Here is a walk around of our off-grid Amish built cabin project. We are acquiring into the final stretch and issues are really coming together. The shell was built by local Amish & myself along with family are finishing it off. I noticed soon after I got residence that I did not video the front of the cabin so you can see the whole thing… I will try and get that subsequent week. You can see the whole project here : www.bethnchris.com Sorry for the poor video quality… I just utilised my canon g3 p&s camera
Richard O’Connell of OCS Power explains his technique setup of a solar/windmill combination and how it is in a position to sustain an off grid property during a strong snowstorm. See much more examples at www.ocsenergy.com
Video Rating: 4 / 5
You don’t need permits in my area, but you want to stay clear of any municipal water. The rual water suppliers just require approved septic. The municipal supplies will make you sleep with devil and pay for the room. Most wells are sulphur around me…
@Unsharpened You won’t see the permits in any of the videos as they are required to be in the nearest window to the road… the property has an official dwelling, an old mobile we put in for my father-in-law, not far from the road … which is where the permits go… but we will be tearing that one down in the not to distant future and building him a real place… expect videos on that in about a year or so…
@Unsharpened we pulled a building permit… took about 15 minutes… drew a rectangle on a piece of paper that had the approximate setbacks from the property boarders… did the same thing when we built the pole barn… now we did not permit this place as a dwelling… that would have required a great deal more work… but in our rural area permitting out buildings is pretty easy…
Building permits? All these Off grid Vids always show everything except the behind the scenes stuff, like building permits or ANYTHING they had to do with even getting started. It always seems they bought some land and started building. It just doesnt happen that way at all.
I hope you have a lightning rod of some capacity. Looks like you are higher then most everything you will need it sooner or later.
Check my comments for information about the Pre-January 8th dvds of Inception.
@TheIndustrialphreak don’t really need one… the batteries are always full…. at our level of usage it’s really plenty… now after I add a fridge I might need to add some capacity… so then it might be worth it
Why not build a tracker for those panels?
@Murderball9 the cabin is 20×32… that includes the front porch which the front bedroom cantilevers over…
Love your cabin! I’m looking at getting something similar built. Just for reference, what are the dimensions of your cabin?
very nice…lot’s of enjoyment to come…i’m jealous :}}}}
@buffcleb – hey, thanks for the reply! it your place, you’re the king of your castle, the reward is the work in itself…challenges will come, will be solved…I hope to use recyled material (actually, do a demolishion on a small barn or old brick home – get paid/reuse the free’ material!) never the less, great job Brother
, cheers
@brohmanski yes. The reason I didn’t do it was that I was trying to minimize the possibility of leaks. fewer holes in the roof (none in my case) the better.
Now this did cause a problem. two winters ago we had a lot of snow (27 feet). The supports at the top of the chimney became tweaked from the snow riding off the roof onto the them. Last summer I replaced the tweaked supports w/ longer ones that I put at an incline and then put a couple of cleats on the roof above them. no more problems
could the stove pipe have been extended inside for maximizing risidual radiant heat if one wished to use it in the winter? I know nothing of safety codes, but it i just thought having a short pipe is kind of a waste (probable pontential for leakage, so I can see why not) – just wondering…Great Job, I like the Amish aspect – very resourceful….:)
@0urGaia Thanks…. Everything is 12v except from the panels to the charge controller… I have a MPPT charge control which steps it down… I did this so I could go with a smaller gauge wire… I was able to go with 8awg doing it this way… The wire still costs around $140
nice setup. I like the size of your cabin. Think I would have stayed at 12 volt to save cost -12v lighting, 12v fridge etc. Then use small step-up transformers on anything that requires larger volts.
The plumbing is still not in yet… my current plan is start with a rain water system that I can empty in the fall… I need to work out the filtering required still…
I intentionally did not put any plumbing in the walls… we do not heat the cabin in the winter so I did not want to have to worry about freezing…
On the discharge side I am planing on doing a gray water system and a composting toilet. My goal is to get that stuff going this year…
What did you do for plumbing? just curious as to what you are doing for septic and water. I have a similar project but, needs a bathroom before we can stay full time. We have water and a regular outhouse for the moment. I like your project. Very neat and well thought out ideas…Take care
yeah the center would have been better placement… but I wanted the catwalk from the front to the rear of the second floor to be centered… so i was kinda stuck….
I have been staying out there for the last couple of couple of weekends… nights to in the low 30′s… cabin is warm and toasty… so not being optimal so far has not been to much of a problem
Thanks for sharing, I’m researching off grid living and find videos like these very informative and inspirational. I was wondering if you considers placement of the wood stove in the center of the cabin venting straight up instead of along the exterior wall?
thanks for your comments…
The outback fx-80 (black box) is the charge controller. The panels are wired for up about 50 volts and the batteries for 12 volts… the fx-80 is a mppt type charge controller and can convert these voltages finding the max power point.
I will be installing an insulated battery box with vent in the next couple of weeks… There is a roof vent but I agree there is a right way to do this and will doing it right.
Great cabin beautiful view, I didn’t see a charge regulator between the panels and batteries. PV panels have a voltage output that can be erratic and even though they are 12VDC they can produce up to 21VDC this will damage the batteries, plus the charge regulator will shut off the charging when the batteries are full preventing an over charge. You may want to also consider adding a vent, when batteries are charging they give off hydrogen gas and… well remember the Hindenburg?
Check my comments for information about the Pre-January 8th dvds of Inception.
15 feet? Holyshit!
Nice setup, greetings from sunny Jamaica.
Do you get a lot of wind where you live? Does it take strong winds to work your wind turbine?
I have a small system but clean off my solar panels after each snow storm. Solar works good even in the winter if you have enough battery reserve. (Batteries are just as important as the solar panels.)
Wild country!, how much did you invest? Hi from sunny FL
Just Scale everything down. You can start with a smaller inverter and battey then add a generator (small 1kw) and expand to adding solar panels.Costco has a “package” 200 or 300 watt system….you can get the parts at any automotive store for a really basic “survival” system
If you needed to do this for survival purposes with a limited budget where would you begin?
This whole setup blows my mind.
True, however the charging of the batteries can be programmed to NOT do an equalize charge which causes the batteries to “gas”…most system owners and a lot of installers don’t know how to program the systems and use the “default” setpoints from the manufacturer. the room has a roll up door which lets in plenty of cold air…there are also two vents which you cannot see in the video.
Yep….most of kids do….
cool we could actually snowboard on your house.
very nice setup, just remember hydrogen goes boom if a leak occurs, I’m getting into the hydrogen stuff myself for my car. taking it slow to learn all the precedures…
The house will use anywhere from 10-20KWH a day depending on how many people are staying there. The house has 5 bedrooms a Jacuzzi tub in the master bedroom and is 3 miles away from the ski resort and the McCloud River. So we get a lot of guests and …..well….I wanted everyone to have fun. Maybe I should have done a video on the whole house so you could get an idea how much “stuff” is in it.
One hour…..during 10 months of the year…then its wind power and the generator. Keep in mind what you can’t see are the 20 BP150 panels “under” the wind generator and the 14 panels on the equipment roof. The house is designed to go 4 days with out sun however during the summer months the excess power will be used to make hydrogen gas for storing and reusing during the winter for the backup generator. I am designing a hydrogen system to replace the propane that we are using now.
how long does it take to recharge that system off just solar power ? weeks or months???
more off grid video’s please…. boy you got a huge battery bank for that xantrex system.
how much power are you using per day in that house…