OVERVIEW

Living off-grid doesn’t mean living in the 1800’s with no electricity (unless you want it to!). An off-grid home simply means your home doesn’t rely on one or more municipal or public utilities, like electricity, water, or sewer.Instead, homeowners choose to live autonomously and create these systems for themselves through options like solar or renewable energy and contained waste-water systems. However, they can have a beautiful kitchen with energy-smart appliances, Internet (including a great work from Home setup!), and even a luxurious bathtub.

The great thing about living in an off-grid home is that you are in control of nearly every aspect of how you run your home, so it can be as rustic or modern as you prefer.

solar

The first key trend in the solar panel industry in 2023 will be the continued decline in the cost of components required for solar panel installations, such as solar cells and inverters. This is due to advances in technology, increased manufacturing efficiency, and economies of scale. Not only does it make it cheaper for companies to produce, but also more affordable for consumers and B2B clients to buy.

Advances in technology have made it possible to manufacture solar cells and inverters at a lower cost. Manufacturers have also become more efficient in their production processes, allowing them to produce solar panels more quickly and with less waste. What’s more, economies of scale have made it more cost-effective to produce solar panels in larger quantities. All three play an important role in reducing the price of solar panels. The use of energy storage systems, such as batteries, in conjunction with solar panels is expected to increase in 2023. This is driven by the need to address inconsistency issues with solar power and to provide backup power in case of outages.

As solar power is not always available, such as during cloudy or nighttime hours, it is important that energy storage systems can store excess solar energy during peak hours and provide backup power during times when solar power is not available. Research and development in new materials for solar panels, such as perovskites, is expected to continue in 2023. These materials have the potential to improve efficiency and reduce costs.

If you’ve never heard of the word, Perovskites are a type of material that has been shown to be highly efficient at converting sunlight into electricity. Perovskite was discovered in Russia in the 1800s and is special because it has the potential to be less expensive than current materials used in solar panels. The trend towards decentralized power generation, where individuals and businesses generate their own power using solar panels, is expected to continue in 2023. This trend has been gaining momentum in recent years, driven by the desire for energy independence and the availability of affordable solar panel systems (yay). Decentralization is particularly attractive to those living in rural areas, where traditional power infrastructure may be limited or non-existent. it looks like the solar panel industry is fated for continued growth and innovation in 2023! Advances in technology, declining costs, and a growing global demand for renewable energy are driving the industry forward.

Key trends to watch in 2023 include component cost declines, local manufacturing, energy storage, new materials, grid integration, decentralization, and increased adoption. As the world continues to move towards a cleaner, more sustainable energy future, solar power is likely to play an increasingly important role.

lp gas generator

Do You Need A Backup Generator If You Have Solar Panels in an Off-Grid Home?

Yes, in a nutshell, that’s the solution. Solar electricity is not a standby generator. It's your main source of energy along with its battery storage. If there is a major storm, solar power could go out if the battery storage gets too lowl. This means, that having a backup generator running on liquid fuel or gas will provide your home with the power it needs while charging the solar batteries.

Propane Pros:
- Long shelf life.
- Readily available & Burns clean.
- Easily stored in both large tanks or in smaller 5 – 10 gallon cylinders.
- Propane generators typically have a quieter engine noise than the others.

Cons:
- Somewhat expensive fuel, check your local prices.
- Propane begins to derate around -20 degrees above zero.
- Fuel system is more complicated than others so installation and maintenance cost of propane generators ccould be more, however advances are being made to compensate this issue.

Conclusion
When searching for a generator to support your off-grid solar system, keep a few things in mind:

Generator output should be 2x your inverter’s output
Match generator voltage to inverter voltage
Generator must be warrantied for off-grid use
2-wire start is mandatory to work automatically with solar system
3600 RPM generators are more cost-effective, while 1800 RPM generators cost more up front but last longer and are more efficient
For more help moving off the grid, check out our Solar Battery Guide, which explains how to size and select a battery bank to adequately support your energy needs off the grid.

artisan well / cistern / rain water

combinig a well with a cistern gives you the advantage of rain collection

Artisan wells can be as simple as a hole dug in the ground or as sophisticated as a pressurized system drilled hundreds of feet into the ground. The point is the source: groundwater. Most rural properties with a private well are either dug or drilled, wherein a hole is dug into the ground until groundwater is encountered. The deeper into the aquifer the well is dug the more sanitary the water will be.

Once a suitable depth is reached, the hole is lined or cased with a hard material to hold the hole in place and prevent collapse. It can also help keep contaminants from entering the water supply. Modern well casings are made from carbon steel, plastic, or stainless steel, while old well cases were made from stone, brick, or mortar. A submersible pump is also placed at the bottom of the well inside the casing. Driven by a power source, (soloar or Generator) the pump delivers a supply of groundwater to cistern for volume enhancement and then is either pumped a pressure tank or a gravity dispersement tank which is then delivered to the home. Additional filters can be installed anywhere between the tank and the taps. Rain harvesters begin with the catchment. This refers to the area from which the rainwater is collected and diverted to a cistern storage tank. This can be as simple as a sheet of vinyl with a hose fixed to a hole in the center, which directs water to a bucket. Or it can be as sophisticated as a wet delivery system, which directs rainwater from an overflow spout to a cistern storage tank through a pipeline. If you’re installing a rain water harvester, you’ll also need an overflow spout on your cistern storage tank. This provides an escape route for overflow water while also ensuring the concrete foundation that the tank sits on does not erode from runoff. Some tanks come with an overflow spout already installed, but others require you to install one yourself.

Having A well with a rain water harvester is a more sustainable solution because it makes use of the two primary sources of water available in areas without a municipal supply. With both a well and a rain water harvester, each source serves as a backup supply to the other

septic

Building a house on the beach in Campeche can be the culmination of a lifelong dream. When building you will be confronted with a myriad of decisions. How many rooms will you have? What materials will the kitchen cupboards be made of? How big should the pool be?

Of all these questions there is none less exciting than what to do about the septic tank. Septic tanks are underground wastewater storage structures, commonly used in areas such as Campeche that do not have centralized sewer systems. When starting a construction project most contractors recommend choosing the location of the septic tank and leeching fields long before the first brick is laid. Most homes built now install tanks that are made of resistant materials such as thick PVC. They also have the added benefit of being much easier to cleanout. Newer models are able to be emptied by specialized pumps, sometimes set aboard large trucks, which quickly and relatively painlessly extract the sewage. Standard prefabricated septic tanks can range in volume from 1000 to 3000 gallons. The bigger the tank the more it will cost, but will need to be emptied less often.

Another advantage of modern septic tanks is that they are much less likely to clog up. Also, with the addition of leeching fields to the septic system, your tank needs to be cleaned out less depending on the size of your tank(s) as grey water passes through the solid waste collection tank and disburses through the leeching fields indesignated areas on your property far from any ground water source.

WIFI / CELULAR

you will soon be able to access starlink directly with your cellphone from anywhere in the US, AND EVENTUALLY THE WORLD.

The future of satellite communications is almost upon us. SpaceX has signed a deal with T-Mobile to provide the carrier's customers with text services from its Starlink satellites anywhere in the U.S. starting in 2023.

It was only a matter of time before SpaceX turned its attention from solely wifi to the cellular industry. The company has recently ramped up its deployment of internet connectivity, allowing everyone from RV travellers to remote outposts to be connected to the internet. But cell connectivity is an entirely different thing.

Most people that go to the most remote parts of the world, which amounts to half a million square miles in the U.S. alone, have to lug around expensive satellite phones if they need to reach someone. But T-Mobile and SpaceX have developed a system whereby Starlink can provide services to customers on existing T-Mobile networks, using the phones they already have in their pockets.

That is not the same as providing internet, and the system roll-out will start slowly, with only text messaging being the first of the three major cell services users expect from their carriers to roll out. Voice calls, and eventually data, will follow in the future, with no specified date for when that might be.

Supporting this new cellular infrastructure will require modifications to its existing Starlink 2.0 satellites, which were announced in June 2022. T-Mobile's network only reaches the U.S.—to become a genuinely global cell provider, the two companies will have to expand their Coverage Above And Beyond framework to other cell operators. So far, no one has stepped up to the plate, but there are undoubtedly conversations going on behind closed doors and will be inevitable.

Ultimately this all leads to the future of seamless internet and cellular connectivity throughout the world, which has been the dream of technologists since the dawn of the internet. SpaceX and T-Mobile have taken another step in that direction. It remains to be seen what others will join them.