Homestead Blizzard Preparations ~ Awesome Solar ~ & More

With a blizzard on the way to the off grid homestead we started to prepare for being stuck for about five days. It was the calm before the storm and we had the best solar power day this year though. Read the full article: http://www.thedoityourselfworld.com/articles/article.php?id=11434

In the morning we headed off to town to get some supplies to prepare for being snowed in for a while. When it snows badly here we do not get out for a few days at least.

We are about a mile from the last state maintained road. There is a dirt lane about 3/4 mile long which gets plowed privately. And then our little path out another 1/4 mile to our off grid tiny house on wheels. This gets plowed after the storm settles.

But then we have to dig out our own driveway and a path to the meadow beyond before we can get our vehicles out. In the past this has always taken me about five days.

I always had to shovel out the animals and ourselves first and then work on the vehicles.

Well this year we do not have the animals to care for so it will be a bit less work. But then again, they are calling for a record blizzard this year with up to 24 inches of snow in a single day.

We got gas for the generators in case we do not see the sun for a few days. This gives us backup power for the off grid tiny house.

And we got 15 gallons of water from the creek. I figure we will not be able to get to the creek for a while if the snow hits as bad as they are saying. We filter the water for drinking.

I also got cat litter, milk and eggs. That was all we needed because we had been shopping before we even knew a storm was on the way. We are pretty much set to be stuck for a while.

When you live the life off the grid and a storm like this hits, its nothing shocking really. We are living the life already so a bit of snow does not get us down.

If the power in town fails we will lose internet but otherwise we will remain unaffected by the storm. Being off the grid has its advantages.

The sun was shining brightly all day and the sky was blue and nearly cloudless. The solar power coming into the tiny house battery bank was awesome.

We were in absorption mode by 12 noon so I plugged in the freezer and the power surged to take in more solar power from the panels. But the batteries remained in absorption mode. This is very good.

Later, with the freezer still plugged into the power inverter, we were in float mode. I finally unplugged the freezer at 4 pm. The freezer was down to 7 degrees F.

I worked on the supercapacitor bank for a while today. I am experimenting with using super capacitors as a battery replacement for vehicles. These will be the starting battery instead of a lead acid battery. There are many advantages to using capacitors instead of a battery.

But a super capacitor has to have a balancing circuit when placed in series with other capacitors to ensure that no single capacitor gets too much voltage.

These are a sort of protective circuit for the capacitors. I am working on these circuits for my project.

I tried out two different ideas first before settling on to a better circuit. A set of diodes and LEDs worked but continue to drain the capacitors after the charge is removed.

A set of voltage divider resistors also do the job but continue to drain the capacitors after power is removed.

For a car starting battery this is very bad.

So I am working on actual circuits which will balance the capacitor voltages while drawing very little current.

Thanks for watching. Please Subscribe & follow my daily videos.

Troy
http://www.thedoityourselfworld.com
http://www.theoffgridproject.com

Note: Copying this video, in part or in full, is a violation of copyright unless the user has express permission from the owner. Violation of this copyright will be pursued to the fullest extent of the law.