# its been 10 months



## woodspryte farm (Apr 18, 2013)

Just doing a follow up from a few months ago. 
In Feb, 2013 we went OFF GRID. it was quite an eye opener. I thought I would share some of our trials and tribulations to some others out there that may be considering going off grid.

When we went off grid, we thought we were pretty ready. LOL.. LOL LOL
well so much for that. we have heated with wood for 26 years and raise our own food and such. But things have been interesting.

heating had to change. we nearly froze last winter, as feb proved to be the coldst month of the year with temps WAY below the norm. 
Our home is underground, and that is the ONLY thing that saved us. 
lets just say we just purchased a free standing fire wood burner, a Lopi. it is doing a swell job keeping the house warm. We invested in a ECO fan. yes they are worth it IF you need to move air cheap and around the clock. 
we have gotten some of the solar panels in. but only a few. they run some of the outdoor lights, tv, charge the computers, and phones, and kindles and games. we have installed a 1950s magic chef majic air oven. Its the best oven I have ever owned. this summer we found a propane fridge at an amish auction, its like a 1930s model. Mike fixed her up and she has been keeping food cold all summer. Freezers have been doing well. we run the generator for a couple hrs a day to do the milking of the cows, and in that time the freezers cool back down. we keep a nice layer of ice on the top when weather gets really hot. we purchased a 12 volt tv, naxa brand. this is a 22" flat with a built in dvd player. we have one deep cell battery it runs off from. made the purchase of a decent antenna, that brings in 2-12 stations, depending on the weather. we still plan to add more solar panels. the wind turbine didnt get put up due to the cost of the inverter. the one we have chosen is $1800. we do look forward to the time we can get it up tho. so we are going into winter pretty comfortable. the most difficult time is keeping stock tanks thawed. both of them sit in shady areas in the winter. there really is no place to move them unfortunately. so we stick to smaller tanks and filling more. I have discovered that going to the laundry is cheaper than doing laundry at home. not as convienant but cheaper. by the time I pay for the propane to heat the water, and the gas for the genie. 
the new lopi stove has an added bonus as doubling as a stove to cook on. I ALWAYS have a percolator pot of coffee, I have invested in a hand coffee grinder so its UBER fresh daily. I can fry, cook and bake in the camp oven on the top. 
we would like to build a methane digester. that is in the plans hopefully next summer. 
one of our big problems as been humidity. summer time it was horriable. I was constantly wiping mildew. I still have not found a resolution to this problem. 
we have a large pressure tank, we look for a larger one. the genie will charge the tank enough to keep us in water for 12 hrs. we shower and bath before it goes off. but have nuff water to flush, and cook, drink and brush teeth. 
AS for lighting.. let me just say.. its nearly impossible to light ones home after dark with small oil lamps. UNLESS you have a small army of them. Little house on the prairie clearly used artifical light. LOLOL
we invested in one aladdin lamp. its awesome. BUT they are pricy making it it difficult to get more of them. But we did invest in gas lights. Mike ran piped and out to the propane tank. eventually they will run on methane, but one thing at a time. the gas lights are great fir lighting the place. 
It was very interesting lately, when a storm went thru and THOUSANDS of people were out of power. the local town was black as well as all the surrounding homes. we were sitting nice and warm watching tv. NOT a problem at all. the power outage lasted some people nearly a week. 
so that is what has been happening. we still are looking for stuff, but nothing has to be gotten immediately. I have been writing all our stuff down for the last 10 months. keeping track of everything that has happened. 
Hope you are all well. 
Tiffany
WoodSpryte Farm
Dimondale, MI. 
Home of FARM DAYZ


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

Lot of the stuff I get where it was a change for you, but if you've been heating with wood for 26 years, why did heating change ? 

Was your previous use of wood involving electric power ?

We've heated with wood about that long as well, and no power required. The stove in the living room does have a fan, and if we've let the fire go down too long, we'll flip the fan on to move some air and reheat faster...but wouldn't really miss the lack of power for the fan if we simply attended the fire a bit more often.


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## 12vman (Feb 17, 2004)

Fantastic! Learning by doing. Many only dream of what you're doing. Might be a rude awakening but you'll never forget and learn how to get around the problems..

As for the wind generator, I hope you did some research to see if it's practical for your location. You could purchase a lot of solar power for the cost of a proper install.. JMO..

I went through the oil lamp lighting period. Made some wall sconces with ElCheepo aluminum pie pans as *reflectors that worked OK. (*Replace instead of cleaning) Used the Aladdin lamps too but didn't like them. I'm now totally LED and Cold Cathode Fluorescents. I can light up a room nicely with 1/2 amp of 12 volts D.C. without the fear of fire and no kerosene smell..

Keep livin' and learnin'.. You'll never regret it.. KUDOS!!


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## woodspryte farm (Apr 18, 2013)

tnAndy

we had 2 sources of heat. One was an inside fireplace insert. it would heat the home HOT and fast. However if it didnt have a fan going nearly 100% of the time it would turn glowing orange. a definite fire hazard. we also had to keep the damper open to keep it cooled without the fans. lost all the heat up the chimney. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this new stove. the house is not as HOT. its easy to maintain 74 degrees, but the difference is it is the WHOLE house not just the living room. the Lopi works as a radiant heater. as you know, radiant heat heats a
objects in a room where forced air heats the room air. this has made the temp more livable. I can crank it up and really get it warm, bot who needs the house 80 degrees all the time. We also have on outdoor wood furnace. it easily heated our home and our water, but it required the furnace blowers to run. not to mention it EATS WOOD. we currently have it for sale. 
so yes the heat was a power issue. I have the eco fan that runs on top of the lopi, it runs 24-7 with no power at all. that circulated the heat well nuff for now. I think we plan to invest in one or two more. they really work quite a bit better than I even expected they would.


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## woodspryte farm (Apr 18, 2013)

12vman..
yes it has been a true learning experience. LOL.. but really it has been more fun than anything. Its amazing what we learn about power usage. We did check the wind usage for our area. and our location the lay out of our property makes it a very efficient place for one. solar is actually LESS productive than the wind in our area. But just in case BOTH power sources fail, we have a sorta back up plan. the inverter we are looking to get is a SMART inverter. it will actually monitor the battery load, and if it falls below the set number we put in, it will send message to generator to kick on and charge the battery bank. the generator is large and will not bog down, and if we set the battery limit right, it should not take more than 30 minutes to charge to sufficient power. Now if you have been doing this you also know there are no guarantees. seems there is a hiccup around every bend. LOL
We plan to run the LED lights as soon as the battery pack is fully built. Honestly tho, I love the propane lights. NO SMELL. my mom is highly sensitive to the odors of propane and such and she FINALLY came over and was amazed, NO SMELL. The lamps i guess its impossible to get away from that completely, But I still like one in the bedroom. and we keep one going for low light when we are not using the oil propane lights, usually when we are watching TV. if we are gaming or reading of course we have more lights on. 
we got a commercial grade wind turbine for $450. install will be done by my husband, he is electrician. we have to get a tower either built or build one. a friend may have found a pre build one for free or next to nothing. we haul it. But he is a semi driver and hauls LARGE loads so he said he can deliver it if we get it. Its nice knowing so many people. Most we have come by thru this whole off grid thing.


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

Ecofan. They work well....James

http://www.amazon.com/Caframo-Ecofan-Original-Black-Blade/dp/B001AYXNUY


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

Sounds like you are spending more than the electricity would have cost IF you would have cut back to all your energy use now. You still need the generator, it was your backup. Over time will it all pay off? Do you think it was worth it in the end?

....James


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## woodspryte farm (Apr 18, 2013)

Jwal10..
No our electric bill was nearly $600/month. We have only ONE source of electricity here and they pretty much call the shots. with 4 freezers, milk machines and normal living, plus commercial cooling it was a fortune. 
The genie runs minimal. it is back up only, once we get everything in place. Unfortunately, we are not one of the rich ones able to just BUY everything all at once and get it in place and go on our merry way. My husband and I both lost long time jobs, loosing our retirements and everything we ever saved. we are just now getting back on our feet. the struggle as been immense. we spend maybe $300 a month currently. which for us is a good savings. Once everything is in place, it will be nearly free. initial cost for equipment, it will take a bout 4 years to pay its self off at the current rates of electricity in our area. we are shopping around, not jumping on what APPEARS to be the first good deal. 
You must remember we are running an entire FARM here, not just a small city home. milking cows, cooling milk ect takes a great deal of power. the tank heaters were a HUGE expense in the winter. so we no longer have those, but still are faced with frozen water. this one still eludes us. But it too will be overcome before long. 
and FINALLY.. peace of mind.. and freedom from the electric company. 
this is worth anything..


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## Nimrod (Jun 8, 2010)

I need to build an off grid house on my new piece of property. No electricity is available. We seem to be in similar climates. Can I pick your brain? Please?

I intend to build into the side of a hill so the north and west walls are mostly underground. The south and east walls will be above ground with lots of windows on the south side for passive solar heating. You mention you have an underground house and that you have been having mildew issues. To me, mildew only grows in a moist environment. Have you only been having issues since you went off grid? Is the moisture because the house is underground? I am still considering construction methods for the underground walls. It has to be cheap. I think I will try a rubble trench foundation. I am leaning toward dry stacked cement blocks covered with a water proof cement on the outside and a layer of waterproofing like tar. Next a layer of foam insulation and then backfill. Of course there will be large roof overhangs and the ground will be sloped away from the house. The thinking is that any water that comes down the outside of the wall will flow into the rubble trench and not come into the house. What do you have and what do you think of the way I want to build?

You say you run the genny for a bit and the well pump charges up the pressure tank so it provides water for showers ect. My well has a small pressure tank so the water runs for about 30 seconds until the pump kicks on. How big is your pressure tank? Is this something different than the tank by the pump?

I have a wood stove in my cabin now and heat exclusively with wood. I was thinking of building a Russian/Finnish type stove in the new place. Any thoughts?

Thanks for your input.


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

Yes, I understand all that, I read your post. But if you ran today, as you are, on grid, what would it cost for the electricity? That is the problem with on grid is it runs all the time and so easy to add because it is easy, until it is so out of control. When we first started to think about going off grid, we cut off everything except what we were going to run, off grid, so we knew the amount of electric we needed to replace. Cell phone, 3 12 volt LED lights, a couple small 12 volt appliances, battery tool recharger and a tiny 24 volt chest refrigerator. The rest was wood heat, cooking and hot water....James


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

Many a moon ago I knew a business/friend down the road near Potterville ......
He had a very good 100' LMWS tower in his backyard . . . . .
Never did ask him how well his wind genny produced.

Glad to read that you are holding out for a good inverter . . . . .worth it in the long run.
I have used a big battery supplier located on the outskirts of Grand Rapids for a couple systems that I have installed......They would be an easy drive for you when new/more battery time arrives.

I didn't think there was any room for an off grid place that close to Lansing . . LOL

Luck to ya.............


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## dirtman (Sep 15, 2011)

I don't know where you stock tanks are set up but I always thought that a small VAWT set up on top of them with a small propeller in the tank would move enough water to keep the tank from freezing in most circumstances and would take much to build it.


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## SolarGary (Sep 8, 2005)

woodspryte farm said:


> Just doing a follow up from a few months ago.
> 
> ...
> the most difficult time is keeping stock tanks thawed. both of them sit in shady areas in the winter. there really is no place to move them unfortunately. so we stick to smaller tanks and filling more.
> ...


For the stock tanks, you might look at some of the designs here that just use insulation without solar heating: http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/WaterHeating/water_heating.htm#Animals

Or, take one of the solar designs and replace the collector side with insulation.

One person mentioned using an insulated cover over the drinking opening at night, but this means you have to visit the tank twice a day to open and close the insulating cover.

Gary


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## okiemom (May 12, 2002)

can led lights help you inside for the future? I did notice when we addend them to our cans our bills were cut by half. they have come down a lot in price but they are still very expensive but really low electric use.


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## Alaska (Jun 16, 2012)

take a look at walmart or other stores to see what xmas leds they have then go there the day after xmas for 50%off. we picked up several 100 feet of rope lights last year cheap


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## okiemom (May 12, 2002)

Alaska.. great idea I forgot about the lights. I have seen some cute pintrest ideas with the led xmas lights tucked into a glass jar/vase and made into a light. those led lights are supper bright add some mirrors and wow.


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## MahaFae (Nov 2, 2013)

Thank you for the post. I have read so many blogs, watched all kinds of youtube videos about people 'going' off grid but rarely find any post about people who 'are' off grid. I know this is not going to be easy but I can't wait until we are off the grid finally.


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## Tango (Aug 19, 2002)

in my off grid log cabin humidity was a problem. eventually i got an energy star dehumidifier that was large enough to alleviate the problem. it was the only thing that helped. i also milked cows off grid  was a fun time. had to use a generator for the milk machine because i milked in the mornings when power was at a premium but thinking about it now, i could have easily trained the girls to milk in the afternoon - i only milked once a day and kept the calves with moms rest of the time.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

With your cows you have an opportunity to generate methane to power a generator or a cook stove or water heater.

There's a dairy in Elk River MN that produces a large amount of electricity to sell from the methane that is produced by their cows. I think they milk 600 cows but a person should be able to scale it down and produce some kind of usable energy.

I would think an "air well" made from burying pipe in the ground would help scrub the moisture out of the air as well as cooling the air in the buildings. Your cows might appreciate cool dry air too and put out a little more milk. Even a shade layer made from climbing vines on the barn will help cool the inside.


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## Centralilrookie (Jul 12, 2012)

At different time in my life we used smudge pot to keep water tanks free from ice. Nothing more than a 12" cutoff tank of some type sitting on a concrete block with a block inside to hold it down, short chunked up fire wood and a steel plate on top to just let the fire basically smolder. Worked like a charm.


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