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Post by jmerr86 on Sept 27, 2014 17:31:05 GMT -5
My wife and I or thinking of going "off the grid" the big problem with is the obvious how to keep the tanks or at least some of them. What I was wondering is one has anyone here ever done this or is currently doing this with a tank, and two has anyone here ever used a power usage device to see what their tanks are drawing or know of a good way to find this out
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Post by scoobnoob on Sept 27, 2014 18:27:11 GMT -5
You can get a kill a watt reader from your local library for free to determine usage.
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Post by gotareef on Sept 27, 2014 21:05:29 GMT -5
use all dc pumps and led lights, you can connect them directly to dc power without an inverter, the problem will be finding a dc heater...
my rkl said with everything on my 180g I used around 2amps but the 800w heater wasnt connected to the rkl so not sure what that would have added...
I have also thought about going off the grid. the think that held me back is I will still have to pay cmp. damn govt.! just like even though you may not have a child you still pay school taxes....
they are even saying if you have a hybrid car it will cost an extra $250-$300 to register it because they get less taxes from the savings you get not buying gas ("taxes on gas pay to fix roads")
I would look into a solar system with a grid hookup so cmp will give you a check if you make more power than you use...
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Post by Lance on Sept 27, 2014 21:30:50 GMT -5
Get one of these...  |
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Post by jmerr86 on Sept 28, 2014 9:06:02 GMT -5
What it is is were looking at a house that's off the grid No Poles! All solar and a wind turbine everything is run through a converter so the ac DC thing isn't an issue but I was told that if you had a couple crapy days the battery will run down and then your running on the generator and that gets pricey quick
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Post by gotareef on Sept 28, 2014 9:22:30 GMT -5
it loses allot of power using an inverter to turn dc power into ac power. with solar the more power you can store the better this means conserving the power you have in the dc batteries. so why waste the power on changing it to ac I am guessing most of the lighting in the house should be on dc and the inverter is for the wall plugs to run appliances,tv... it would save you all the way around running as many things as you can on dc power. but if you are running out of power on cloudy days add a couple more batteries (golf car batteries work well ) p.s. converter-changes AC-DC, inverter- changes DC-AC  |
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Post by jmerr86 on Sept 28, 2014 13:05:25 GMT -5
I'll have to look into a kilowatt meter to see what my tanks are drawing. I always wounded about power loss through a INVERTER I would probably buy separate battery's for the tank once I knew how much it drew so as not to run the house down but will see
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