hey, everyone. hopefully, i will be moving into the house i'm building within the next month. i'd like to stay off grid, but right now, i don't have all the money i need, so i have to start small. i live in south central alaska, and by christmas time, we will be down to about 5.5 hrs of daylight and increase from there. by june, we have 19 hours of day light. i have cleared what tall, conifer trees i can from the south side of my house, so it should recieve fairly unshaded daylight all day.
i am wanting to start with having about 1.5 kw's a day for a few lights and a small amount of tv. i have a 9 amp unleaded generator i'm borrowing from my dad, which i can use for my shallow well pump to fill my pressure tank. i will have a propane water heater and hopefully, i can find a decent priced propane fridge.
i've read that you shouldn't mix old batteries with new batteries. i've also read that you shouldn't add batteries to your existing ones after a year. now, i'm sure this would depend on the frequency of use, so it doesn't seem like a very safe rule to go by.
so, where the dilly do i start? should i invest in enough solar panels that i can totally rely on them during the day, and have enough left over to send to my batteries for the night (or almost enough, and charge them the rest of the way with the gen)? with that, should i get just a few batteries and add more later? or should i ditch those batteries when i get new ones? should i get less solar panels and lots of batteries and run my gen more? should i get a better gen? aaaaaah, i'm going mad!
btw, i'll also be looking into wind power over the next year. i need to study my site before i jump on that boat.
so anyways, there's the madness that's been keeping me up at night. thank for taking the time to read and i welcome any response. Reuben
