Living off the Grid: DIY Guide to Transitioning Your Home to Renewable Energy

There are those who believe that mankind is making an enormous adverse impact on the Earth. Some even think that the damage we humans have done is already irreversible and we have doomed the planet to an accelerated warming of the globe. There are others however that believe the whole “global warming thing” is a lot of hoopla about nothing. Whatever your belief concerning the eco-system and the fate of the planet, use of clean renewable energy sources is a concept that is hard to argue against. For tree-huggers like me, sustainable living is important. The use of renewable energy sources supports that idea. For those capitalists out there, renewable energy sources mean cheap energy production. So, save the world or save some money, eco friendly renewable energy production makes sense.

Once affordable only by the big power companies, most renewable energy production was out of reach of the average homeowner. And frankly with the historically cheap cost of energy, development of renewable energy wasn’t a priority. But with the sustainable living and green movements more prevalent in our society, and skyrocketing energy costs, demand by consumers for alternative energy sources has increased dramatically. This has helped to reduce the cost of home power generation systems. So, with costs down and availability of technology up, you may ask yourself “Is it possible to go off-grid? How realistic is it that you can remove your dependency on utilities?”

To answer those questions, you must first determine what your power consumption is in your home. The average home consumes about 870 KWh (Kilowatt hours), per month. This from a 2001 U.S. Dept. of Energy report on national energy consumption. Your actual energy consumption will differ depending on a variety of variables, such as actual use of electric and electronic items, age and efficiency of major appliances, square footage of your home, insulation and a host of others. Just take a look at last months power bill and it should show you the total KWh of power you have used.

Before you start looking at potential power generators, lets first see where you can conserve and reduce the amount of power you need to run your home. Conservation is an important aspect of reducing or eliminating your dependency of power from the utility company.

The first thing I recommend is converting all your lighting to the new fluorescent lighting available at most stores now. From experience I can tell you it makes a huge difference in power consumption over the standard incandescent bulb. Next, ensure your house is insulated well, windows and doors seal properly and drafts of any sort have been eliminated. Heated and cooled air loss can make you bleed energy like a stuck pig.

Next, get in the habit of not using power you don’t need. Did you know that your TV, when turned off, uses as much as 80% of the power it uses when it’s on? Even the unassuming toaster can use power when not on. A general rule of thumb is, if there is any kind of light on, even an LED, it means there is power being consumed. One solution to these power suckers is to plug them into power strips with an on/off switch. Now, when you turn off the TV, do so with the power strip rather than the power button on the TV and you will be saving a ton.

Then there is the power hogs. Your microwave is chief among them, but other major appliances can eat a lot of power too. The refrigerator, electric stoves and ovens, the A/C unit, all consume huge quantities of power. I’m not suggesting you do away with these, but rather to use them more conservatively and responsibly. If you would like to see just how much your electrical use with each appliance or other electrical objects is, there are meters you can by at most hardware stores that will allow you to meter individual items.

Let’s assume you have sealed your house up and have taken steps to conserve power usage. Take another look at your power bill. You will undoubtedly see a marked improvement in your usage, plus you now have a better handle on the amount of power you need to generate to be self-sufficient. Lets also assume that now you have reduced your monthly power consumption from the 870KWh national average to around 600KWh per month. Now you are ready to look at some options to generate your own power.

Talk about renewable energy and the first thing that comes to most people’s minds is wind power. And why not, the wind is abundant, it’s free and the technology to harness its power is ages old. But today’s windmills are a far cry from the ones your Dad remembers in Farmer Smiths pasture. There are monster windmills made for commercial applications that can reach high into the sky and have blades as long as a eighteen wheeler. But since you probably don’t have $100K to spend, not to mention the neighbors may not be to keen on having one of these behemoths spoil their backyard view, home sized systems have been cropping up everywhere. There are home windmill systems that are pre-engineered and can be installed at prices starting at $3-5K. For the DIYer, there are plans available all over the Internet to build your own windmill system for as little as $200.

The actual output of a home wind system will vary depending on consistency of winds, blade design and size and so forth. But, on average, a small system with a 12-foot diameter fan can produce around 400 KWh a month. Since our power requirements are 600 KWh, even with the windmill, you are still short and pulling some of your power from the grid.

Next comes another common renewable energy source, solar. One attribute of solar power is its heating ability. Installing a solar water heater can produce as much as 80% of the energy needed to create hot water. The real gem of solar power however comes from the photovoltaic cells or “Solar Panels”. These convert the suns rays directly into electricity. Until recent times however, these cells have been very expensive and were just not financially feasible either in new construction or as a retrofit. But as demand has increased and technology improved, they have become much more affordable. A single panel installed will run about $3,000. However, there again are those garage engineers who have come up with relatively simple plans on how to create your own solar cells and do so for as little as $200-300 per panel. Depending on the number and efficiency of these panels, you may fill the gap left from the windmill. Ok, so in theory you are producing the full 600 KWh of power you use. But remember, in real life the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow.

These are but a few ideas on how to curtail your energy consumption, generate your own power and wean yourself from the grid. It is very possible to produce enough power to operate your home independent of the power grid. But as for going totally off-grid you may want to consider that in many states, if you produce more power than you consume, the power company will pay you for the excess energy you produced. And wouldn’t we all like to replace our monthly utility bill with a check?