DIY Alternative Energy

We currently have 3 - 125 watt solar panels and a 500 watt wind generator. The solar panels and the wind generator connect to two separate charge controllers (because we had bought just the solar first and had to have a different for the wind gen. but I know you can get some that will let you connect both). We have 8 12 V batteries that these feed into. We have a 2500 watt inverter. We run all of our lights, television, misc. through this system. We can run our air-conditioner for a short time but usually use our small generator to run it just to cool us down in the evenings and while getting ready for work in the am. There is NO electric grid running to our cabin. We didn't know if it would work at first but we have not missed anything. Our refrigerator is propane and our heat is a wood stove. I must mention that we live in a very small cabin. Quite a change from our large home we had in another state while our kids were growing up. We love it though and our kids and grandkids do as well.

Sounds cool. I'd love to one day get off the grid myself-but it won't happen as long as I live where I am.

mom, that's neat. We would love to get off the grid. We have bought solar panels, inverters and I don't know what all, Joe does though, we just haven't gotten it hooked up yet. We also bought a solar freezer that we aren't using yet. We do have a propane fridge in our RV and the RV is self contained, so in a pinch we can and have lived in it. We have been heating with wood for a few years now, although we used our propane heater some this year because it was hard for me to keep stoking the fire. As my back heals more we'll go back to strickly using wood. We have a lot of pecan orchards around here so pecan wood is easy to come by. It makes great wood for our fires. We also have a firepit that we cook alot with year round.