Solar Powered Off-Grid Living With All The Creature Comforts

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A South Australian family is living the dream in Strathalbyn in their off-grid solar powered home without skimping on the mod cons. And it worked out cheaper than connecting to the mains grid.

This segment is from SolarQuotes TV Episode 9 – Living Off-Grid With Solar – which showcases off-grid living in Australia done right.

Transcript begins —

Finn: Okay, onto our installer profile for this month. We check out a great, no expense spared solar and battery setup in Strathalbyn, South Australia, and we chat to one of SA’s top off-grid installers.

Colin Lord: G’day, I’m Colin Lord from Apex Energy. I’ve been installing and designing off-grid solar systems for over 20 years. I’m with Allen and Sally Smith, and I helped them to design their solar system.

So, the system is a standard off-grid system. It’s about 10 kilowatts of solar – it’s a Selectronic inverter, and it’s PPE batteries¹. The batteries are made in Melbourne, the Selectronic inverter is also made in Melbourne.

Living off grid is very easy these days. We can do a load profile before you move in. We understand what appliances’ loads are and we can design a system around that, so we can build a solar system for anyone really.

Fortunately, when I met Sally, Sally had a really good idea on energy efficiency and on how to build a good house. And so she picked energy efficient appliances and built an energy efficient home. So, it’s a standard house with normal appliances, a dishwasher, washing machine, under-floor heating. So, you can pretty well have any house off grid.

Off-Grid Solar/Battery Cheaper Than Mains Connection

Sally: Well, it’s definitely been a lifelong dream to build a house here, to see it come to fruition is just amazing. We’re so happy here.

We did look into actually being connected to the grid, but the closest power is about a kilometre away. I think it was going to cost us between 50 to $70,000 to connect us to the power. And then of course we’d be paying bills on top of that.

We started looking into off-grid systems; that worked out under $50,000. It was definitely a cost thing and it wasn’t because we were hippies or we wanted to save the Earth. We love that we’re generating all our own power and we are sustainable, but we’re certainly not low users. And we don’t scrimp on creature comfort.

We do have to keep an eye on it in winter. So, in the morning sometimes we’re like, oh, we’re a little bit low – we won’t put the underfloor heating on (Sally laughs: “that sounds so terrible!”). Underfloor heating is definitely an excessive thing that we didn’t need. It was one of those tick-box things that probably didn’t align with my energy efficient build, but it aligned with what we wanted and how we wanted to live. And we wouldn’t change that for sure.

We pretty much haven’t ever needed the generator. The only reason it’s clicked in is because we’ve overloaded the system and all it does is we get a warning. I’ll go turn the dryer off and the dishwasher and we’ll be fine. I have had everything on before in the middle of the day; under floor heating, washer, dryer, dishwasher. And I’m like, oh my gosh, 14 kilowatts!

A lot of people think if you’re living off grid, you can’t have this, you can’t have that. You can, you just need to design the system properly and work with someone who knows what they’re doing to make sure you’ve got a system that can work with how you live.

Solar Power Cheap, Batteries More Affordable

Colin: When I first started installing off grid systems, it was when solar panels were so expensive. The batteries were small, the solar panels were small. But now solar has become very cheap. Batteries are becoming cheaper and cheaper. And the systems that we can provide now really will power any house.

Sally: Angus has just woken up from his nap and Matilda’s just got home from sports day. So, she’s in reception and Angus is three. Matilda is five. We definitely love the fact that our system does have room to move because they are definitely going to be the energy users of the future at this house.

It’s just amazing to be in it and enjoying it and seeing your dream. I mean, really, it was always a goal and we’ve worked towards it very hard. But we couldn’t have got here without the help of Colin and years of assistance.

Colin: And that’s common. I often meet customers years before they actually build, and then I’m there with them through the design process, through the installation process. And luckily, I get to see the finished product as well.

— Transcript ends

Catch the full episode of Living Off-Grid With Solar here and for other interesting videos on solar power and battery storage, check out SolarQuotes’ Youtube channel!

Original Source: https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/solar-off-grid-comfort-mb2196/