What Are the Pros and Cons of Going Off the Grid?

People see big power companies ever increasing their costs. As energy cost go up for the long term, more people look for ways to use less energy to save money. People keep paying and paying the utility company and the bill gets higher and higher. With the cost of energy ever increasing to new highs, there are more people then ever looking into using alternative energy in their homes as a cost savings.

The Mother Earth News article dated June 19, 2009 What Are the Pros and Cons of Going Off the Grid? by Linda Pinkham talks about the overall scope of going off the grid. Pinkham discusses some of the basic equipment advantages and drawbacks but didn't go into the true depth of the issues of costs versus benefits.

On May 21, 2009, Pinkham also wrote What’s the Average Cost to Install a Solar-Electric System to Power Your Home? The average home has an incoming electrical line of 240 Volts that delivers 100 Amps. Using Ohms law where Volts X Amps = Watts, the average home is capable of using up to 24,000 Watts (24 kW) of power.  In Pinkham's article the installation and materials of a "10kW Gigantic" off grid system, less then half the average home's total capacity, would be over $100,000. He also lists a 5kW larger than average system costing $52,000.

When is it going to pay back?

Once a a good estimate of the cost for installation and materials is obtained, people want to know when it's going to pay off. Using the PVWatts Version 1 Calculator and, assuming a 7.9 ¢/kWh, from where I'm at in Minnesota a solar system installed would provide a cost savings of $406.22 worth of energy per year. Can that be right? With the $52,000 - 5kW larger than average system, it would take over 100 years to break even. 

What isn't discussed in those articles is the lifespan of the extra electrical equipment that is needed to be off grid. Deep Cycle Batteries used in these systems have a limited lifespan. The most popular Deep Cycle AGM would have an average life of only four to eight years (http://www.windsun.com/Batteries/Battery_FAQ.htm#Lifespan%20of%20Batteries).

I have heard people who are interested in going off the grid say that their energy costs were too high. Those who are interested in going off the grid should start slowly by decreasing their energy consumption while on the grid. I think that it's good there are people like Ed Begley, Jr. out there that have their sustainable homes just to help the environment. At the same time, to go off the grid thinking that one would actually save money just doesn't make sense.

Storm Window Frame

Today I decided to repair a storm window that fell apart because of dry rot. Yesterday I bought an eight foot length of a 2 X 6 from Home Depot. This morning I cut it to proper length. I knew that it would be 1/4" too thick so I used a router and a hand planer to get it to the proper thickness.

This was the first time I ever used a router so I experimented on a 2x4 to see if it was set at the proper depth and how it would work. The top photo is the piece of 2x4 I used to test the router. The lower photo is the the piece of wood to the proper thickness next to the rotted piece on the left. I feel the best way to use the router was to cut straight lines at the correct depth for the length of the board. I would cut 5 slots and then hand plane what was left. Any odd raised portions could be then chiseled off. The hand plane is best at shaving longer lengths of wood.

I had to cross cut the board. The original piece is cut at an angle on both edges. I got the first cut correct. Due to me only measuring once and not twice, I messed up on the angle of the second cross cut. So instead of the cross section looking something like /__/ it looks like /__\.

Next time, I'll have to remember to measure twice and cut only once. Meaning I'll have to watch to make sure I'm cutting it correctly.

Fortunately, I still had the second half of the 8 foot board and cut another 39-3/4" piece of wood and routed and planed the piece down to the proper 1-1/8" thickness. I work on the crosscutting on another day.

After I get the crosscutting angle correct then I'll have to work on the tenon joints on the ends. Then I'll have to get edging shaved for the window pane to sit on it. After that I'll have to get it into the bottom of the frame.

Broken Storm Window

The above photo is the broken storm window and the piece of wood that I will be using to repair it.

Here is a photo of the one of the sides of the frame that shows whats left of the mortise and tenon joint. When I get to that point I'll have to get that piece of the frame cleaned out so the new piece can go into the mortise.

The Painted House

The lower left photo is the completed repair from the photo that I showed on August 8th and the upper right photo shows the the finshed paint job.

A afternoon off of work.

It was slow at my work. I finished responded to the e-mails that are sent through the website and then I made some deliveries earlier than I expected. Before I made it home I went to the hardware store to pick up a bracket for a downspout on my house. I got home about noon, and the painters were hard at work.

The house is looking much better. I can't wait until it is all finished. The painter say they will be finished by Friday. I will have the one of the pillars repaired and the garage door thresholds repaired as well on Friday.

While I was at home I finished repairing the siding near the bottom of the garage door.

First day with College Pro Painters...

Today, when we arrived home we found a couple of painters on the job finishing up scraping and priming the siding of the house. Three of the beams in front were painted. The fourth beam post needs repair so a handyman going to come up with a quote for its repair.

Music blaring from their car... They had most of the shutters removed from the house, except when they decided they were done for the day ... they were done. Didn't matter that they left two odd shutters hanging up there... One shutter was stuck up there because a screw was stripped. The other one couldn't be removed until the faucet could be removed. The owner of the company, Peter and I, took care of that. I had to find the shut off valve for the front faucet.

I did some odd repair on the north side of the house under one of the windows. I hope it is good enough. We had a pizza dinner with Peter and chatted about Jaycees.

Peter and I removed the storm windows. Tomorrow the painters will start more painting.

Getting the house painted this week.

I got all the storm windows labeled so that we can put them back in the correct places when the painters are through. Yes, they are getting painted too. I cut all the bushes back 12 inches from the house, except for one bush in front of the garage.

I'll work on that tomorrow night after the storm windows are off the house. I hope the weather stays good so they can complete the job by the end of the week.

The name of the company is College Pro Painters.