Off grid shop

[Dhal22]

Any hydro power research should include the Ocoee River hydroelectric system in Tennessee. I've been white water rafting there a few times (which is only allowed during peak summer) and the 100+ year old wooden flume for hydro power is an engineering masterpiece. Nothing like it anywhere in the world.

 

[MikeInOr]

Converting mechanical energy to electrical energy, sending it over wires then converting the electrical energy back to mechanical energy is not all that efficient. Bypassing the electrical conversions might save a lot of wasted energy.

 

[NC Rick]

Also there is a big difference between going off grid in the modern world where you can buy everything you need to go off grid, and Amazon stuff to the door, and going off grid because society collapsed (Y2K, nuclear war, zombies etc) where you have to make it all up from what you can scrounge.

My assumption was going off grid just to get away from it all.

There are a lot of off grid homes in Northern California and Hawaii. Some are all solar or water, some just run a generator (diesel or propane) with a battery bank when they need electrical power, and go without the rest of the time. LEDs have been a great asset for off grid living, because light is one of the major needs for electric power, and LEDs consume very little.

Lathe, milling machines, saws, welders and drills do draw a bit. Can have a low duty cycle. A propane tank and a generator to backup the solar. For machining projects.

 

[Aaron_W]

Lathe, milling machines, saws, welders and drills do draw a bit. Can have a low duty cycle. A propane tank and a generator to backup the solar. For machining projects.

Battery banks work well to absorb large but short burst loads, like motors starting up. The fire station I retired from was off grid on a propane fired generator, they converted to solar the year after I retired. I started the process for the conversion, but it took about 5 years to work its way through the system. They unofficially named the solar field after me.

We had a 30kW generator, mostly because of the HVAC start up, once it was going we probably could have got by with a 15-20kW.
This helped sell the solar, which had a battery bank included in the system, they were able to put in a much smaller system than with the generator because the batteries soak up the short peak usage. They still have a smaller back up generator just in case of extended poor conditions, but apparently it doesn't get used much beyond firing it up once a week to make sure it works.

An auxiliary generator for occasional use needs, like shop equipment works well, and there are many options to fuel them depending on how much self-sufficiency is desired or required. You can even buy a gasifiers on Amazon to power a generator with wood.

If you have a bunch of kids this would be an option to keep your battery bank charged.



Bicycle generator

I actually worked with a girl whose dad was a radio tech, also very cheap (way beyond frugal). She said when she was a kid he rigged up a bicycle generator to the TV. If the kids wanted to watch TV they had to pedal.