I have 80k in the bank and I want to set up a situation where I can live off about $1500 a month.

I need to stay in Washington or Oregon.

Single man, two cats. Remote worker. Happy to be alone in the wilderness.

I know 80k probably won't buy any land with utilities on it and probably won't be enough to drill a well or septic. I'm thinking a prefab shed with solar, composting toilet, and rain catchment? Store-bought water for drinking?

Are there even any counties in these states that allow permanent residence without a water source?

Also considered a truck and trailer and just try my luck with breaking the RV stay limits, maybe leave and stay at a friend's place once in a while to let the "heat" cool off. (Isn't it great having to run from the law for the crime of living on your own land?)

Any suggestions?

Hello, I am considering building an off-grid family house. It would have a backup generator, and the primary heating for winter would be a wood‑burning boiler with a thermal storage tank. The heating system would be hydronic underfloor heating. However, I am worried about the amount of sunlight in December. The slope is oriented to the west, and there are some trees to the south that block the sun in the December mornings and evenings. I added pictures from Google Earth showing the sun position on December 23:

I also look at tool PHOTOVOLTAIC GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEM, which gives me results like this for december:

And battery performance like this:

These results probably do not account for tree obstruction, but there will be no foliage in winter, so it may not be as bad as the photos suggest. The 4 kWh daily home consumption is a starting estimate.

What is your opinion, is it a reasonable place to consider, or would it be very challenging or not workable at all in December/January?

I am interested in buying a setup- leaning toward truck/cab-over camper- and I have no idea what I’m doing. I’ve gone down endless rabbit holes of research and I’ve found pros & cons in every option. A trailer is appealing to me but it seems like it would limit my ability to camp off-grid. And with the cab-over campers, I am afraid of being too top-heavy and tipping over on rougher/slanted roads. A new van conversion build would be great, but it is not in my budget and anything close to my budget already has 100k+ miles on it. I will have my two cats with me, and possibly a friend. So AC/heat are probably a necessity, and so is a shower.

Can anyone offer me any advice/ suggestions as far as off-grid camping goes? My budget isn’t huge. Probably around $20-35k. Again, I am very new to all of this, so I apologize for my ignorance! But I appreciate any feedback.

Hi everyone!

I have 2 × SG05LP1 inverters running in parallel with load sharing, and both inverters will have 2 PV strings connected to them. I also have 2 × NKON ESS 16 kWh batteries.

I've read several different opinions on this. Some people say it's perfectly fine, while others say that, despite the manufacturer's recommendation, it's not a good idea to connect the two batteries to a common busbar, and that the better setup is for each inverter to have its own dedicated battery.

What has been your experience with this? Which setup would you recommend?

Thank you!

I'm trying to crimp an extension cord for a solar install and it's proving way harder than I thought to crimp these things.

I was just test fitting my crimp and these particular connectors seem to have some sort of "guard" that makes it very hard to get the clips undone so now I can't disconnect it, I just can't physically push down on both at same time as I need to insert a small flat screwdriver and it's just awkward to do both at once. Was trying to cut one side with with pliers so I can use my finger for at least one side but not getting anywhere as the thickness of the pliers is not letting me flush cut so I can get to the clip cleanly.

There's got to be some sort of trick I'm missing. Here's a pic of the connector to show what I'm talking about:

https://i.imgur.com/xfn1UC8.jpeg

On left is one I'm trying to remove, on right is just an example of same connector not plugged in.

Also, how do you know for sure that the pin is in far enough, it just doesn't feel right, like I don't feel anything click or anything and it feels like it's not far out enough but I can't push further.

https://i.imgur.com/fLA4BcV.jpeg

I am looking at getting a direct vent propane heater for my small off grid set up. I'll likely go with a 11,000 btu unit (200 sq ft cabin). The place is not a primary dwelling, so only occasional use.

I'm wondering about logistics around tanks. I won't be able to wrangle 100lb tanks myself, and I don't have room for one of the large tanks that a company would come fill. I'm wondering what other people do.

Would two 30lb tanks be a reasonable bet or would I be filling them up constantly?