Uncommon Off Grid Ideas For Our Homestead

As the sun dips lower in the sky and the days shorten, I find myself contemplating my energy needs. My solar panels provide less power during this time, leaving me to explore alternative solutions for keeping my off-grid homestead humming.
Hydropower seems like an attractive option, with a few streams running through my land. However, the flow is seasonal and unpredictable, making it an unreliable source of energy. I even toyed with the idea of a complex gravity-based system using water pumps and buckets, but the feasibility remains questionable.
Wind power, unfortunately, is ruled out by the location of my homestead. Nestled within a bowl and surrounded by trees, the wind simply doesn't have the freedom to blow consistently.
Methane digesters offer the potential for both fuel and fertilizer, but they require a constant temperature and a significant amount of organic material. With the limited manure available, I'm unsure if I can meet its needs.
Wood gasification, on the other hand, sparks my interest. My abundant wood supply could be transformed into a combustible gas, powering my engine and offering the possibility of storage. However, the labor involved in cutting and processing the wood, along with the corrosive nature of the gas, give me pause.
The independence these systems offer is undeniably attractive. I acknowledge the added complexity they bring, but I am really interested in trying one or even all of these systems.
Which option would you choose? What have I missed? I'm hoping that you all have some ideas that I may have missed. I am very aware of the limits of my know how in all of this. If you have some time please reach out and share your ideas.
Best wishes!
Jared
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[@Simplegroundlife]

Would you all be interested in depth exploration of a methane digester and a wood gasifier? I am thinking about going through the work of making a video for each system breaking down how I would build them and how they would specifically fit into my homestead. Would this be interesting or would you rather just see the build when I get there?

[@hamadilawson7634]

Definitely, it's an excellent topic. Although I don't know how well a digester would work in your environment.

[@GrandmaGingersFarm]

👍👍👍

[@Simplegroundlife]

I was just informed that Jane Squier (She also has a youtube channel) has a functioning methane digester in BC Canada. That is farther north but also a very similar climate to mine. It gives me some hope.

[@danielshepard]

Of those three options, hydro would be the least input. Keeping your Coanda screen clear occasionally or the like. The other benefit to hydro is it runs 24/7. So if you produced 100w that means 2,400 watt hours a day (minus losses). There is a reason the sustainable power companies use hydro and solar. If you are injured or the like, less input from you to keep the lights on. Hydro and solar balance each other out well for time of year. Another backup you probably already have is a gas or diesel generator. This is not self sufficient but a great backup when you need it. With big enough batteries, you can keep your batteries topped off through the variety of methods. I am not an expert, just looked into the same ideas. I am tempted to buy a used EV at some point that has bidirectional charging for a relatively affordable gigantic battery. That is out of our budget for now though. 😅

[@Simplegroundlife]

That is a good point but honestly that system would be a lot of work for 2400 wh. But It might make all the difference and it is less input in the end. I've looked into ev batteries off and on. I keep circling back to lifipo batteries though. Still expensive though the price is really coming down lately.

[@eliinthewolverinestate6729]

Insulation and passive solar. Stop air leaks and thermal breaks help. I plan on having separate solar systems. One for smoke detectors another for lights. Going d.c.electric appliances. Decided to wire cottage like sailboat or r.v. 3 foot water wheel low rpm run 3 phase to rectifier for d.c.

[@Simplegroundlife]

Sounds like a good system too I'm glad you shared. Washington state has some really strict building code requirements for insulation and sealing up leaks. Because of that I have a really tight and well insulated house. Passive solar isn't much of an option though, Between the tall hills, the trees and the low angle of the sun we don't get enough direct sunlight to benefit from passive solar. All of that said, we do have our large windows on the south and I have been actively selecting trees to leaf out and block the direct summer sun during the hot months. I ended up wiring my house as needed to accept grid power to make it easier to pass the electrical inspection and to keep the option to connect to the grid open in case I ever take that route. So far it has been working very well. My inverter puts out 220 volts and I am impressed by what it can run. If I were living alone I wouldn't need the system I have but my family is along for my adventure so I am working to provide a little more for them. It is fun in the end to explore these different ideas and to see what I can build. Best Wishes!

[@YoushaAhmad]

It is nice to hear your thoughts on off grid energy resilience. Interestingly I often have moments of deep thought for the future which I call contemplation mode. You make a good point about convenience and the effort to get to it. I notice on a lot of off grid videos people have mentioned how they have cut back energy/ resource consumption due to the costs of an 'average person's use whilst off grid, yet they find cutting back hasn't changed their life much. Have you seen Kris Harbour? He has a lot of content on homemade off-grid renewable including a lot of content on micro hydro generation over here in Wales. Also, have a look at Jane Squier who has a lot of content growing in a greenhouse in Canada's Pacific Northwest and she has a biogas digester with a some videos over-viewing it.

[@Simplegroundlife]

I am so glad you commented on my video. Mainly for your mention of Jane. Yes I had seen her video demonstrating her digester months ago when I was looking into ideas. I wasn't thinking about locations then and I assumed that she was located in a much warmer climate. I am going to dig in a little more and see what I can learn from her. I have been watching Kris Harbour's videos as well. His designs have given me a better idea of what I would need for a Hydro electric system to work here. Best Wishes!

[@novanut1964]

wood fired steam boiler for heat, run a generator, hot domestic water, run a pump to experiment the barrel gravity system.,jonathon w channel has alot of types of systems

[@Simplegroundlife]

There is a lot of knowledge in that man for sure. Thanks for sharing. I think steam is really cool though I would personally like to learn a lot more before I dig in to steam power. They often say steam is less efficient, but utilizing the heat that is produced could improve efficiency for sure.

[@JR-xw5dk]

When you do upgrade your batteries and have a 48v system some 48v batteries have 15 lifepo4 cells instead of 16.

[@Simplegroundlife]

Thanks for the heads up. I'll have to keep that in mind.

[@boterberg278]

Hi Jared I've been thinking about having a modified VAWT with rotating blades for slow moving streams. (VAWT in this instance would mean vertical axis water turbine I suppose :o)) The blades pivot on some rod. You'd need a deep stream tho I suppose. Cheers !

[@boterberg278]

For heat ... burn wood to heat a barrel with water, have a copper pipe running through it as heat exchanger, and use that water to heat your home and tapwater (2 pipes with different lengths). Have a pressure chamber for the taps, the heating water with a pump to run underfloor heating or radiators. Prolly a rocket-stove would work ? Seems to me you got the wood.

[@Simplegroundlife]

Hi! I'm really glad that you weighed in on all of this. Honestly a VAWT could work on my lower stream that has a higher flow, though slow, because I could possibly build it in a way that wouldn't have such a large impact on the streambed that I want to protect. It is a few hundred feet from my house though. I also like the idea of a rocket mass heater and water barrel like you described. It would be a more efficient use of the wood compared to a wood gasifier in terms of heating anyway.

[@boterberg278]

@@Simplegroundlife Maybe a partly submerged waterwheel might also do the trick ?

[@Simplegroundlife]

I'll definitely look into it a little bit more.

[@honthirty_]

So many options, but limited resources. Solar is proven tech but limited by daylight & storage. Suspect you are not getting all the rated power out of your panels? 1)Clean the panels 2) get panels aimed directly at Sun all day, 3)then use reflectors to bounce more light into them with inexpensive-ish mirrors. Bio gas is attractive for the gas and fertilizer but is fiddly to keep going. Plus cows or pigs, unless you have them, on hard surface, to gather the fuel effectively. Chickens perhaps? Wood gas is attractive but complicated & dangerous to use in house. Gather wood now to experiment. End product can be used to raise ph of garden.

[@Simplegroundlife]

Yeah, the solar panels have always had a dead time for about three weeks on either side of the winter solstice. I do keep them clean and adjust them as far as they are able. I guess this video is mainly about some of the other experiments I would like to dabble in. Thanks for all of your input. I'm curious to see where this all lands.

[@TheMadManPlace]

In your situation and location there will not be one "solution" unfortunately. Wind is out simply because you do not have enough of it (and it is expensive) Solar is iffy also because it is unreliable year round (and it is expensive) Wood in the form of gasification is very high maintenance as far as time goes as the plant needs constant attention and storage comes with a whole other set of issues. Wood in the form of fire in a stove (relatively inexpensive) could handle cooking requirements as well as heat requirements for the living area and if you add a water heater you will have hot water. Hot water could also be piped to radiators in other rooms for heat using a small pump but air circulation may be less complicated - it depends on your house design. If one of your water streams is running year round (does not freeze) AND there is enough volume to more than fill a 75mm pipe (cheap agricultural PVC type) AND you are able to build a small catchment dam to keep the pipe filled at all times AND that dam is at least 30 meters above AND near enough to your existing solar storage battery setup AND you can return the water to the stream it came from (to prevent future issues with authorities, people down stream) then water powered generation would be enough I think. Electricity, especially DC (Direct Current), does not travel long distances well therefore your generation plant should be physically as near to your storage (batteries in the solar panel setup) as possible. The actual "generator" could be as rudimentary as a fan from an old, large industrial electric motor connected to a 2nd hand car alternator and a small orifice restrictor in the end of the pipe to direct a small, powerful stream of water at the fan all the way to a purpose designed Pelton wheel type unit. The idea is that you will always have water to use to top up the batteries shared with the current solar system but now the solar is a backup for when the water system is off line due to maintenance, breakdowns or whatever. You might have to increase the number of storage batteries and the size of the inverter but you should be able to boil a kettle 3 or 4 times a day and run some power tools without pulling all the power out of the batteries (not a good thing to do as far as battery life goes). To use the kettle as an example: A 1000 watt kettle should be done boiling in 1 minute. If the generator is producing a constant 200 watts 24/7/365 then for that 1 minute the battery will have had to supply 800 watts (in addition to the 200 watts being generated). Now once the kettle switches off, the 200 watts being generated starts charging the battery and in (800 / 200) 4 minutes the battery is fully charged ( a little longer because there are losses that have not been taken into account ). You should be able to use LED lights, a low power TV, a laptop and charge your electronic devices without problems, even use a microwave for short periods of time without endangering the batteries. AS LONG AS THE BATTERY LEVEL DOES NOT GO DOWN MORE THAN 4 OR 5 % AT ANY TIME THE BATTERIES SHOULD LAST A VERY LONG TIME. The problem comes when the battery level falls much lower (or is drawn flat) because that directly affects the life of the (expensive to replace) battery. But I suggest you do a proof of concept using old hosepipe or PVC pipe that a farmer is throwing out and a cheap generation unit and see what it does. By the way, from the look of the Google Earth images you have a beautiful location for your homestead. Best of luck.

[@Simplegroundlife]

This is a lot of really good information. Exactly the kind of discussion I was looking for when I was making the video. I currently have a robust inverter and battery system as far as off grid systems are concerned. I am feeling the limits though after adding on to our house and as my kids grow a little older. Everything that you are saying about sizing is true though. If I could have a constant input charging my batteries then I can use the larger loads for a short time while drawing from my batteries.

[@novanut1964]

ask the beavers to build a hydro dam for you

[@Simplegroundlife]

They would probably have a better idea of how to do it right. They could also build it anywhere they like without breaking any state laws.

[@jsaysyay]

well i know literally nothing about electricity or it's generation lol but yeah i mean so long as you do get more benefit then the time it takes out of your day/week etc, why not try things?

[@Simplegroundlife]

Yes! I am also interested in the routine to be honest. So much of modern society is concerned with making enough money to fill ones needs. I am curious about what kind of labor it takes to meet a houses energy needs and find a happy balance between work and energy consumption. I have been doing a similar exploration of water and food as well. Thanks for your comment as always. Hope all is well.