Dream Off Grid System

The one thing I always wanted when I had a house of my own was a towel warmer. Since we live off the grid and plan on continuing to do so,  I assumed I would never be able to have one.

Then I discovered this on 86'n it and all my dreams of true luxurious off grid living came into sight.

These babies are connected to a closed loop hot water system, like radiant floors and would integrate perfectly into my dream system.

First a little background:  Our solar hot water system is a closed loop system which means the water does not circulate out to the panels, an antifreeze solution called glycol does. This keeps the panels and pipes from freezing, but also the glycol can hold more heat than water hence storing more heat and keeping our water hot for longer. The glycol is circulated through a huge water tank, heating the water and then circulates that water out and into our regular hot water tank ( the one hooked up to the boiler) when it reaches 185 degrees. Once both tanks are up to temperature it dumps excess heat into the radiant heating system in our basement slab. This system is awesome expect for one thing. In winter the sun is not out long enough to heat both tanks, so we have to waste the cold water in the boiler connected tank in order to receive the hot water from the solar tank. There is a brilliant valve to fix this which we hope to upgrade to shortly. Making it dream system component number one.

We don't use the boiler unless we need to heat water. The boiler is actually disconnected from our radiant to save propane.  A new feature we have just implemented this winter. We will see what affect it has on our propane usage. (the radiant can be easily reconnected if it is ever needed). This is also the reason I could not add the towel warmer to this house.

A wood fired masonry heater (which is basically a wood stove in a huge masonry box) containing heating coils connected to a closed loop system which would circulate through our radiant floors, hot water tank and of course the towel warmer.  I forgot to close the loop in the my crude illustration but you get the point.  We would still need backup boiler for times when we would be gone in the winter and also for heating water during the fringe seasons, when we won't get enough sun for solar, but temperature is too warm for the masonry heater to be burning.

The final piece of the dream. A small residential scale wind turbine to complement our PV electric system. From mid November to March the generator runs about once a week, due to the short days and cloudy weather. We generally put about 100 hours a year on our generator, the wind turbine would at least cut this in half.

Swift Wind Turbine

All these components would allow us to virtually eliminate the need for propane and the generator. We currently have a propane range and clothes dryer, so we would still use a small amount.

Solar Panel Snow Removal

It is 2℉ here, which is actually the warmest morning we have had in over a week. Two good things about it being so cold:
1) It is usually very bright and sunny.
2) Not many tourists are willing to brave the chilly temps, so us locals have the slopes all to ourselves. We took full advantage of these facts yesterday, despite the -20 ℉ temp at the summit.

Even with full sunshine bright and early this morning, the dusting we received last night was not melting off the panels as quickly as I would have liked.

I am going to have to leave my warm little cacoon and steaming cup of mint green tea to clean them off. Too lazy to put on my Carharts, I ran out in my base layers and Casey's work gloves. The huge man gloves are not an awesome idea when you are trying to push the tiny camera button.

We use an extend-able pole meant for window washing to accomplish this unpleasant task. It has a fluffy microfiber mop wrapped around the end. Generally just touching the top of the panels will cause a little avalanche and all the snow will fall and the wind will blow it directly into your face and down your jacket, no matter where you stand. Unpleasant is an understatement, but it wakes you up quicker than any caffeine.

The solar hot water panels receive the same treatment.  These panels are fixed at the winter angle, about 60°. This angle is based on your latitude. I believe that proper formula is latitude plus 15°.   Our pv panels are manual tilt panels, as opposed to trackers which move and angle to follow the path of the sun automatically. We generally keep ours at the winter angle throughout the entire snow season to ease in snow removal, instead of tilting them to the spring angle as early as we technically should. 

When even a small portion of the panels are covered, it causes about a 20% drop in productivity. I could have waited another hour and the sun would have cleared them, but that was precious power we were losing. Truth, I needed to charge my laptop to facilitate continued blog perusal.

PS: Don't eat the yellow snow. It isn't lemonade flavored.