(Part 2) Top products from r/OffGrid

Id say get several good books. (I learned by experience so cant recommend specific titles sorry). Read up on it, timber framing is a way to go about it but probably easier is general '16'' on center' framing. Like I said, there area a lot of aspects to carpentry that seem really complicated but are generally easy to figure out. Books with good physical drawings would be the most helpful. It seems like you dont have a concrete plan as of yet so, to me, the best thing would be to really study up. Id also recommend Lloyd Kahn books as pretty cool inspiration, as far as unique/hippy type buildings go-- https://www.amazon.com/Shelter-Library-Building-Books/dp/0936070110 --they were and are one of the most inspirational building books Ive seen.

Wow! I had the exact same sentiment when I was 20. I'm now 30, let me give you a summary of how things developed :)

First off, I created a spreadsheet to calculate the effect of adding more people to the effort. Turns out, adding even one person is hugely helpful. There's just one (fairly major) downside: Zoning laws will generally only allow you to build one house on a property, so these people need to get along well enough to live together. Easy to do at age 20, much harder to do as everyone ages.

Then, what I needed was an accurate idea of how much $$ you will need to get started. In other words, why can't I just go NOW! This is where reality hits. I can post my budget(it's huge) to help, but here's a very high-level summary of the options:

Option 1 - Everything from scratch (takes a ton of upfront $$$)

• Buy farmable land in Ontario - $100k (empty farmland is getting tougher to find in Ontario)
  
  • if you are buying vacant land, nobody will give you a mortgage for it, you'll need to pay cash
    
• Build house on land - it should take at least $200k to build a house yourself, more if you're hiring someone to build it for you
  
  • need to prepare the house site, excavate, level, potentially build a driveway
    
  • since you're building it mostly yourself, you need LOTS of equipment... $$$
    
  • due to building codes, you can't get away with a super-cheap cob-built house for $5k like you might see on the internet. That said, with LOTS(like, lots and lots) of hard work, there are some great techniques out there to lower the cost of a code-approved house(e.g. stone construction, etc) - many great books have been written about it (see http://www.amazon.com/Living-Homes-Masonry-Strawbale-Construction/dp/1892784327)
    
    Option 2 - mortgage (less upfront capital)
    
    
• Buy farmhouse + farmland in Ontario - $250k+
  
  • Bonus is that you can get a mortgage for the house, downside is that you can't have 10 people go together on a mortgage, the risk/responsibility needs to belong to one or two people
    
  • downside is you'll have an aging farmhouse to maintain, probably will not be built with "sustainability" in mind
    
    After looking at those options, I calculated how long it would take me to save up enough cash. I used my spreadsheet to motivate myself to save every last possible penny, and it worked!
    
    I found many like-minded people, but the mechanics of us actually merging into a commune for this effort were difficult, so I am founding a commune of 2 (my wife and I).
    
    As far as actually living on the land goes, find an Organic farm in Ontario and visit them(some have tours). You'll find that farming is a lot of work! It is very difficult to make a profit from it, however feeding yourself is quite doable. In Ontario, you'll want to get into preserving (fermentation/canning) to last through the winter.
    
    TL;DR it's the journey not the destination, if you think you'll enjoy the journey, GO FOR IT.
    

> wanted to be able to run fridge and laptop for a week at least before on solar before I have to turn on the engine and drive to my next spot

A normal laptop (10-90W), a small fridge (100-400W), and a room heater (900-1500W+) are orders of magnitude apart. The only time I've heard of anyone using an electric heater when camping was when he had an over-abundance of gasoline-electrical generator output, but one probably wouldn't want to run a generator at night due to noise.

> do you think these buddy heaters are save enough for children to be in the same room

A lot of people use propane heaters in RVs. Of course having a CO (Carbon Monoxide) detector and a fire extinguisher on hand is a must, even if burning a single candle. That aside, the most important thing is to assure adequate ventilation. Extra super-safety measure: set an alarm every 2 hours the first night to walk around the room and make sure the air is fine, nothing is overheating, etc.

When it comes to the possibility of leaks, propane is generally safer than natural gas, because: (1) You can smell it. (2) Propane vapors are heavier than air, so being higher off the floor is an added safety benefit (in addition to being more heat-efficient). (3) Buddy Heaters self-ignite automatically, so there's no chance of turning on the gas and forgetting to light the flame. You can get a propane leak detector as well (a separate function from CO detection, but possible to have both in one device).

I don't know anything about kids, but I don't think they are inclined to touch things that are very obviously very hot. I guess using some sort of a cage (around the heater, I mean, not the kids) would add an extra level of safety...

Yes I think getting the batteries to a known state is the best first step. Once they're fully charged by a decent charger you can just let them sit 24hrs and see what the voltage is then. Healthy batteries should settle down to 12.6v after being disconnected from the charger. If they go much lower, or more to the point if they continue dropping below 12.3 while they're disconnected then they're bad and probably can't be recovered.

A trickle charger won't do it though, you need something that has a setting for sla vs flooded batteries and that can drive at least 10A and you need a voltmeter and ammeter, built in is best - some way to continuously monitor the progress. If it's not a quality 3-stage charger then just watch it as the voltage rises to 14.4-14.5 and then watch for the amp draw to fall off. The rule I go by for terminating charging is 5% of the 20 hour amps capacity rating of the batteries. If those are 100AH for 20 hours rated then that's obviously 5A. When the charge current drops to 5A you're done with that one.

Note that most solar charge controllers require that the solar inputs to the controller never be active unless there's a battery connected on the battery side first. I blew up a Chinese controller this way once though not nearly as nice a one as you have there ($12 on Amazon).

Any 10A or bigger charger will work provided it can be set for sla batteries

These following units are cheaper on marine sites. Just google the model number.

A good one:

https://www.amazon.com/ProMariner-43012-ProSport-Generation-Battery/dp/B00F5EBR1C/ref=mp_s_a_1_7

A superb charger for permanent install as generator driven backup to your solar:

https://www.amazon.com/ProMariner-63170-ProNauticP-2420P-Battery/dp/B004S63NIS/ref=mp_s_a_1_4

Clothes dry just fine on cloudy days on my regular old clothes line without any additional fans (I live in Seattle and have tested this extensively as it is cloudy most of the year here...) On those rainy days, I have a indoor drying rack that works great. If I am in a hurry I can set it up over top of my 30W fan and my clothes are dry in about an hour.

>Stretch a survival blanket, space blanket, or mylar across a frame.

Those survial blankets are not really ment for repeated use and end up being garbage after a few uses. That sounds like a great way to waste money on something that would only marginally improve clothes drying.

>Put wet clothes in an oven bag with pin holes.

That sounds like a really great way to severely restrict airflow which would be the absolute worse thing to improve drying times. Airflow is the key, not heat or thermal mass.

>Buy a cheap Styrofoam cooler.

I don't even know how you are imagining that this would dry clothes.

http://www.foxfire.org/thefoxfirebookseries.aspx
This one
http://www.amazon.com/The-Encyclopedia-Country-Living-Fashioned/dp/0912365951
Or here is a database of everything anyone would ever want to know for free download. Maybe someone popular could post it so people can see it. Everything one could possibly want to know in one place.
Everything. Free. Best website in the history of websites.
No one will ever know.
http://www.cd3wd.com/cd3wd_40/cd3wd/index.htm

theres this stirling frigde that i want so bad http://www.amazon.com/Coleman-Stirling-Cooler-Adaptor-Included/dp/B000A1FCIE you can plug this in your car and it draws super low energy and can even run when the car is off for days without depleting the battery. all while producing up to freezing temperatures. i wish omre things like this existed

A small compact cook stove. I've had this trangia unit for 10 years. https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B000S0DEAA/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_aMtwDb3F6PAG4

I love it. I boil water and cook almost all our meals on it. It'll burn just about anything, I mainly use methyl hydrate. A gallon costs about $10 and lasts me a month.

And a "lilto kala" 18650 charger. I keep a bunch ofharvested cells charged up with this little charger. It's great for keeping phones and other electronics charged. It has a usb outlet so it can act like a power bank.

Edited to add link

Going that route you always have the option of easily adding an MPPT controller if you find you need more heat.

Just eyeballing an IV curve for a similar panel and applying 3 series 2 parallel, you probably want a heating element resistance of 8-15 ohms to maximize power, depending on solar irradiance. 10 seems like a decent compromise. The 120V, 1500W is close to this at 9.6 ohms. Another option is a 240V, 5500W (10.5 ohms) element which is readily available and would alleviate your concerns of burning out the element.

https://www.amazon.com/Camco-02363-Screw-Foldback-Element/dp/B0006IX8AK/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?crid=250KCI9AZDCMP&keywords=5500w+240v+water+heater+element&qid=1551025629&s=gateway&sprefix=5500w+&sr=8-5

Edit: Even though the 2x3 panel array can exceed 120Voc, it won't burn out the element because the load would drag the voltage down to the intersection of the IV curve and the straight line resistance. Solar panel voltage drops under Voc as soon as you start drawing current from it.

https://www.amazon.com/Going-Off-Grid-How-Happiness/dp/0983929866

I recently read this book and it is full of good info. Not really on how to live off grid but the steps you need to take and things you need to know about buying property, permitting, cost to drill a well, building types, etc.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MY0875V/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006JO0XI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I got these charge controllers they worked great as far as i can tell. no noise

I like this book

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Camper-Van-Cookbook-wheels-Cooking/dp/1444703897

I don't really use cookbooks much though, I just make it up as I go along.

It's not about me being correct, I'm just repeating correct information from engineers who have studied "green" energy. I'm an engineer myself, and I know that "green" buildings are not at all green. People will ignore certain things, like the needed transportation, mining, and equipment used to building, operate, and demolish the building.

it's physically impossible to create energy. You're ignoring the energy that is needed in the manufacturing of the plant, in the transportation of materials in and out, of the mining operation for the raw materials, etc.

edit in regards to transportation, there's no such thing as electric jets or electric freight ships, and there never will be. Tesla requires parts from Japan, requiring diesel, and this will never change. As the world ramps up electric cars, we'll have to use even more diesel to make electric cars.

There's also the massive amount of oil/coal/gas currently needed to building & operate the plant.

You're ignoring everything except the electricity used. Solar panels have massive downsides, including the need to use oil to manufacture them, rare earth metals required, and toxic materials used in the panels.

This stuff is greenwashing at its finest.

http://www.amazon.com/Green-Illusions-Secrets-Environmentalism-Sustainable/dp/0803237758

Number one thing I tell people with the catalyst style none venting heaters.....install an inline filter. Any of those little pores clog and you get a incomplete burn. I use these religiously when filling 20lb to 1lb tanks. https://www.amazon.com/Mr-Heater-Portable-Heaters-F273699/dp/B000HE8P2O

Coghlan's 504D Camp Stove Toaster, 9", Unknown https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000AUSTK/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_lztRDbWR02XHA

What about some DeoxIT Contact Cleaner?

While I don't have an answer to your question I happen to have a very similar setup and just purchased a wind turbine to add to it. It is a small setup but the turbine I bought has a built in controller and will shut off automtically when batteries are charged. I don't need to worry about dealing with a dump load. The one I bought is linked below (fyi, I paid half that amount. If you are from the US, you may find it for even less depending on if this is around the size you are looking for). The panels have their own solar charge controller as well.

https://www.amazon.ca/Sunforce-44444-12-Volt-400-Watt-Generator/dp/B000C1Z2VE

Forget those, and get one of these firey little bastards!

There are many battery conditioners that would most likely help your batteries. It is not a novice event. Most are 12v and would need to run about 20 hrs approx to break down the sulfate in the battery. If it were my system, I would disconnect every single battery and test. I am going to guess that there is a single bad battery with a single cell or 2 that is causing problems. Since the generator kicks on based on voltage, one single cell in one battery could be causing your problem.

To test, after disconnecting individual batteries they should all be reasonably close to the same voltage. Assuming they are 12v batteries each cell is 2V The batteries charged should be about 12.6 approx depending on the makeup. I am 95% sure that you will see one that is in the 10 zone. If you recondition that battery (if not able to be reconditioned replace that battery and you will be at worst back to original.

Back to the question of why does the generator kick on, it's because sulfate builds up on the plates of the batteries when the voltage drops. The battery conditioner breaks down the sulfate.

https://www.amazon.com/CTEK-56-353-12-Volt-Battery-Charger/dp/B000FRLO9Y/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1484954290&sr=8-3&keywords=ctek+battery+charger

I bought that one years ago and it has been a great tool!

Source - owned an worldwide known auto customizing shop and have fought every 12v problem you can think of!