# If a person was to have 3-5 homes on one property



## thestartupman (Jul 25, 2010)

If a person was to have 3-5 homes on one property would and they wanted to be able to be off grid. Would you be better off to have individual power systems to each home, or one big setup to cover all homes? I am sure that 1 or 2 outside wood furnaces would probably work best for heating, but what about power? Any ideas or thoughts? Thanks


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

It would depend on the physical distance apart, for one thing....if you were talking a few hundred yard max between them, then likely doable. If you were talking 1/2 mile, less doable.

Along that line, it would depend on the layout. If the houses were arranged in a circular pattern, for example, and you could put the panel setup and the inverters in the center of that, with one central 'powerhouse' for the batteries/etc, that would help.....say versus they are in a long string down a road.

Next, I'd consider monitoring of use. You get one yo-yo in one house that isn't conservative with power use, and all of them are gonna suffer for it.....so you'd probably have ALL be on the same page of power use, and maybe even meter to each one as a reminder. ("Hey Bubba....yes, it's just the 20th, but you've already used your allotment for the month") 

People are so used to grid power and being supplied with all they can burn at the flip of a switch, I don't know what it would take to get over that.


Assuming you could overcome those, I'd say a central system would be the way to go. Use something like multiple Outback Radian inverters, a huge battery bank, and one 10-15kw generator (maybe bigger) with a central fuel source (be ideal if you had your own source of natural gas), I'd think would be cheaper than setting up duplicate, smaller, versions in multiple homes.

BUT you'd have to get 3-5 families that play REALLY well together, or like any commune, you'll end up with a mess.

I do plan on building a cabin on my place as a guest house, or eventually, a caretaker house, and putting it's own, separate power system in....I don't plan on it being grid tied at all. That way, the resident will be responsible for monitoring their own use, and suffer the consequences if they don't.


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

The biggest problem I see would be in individual usage..
Ultra conservative Sally puts on a sweater when chilly.
Mary on the other hand will not be happy unless that 1500 watt heater is on---all the time.
Big time disparity in power consumption will produce big squabbles.......Unless there is individual metering to each unit.
So the price tag for the system goes up and up because of "Mary"-----who use to live in an ALL electric home.
Yes we can bump up the AC voltage ..to serve the place 1/2 a mile down the road . . . . .and there goes up the price of the system........

Overall quite doable . . . . . .but NOT on a Wallyfarts kind of price tag.....


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## thestartupman (Jul 25, 2010)

Yes, the homes would more than likely be located in a circular manner, to keep them closer together. I know it would be a challenge with others involved, but the others I am looking at would be my grown children, and possibly older parents. I was just wandering if 3-5 individual systems, or one central system would be cheaper to build, and maintain.


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## Harry Chickpea (Dec 19, 2008)

In some areas, an electrical set-up like that could run into regulatory snafus. It is in essence a small power company, and those are tightly regulated and controlled. A centralized water heating setup likely wouldn't be a problem and could take advantage of the reduced costs for larger scale.

It is an interesting idea. I agree with Jim-mi that there are inherent usage problems.


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## Gray Wolf (Jan 25, 2013)

I'd worry about getting financing for a setup like that. First for initial construction and sooner or later, some or all the homes will want to be sold - I doubt that financing will be available.

What person/HOA/? will own and operate the system? 

Will it be on a separate legal lot or on one of the house lots?

I'd guess that the individual system costs really won't be much, if any, more expensive than the community system when all is said and done.


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## wy_white_wolf (Oct 14, 2004)

Guess I'll play the devil's advocate here.

I don't see residential equipment big enough to supply power for 5 homes. If you figured a 5KW inverter for 1 home that would mean you'd need a 25KW inverter for the complete system. Also you battery bank would go from being a 48V to 120VDC or higher. That's commercial/industrial size equipment and would cost more than residential grade equipment.

Having 1 large system means everyone goes down when something breaks. Individual systems would leave the others still operating when 1 goes down.

WWW


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

The biggest system I have installed was 14,000 watts of inverters . . very easy to do.
With some of todays inverters, 25K would also be very easy to do.

But . . .Now think about the price tag of a big battery bank of Hup or Shurretts . . . that price might well scare ya...........

And yes at what point will some bero-snot stick his nose in and claim you are violating some fed regulations and try to shut you down . .?????


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

Jim-mi said:


> The biggest system I have installed was 14,000 watts of inverters . . very easy to do.
> With some of todays inverters, 25K would also be very easy to do.



Yep....the new Outback Radian is designed with mini-grid in mind. 8k per inverter, you just gang up 4 of them, and you have a 32kw system real easy....and you can go more than that if your checkbook allows it.

Battery wise, I'd look at the Edison type batteries. Rather than have a really huge bank, I'd just figure on running a generator every day or two for a few hours to keep things topped off.

Metering isn't hard to do. 200-300 bucks buys a revenue grade meter from several sources. Install an apartment type multiple meter base right at the power house, and run the lines off to the different houses from each meter.

But somebody will have to be the part time 'utility' guy in this setup. It would probably be a near daily chore to monitor and maintenance things like the generator.

As to running afoul of regulatory weenies, simply keep you mouth shut, and have a good homeowners agreement. There are plenty of places that do this with water systems, and even septic.....I know of a couple subdivisions that run their own mini waste water treatment plants. As long as you're not offering a service to the public at large, I'd think you'd be OK.


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## 12vman (Feb 17, 2004)

If each household could be ultra conservative, I can show you how to do it on ~5-600 watts of panel at each house with the aid of a little propane. I've been doing it for years..


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## biggkidd (Aug 16, 2012)

Interesting concept and if people can learn to work with and not against the system yes it could work. Better have deep pockets and do everything you can when building it to make things last and work as effortlessly as possible. Think climate control on out for your batteries and electronics on out.

Location will play a key role here. 

Double redundancy would be a must if you go with a large single system. A group hall type place for spending time rest / entertainment would also help keep usage down. You know one TV running instead of five.

Larry


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## painterswife (Jun 7, 2004)

You would be better off building an apartment style building or one building with say a household having each corner.

Do large concrete walls to separate the households, good sound proofing. You could then have a central kitchen or storage rooms, water supply etc. The savings on infrastructure and running of utilities would pay for the solar system.


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## Convoy (Dec 2, 2012)

well if you decide individual they can be hooked together in a mini-grid to share power but it also more money. Also if you build 5 houses together heating/cooling will be better since the outer walls and roof looses and gains heat the most.


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