Uncover the Surprising Truth About Off-Grid Solar: Shocking Revelations You Need to Know! 

This is one of the better review videos about being off grid. The content was top notch quality. Great job man.

My mother grew up on a rural farm during the Great Depression. Actually the Great Depression didn't impact them that much, simply because they were dirt poor BEFORE, DURING, and AFTER. On laundry day, they washed their clothes in a big black kettle over an open fire in the yard. They used scrub boards and home-made lye soap. They boys learned how to whittle wooden clothespins. During winter, their clothesline consisted of sturdy tree branches cut and brought inside the kitchen and suspended on chair backs near the wood stove. There were 13 children total, and because there were so many, it made light duty of much work that needed to be done. Everyone pitched in, which provided little time to get into mischief. My mom once said there would be less trouble today if more families returned to farming as a way of life to support their families. Perhaps most/all of what we see happening now is God's way, or at least one of His ways, of forcing/compelling/guiding/convincing us to return to an off-grid lifestyle. Just sayin'

This is by far the best , most in-depth explanation of how/why the solar rig is built, and why. I am trying to calculate the best ways to reduce my dependence on electricity in logical steps. I live in Ohio, USA, and have a limited/low budget, so my walk is going to be incremental, with one step paying for the next in savings.

Curtis thanks for the tour. I am an electrical engineer who builds infrastructure for a living. This was a very nice explanation of a well thought out system. Based on the knowledge that you demonstrated here I am sure that you are aware of what I am going to contribute however, I would like to comment about your diesel engine from a maintenance perspective. Generally speaking diesel engines like to be fully loaded at a constant load over time. They are made to run and don't like to sit unused for a great length of time. In instances where we specify diesel generators as backup power we always ensure that they are run at 100% load for a minimum of 1 hour at least once a month. Biweekly is better BTW. Diesel fuel that sits in a tank also has a tendency to grow algae over time. It is a good idea to either keep the fuel moving by using it up or secondly "polish" fuel occasionally if it is sitting for long periods of time. This is an advantage of using propane fuel for long term storage as an aside. Though I agree it is awesome that you can make bio-diesel in shtf. Again thank you for all that you do!

This is one of the most comprehensive videos I have seen, better yet you explained in detail why you did what you did, very well indeed. We live in south Florida so we get much more sun, ( I’m originally canadian but retired down here). Living in south Florida air conditioning is needed year round, and in a typical home down here 50% of energy consumed goes to air conditioning. We also live in town so we opted for a grid tied system, ( around 11k solar). I spent 3 yrs prior to installing the off grid solar basically re-designing the home and all appliances to cut our energy consumption in half prior to installing the main solar. We purchased an Emporia energy monitoring and energy logging system as the first item, and well as temperature sensors at the beginning and at the end of every hvac duct, to measure our temperature losses inn the attic, ( where all hvac goes down here), ( which were huge). We also sealed the home, ( which presents new problems due to humidity control down here). My point being especially in an existing home, take care of all energy in-efficiencies prior to starting a solar project. Too many things to detail here, but it’s amazing to me that there is no connection or correlation between manufacturers of one system to another type system. You find all that out thru monitoring. Best example I have is our electric clothes dryer, ( we don’t have gas down here). Not only does the heating element draw huge amounts of energy, but it at the same time sucks all the air conditioned air out of the house, that has to be replaced and de- humidified again. I see this in nearly every home I have been to down here. Without monitoring I had no idea this was occurring, every time we ran the dryer it triggered the AC system for a couple hours, so every load was costing us 2-3 dollars, after redesign we got that down to around $.20 cents per load. Another example is the electric hot water heater, which was costing us around $700 per yr to operate, we switched it out with a heat pump type hot water heater, ( $1200 bucks), and our hot water electrical consumption went down to $75 dollars a year, ( all measured and recorded). We found over 50% of our ac was going into attic and lost, ( everything was built to code), now we have no more than a 1 degree temperature drop or rise thru any duct in the system, ( all continuously measured with sensors). Our year round heated pool was costing us around $1500 dollars a year to operate and maintain, after re-design, ( and turning the heater off in January, (our winter). We got the operating cost down to around $150 dollar a year. There are a dozen other things we did, but all prior to installing the solar. We went from $400 dollar a month electric bills down to $35-45 per month electric bills, ( mostly taxes and fees). I’m just saying do all that work up front prior to putting solar in, ( 90% is common sense). You will discover the hvac people don’t give a hoot about what the others are doing, the people building the dryers could care less, that they are sucking all the air out of your home. The people building the building, don’t care in the very least what the hvac people do, ( they still build to building codes, which are way out dated). All just things I discovered along the way.

Your evolution is truly an internet success story. From neighbors yards to where you're at is an astonishing difference. Thanks for bringing us along

I have an offgrid cabin in the Cascades in Washington, so similar conditions. I can confirm that the systems in these types of environments have to be way oversized due to short winter days and snow, and in most cases will still require some amount of generator back up. Luckily, this is the worst case scenario and most locations can get by with a lot smaller systems at a fraction of the price. But was pretty cool to see that this is possible with a big house, no real sacrifice in creature comforts, and an EV. Very cool, and great video.

I frickin love the video. About a year into learning about solar and just bought my first system. The first thing that was a major help in learning was designing my system by determining my needs, then going back and forth endlessly playing with different scenarios to determine what I would need. Watching content like yours is like an advanced scenario I’ve never come across but I love hearing you go back and forth explaining WHY you did it the way you did. Makes so much sense.

I have ran my generator this winter for total 10 days for one hour to charge the battery. The farm is running total sustainable.

A big Thank You! I have had a 2 small OG solar system (2kw) at Cabins in the Canadian woods. Just for the basic needs... Game changer... Now looking at a 48V Hybrid 18KWH for PV and 12KWh load with a 30KWh powerwall. I will be using it as an Off-grid system. i will also have a generator. I will be located in Central Alberta... ANYWAY... I was forgetting about offloading excess load during the summer. Also redundancy is key....So I wasn't looking at 2 water heating options or having a gas and electric stove. Now I get the importance of it! A big Thank you! I became a sub!

Finally finished the whole video now. Yeah lots of trolls in the comments. I lived 100% off-grid for ten years and have a massive grid tie and off grid system at my house for three years, but the trolls just need to be educated. They need help. It's hard to ignore them now that you have two years of experience, but it's always an opportunity to educate these people when they show their ignorance on the topic. When I first started, 110W panel was $500. And even today, I get people complaining that solar and batteries are too expensive 😂 it NEVER ends haha buts it's a great opportunity for you and I to help people by educating them. Just responding to your comments near the end.

What I think you should do, in my expert opinion of watching a lot of RU-vid videos while considering solar for my home, is keep making occasional videos like this that are down to earth and common sense! I learned far more watching this video where you discuss capabilities, limitations, and alternatives, than from the majority of videos I’ve seen. Thanks!

Thanks, Curtis. Great video! It's clear your system has matured based on your knowledge and experience. I'm building out a solar system on my farm and you've given me practical insights to reflect on.

This is the most informative solar review for what most of us would like to have and the realities about the limitations even huge, well thought out, very expensive solar setups are faced with. Thank you!

Thanks for this video! We moved off-grid a month after you did and have been slowly building up our power system. We live further north and I appreciate how thoroughly you described the pros and cons of solar power! I too really like solar for "no-moving-parts" and am planning to expand our solar array and battery bank systems. Great job, keep it up!

I HEAR YOU BROTHER ❤.

Love It! Great job! That is a big system... Impressive. One of my neighbors has an offgrid tiny home that I have played a role in creating and maintaining. He currently has 18, 320 watt panels charging his 3 batteries, that are about the same capacity as 3 of your eg4s. His system is more than adequate for about half of the year, but struggles during the other half... he's North facing against a very steep 2500' tall mountain. The game changer for him was microhydro. He has a year around stream that doesn't flow much during the summer, but he has plenty of solar during those times. We had a very dry fall (no rain until October 22) and his solar was waning to the point that he had to run his generator a bit. During the fall, I was doing some work at his headworks and needed to build a small bypass around my work area. There was so little water that I was able to do it with a 1 1/4 inch line... small sandbag dam and just shoved the bottom end of the 1 1/4 onto the top of his 4" penstock. With his 288 feet of fall (125 psi) it was surprising to me that we were still able to make 450 to 500 watts, 24/7 and that was enough to keep his system running without the generator. During the winter, there is so much water that he is only running the microhydro at about 20% to meet his needs, while his solar is making very little. Anyway, the reason that I mention this is because in your video you say that you don't have a hydro source, but you do have a mountain to which you pump water to your holding tanks. My question would be... on that mountain you have absolutely no flowing water? Even a small amount might make a significant difference during the month or two that you struggle and the expense is comparatively low per kw. If you have absolutely no falling water, disregard my suggestion. But, perhaps someone reading this may still benefit? And, thank you for sharing your incredible content. 😁

Thx Curtis for all you do! I can tell you have worked your ass off to get where you are and am currently going through all of your videos from the past. You have answered all of my questions in videos from the past, so no questions at this time. Keep up the good work!

I have been living off grid with solar since 1992. Your system is great. I am building a new homestead in the mountians of the Philippines and just installed a simalar system . Wind is unreliable for most locations, and Hydro is less productive and expensive to set up. You are correct, adding additional panels is the best option.

Many thanks for making this video, which, as you say, covers just about everything for anyone considering following an off-grid lifestyle. At Casita Verde on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza, we have 9 different systems with a total of over 13kw of maximum capacity. We have all the modern conveniences you could imagine, but have not used our generator for quite a few years now. It's all about adapting to the prevailing conditions and learning to live with what you collect. No-one can turn us off, which in today's crazy world, is a big advantage!💚😇🌻

Time stamps: 01:26 - Why are we off-grid? 04:30 - Greater Context for the system 07:57 - Solar Panels 15:42 - Main system 19:43 - batteries 21:04 - Electrical Loads 27:27 - What did this cost? 29:27 - The generator 34:50 - The Seasonality of the system 39:48 - Correcting the record 40:36 - The most common questions 41:31 - Solar Tracking? 43:44 - What about something that can melt the snow off the panels? 44:42 - Wind power? 46:39 - Micro-Hydro? 48:04 - Adding more solar?

Thanks for the walk thru with your experience with this system. There are many videos on installing and starting a solar system but very few where there is any real world experience with a system. I have a small system that is separate from my grid that i use to lower my electric bill and about 9 months in i have seen the abundance in summer and the dismal production around the winter solstice. Now i see that it is not just a problem with my system but a problem with how reality works.... good info and well presented.

Curtis, I was looking for a video on grounding my small 48v 10kw system for off grid camp in Northern Maine and your video showed up. I must say this is the best RL explanation of cold weather issues to go full time off grid and the value of diesel backup. The South and South East panel banks applies to my location and ya just saved me some time with that alone. Thanks, and subbed!

Debating solar for our home. Offgrid is my ultimate goal. With a growing family as well, training all of us to utilize creacher comforts when the sun shines will be difficult. I like your explanation of your setup! Cheers from Wisconsin.

Fantastic info … I am in Northern BC … big blue sky here in the winter and I am putting an off grid cabin on our summer ! This is a huge learning curve and I appreciate your input and the comments .

I especially resonated with your "why" - that's my motivation to be off grid to the tee

I am only starting on this stuff and will never be a tenth as big, but I have run into most of the concepts he has explained and the common sense to his decisions. He's absolutely beyond amazing. What a tremendous video; I wish to thank him very strongly for the valuable information he's provided

Biggest thing for me in winter and summer is utilizing concrete and floor heat, radiant heat, and cooling to keep the slabs cool or hot and not have to have a system go on and off so much. Energy audits and trying to getting auto timers/smart home timers etc to keep lights, devices, audio amplifiers off etc when not in use can save SO much power, almost 50% some months.

Curtis- Been following and subscribing to your content for quite a few years now. This was possibly the best video I've ever watched from you, and I was NOT prepared to spend 50 minutes watching a video about your solar setup and all its intricacies. What captured my attention, was your attention to detail in the scope of mitigating worst case scenarios and implementing redundancy. I'm down in Oklahoma on 10 acres of my own, and if another dryas event happens, will most likely be washed away with most all of humanity once again. I hope that your elevation will allow you and your progeny to survive and in time start the repopulation of the earth. It would serve humanity well. Thanks and keep us along for the journey. I'm impressed.

Running a system, even if it is only a few panels, teaches you a lot. Cabling, fuses, the good brand (Victron ;-) ) and most of all the limitations and the complexity compared to just being on-grid. Yes summer is easy, winter is about living with limitations and having alternatives :-)

I am also off grid with starlink . I use a 55 ah AGM battery with a 150 watt true sign wave inverter and a 12 volt pulse repair charger with a small changeover switch to power my starlink at night. Works perfect. Much better than a UPS system. Main power system is magnum/Midnite with 33kwh forklift lead acid.

One of the best videos I've seen on Solar system setup. Thank you for the tour and all of the information. Be safe 🙏

I'm really impressed with you, very few people understand the theory behind solar sizing and fuel usage on the generator!

Good job Curtis. There are mini split that runs very little power design for solar. I have 220 split phase from the inverter and run the hole farm.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts about solar off grid it is the most honest,realistic and detailed video I have seen so far.

Man I wish I had more money and a friend or two like you near me …. Love the thought process and forward thinking….

Hi Curtis, RU-vid's video suggestion algorithim just dropped this episode on me for the first time. I have been doing solar at home in various capacities since 2009. Thanks for the detailed explanation of your system and noting the things you have learned the hard way. Being interested in backup power since the 1980's, a retired electrical engineer that has designed inverters, and has built various solar systems, I fully concur with your findings and reasons for going off-grid, with the freedom point being one of my top 3 reasons. I have been doing my current solar system on a budget; I have about $5k invested, for a 4kW output, 5kW in panels, and a 48kWh battery bank. It helps to have the background I have and be a DIY'er to reduce costs. A 1,800 rpm diesel generator is the best type to use. Solar is the best overall compromise compared with other off-grid power generating methods, mostly because it minimizes mechanical problems. Solar tracking panel mounts use an X and Y axis control system, which is complex and expensive. It is best just to add more solar panels on a fixed mount instead. Ground mounted solar panels are the best overall comrpomise. With only a 3.4 btu return per watt of resistance heating, heating appliances consume the most power in the house. I use induction heating for the stove top. With the water heater and oven (electric), I connected both heating elements in series to minimize peak power draw. I live in the US, in central Florida on farm land and don't have kids so, can get away with this setup. I am also a firm believer in mutliple backups for electric power.

I enjoyed your video, and thank you for sharing all this with the world. I've been building solar systems for 20+ years, and my home is 100% electric (zero combustion of anything). But... I am sadly still gried-tied. And that's for the same basic reason that you have a diesel generator of course. I can't get through the short, dark, cold days with my PV alone. One day I hope storage is cheap and practical enough for everybody to accomplish this! One small correction I'd like to offer: Several times you say something along the lines of "electric heat is so inefficient!." But the fact of the matter is, at its worst (resistive heat) electric heating is very close to 100% efficient. Heating with electricity does take a LOT of electric energy, and I'm sure that's what you mean to convey. Using a lot of energy to do something doesn't make it an inefficient process (for example, an electric car takes a HUGE amount of electric energy to move, but is still 3x as efficient as doing the same with gasoline). With an electric heater you get out of the system almost exactly as much heat energy as the electric energy that put put into the system. With a heat pump the efficiency goes well beyond 100% simply because you are not actually *making* the heat, just moving the heat that already exists.

Curtis, your detailed description is excellent, as is your planning of your system, well done!

I just watched your video out of curiosity, and I’m glad I did it. What I found useful were some of your general comments on how to analyse and approach problems. Thanks, it was worth it. All the best!

Great information and I like you’re ok with giving costs and explaining the why and cost analysis over the years. I’m excited about the wood boiler and what that does for your entire operation. Will that run the radiant heat in greenhouse ? Great way to hear soil. Signature solar seems to be a favorite for off grid folks - I think they have amazing service and spt. Thanks for the great information

I always wanted to know about your solar system. It's very impressive and a mega system compared to my small 3.8kw system. It's definitely more than most people need. The diesel generator setup is the most practical approach next to a wood gasification fueled generator. Wood gasification is the ultimate renewable energy source for alternative power. I really enjoyed this video and tour of your off grid solar system and generator setup. Our little system cut our electric bill by 50% and on sunny days produces 100% of our consumption. I designed and installed my system myself and can double its capacity. I am planning on adding more battery backup storage as soon as we have funds available. My wife and I are in our 70s and raising our teenage granddaughters. My system is performing flawlessly, and this is my first attempt at an off grid solar system, and I want MORE POWER! I have invested $8000 that will keep us comfortable with lights, hot water, and refrigeration. We heat totally with wood and have propane for cooking. Great video, Curtis it's very inspirational and informative 👍 Southern Indiana, Fawn Ridge Homestead

Thank you for a very thorough review of your setup, the pro's and cons, and dispelling alot of the armchair type misconceptions...like other comments say, this is one of the best communicated off grid video's of offgrid systems I have seen...to the point without any sales pitches or fluffy bs...but informative and well thought out, and as a bonus I didn't fall asleep. Keep up the great content. Found through RU-vid autplay so you're channel is getting helped by the algorithms, Congratulations!

Thanks for sharing your experience over the past two years! Very practical and useful information.

Well done and complete video! I’m running as much battery (95KWH) with half the solar for the past four+ years. I’m in a much more southern latitude and my challenge is January/February due to clouds and overcast. I have my generator usage down to about 2 weeks/year but am in the process of adding a ground mount with 6KW of panels. Similar to you, the objective was to not to have to modify our lifestyle, run what we want, and not think too hard about loads. We run multi-zone mini-split inverter based AC in the summer and use it for heat in the winter on those rare days when we have full batteries and sun - it can suck 20-25KWH out of the batteries in a single day. Next time someone starts asking me “what about this” or “what about that” - I’m just going to point them at your video. :-)

I converted my Starlink to DC for portability. It may give you a little bit of savings by switching out your Starlink router to something lighter weight (power draw) and then powering the Starlink dish with 48v DC (PoE supplied, with a little bit of re-wiring).

Thanks again for the work you do

Your reasons are the exact changes i want to make for my life. Independence and working with the seasons. Thanks for the video!

Great video!! All the points you made were absolutely spot on. There's way too many armchair experts out there. Really enjoyed this and seeing your massive setup! I would say I think wind has a much better case with larger more efficient wind turbines. But then you get in to serious investment, way more than the extra panels you'd need. But it also depends on your location. Thanks for a top quality video! 👍👍

I'd love to see a follow up video after adding a decent vertical wind system added into your system.

My mindset completely. Love your approach!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. I have property in Colorado at 7,600’ elevation. In the winter it gets -40F we also have good sunlight 300 days a year. I’m 74 years old and thinking of building a small 16’X48’ 1 bedroom one bath home off grid. I won’t need that much power to live. I’ll have a wood burning stove, also a propane stove.

Great video. Been watching from the start. Appreciate the updates. I think people fail to realize how much electricity it takes to live ‘normal’ life aka always on the computer or watching tv. We watch our power closely since we are on Time of Use. Makes a huge difference if you pay attention.

Nice System! I did staging of my panels on my newest system, but did 2 instead of 3. A great way to optimize early to late in the day charging. Collecting late in the day is very important for heating in winter and cooling in summer. I do agree that adjustable tilt mounts are very good, but I went with fixed for many reasons, 1 the panels produce near full output with the sun angle up to 30 degrees off perpendicular with gradual loss beyond that, 2 wind (and we get high wind and twisters), I did multiple easy fixed angle ground mounts with 2" gaps between panels. Large arrays, especially trackers, must be very very strong with huge concrete and steel or you will loose the whole thing. Trackers are expensive and fail, so more panels are cheaper in the end. We heat and cool with solar by using mini splits but our winters are mild at 2700 ft in Arizona. We have less than 30K of PV and about 60K of Battery and nearly never have to run generators. We do utilize the batteries because they should last longer than I will be alive, just keep them cool, heat kills (ask me how I know). I will be SOL without electricity, but living in the desert means we will not die like cold snowy if you don't have wood to burn. Clouds are the enemy LOL.

Love ya brother sooo stoked and Proud for ya !! Keep living the dream.

Enjoyed your video. I was wondering about the feasibility of installing a solar tracking system ,but you addressed that excellently. It would be a no go here in New Hampshire as we have similar snow and ice problems. Thanks.

Love this video. You explain it beautifully

great rundown of your system. what you should focus on now is eliminating loads you don't need.

Great overview and lots of good information. Thanks As for solar tracking, from what I have heard about a lot of installations, in 99.9% of the cases it is cheaper to go for an alternative like extra solar panels (not in your case), or, like you did a generator. And the generator has the advantage of being an independent alternative/backup.

Awesome walk through, Curtis! Kindred spirits here. We are nearing 1 year since my husband started buidling our system. We are 100% off grid 80-90% of the time this winter. We still switch back to grid power if clouds persist a 2nd or 3rd day. (Zombie mode would just mean limiting our power usage.) One of our summer solar dumps will be a pool pump and filter. 🌞

I just stumbled across your RU-vid channel. Excellent video! There is obviously a lot of intelligent thought put into your system. I would recommend using some good cold climate mini split ductless heat pumps for when you do have extra power available in winter. These units also offer very low energy use in the summer for AC. I understand you have more power production in the summer than you can use, but this would add to your redundancy for heating options. Don't let yourself be convinced to use multi zone mini splits, stick with 1:1 systems to maximize efficiency, performance, and redundancy. I am partial to Mitsubishi and Fujitsu for high performance and quiet reliable heat pumps. For those dark days of winter when you need to run your diesel generator for extended periods, consider setting it up with your wood boiler as a cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP) system. Plumb the generators glycol coolant system into your wood boiler loop with a heat exchanger so your generator is already warmed up by the wood boiler loop when starting "cold". Use a thermostatic mixing valve and a normally open zone valve and small circulator with a couple simple aquastats to control flow when the generator is running so you don't overcool the glycol system. While operating a generator there is a rule of thirds commonly referred to with cogeneration or combined heat and power systems . The rule of thirds is a simple way to look at the energy use by the generator and where this fuel goes. Typically 1/3 for electricity production, and 2/3 of heat production. Simply put, while you consume enough fuel to generate 10 Kilowatts of electricity you are also producing about 10 kilowatts (34121.4 BTU) worth of heat from the water jacket of the engine and another 10 kilowatts (34121.4 BTU) worth of heat out the exhaust. So there is a potential to capture 20 kilowatts worth of heat or 68,242.8 BTU of heat from your generator and dump it into your wood boiler loop for space heating and domestic water heating. Maintain your current cooling system on the generator for redundancy. If you are using radiant floor heat, dump a little extra heat into your floor thermal mass on those cold winter days and nights. Just some ideas to help prepare you for the zombie apocalypse. Keep up the great videos! Matt

Curtis you are killin it!! I have been watching your videos since you started out!! Great Work!!

Great real content Curtis. Thank you for sharing and giving us the recap. Curtis can you please make video about Roxy as well ? How she entered your life and how is it to have her around and how are kids with her and animals around property....Thank you so much Always such a joy 🙏

Unlike many on YT with hidden agenda's ... I trust what Curtis says

Nice job going through your well thought out system.

Great video. I'm a first time viewer of your channel. I fell into the solar rabbit hole about a year ago and I can attest to your findings. My current house also consumes about 800 watts continuously.

Very comprehensive overview of your system. I love learning how different off-grid systems are set up and the “why” behind each system. Thanks for sharing!

Like your video. I've never owned and operated a large photovoltaic system but I have read a great deal on the topic over the years: was a long-time subscriber to "Home Power" magazine, attended a two week seminar on off grid photovoltaic installation, took a college engineering course on solar and even built my own fairly large solar oven (16 sq.ft. concentrating collector) that could track the sun manually. That was the only way to control the temperature, you had to check on it often and aim it away from the sun slightly when it got too hot. It would bake bread in southern AZ. The friends I left it with found it needed extraordinary measures to secure it in windy conditions and it ended its life as a stationary water heater. The thought of what it would take to control your rigs in a high wind is mind boggling, if they were on pivots. And because I took the engineering course I do know how to run the numbers. Most civilan solar advocates including many of your commenters have wildly inaccurate ideas about what the costs of renewables really are and what you can get out of them, so I thank you for speaking truth to dogma. Good on you, Sir!

Thank you very much for sharing this information! I learned a lot! I hope i get the chance to use it! Thanks again!

Great vid and you and your family have an amazing set up. I have a much smaller system in southern BC, 1k of solar and 12k of batteries. We use our property mostly for 3 seasons but I wanted to monitor my system all year and I found a cellular hub ( Telus or Rogers) are way more efficient than star link. If you do have cell cover, have a look at those. You can get 100Mb and I run it off a DC to DC converter and it draws between 5 -10w

~$100k USD initial payout. Including diesel generation, life of the batteries being about 10 years, and the panels about 20 years. That's about $500 per month continual. Electricity can be generated from firewood in two ways: turbine, or Seebeck. Both are expensive and labor-intensive, but doable.

Really great content, thanks for your knowledge sharing...you've really got it sorted. Much admiration for what you've achieved.

Very impressive setup. A dream of many, including mine if I must admit. But it also goes to show how much it takes for a family to live somewhat 'independently'. Its not cheap. Its much cheaper/efficient living 'in town'. If only the people 'in town' could all get along. War is expensive. And War is looming in all our towns...

Great video, I really like your thinking and how you look at effeciency. I think the only possible way your could financially justify adding more renewable energy would be to find a simple system that you could run efficiently in winter (rules out adding solar), that works in your location (rules out wind or micro hydro). Since you have already invested in the generator my thinking is that from a purely financial standpoint there is no way you will financially justify expansion of your solar system unless your demand changes radically. Your comments on solar tracking and heating the panels are spot on, plus think what it would do to your yard to melt all that snow, you could have your own skating rink for fun I suppose. From a purely financial perspective, If you could go back in time I would wonder if you might actually go the other way, slightly downsize your system to save a bit on the front end and run the generator a bit more. Obviously as you mentioned the money is not the only consideration and it is easy to be a Monday morning quarterback. I just stumbled across this video, will subscribe and go binge watch your others, Thanks again.

In instances like this a small modular nuclear reactor would work so well. All the energy generated could be stored by your battery bank, and it can generate power 24/7. They will probably not be around for another few decades but your situation is perfect for them. Winter is tough at your latitude, it truly is. But a small reactor would make it much easier. Great video! Loved the discussion

I'm doing something similar in the east kootneys... Great video BTW. I chose to eliminate a dryer in favor of a clothes line... no microwave and propane for a stove AND a fridge. It reduces my load A LOT! My biggest mistake has been using lead acid batteries... they are terrible.

As someone who's spent many, many hours digging into this as an autistic special interest, this is really high quality content about the reality of fully off-grid solar. Hitting that 80-90% mark is pretty easy and cost effective for most people, but if you want to just unplug and be fully self-reliant, it's going to be a _SIGNIFICANT_ investment of time and money, and ongoing maintenance in terms of replacing aging batteries, worn out components over your lifetime, etc. It's certainly doable, but it's not _NEARLY_ as easy and straightforward and accessible as just having solar to offset your power bill and a basic battery backup system to keep you going through a few sporadic grid outages when you're living in a city or suburb or what have you. Fully off-grid is going to either cost a fortune up front and ongoing, or be a _SIGNIFICANT_ permanent lifestyle adjustment for everyone in your household. It's not as simple as "buy solar panels from Harbor Freight, throw them on your roof haphazardly, and you're golden forever" like so many people think it is or should be. It's the margins and redundancy that the utility grid provides that's extremely complicated and expensive to build and maintain. Doing that right will easily double or triple your costs, and it's not a one and done deal either - it has permanent re-investment costs, too. Definitely not for everyone.

This was really educational. It's nice to hear from someone who's living it and who has figured out what's a priority for him. I love that you acknowledge that it's inconvenient and there are tradeoffs. And you drill down into what those tradeoffs are and your thought process. Sad that the wind turbines are a non-starter - is it just that the wind isn't strong enough or are there design flaws or what?

This guy is fantastic. I've come up with same ideas about solar is the least maintenance cost, wind isn't practical. It isn't practical to make the panels track the sun etc

Amen on the freedom brother! Thanks for the video. I wish I had the space to grow my system.

Good video Curtis ! Love your down home style . Stay away from Wind since the maintenance is super expensive. My local tribe near San Diego , California has a huge casino & wanted to help reduce electricity costs via a wind farm. They are in a high wind area & bought best tall generators built by experts in Holland or somewhere near that area . Cost a fortune ( installed area used to have wind farm run by U.S gov't & they pulled them soon as WW II stopped ) Anyways the bearings have not been reliable enough to not need replacement on a regular basis & you can imagine the expense & time of taking those tall heavy towers down & installing new bearings etc ! Tribe basically gave away the entire system a few years ago to escape the maintenance expense. Foolish California government is still saying they support Green Energy so they steal money from taxpayers & then give it to their friends " Investing " in Green Energy whom now Miraculously can afford to run a money losing system ! Maybe if you go for wind later , just get small ground hugging units & invite politicians to give campaign speechs at your new restaurant / vacation resort ............ You'll have lots of wind ................ Nick , NavyBlueSmoke , LST-1195

Love the video. This gave me a lot of good info. I'm planning on doing something similar within the next 5 years or so. There are some new "nanotechnology" hydrophobic sprays for glasslike surfaces that are supposed to provide a permanent or semi-permanent coating that makes it impossible for moisture or ice to stick. Not sure if it's viable on a solar panel, but might be something that could ease the workload a bit in scraping off the panels. Might even eliminate it, except where it would pile up at the base. Just a thought from someone completely unqualified to make any suggestions :)

Great description of the system. That is very good info overall especially for us planning scale down versions.

That's a wicked system. Nice job. I can't believe it puts out that power on a cloudy snowy day.

I have no experience with PV solar, and am certainly no expert, BUT.... I wonder whether a powered tilt (but single plane) system might work with an array - so that the panels could be raised to a vertical or even slightly negative position during a snowstorm? Diagonally placed square pavers would be relatively easy to snow-blow away, and the array could then be returned to its optimum plane/orientation. I wonder if this might be an effective but relatively inexpensive option?

Excellent video. I'm impressed with your organization and redundancies. I would like to have a system like that to be independent as well.

Awesome info. Thanks for posting!

Great video! Thanks for sharing your knowledge. I am thinking about off grid too. I am tinkering the idea to have a plug in hydrid with reverse charging to complement the solar system. In deep winter, the hybrid can charge and heat the house. And in summer, solar system can charge the car. And the car has 13kwh battery to surplus home battery.

Great round up. After living with solar roof and batteries for the last couple Winters, I can mostly agree. For us, the grid is like your diesel, and we have a ~4 month period where we depend on the grid. However, the battery arbitrage and TOU has made our financial benefits significantly higher. Honestly though, you're just in that area of wild diminishing financial returns. Love to see it. I think once the main home is built, you'll see big efficiency improvements. If you've got a month on diesel, maybe heatpumps will bring it to 3.5 weeks haha Once annualized, our old school dryer counts for a Spring/Fall month's worth of usage. If we heatpump it, then it would count for 2 week's. Only really matters because we're grid-tied. For you, it maybe not pay back in Winter diesel. Some day, maybe in 10 years, we'll add a battery/solar generator to the mix. Now that we may use a tracking arm to maximize, and use it to take a few circuits in the house "off-grid" with a transfer switch. Only when the price falls that it doesn't totally sting for a few thousand kWh a year. Thanks!

Wise man throwing the true Boom's on everybody !!!!

I am with you, unfortunately the funding isn't there. Trusting that God will provide what i need and cannot do on my own. Thank you for sharing and great information. I believe in our God given inalienable rights and the basics to be able to live, and any blessings given.

Great Channel.

I'm 100% Offgrid too. I'm in the south, so everything is different

Very nice system and, great presentation. I have three smaller systems off grid. Everything you say is real and completely honest.

You are my hero. If I had the means and land available I would do this all day. You are very well versed and have done a lot of homework on this, brilliant

Thanks Curtis, your video showed up on my feed so curiosity led me to watch. I live in the most solar friendly region of North America, Southern Nevada. I started with a grid tied system that produces more than we can use, and then built an off grid system to compliment it in case the shtf. I'm extremely impressed with your approach as your location and situation has a lot of head wind I don't have. AND we share one similar situation, the number of people who judge, question, criticize and believe they know it all or more than we do, yet haven't a clue as they have never done it. No two situations are alike.

Long the way the Trees Look with the Snow. I first saw your Off Grid Page today. Very interesting. I can't wait to dive in and watch your Journey from the Start. We live in England. We want to move in 4 years to buy a Home with about 10 Acres. Saw the one in Texas the land was lovely x We have chosen 3 Countries to Retire to, i say Retire not me . Where we live in England we have Houses all around us. We are Debt free do not owe anyone anything. We have 4 Grown up kids and quite a few Grandkids x

Absolutely wonderful video! Great narration and camera. Thankx.

Great video for us that consider making the jump to partial (at least) freedom.

Great Video ! Fantastic System, Thank you for sharing it all !!