Solar power help!

I'll grab my bill out of the truck shortly and update or verify my usage in a bit. Thank you all for your help ,comments , recomendations .

 

I guess my power bill is billed by kilowatt hours. If that's right , I used 243 kWh . 62 bucks including taxes. Thanks all.

 

Yeah if my power bill was that I would be looking at solar, depending on what the local power company solar power policy is.

 

Yea, I know it's not much , but I'd just like to be a little more prepared for hard times.

 

Yes, the standard bulb base is E26, if you go to Amazon or eBay and look for E26 12v there are lots of options. All the lights in our house are 12v DC. Since our batteries are 24v DC I get standard fixtures and rewire them with 2 lights in series to make them work with 12v bulbs but if you have 12v batteries it would be much simpler.

 

Used to be you could get incandescent 12v 50w E26 base bulbs in any auto parts store. They were called RV bulbs. In the 90's I had one in a regular drop light that I cut the plug off of and wired it to the battery of my VW bus. Made a great interior light.

 

I think if it was not code for light fixtures to be wired in series it would be the end of Christmas tree lights.

Regardless, what is code and what is safe are 2 different things, I cannot think of any safety reason not to wire them in series, can you?

I never had an electrical inspection, I talked to the electrical inspector about DC lighting when I was planning to build it and he said he had never heard of anyone doing that and suggested I use an inverter and AC lighting. I decided what I was trying to do was too far out side of the norm for the inspector so I just went ultra conservative with all my wire size/breakers and put everything in conduit then skipped the inspection.

 

There is no shortage of inspectors that can't think outside of the box. I've run across many of them.

 

Holy Cow!!! Just reading this single thread, I can see that I have a whole heap o' catching up to do, LOL... I noticed that at least one hand preferred mounting the system on a trailer. I'll have to consider just how much power I'm gonna truly need, and then go from there... unlike a few folks who replied in this thread, I don't intend to run a shop or any machinery that will make for a heavy load, and solar isn't my only option either, I'll certainly have a generator, some level of propane use, and I also intend to look into wind power. Kinda spread the load a bit...

I remember seeing some sort of Hydro-Mite (?) generator for streams, don't know how effective those are or whether I'll even have a stream on my property. Saw an ad for one of those decades ago, reliability would be my first concern... seems like much could go wrong with that sort of setup, due to animal interference, debris or flotsam clogs, flash floods, problems of that nature. Those sets might not even produce enough power to be worthwhile, I don't know. Anyway, I think I'll start a separate thread and simply list what I intend to do, what appliances I intend to run, what my expected needs will be if I go fully off-grid, etc.

I gotta be honest with y'all, if I do this, I mean to seriously get back to nature... I'm not gonna be running a TV or computer for hours on end, I wanna get away from all that cr@p and spend more time in my primo Pawleys Island hammock watching the wildlife, more time grilling outdoors on my BBQ deck, more time working in a garden and getting my hands in the dirt, real old school activity. I might even wash my clothes in a freakin' tub and hang 'em out to dry, LOL... WTF, I only do one load of laundry per week as it is, and I don't think my two cats will mind if the sun-dried clothes are a bit wrinkled. I already know to turn clothes inside-out to keep 'em from fading too fast, LOL.

ANYWAY, I'LL TALK MORE ABOUT MY PLANS IN A SEPARATE THREAD, PROBABLY BETTER THAT WAY... OTHERWISE I'LL NEVER REMEMBER WHICH REPLY WAS IN WHICH THREAD, 10-4? I SUFFER FROM CRS, DON'TCHA KNOW??? CHEERS!!!

 

You sound like me before I got started. This is our first summer off grid and we live in the south where the humidity inside the house became a problem fast so I had to put in an AC unit. We also have 2 little kids and turning on a movie before they go to bed or when they are stuck inside for 2 days due to rain can give us a needed mental break. I fought hard (by 'fought hard' I mean just ignored the requests) to keep the internet/wifi out but my wife was pretty persistent and eventually ordered it herself.

I try to cook as much as possible on my grill/smoker outside to keep the heat out of the house, next year I want to build a more formal outdoor summer kitchen.

 

I do a lot of BBQing as it is, I love being outdoors... and the bugs? Meh, extra protein, LOL. I copy the situation with the wife & kids, as a confirmed bachelor I have a bit more leeway, and the two cats will just have to deal with whatever option I choose... we're at elevation right now, roughly 6400' elevation under the tall pines, and the weather is excellent here. If I drop in terms of elevation when I relocate, I still want to be several thousand feet above sea level, I like the way the temp cools off more quickly at night at elevation. Even during the hottest spells of weather here in the White Mountains, when the temp pushes 100 degrees, it still cools off into the 60s or low 70s at night... the breeze helps too, I have excellent air flow in this house and I intend to have the same in my next home, even if I have to make it happen by adding windows or whatever. Well, gotta go, some lookie-loos are scheduled to tour the house here shortly...

P.S. They just called, they're running a bit late... so I'll add this, whenever I BBQ I load up the grill, I'm not one of those guys who fires up a BBQ just to cook one or two items. In the summer, I'll grill a full rack o' sweet corn in the husk first, I can always shave the kernels off uneaten ears and reheat 'em later with butter & pepper... "Good $h!t, Maynard!!!" Then I'll load the grill again with whatever I'm cooking for the main course, I buy all meat in value packs anyway to save money, and I like leftovers, I can eat those for days, hot or cold, LOL.

 

If you don't mind used panels you can get them on eBay for $.38/watt right now. Maybe you can do local pick up and not pay shipping. I just bought 10 - 320 watt panels for about $1100.

 

Where'd you move to, Mars?