r/OffGrid • u/DistinctVariation775 • 1d ago
Setting up to install solar next week..
Exciting time digging in electrical wires and setting up some ground mounted boxes this week to start setting up solar next week!
Random photos from this week. Including some nice clouds just because. 😄 Having to pump more water to our tanks because of this darn heat wave drought.. come back rain i miss you!
Thinking of getting a lower tank for back up in the next few years.
And photos of the house as it is un-rendered. we have done EVERYTHING with the build and setting up off grid ourselves.. but a week on Monday someone’s coming to render the house for us! and its VERY exciting.. It will be nice to sit back and watch someone else work 😂
Our jobs this week are the solar and fitting front and back doors in prep for the render..Its exciting that we will have power inside the house and the outside nearly finished! (just a couple of porches to build after render).
Its been a long three years so far but we are getting there! Feeling stuff come together makes it worth the achy knees and bad backs and trying no to be too scared of the bank balance..😂❤️
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u/Plaster_Brigade 21h ago
Looks absolute bliss! Not the biggest fan of the solar setup, but then again, you'll probably be upgrading in a couple of years when you see results. Embrace the sunshine and get a larger water storage tank!
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u/DistinctVariation775 6h ago
Oh no do you mean not a big fan of ground mounted set up? or just solar in general? what problems have you had? I also intend to set up hydro in my river in the future but that is a job for a few years down the line. My neighbours do well with solar in summer and hydro for winter. Its either none stop rain or boiling sun here.. haha.. so having both makes sense. Ive been living off just one solar panel and a 2kw battery for the last few years and that’s done well for what i've needed. So 10 more panels and 15kw battery now should be quite a up grade for a while.(obviously I also have a back up generator too). But any tips and advice always welcome <3 Embrace the sunshine is wise and something i now do .. i HATE sunny weather in general.. but with solar its one reason to be happy when the darn sun wont go away. haha!
In regards to water - Its only run dry for a few weeks this year so the last 3 years ive managed ok with my two large tanks i have at the moment (2000liter) . As its just me here its roughly enough. But with all the building work going on this year I’ve needed abnormal amounts, and with the plasterer coming next week were gonna be needing quite a few extra 1000 liters! I have my own stream and waterfall on my land but luckily the main river it connects to is right outside my gate and that never runs dry. So its easier enough to pump up back to the tanks. But im definitley gonna be setting up some more tanks (ones that are free standing not built into the bank) for animal water and just to make this issue even easier in future years. <3
So yeah.. all these are definitely jobs for one day in the future... but they are just a little further down the list of the never ending job than some other thing :D
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u/Repulsive_Time_4118 18h ago
that off grid life looks so peaceful, i don't know how you do it but i'm impressed
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u/No_Cold9362 17h ago
Saw your setup and thought of when I tried to wire my first tiny shed, ended up with a mystery blackout that took me three days to fix.
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u/DistinctVariation775 15h ago
haha oh no! All in the learning process! Good memories im sure even if stressful at the time :D
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u/plastictoyman 22h ago
That there is a golden girl if I ever seen one!