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By Cory KoraL Special to the Rappahannock News
Since I put up my off-grid house, a lot of people have asked me if they can do it, too. Based on my own experience, here’s what I’d recommend for anyone who wants to live unconnected to the electric grid.
No. 1
Start with the simplest solution first. I spent $20,000 on solar panels, batteries and the like when all I would have had to do was buy a wood stove and a hand well pump. Bingo! I would’ve been off the grid at a fraction of the cost.
At the Power Line Awareness Festival, held in October at Jordan River Farm, I made the challenge that we have 200 offgrid homes in Rappahannock County by 2009. But for all I know, there could already be 200 off-grid homes here.
Does just the thought of pumping your own water or splitting your own wood make you tired? Give up the fitness dub and do something useful with your muscle power. If you really are too feeble, get that lazy son-in-law to take care of you or you’re going to write him out of your will! But let’s say you already have a hand pump and a weed stove and want to generate your own electririty.
No. 2
Don’t go off-grid to save or make money; you won’t. Amortizing my costs over the 10-year life of my batteries and dividing by my average kilowatt hours per day use, it’s costing me $1.25 per kilowatt hour.
A family of four living with the same system reduces the cost to 35 cents per kilowatt hour. But even so, electrical prices would have to quadruple before you’ll break even, and what sense does it make to sell your home-brewed electricity back to the power company
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