen that in the entire time I have lived here.

The outages are bad enough so that there are now thousands of people like me wanting a solution, leading to a generator shortage mostly because of a lack of people to install systems.  And of course, the price has skyrocketed. I'm currently limping along with a portable generator keeping my fridge/freezers going but it sure is getting old sometimes having multiple outages per month, never knowing how long they will last.

Now I'm exploring something that might be more cost effective and let me have a bit of fun surviving the outages - a tiny off-grid house. I've been looking at many YT videos and they seem to be easy to build and offer a huge number of different solutions for collecting rainwater, power, bathroom facilities, etc. It's kind of exciting to at least dream of a solution and definitely fun to plan some kind of tiny retreat further down our property. 

Here's an example of a guy that has created something simple:





Here's the link to my playlist where most of the advertisements have been eliminated:

https://www.ztrips.org/wp/blog/2022/02/24/bushradical/

[fragger]

Where I live, about the only time we have power outages is when we get severe storms, and we seem to have gotten a lot of them during the last few summers. Dunno whether it's due to some sort of cyclic weather system like El Niño (or El Niña - I never know which "El" is which) or if it's a result of climate change in general, but we've had some doozies during the last few years. Of course, snowfalls have never been an issue around here... Our things are droughts and bushfires, interspersed with the occasional flood

But we've never had an outage lasting for days. Of course, we're not exactly out in the boondocks, but we're still a long way from a major city. The longest outage we've had lasted less than a day, in the 13 years I've been here.

To be honest PZ, I was a bit surprised when you mentioned power outages lasting for days. I think there's an assumption on the part of non-Americans that being such a powerful nation, things like days-long power outages simply don't happen anywhere in the States (well, except for in Texas last year, we heard all about that). I know it's presumptuous, or maybe naive, but still.

I found that video really entertaining, and rather engrossing. I like watching people who know what they're doing at w0#k, and that guy obviously has a good deal of skill and experience. I'm not going to say that he makes it look easy, but he makes it look a heck of a lot easier than I'd find it myself I guess if you have the time, skill and wherewithal, a small off-grid dwelling like that would be worth considering to hole up in when the power winks out.

[nex]

Our power provider ESCOM doesn't have enough finances for maintaining the power stations which now causes major power outages throughout the country on a daily basis. Sometimes three to four scheduled outages lasting up to 3 hours a day and often in the evening. I had a 7kwh petrol generator connected to the Distribution Box with a switchover, but this thing is so noisy and with a lot of fumes coming from it.

The wife can't w0#k and we have to confine ourselves to the lounge watching TV, the lounge being the furthest room from the generator.
We decided to go for Solar, the unit has eight panels with a 5kwh battery covering the whole house except the stove, oven, and geyser. We will upgrade in about
10 to 11 months from the installation date, eight more panels will be added and the installer will refund us for the battery then replace it with a 10kwh battery at a discounted price. (They already gave us a quote)
Our electrical bill already dropped by almost 50%, and we very seldom use the stove or oven in the evening, so we don't even notice when the power is cut.

[PZ]

To be honest PZ, I was a bit surprised when you mentioned power outages lasting for days. I think there's an assumption on the part of non-Americans that being such a powerful nation, things like days-long power outages simply don't happen anywhere in the States (well, except for in Texas last year, we heard all about that). I know it's presumptuous, or maybe naive, but still.

Here it is mostly the power wires going through the forests. The power companies do not clear enough space to prevent falling trees from crashing on the power lines, some of which are in remote hard to access locations. This of course means it takes a while to get repair crews out. Compounding the problem is that we almost never see ONE tree falling during a storm. It is usually double to triple digit falls wrecking the lines. During my long tenure in this home two trees have fallen on the place, both during the same storm last year. It's a good thing I don't need to go to town that much now that I'm retired because after a wind storm I never go down the road to town without seeing chainsaw dust because someone had to clear a tree (or more) from the road. I'm now considering keeping a chainsaw in the truck just in case.

In past years it was typically diseased trees breaking which caused the lines to go down. These days even he@lthy trees are simply being uprooted because the winds are so severe.

They also will not bury the lines to prevent outages in the future. That goes against the mantra of being reactive instead of proactive. 

Our power provider ESCOM doesn't have enough finances for maintaining the power stations which now causes major power outages throughout the country on a daily basis. Sometimes three to four scheduled outages lasting up to 3 hours a day and often in the evening. I had a 7kwh petrol generator connected to the Distribution Box with a switchover, but this thing is so noisy and with a lot of fumes coming from it.

Several years ago a friend loaned me a 3k generator when we lost power for several days and it sure was noisy! So loud we had trouble sleeping at night. A year or two later I was chopping wood so we at least had heat in the home when I looked up to see someone driving up the road with a large red generator in the bed of their truck. With envy  I watched it pass, but then realized it was MY truck (my eyes were so fixed on the generator I did not even notice it was my vehicle)! I ran out to the front to discover my wife pulling up with a brand new Honda generator in the back. She had finally had enough of struggling with power loss, went to Honda, and had the kids load the biggest generator they had, the 7000i. Interestingly when I placed it in the same place as the borrowed 3k it was so quiet we could hardly hear it inside.

I would love to have solar or some kind of wind power.

I'm learning a bit about solar from this kid: https://www.ztrips.org/wp/blog/2022/02/24/diy-solar-power/

[nex]

The system we have only uses one battery unit and they range in size from 5kWh to 30kWh for Residential use, apparently they're based on the Tesla battery.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Our power isn't too bad the last few years. Once or twice a year it goes out for a couple hours or half a day. The propane generator comes on automatically so I don't have much worry about it. The power company I have does a decent job of maintaining he lines and has been moving some of the old lines, installed in the 1930s, out of the woods (back then they took the shortest route between house to install the lines, which meant a lot in the woods) and along the roads which makes them easier to repair and keeps the trees off them for the most part. It still goes down though but I think that's unavoidable. They can't really be buried underground here, the ground is too rocky and the one time they tried burying the telephone lines back when I was a kid it didn't go well and they had to keep digging them up until they gave up on it and put them back on the poles.

I have thought of solar if just to lower the power bill even though it's not huge in any event, just to get a little self-sufficiency from the grid would be nice.

[PZ]

Dang D_B, sounds like your power people are expressing due diligence 

Years ago we saw the telephone people burying the lines, which are now abandoned of course so I doubt difficulty to bury is a problem around here. I'm fairly confident they just do not want to do so for some reason.  Maybe some day.  In the meantime I'd like to have some kind of solution just to make it a bit easier so we'll see how it goes.

I hadn't thought about the Tesla batteries nex - that's a good idea.  I'll research that potential 

[nex]

These batteries have a service life of 16 years or 5500 cycles at 80% DoD and carry a warranty of 10 years or 4000 cycles for average 80% DoD
which is far better than 5 years for standard solar batteries here in SA, don't know about in other countries

[PZ]

Thanks nex! Now I have another source of stored power to explore. I just need to figure out how to keep them charged and not ruin them during freezing conditions.

[nex]

Check out this site

https://www.energy.gov/eere/articles/let-it-snow-how-solar-panels-can-thrive-winter-weather#:~:text=Researchers%20at%20the%20test%20centers,can%20easily%20blow%20it%20off.

[PZ]

Good article!  I hadn't thought of going to the DoE.

Which battery brand are you using? You mentioned that it is based on the Tesla, but it sounds much better than the solar batteries I've been seeing online. The ones I've seen are not rated nearly as strong and still cost $1500 USD each.

[nex]

The manufacturer of these batteries are based in SA and it's called FREEDOM WON LIFEP04

[PZ]

Thanks for posting nex. Although I can't get one, it was good o read about the capabilities of the units. Eah day I'm getting a bit more educated into alternate power and have come to the following conclusion so far:

• Not enough sun for solar
• Not enough wind for wind turbines

Because I'm focusing on making a tiny house, I'm probably going to get one of the ultra quiet Honda generators (2200i) and install a propane adapter on it.  Maybe get a battery or two if I can be sure being in frozen conditions is not an issue.

The little Honda generator costs the same as a single solar storage battery and is way easier to implement. I can also take the Honda with me to do more off-grid camping in our RV.

We'll see how it goes after I do more research.

[nex]

Sounds like the Honda could be the answer, even more so when you can take it with you on the RV

[PZ]

I think so. I found an adapter that allows one to attach a propane tank for fuel which lasts up to 20 hours depending on the load. That's also a benefit in the RV because I did not relish the idea of toting along gasoline.