Beat the Heat: Purchase a fan that will last

Over the years, my wife and I have started to see a rapid decline in quality made goods.  During a heat wave, we did not want to be looking for a fan to replace one that shorted out, rattled apart, or melted all due to it being plastic. One hot summer, my wife and I …

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Off Grid electricity is NOT free.

I believe I am guilty of promoting free energy on the off grid homestead, and during the summer months it appears that way.  However, during the winter months cloudy skies make solar energy creation improbable, and it's the battery bank that keeps the home's electricity going from day to day.  When the fog and inversion …

When the Battery Bank Dies…

At the end of this past summer, our battery bank of seven years decided to die.  It was an interesting cascade failure event.  One batter cell went dead and could not be revived, then another battery flagged a similar problem.  Pretty soon I was isolating batteries that would no longer hold a 6 Volt change.  …

Working alone on the homestead

Today, I am spending much of the day alone.  I decided what a perfect time to write a post about working on the homestead alone.  During the rush to build our tractor shed, I did much of the prep work by myself.  My wife and son went to the local farmers’ market while I began …

Here comes the sun…

After a dreary month of January, the sun is making its appearance again.  We are all relieved and choose our own way to bask in sun's warm rays. The solar panels have produced very little and we have relied on the storage capacity of our battery banks and the back up generator on a weekly …

Electricity: The 411 on the battery bank

The Battery Bank, not a pretty picture, but most battery banks for an off grid home usually are not beautiful, just functional. This is our stored electrical power and how we power the home at night and during cloudy or low solar producing days. What you are seeing is (12) T-105, 6 volt batteries hooked …