On and Off

And so we begin the learning process of off grid solar. You have to be a little nuts and extremely dedicated to the discipline of working with a finite supply of that thing we have taken for granted since birth, electricity.

Now that the technical part of this process is complete for the moment it falls to me, meet the Solar Witch, to make sure that all that hard work and expense does not go to waste.

Bad Info

As long as the sun shines the solar witch flies.

Everybody has this idea that you can throw a couple of solar panels up on your roof and all your energy problems are solved. Actually it takes a lot of solar panels and no amount can take care of all of your needs unless you have sufficient battery back up to run your house during the night. Even then you have to be careful how much power you use and abuse. Used to be that leaving on a light or a fan or even that cell phone charger was no big deal. Well it isn't a big deal if you are willing to pay the price for the electricity it takes to run these appliances but if you are making your own power you really start paying attention to all those little things because they add up quick.

First things first.

There are some items in your house you simply must leave on all the time. Your refrigerator is very important. How about that pump when you need water. But what else…do you really need to have other things on all the time?

Examples might be your computer. Putting it to sleep is not turning it off. You walk out of a room and leave the light on and don't even think about it. The fan too. We think about that now.

Learning how to conserve is very important when you are responsible for making and storing your own power. But the up side is you have control over your power, it is a big responsibility but at the same time it makes you feel very powerful. 

Investigate

The first thing we did when we started making power was to look around the house and see what is using all of our energy. We have a washer and dryer and it is electric. Very bad for power. We have a big fridge and small fridge and a dishwasher. Numerous lights and fans and of course the water pump.

What about hot water you say. We solved that problem long ago with a solar hot water heater. Anybody in Anguilla that wants hot water and doesn't invest in a solar water heater just doesn't want hot water. It is completely off the grid and just makes hot water as long as the sun shines. We have had it for over 10 years and we have never been without.

We like finding ways to save energy and it is not just about the money.

Find out where your power is going

We have a nifty little device that tells us how much power a device uses. It is called a Kill A Watt, you plug it into your receptacle and then plug your device or appliance into it. The device gives you an accurate account of how much that thing uses in electric.

So now you know how much, what value does it have in the big solar picture. Once you know how much power your house uses you can figure out how many batteries you will need to get you through the night. During the day your solar system is humming away charging your batteries and also providing you with all the power you need to run stuff in your house.

Get a Kill A Watt http://www.amazon.com/P3-P4400-Electricity-Usage-Monitor/dp/B00009MDBU/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1430174061&sr=1-1&keywords=killawatt

Timing is everything

We have what I call the magic hours. These are the hours where your batteries are fully charged and now you are making a bunch of power that is just getting wasted. So figure out what to do with it.

Don't start before 11 or after 3 

Wash a load of clothes. Run the dishwasher. We make our own filtered water so I will make a big pot full of water to use for days. Bake bread. I have a restaurant style convection oven. It is great but it is 220 and uses power. During the magic hours, between noon and 3 PM, baking bread is a great idea. You can't do everything at once so you have to figure out which ones will work together. it's like a giant puzzle that can save you money.

Making a Schedule

After working with this system for a while I have finally realized that I must have a schedule of events. As an artist I just hate any sort of thing you might call a schedule but now I look at it as a way to get things done efficiently and it has given me a bit of discipline. Not a bad thing. If you miss a day or something comes up forgive yourself and move on. This stuff is not carved in stone, it is a learning exercise. I use google calendar that shows up on my computer and my phone. I share it with Chris. I now have a section for solar related jobs. It even sends me a reminder.

Terms to Know

Kill A Watt

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Prodigit Model 2000MU (UK version), shown in use and displaying a reading of 10 Watts being consumed by the appliance

The Kill A Watt (a pun on kilowatt) is an electricity usage monitor manufactured by P3 International. It has a large LCD display. It measures the energy used by appliances plugged directly into the meter, as opposed to in-home energy use displays, which display the energy used by an entire household. It displays voltage, current, true, reactive, and apparent power, power factor (for sinusoidal waveform), energy consumed in kWh and hours connected. Some models display estimated cos

From <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_A_Watt> 

Solar Witch

A solar witch is anyone that has the power to control energy using solar and their mind.