Managing energy for daily life off-grid

If you’ve grown up on the grid, you’ve become

accustomed to a more or less unlimited energy

source. Okay, so it’s not unlimited — if you leave

the 1.5 kW heater on indefinitely, your pocket-

book will find a limit next time the bill comes.

But you’re not faced with this daily or weekly,

as you are with off-grid systems. Off the grid,

energy becomes a commodity that you have

to be aware of, and you need to modify your

behavior accordingly, one way or another.

In my family’s home, we have meters promi-

nently displayed in our kitchen/hallway so all

can see what our batteries are doing on a reg-

ular basis. I look at the meters probably three

dozen times a day or more. And I have a bank

of meters right next to my computer so I can

tell what’s going on with my system whenever I

want to be distracted from work.

We regularly have to decide how we’ll use

energy depending on the supply. When wind

and sun are in short supply, either we have to

reduce our usage to maintain the health of our

batteries, or we have to fire up “the noise” —

our propane generator. The kids know that

some days it’s okay to do laundry and some

days it’s not. Or that if it’s a not day, they’ll have

to run the generator to do major jobs like wash-

ing laundry or running the dishwasher or using

large shop tools.

Our friends envy us when we talk about “turn-

ing on all the lights” when there’s a wind storm

and the rest of our grid-serviced island is suf-

fering from a utility outage due to trees toppled

by the storm. That’s the upside. The other side

is managing energy when not enough is coming

in. Both are part of being off-grid.