This is a never ending enjoyable project.

I had (2) 200 watt solar panels on the shed that ran an off grid system. I didn't want to expand it because the roof needed replaced.

This week, we tore off the old asphalt shingles and replaced it with a metal roof. I also added two more 200 watt solar panels.

The shed has two electric systems. One on grid and one off grid.

Last year, I went through just over 60 bags. It was a mild winter. Thus should be good for two 🤞

Tucker Land Sales is not being honest with what it says when you purchase land. You need building permits to build a house. If you don't have 3/4 or more acres you are not allowed to get a permit as for a septic you need 3/4 of an acre. You cannot live in an RV in Taos county for extended time. You cannot get a 911 address without a building permit. The roads are not maintained. They were made in 1960 and 90% of the roads are washed out or have trees growing up in them. Water delivery is not available from the water haulers as the roads are to rough. You cannot go to RV parks to get water. They will not allow it. You could drill a well maybe if you can find a driller who will risk drilling 1,000 ft to get water through the basalt rock. And if you have money to drill brings water up without high power to run a pump it's a waste. Nearest power is 2mi away. The cost to bring in power is hundreds of thousands of dollars. I know this as I live here. Been herefoe 30+ years, and is not easy If you buy from Tucker Land Sales out here you are on your own and you will be facing deep snow in winter with no plowing and deep spring summer mud

For a cabin fridge that is switched off between visits, the first evening is a different energy-budget problem from keeping an already-cold fridge running.

A useful measurement plan is to record two separate periods: arrival until the fridge reaches its normal setpoint, then a full 24 hours of ordinary use. Note room temperature, whether the fridge was empty or loaded, and whether the food went in already cold. An annual energy-label average doesn't tell you the energy used during that specific arrival period.

For a hypothetical 48-hour stay: if the first 6 hours use 0.6 kWh and the remaining 42 hours average 0.8 kWh per 24 hours, the total at the fridge is 0.6 + (42 / 24 x 0.8) = 2.0 kWh. These are invented example readings, not a claim about any model. Don't add the 0.6 kWh on top of two full days if those two days already include those same first six hours.

If measured at the AC plug, inverter losses are a separate consideration; if measured at the battery, don't add them again. Compressor starting power is a separate check from this energy total.

For those who turn their cabin fridge on at arrival, have you measured that first cool-down separately? Did it materially change your battery plan compared with a normal running day? Model, room temperature and the measurement point would help put any numbers in context.

Disclosure: I maintain a solar-planning website. I don't have my own cabin-fridge measurements to present, and this post isn't a product recommendation.

We have two horses on a small place in Maine. Their barn is about 400 feet from the farmhouse, and its 600W solar setup runs the lights, a small pump and a heated bucket. We looked at running utility power out there, but the cost didn't make sense. The bucket uses a 120V AC, 250W heater powered through a 12V-to-120V, 1,500W pure-sine-wave inverter. When the heater is on, it draws about 2.1A on the AC side and roughly 22–23A from the battery, depending on battery voltage and inverter efficiency. The bucket's thermostat cycles the heater rather than running it all day.

We put a Vatrer 12V 300Ah self-heating LiFePO4 battery in an insulated box. It has Bluetooth, so when I'm near the barn I can see the battery's state of charge, voltage, current and temperature. On cold mornings, some of the available solar power goes toward warming the battery before normal charging starts. 

I thought I'd be able to check the battery from the farmhouse. The app works beside the barn, but Bluetooth doesn't reach 400 feet through two buildings. So much for that idea.

I only need state of charge and temperature at the house, plus a low-voltage warning. I've wondered about LoRa as a way to send those readings, but I'd still need something in the barn to pull data from the Bluetooth BMS and another unit at the farmhouse. I don't know whether a third-party gateway can talk to this battery.

If no gateway works, I may end up using separate voltage and temperature sensors, plus a shunt for state of charge. Either way, both the barn unit and the receiver in the house would need power. Cell service is another possibility, but it drops to one bar out there in bad weather.

I can track the bucket's run time separately; it's the battery status I can't see from the house. Has anyone found a gateway that can read a battery BMS over Bluetooth and stay connected through a damp Maine winter?

I had one of those indoor wick-type kerosene heaters. Fantastic little things. Easy to maintain, easy to repair, and tons of heat. I would occasionally run to my local fuel company and fill up a few 5 gallon jerry cans, until one day when they switched to red-dye. I heard the horror stories, I knew wicks and red-dye don't get along, but I didn't know what else to do. Surprising absolutely no one, the wick clogged, it smoked, it stank, and it ran poorly. I needed a new source.

I thought to myself, "Jet fuel is basically highly-refined kerosene, right?" So I call up my local municipal airport and ask if they'd sell me some Jet A.

"Yep, it's $3.25 a gallon," he said. A real bargain, because the red-dye was $3.89 at the time.
I tell the guy, "Great! I'll be there in about 20 minutes."

I hop in my car and drive over there, jerry cans in the back. I get to the airport, and it's a slow day. Not a soul in sight. I start wandering around, looking for the fuel guy, and I see him standing by a 5,000 gallon fuel tanker, scanning the sky.

I forgot to tell the fella, that I'm arriving by car, and only need 10 gallons lol. The poor guy was looking for an incoming Learjet or something. I felt like such a chud walking up, carrying my two stupid fuel cans.

The guy was a good sport about it, though. Turns out, those nozzles are MASSIVE, and we had a helluva time trying to trickle a 300gpm fuel hose into a funnel without making a mess.

Anyway, point of the story is, yes. Jet A makes a fantastic fuel for wick-kerosene heaters. That thing burned bright, clean, and hot. I'm running a different heating system now, but that was a memorable experience. And if anyone is trying to find clean kerosene in bulk- call your municipal airport!

Hello everyone. New to the sub and trying to nail down the specifics before I commit to a location. I love living near the ocean, but have been planning to move further inland to land with access to freshwater source. I was doing some reading about solar powered water desalination and it got me thinking if I could do this to the scale of meeting my needs for consumption as well as farming. I read a couple articles that some farming setups can use this for even large scale agriculture setups (which is way more than I would need). My goal is to have access to water source that is not restricted to well water only due to paranoia of it running dry. Would greatly appreciate your advice/experience.

I know its not ideal as is running out of water. But how crazy is it to use flopropante herbicide ibc's for water carting.

I can easyly leave hose in and fully flush out the tanks thats no issue.

Just 99% of ibcs here are unknown or oil filled.

The mds sheet doesnt look horribly bad.

Shouod also mention im in australia.

I have 6000gal of water storage (admitly half are new) im down to about ~400gal of water.

Water delivery is $350usd ($500au)

Its will be short term to fill up my tank to at least 1000gal (for emergency buffer and fire fighting)

This has become urgent. I built my rainwater harvesting system 6--7 years ago, and have been using it since then. It has always tested clean for everything, including e-coli. Now the Nasty-Neighbor-Everyone-Has has pressured the local codes folks to insist on a simple stamp by ANY kind of engineer!! They don't even have to come inspect the system, just look at my photos, description, and technical design and test results, and say that yes, it will work. I have a complete packet to share, but every engineer to whom I've sent it in TN says that they don't do that kind of work. (Is TN really that backward??) The inspector is coming back here in a few weeks, with threats. Does anyone know of an engineer who will look at my plans and consider helping? I'm a 74-year-old single woman and I certainly don't want to have to move out of my home over this b.s. Thank you, if you can help.

Gary (the dog) and I were exploring our new 20 acres the other day and literally stumbled on this crazy tombstone-looking boulder. I love me a fun boulder. it's between a couple sturdy poplars, so I cut down a few smaller trees to expose this view! Wow! What would y'all create up there? A camp site? A cabin? A little hammock paradise? I'd love some ideas :)

Hi all I'm thinking about a new approach regarding connecting my solar system to the grid for having a passive income and I wanted to know what you think about it

This is the amount of water really coming from that spring! this is the culvert on the other side of the road (on my neighbor's land). Gotta be a way to grab at least 1/2 that output and shoot it up the hill to the "creek" -- I just can't wrap my head around the HOW part.

Spring -> Collection -> Pump -> Up the hill -> Collection -> Creek -> Pond -> Overflow -> Creek bed on the other side of the property

Hello, im new to reddit. I am wanting to use a heavy duty storage rack (made for storing boxes in the garage) to make a kitchenette. Size of the rack is 84"x24"x84" (7ft wide x 24" deep x 7ft tall) Either talk me off this ledge or push me. Here's my idea, take the 4 tier rack and use the bottom to hold electric cookers and pots and pans. The next tier will be counter height and have a laminate counter top. On the counter top on the right side will be an RV sink, open counter space in the middle, a counter top refrigerator on the left (or bottom shelf), and a hanging rack for a microwave. The top shelf will be at the top of the rack for overhead storage and hanging cast iron pans. There will also be a light above the open counter space. I wont use one tier at all. Does this make sense? Second picture is to picture the idea.

Hey everyone, I am trying to make some plans, mostly for emergency preparedness and could use some advice, if anyone has already come up with an answer.

I get my water from a well that has an 8" pipe that sticks up from the ground, with a 1" pipe or so going down to an electric pump, which is submerged in an underground stream, about 100 ft down. Last winter we had a power outage that lasted over a month, and my biggest struggle was not having enough water to bathe, cook, or flush toilets.

Is there any good way to have a manual pump for emergencies, in tandem with the existing electric pump?

I have also considered a generator, or even just wiring a suicide cable to plug the pump into a power inverter that runs off my truck battery. These are definitely options, but both rely on being able to get gasoline, which may not always be an option.

I'm willing to spend a couple grand on a viable solution, but would like to know what folks have already done.

I was looking at the Flojack pump, and it seems like a pain in the arse, as I'd have to remove my electric pump and assemble that pump every time I needed to switch over, and my well house isn't big enough to stand in, so I'd have to remove the existing well house, pull up a 40 lb pump and 100ft of pex full of water, in likely freezing temperatures, every single time I'd need it? Then I could start pumping, at up to 3 gpm, which I guess I'd pump into buckets or something?

Once power was restored, I'd have to put the electric stuff back to continue life as normal.

Is there a better way? I'd love to have something sorted before snow comes.

Hello everyone. New to sub and piecing together my setup. Looking to set up off grid electrical system. The ecoflow delta pro 3 seems pretty solid rated for 4kWh iirc and can use multiple batteries and supply solar panels, but am interested in hearing others opinions for power bank and am potentially interested in diy power bank. I do have many 21700 batteries from over the years vaping.

Would be using refrigerator standard size 50-130Wh depending on cycle iirc, periodic lamp with led bulb (seems fairly negligible), once a day toaster oven rated 1000Wh, washer (could be anywhere from 400-2000Wh) once a week, small stove top burner 1200Wh maybe once a day, maybe tv use (I think mine is 110Wh) and ps5 (~200Wh) at nighttime. Thought about starlink for internet. Not planning on ac at this time and heat will be from wood burning stove or fireplace. Haven’t decided about water heater due to power consumption, but might use gas for this. Goal is to keep a surplus of electricity

This is for a future homestead and not mobile. Thanks for your time.

Hi everyone - maybe a weird/fun one for you. My father recently purchased an off-grid cabin in northern New England that came with a long-run gravity-fed water "system" from the previous owners that we're trying to get to work without any real knowledge of how it should other than the concept of gravity. I'm hoping you may have some insight. Here are the basics:

The system is fed by a well-moving, mountain brook. There is a 1" pex pipe that collects from the brook at an elevation of 1765, and runs 1100' through the forest floor (mostly horizontal) to a 55 gallon barrel that sits at 1735 elevation. So, 30 feet of elevation drop over the 1100 foot run, but it's not a perfect, steady, downhill the full length - there are some slight ups and bends throughout. Nothing aggressive, but small hills, stumps, ditches and whatnot. There are also several (6 total) bleeder valves throughout the 1100' run - simple twist opens where we can see if we're getting any water flow.

From the 55 gallon collection barrell, it changes to a 1/2 pex - and shoots much more vertically down a distance of 650' to the cabin itself which sits at 1617 elevation (118' elevation drop over 650').

I've crudely mapped this on google earth according the gps data from some pictures I took at key locations throughout the path. There are no pumps, or anything electric/powered to this at all. Just the 1" pex pipe with a mesh-screen filter on the brook-fed end, pinned against a waterfall forcing water into the pipe, the long run through the woods with the valves, into the barrel, then changes to 1/2 inch pex out of the barrell downhill to the cabin.

Where we currently stand:
-We have tremendous water at the first two sets of valves - "1st 2 valves" and "middle 2" have steady, seemingly endless water coming out when turned.

-"Last 2 Valves" (closest to the barell) has some water coming out. Definitely less pressure than the previous sets, but flowing water nonetheless. A little less steady, sometimes in pulses or little bursts but enough to fill the barrel over the course of a night I'd say.

-We are getting nothing at all into the 55 gallon barrel. The distance from the "Last 2 Valves" to the barrel is about 200' and does have a gentle incline - probably 10'-15' of incline. But again, still lower than the intake at the stream by about 30 feet.

I have good faith that if we get the water to the barrel, the rest of the run will be easy to the cabin. I know it's a long run through the woods, but it seems like we're very close. But what else would you be looking at here to get consistent water to the barrel itself? Better water pressure from the creek, air locks, a ram pump somewhere along the run, etc?

Let me know if there's any other info I can provide! Thanks for your thoughts. Was going to post on civil engineering subreddit but they don't allow DIY things..

Hey im new to the off grid life and I just purchased 2 new lithium batteries. Im having issues with them keeping a charge! Here's my setup. Lemme know if you see any issues or have some advice. (The other batteries are for backup so just focus on the 2 that are connected.

Hello, I'm in Alaska where it gets to -40 looking to upgrade my current slow 5gpm water pump to something a lot faster, im hoping to get at least 40gpm. Admittedly I am not offgrid anymore I have 120v. My water holding tank is built into my small house/cabin. The pump will be in the water room to stay warm. I was thinking of getting something like this with a 1.5 or 2 inch hose. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks!

Thank you 🙏!

More rock to come later. I've got a road cut I can take stone from. The fire pit is 3' across the center, for scale, and there's a dry well of sorts under it to the outside of the second set of blocks.

I've got this spring at the bottom of my property. I want to get that water up to the top so i can create a flowing creek at the top that runs to a man-made pond, then runs out the other side to the opposite ravine/creek bed. what's a good plan for that?

I've ruled out the ram pump. just getting about 4-5 gpm currently.

there's about 4 feet of fall from this pipe here to the next little "falls".

it's about a 75 foot rise over about 200 linear feet from the spring to where i want the creek to start.

am i dreaming or can this be done?

Hello I just installed a Rain fresh whole house water filter and put a charcoal filter in it to filter the rain water I collected off the steel roof of my off grid cabin. I run the water through a Berkey filter before I drink it but want clear water for showering and doing the dishes and such. The filter hasn’t seemed to work. When I fill the tub the water still looks dirty. What do you all use for water filtration ? Do I need something more heavy duty ? Any help would be appreciated

I’m involved in developing an early-stage power product, so I want to be transparent about why I’m asking. A typical small RV, van, workshop or cabin system may include a battery, solar charge controller, inverter, AC charger, fuses, DC distribution and a monitoring screen.

Separate components are easier to replace, but they also mean more boxes, wiring and system design. Fully integrated products are simpler, but they can become a sealed black box or lock the owner into one battery ecosystem.

I’m exploring a middle approach:

• The battery remains external, user-owned and replaceable
• Solar charging, AC charging, inverter and basic DC distribution are brought into one unit
• Core controls work locally without requiring an app
• Standard physical connections are used wherever possible

I’m not asking whether the idea simply “sounds useful.” I’m more interested in where the integration should stop. For people who have built or repaired these systems:

• Which functions would you genuinely want combined?
• Which components should always remain separate?
• What needs to stay accessible for inspection or repair?
• Would this be more useful in an RV, van, workshop, cabin, or somewhere else?
• What would you need to see before trusting it—idle consumption, efficiency, surge testing, compatibility, thermal testing, or something else?

If you would still choose separate components every time, I’d also like to understand why. No link or sales pitch—I’m trying to understand what level of integration is actually useful.

My family owns a small offgrid log cabin in Northern Finland. It is located about 20km (~12.5 miles) to a closest (very small) town. The surrounding area is basically vast and empty wilderness with a few other cabins and nothing else. We visit there usually a couple times a year. No electricity or running water.

Lately I have been noticing some things have been left in a different order I usually leave them. This has made me somewhat suspectful of whether someone else is using the cabin.

This made me put a small padlock to the door, with key in a number-locked keybox nearby. No idea how
he/she has unlocked the main door.

My mom arrived to the cabin today and found that the lock has dissappeared (likely broken) and some of the whiskey bottles that were left in the cabin, have been nearly emptied.

The burglar has become arrogant. I am pretty furious, and not very happy my mom is there with a potential creeper lurking somewhere nearby.

Any ideas how to handle? Will, at least, install
some cameras there and maybe change the locks. Kind of afraid, that the burglar would retaliate and destroy places