Huckleberry Homestead Walter Stillman copyright 1991 Walter Stillman The decision to use solar electricity was partly due to the quarter mile between the building site and the public utility. A wide swath would need to be cut through a heavily forested area to bring power lines to the house. The choice became obvious shortly after the California public hearings on offshore oil drilling. The Ocean Blue Our house is a simple two room, two story box shaped structure situated just east of a Pacific coastal ridge in a third growth conifer forest. Solar energy is collected in the form of electricity and hot water. After a great day of fishing off the rocks, my wife, RaQuel, and I were discussing what I felt was the inevitable despoiling of the shore, when she suggested that we attend the hearing in Fort Bragg to show our support for those opposing the oil lease sales. On the day of the hearing the hall was packed and thousands of people gathered outside. Anyone who wished was allowed to comment on the proposed lease. Day passed to night with no end in sight to the number of people waiting to speak. Among them were artists and townsfolk, fishermen and surfers, marine biologists and Native American leaders. Some spoke of the environmental damage drilling would cause, and of our senseless addiction to oil. Others spoke eloquently and affectionately of clean air and water, of abalone, starfish, and sand crabs. All were opposed to the oil lease sales. I listened to the radio broadcast of the testimony late into the night. I could sense the energy and optimism of the crowd growing with each speaker. Could it be that the voice of an individual can be heard over the clatter of the machinery that powers big business and government? Heartened, I vowed to take steps toward assuming a greater responsibility for our energy use. The Power To Build Construction began two years ago with a foundation and a battery shack. The shack houses sixteen Trojan L-16 lead acid batteries and our control panel. Eight Arco M-75 PV panels covered the roof. This supplied the power for the Skil saw, table saw, etc., for construction. After completion of the basic outer shell we moved in and put the panels on the roof of the house. We've lived with the system for a full year now and feel comfortable and confident with it. The control panel was assembled by Earthlab of Willits, CA and consists of the following components: Photron 30 amp. charge controller Trace 2024 2000 watt inverter with these options: turbo, stacking, low voltage cut off, standby. DC fuse box AC fuse box Fuse and disconnect switch for PV array. Fuse and disconnect switch for all loads. Meter box with three meters; voltage, amperage from array, load amperage. Switch box for using a back up generator. This last feature uses the inverter as a battery charger and has yet to be used for several reasons. First, our generator doesn't run and is waiting for my attention. Second, the battery bank is large enough at 1,400 ampere hours at 24 volts that the system can hold out through extended winter storms. Third, we conserve a bit extra during the winter months. Mainly by avoiding use of the electric coffee maker and watching our use of lights a little more carefully. The large battery bank results in more of a seasonal fluctuation in voltage than simply a daily one. Voltage in winter typically hovers around 25 to 27 Volts. In the summertime it's usually around 28 to 30 Volts. As long as our average monthly consumption of power is less than the monthly average production, we stay ahead. This allows the impact of the occasional day of construction work with power tools to be absorbed and balanced by days of relatively low power use. Power tools, such as the table saw, are never left to run continuously, but are shut off between cuts. I rarely measure and mark more than one piece to be cut at a time. I work slowly which helps to spread the power use over time. Projects that require extensive use of my power sander I take to a neighboring cabin that has public utility electricity. There RaQuel or I sometimes sand continuously for hours. 24 Volts The decision to use 24 volts as opposed to 12 volts was made mainly because of the stacking option of the Trace 24 volt inverter. This allows the possibility of adding a second inverter to double the AC wattage capacity. This seems highly unnecessary after a year and a half of use. Two thousand watts runs virtually any single tool or appliance. It probably would run the toaster and coffee maker at the same time. Would it be necessary to run the table saw while we make breakfast? So far it has never been a limitation. The advantage of having 24 volts seems to be the longer circuit runs allowable. The disadvantage is the limit of 24 volt appliances available. Particularly a radio and telephone answering machine would be useful, although there are options. Perhaps we can find a device that can convert 24 to 12 volts at two or so Amps. Another alternative would be to have a split system with a couple of batteries for the 12 Volt system and a special charge controller to evenly charge the bank. DC uses are lights and refrigeration. Lights consist of eight 40 watt fluorescent units, four upstairs and four downstairs and one 25 watt incandescent. Typically, two to three lights are on for several hours of each evening. It helps to have many light fixtures so you can shed direct light where you need it. Refrigeration is a 12 cubic foot Sunfrost. AC uses are power tools for continuing construction work, television, VCR, coffee maker, toaster, an outside light, a reading light, and a radio-tape stereo set. There seems to be a trend by those in the industry steering PV users toward strictly AC. This is a testimony to the reliability of the modern inverter. However, complete reliance on your inverter to power your house doesn't seem sensible. Reliability is one of the features of a home power system. During a recent power failure our neighbors came over for a dinner and a movie. Hot Water Our water supply is a spring fed, gravity delivered, system so no power is needed here. For a water heater we chose a propane AquaStar 80 instant hot water heater because of its solar backup option. At its highest with a low flow shower head to slow the water flowing through the heating coil, the water was just hot enough for a pleasant shower. This sufficed until we were ready to expand our plumbing to the roof and wood stove. Our solar hot water panel is a well constructed 4' x 8' Heliodyne. The heated water circulates up to a stainless steel 55 gallon tank in the attic, using a thermosyphon. A thermosyphon is a simple physics law that says that cooler water in the lower part of the tank drains to the lower part of the panel (or stove insert, depending on the time of year). The heated water rises out of the top of the panel and on to the top of the tank. This requires the tank to be higher than the panel. We placed our tank on its side in a tight attic space just under the peak of the roof. The panel was mounted to the lower edge of the roof giving us the effect we needed. In our system the water is drained from the solar panel in winter. A gate valve in each line from the tank to the panel is closed and all plumbing on the roof is drained. To compensate, water circulates through a Holly Hydro wood stove insert that uses the heat of burning wood. The water thermosyphons here also. If installed properly, this is a perfect complement to solar hot water. I found the tank at an industrial surplus dealer and had four fittings welded to it, two on top and two on the bottom. One at the top tees off to accept the heated water from the solar panel and the wood stove insert. The other fitting, at the bottom, is the cold water inlet. Lastly, one at the top is hot water that goes first through the Aquastar instant hot water heater and then to shower and sinks. A Zomeworks' one way check valve in each cold water thermosyphon line prevents a back flow of hot water into the cold stove insert or the panel at night. Two pressure-temperature relief valves are used. One is attached to the top of the tank at the hot water outlet for the Holly Hydro according to the manufacturer's instructions. Both vent to the outdoors. An air vent is placed on the incoming thermosyphon fitting on the top of the tank to vent any air bubbles that might enter the system. The tank is on a large pan with a drain leading to the outdoors in case of a leak. The attic framing is beefed up in the area of the tank to hold the concentrated weight of roughly 500 lbs. I installed the wood stove insert in the lower back end of the stove and it heats the water moderately depending on the weather. The colder it is the more continuously we burn wood and the water gets somewhat hotter. This could have been improved by putting the insert in a hotter location in the stove. The water from the solar system is so hot that a fair bit of cold water is needed for a comfortable shower. This helps extend the 55 gallons, which has been more than enough for our needs. The tank has been wrapped with fiberglass insulation so the water stays hot through the night and into the next day. The Aquastar senses the temperature of the incoming water and comes on only enough to heat the water. When the panel is in operation, the flash heater comes on only momentarily until hot water from the tank reaches it. Then it shuts off completely. Reconnecting Through Disconnecting Aside from solar electricity and hot water we derive a lot of pleasure from doing it ourselves. RaQuel and I built the house ourselves with help from family and friends. We used trees cut from the building site to make milled paneling and window frames. Our raised bed garden provides food year round in our climate. Our composting toilet gives us a never ending supply of fertilizer. We enjoy preserving and canning and gathering fruit from the abandoned homesteads of our area as well as wild food and medicinal herbs. Articles from Home Power have inspired us to build an electric vehicle. We're still gathering information, but it seems natural to make this next step toward energy independence. We've learned that there are many hidden costs of supplying the public with their energy needs. From environmental impact and the wasteful networks for delivering energy to its users, to the political struggles to control the ownership and distribution of energy for purposes of financial gain and power over others. These costs are rarely considered by utilities and public officials who compute the bottom line cost of the power. If the rental house where we lived in before we built our own is any example, the solar power system needed to cover its roughly 15 kilowatt hour daily consumption would have cost an astronomical sum compared to the roughly 1.2 kWh daily we now use. The 50 gallon electric water heater alone was responsible for over half of our electric bill. The difference is that we now assume responsibility for generating our own power. It has become mandatory to have an intimate knowledge of our actual energy needs. There was a time in our not too distant past that individual families and small communities were required to produce virtually all their needs, food, clothes and shelter themselves. Cultures that remained in place long enough developed an extensive knowledge of the plants, trees, animals, terrain, and weather patterns, essentially the resources of that land. I believe that because of this they had a strong sense of stewardship of the land, of what constituted overuse or abuse and worked to maintain viable resources of their area. Such things as waters from the river were not seen as simply something to drink and wash with, though they humbly drank and washed. It was a wild and living thing. It seems the more removed we become from the things that support our life, the more we're inclined to think we know something by calling it a name and giving it a price tag. In what we refer to as progress, modern man has sacrificed his intimacy with the land for conveniences and technology. I feel strongly that technology, in the form of such tools as communications, will help bring about a global sense of community. Meanwhile, we could do well to take some of the responsibility and control over our lives back from those who would do it for us. Costs INSERTSPREAD Access Author: Walt Stillman, POB 536, Pt. Arena, CA 95468