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Designing your electrical Off Grid Energy home #1 

Off grid Energy's Electrical Design #1

Folks,

Electrical off grid energy design can become very complex without proper knowledge or forethought. In addition, the ability to convert different energy sources creates efficiency loss, energy loss, and most importantly using your hard earned dollars.

Featured to the right is one of my crafty designs for air movement using DC motors from your typical car ventilation. Using materials within reach, and affordable...Whole House Exhaust System...keep it fresh....well on to the good stuff

Most recently a client asked me to design a Off-Grid Energy home with considerable budget constraints. The home in question is 1700 ft., and is miles from anywhere not discounting the fact that 4wd would be a pleasant option. Furthermore, the ability to procure any help from the local utility was out of the question. The question to me was..."can we do this on a very conservative budget"....my reply was "yes of course".

Upon looking over the plans as detailed it became apparent to me that no prior preparation was instigated, and that this home was of standard issue. Meaning the plans detailed a normal three bedroom 2 bath home. My greatest challenge came when the contractor told me the homeowner wanted to stay with the current layout of lighting, and openings. Furthermore, the excess usage of lighting would create other issues later on.

Having been in this situation many other times over the years in both residential and commercial situations I started to detail a game plan for energy conversion, and utilization. "Below I will detail a similar situation."

Part of putting together a off grid home, and incorporating the electrical design into a manageable product takes a bit of ingenuity, craftiness, and good education.

Approaching a off grid design from several angles gives the homeowner a number of options. In addition, the ability to choose with cost, conservation, and green technologies at stake can constitute several different cost vs. product changes, and green vs feasibility barriers. Defining a bottom line on the costs associated with the electrical energy design needs to be worked out before spending to much time, and effort on the project. Finding a savvy technological guru can save the off grid enthusiast in so many different ways. Planning is the key to a feasible outcome with respect to delays, cost overages, and engineering mishap.

Starting your planning process by picking the right location....Oh...you might add.....the proper place....hmmmm....how would the proper place figure into defining the outcome on a off grid home. Elevation, wind, water, accessibility, access to communications, neighbors, animals all play into the off grid picture...but for starters lets assume all is good, and the house is ready to set on your lot....

Your builder says....the house is framed, and ready for electrical.....setting the main panel....or......hmmm.....should we set a main panel....other options are available depending on your overall design. First lets look at the big picture...Ok...the home has a small 10 by 10 shed 30 feet away from the main house of course the home needs water or the bucket brigade from the local stream will work as well .....back to the shed......a well house or pump house is needed to shield the pump controls, and various electrical components from the elements. Furthermore, the battery storage, and possible backup generator could be housed here as well.....see where I am going with all this......you need to think all this out...plan, plan, plan.....so a trench is needed from the house to the shed for connectivity of water, power and control. Time and energy once again...use the trench for multiple uses taking into consideration the local, and national codes relevant to this particular situation. A large panel on the house may work much better than the typical main panel that we are all so familiar with...you know the one with the METER....hmmm you might add.....thats why WE ...are building this project in the first place.....so we eliminate the main panel & meter.....time for celebration...no not yet......Let's continue this in my next issue.....gary. Contact Gary Huber / Intranet Company & Electrical gary.hubers@gmail.com or (619) 548-8108

Designing your electrical Off Grid Energy home #2 

Off Grid Energy design #2 Placing the Electrical Sub Panel and underground conduits

Folks: Continued from Design #1

Well back in the saddle.....as I was explaining yesterday the main panel can be eliminated to conserve cost. The main panel can be exchanged for a large sub-panel of "you pick the manufacture"...I will choose Square D for my project, and 200 amp....So let's continue on ....the sub panel will be mounted facing in....so the the elements, and critters keep their distance, and it becomes easily accessible from the inside of the home. Furthermore, the ability to reset or exchange over-current devices during the night or other time becomes feasible.....KEY WORD here....design for future accessibility, and convenience.

Well now we have the sub panel mounted on the home, and we need to have a raceway to access the panel from the shed we talked about. We will need to trench from the house to the shed keeping in mind the depth of trench, and other code related requirements in order to facilitate a smooth report from the building inspector. Continuing on with our project....placing a 3" inch PVC "poly vinyl chloride" conduit for the raceway... to the shed will also need a 3" sweep to bring the conduit up out of the ground and into the terminating box or panel next to our battery rack, back up generator, and other control related apparatus. I will stop here, and continue tomorrow with the terminating process, and generator hookup....cheers the electrical squido

Designing your electrical Off Grid Energy home #3 

Off Grid Energy design #3 Generator and terminating process

Well All

Been a long day .....the electro squid really was busy today...so much for the chatter, and down to terminations and generator hookup. So we have our conduit in from our battery shed to the home. Let determine our loads real quick, and pull some wire...I prefer Thhn type conductor. House panel should be rated in amps so lets rate it...hmmm a 100 amp sub panel....that should do it....so we have about 30 feet between the home & our battery shed...so our voltage drop will be minimal....you are probably wondering what is voltage drop....quick and dirty...the longer the wire run the bigger the voltage drop...hence the amps at the end of the line will lower as well .....since your voltage and amps are directly proportional the end result will be much lower...this is brought on by a series of events or circumstances. Conductor type, and circular mills....also the resistive value of the conductor plus its size or circumference....all contribute to the ability of current to flow along a certain length of product....Hmmmmm....let's chew on that for a while....well on with the project....pulling our 100 amp conductors from the panel to our generator location takes a lot of muscle....most electricians are in pretty good shape just from all the wire pulling....well on with the project....what next....we need to set a panel to terminate the transfer switch which is connected to the generator so the lugs on the transfer switch need to accommodate the number #1 conductors used for the jump between the home, and shed....Now the generator is connected to a transfer switch and than to a panel or disconnecting means.... why do we do all this.....well let me explain.....when the panel or disconnecting device has a power source the generator is off....and yes...the panel will have another power source....we have not got to that yet.....so here is where the transfer switch comes in.....that other power source has a control leg that attaches to the transfer switch to be monitored...in the event is fails ....wham....the transfer switch closes.."via a battery source"...and fires up the generator closing the auxiliary circuit supplying power to the house....if this is somewhat confusing....give me a call on this one....its what we refer to as a control loop.....well folks the electro squid is ready for bed...it's been a long day....cheers....we will talk about our auxiliary power source or battery bank in tomorrows issue.....goodnight....gary huber aka electro squid

Designing your electrical Off Grid Energy home #4. 

Off Grid Energy Design #4. Auxciliary power sources and battery bank

Greetings from the Electro Squid.....10:14pm....hope all went well for you today....as I stated in Off Grid Energy #3. we would write about auxiliary power sources and our battery bank.....to those who have joined us...hello, and happy off grid squiding....Well back to our project. Upon pulling the cable into our Junction box from the conduit between the shed and home. After connecting to the transfer switch we are now ready to set the battery bank, and configure other power sources. After careful consideration we have decided to add a number of photo voltaic panels of the Siemens variety ....why Siemens....Well.......Siemens been around along time....very strong company....as for our controller ....most any will work with all the amenities. The controller acts as a filter in some cases monitoring the power to keep spikes and the like from causing any damage. In addition, monitoring the battery voltage and cycling when necessary. So as we proceed with the project the batteries should be set to the right voltage " there is a process for this...I won't mention it here as this needs to be done properly or sparking, or explosion could occur. So we will make the assumption that the battery voltage is correct, and we are ready to establish contact with the inverter....well so much for tonight....Electro squid is retiring to his underwater cave...just imagine...Please see the Generac Home GeneratGary.Hubers@gmail.comor Transfer Switch Diagram Article.cheers Tweet Electric