My husband and I moved to BC from Ontario about 7 years ago. We moved to a community of 30 or so families living on a 2000 acre (yes) valley. What a change from city living.
Power- we put in a solar system after about a year. Tired of running gennie so much. No power lines for miles. We have 8-6 volt batteries hooked up to give us a 24 volt system. Fed by 4- 175 watt panels ( should have gotten 2 more), 4,000 watt inverter and a 3000 iu Honda gennie for equalizing batteries and topping them up when low. Which we do a lot right now. First, the batteries are I think almost 6 years old. There are better ones out there now with more cycling. And since we do live in a valley, sunlight in winter even when we do get sun is past the mountains on the other side by 2. We have a Sundanzer and Sunfrost frig and deep freezer that both run on 24 volt. Our house lights are all LED, tv (watch a lot of netflix in the winter if not reading ), modem on all the time (while we do get phone reception, VOIP is better), washer and vacuum take most of our power. One of the neighbours and maybe the school and us (we all got system same time) are planning to replace batteries together soon.
Heat- We have a wood stove only. So if we need to be away for more than a day shopping, we have to get a neighbour to keep up the fire, one of us has to stay home or we have to winterize the house. The first couple of years we got wood from within our valley but it is mostly pine and fir. Now we have found a plant nearby that cuts wood for railroad ties and they give away the cut-offs. Usually 5-10 lb pieces but sometimes 20. Of coarse there are times when it is little bits and sawdust, so I only go when nearby. Best part is that it is mostly hardwood and sized so that no splitting needed. We have about 3 years worth right now. Stove has a pipe running through it to heat the water which goes to an expansion tank. So hot water in the winter, cold in summer...which leads to..
Water- We are on the wrong side of the valley to tap into creek running across the mountains so we have to drive 1 1/2 miles down to the school and fill our 1,000 L tote and pump it up to a cistern at the top of the house. We then have running water and even a washer (front loaders are water misers) but there is not enough pressure for a hot water on demand. So summer means warming water on the propane stove for bucket showers and dishes. We have a lake about 100 feet in front of the house so we do have future options.
Sewage-We have toilets in the house but I worried about the day when there are no septic pumpers. This summer there was a backhoe working nearby so we had an 8 foot hole dug. My son lined it with old crappy 😆 plywood to prevent dirt from sides prematurely filling the pit and built a sturdy platform. Outhouse was one a neighbour never used and didn't plan to. It will also take the pressure off our water system if it becomes difficult to get.
Garden- Since water is a limiting factor for us we do not have a garden at the house. But we have a neighbour who lets us use his garden plot in exchange for a few veggies. We also have neighbours who over-plant and give us the excess. This year I canned 350 jars of tomatoes, pasta sauce, salsa, beans, pickles and jams. We have land down the road that has a water tap so we want to put in drip irrigation and do a garden there with another waterless neighbour.
Guns- yep a few of those Ammo- some of that too
Misc- We bought a property across the lake. No water either due to cost. No we are not rich, the owner needed to sell in a hurry and no one wanted to pay the extra taxes But we do have 8 cabins, a workshop, barn, well, root cellar and sawmill. Occasionally rent out some cabins that pays the taxes pretty much but repairs and maintenance are an ongoing expense in time and money. Great for extra tool and equipment storage.
I am the prepper. My husband goes along with most of my plans but I am always pushing the limits. We have patio doors at the side of the house that was always meant to lead out to a greenhouse. That is in the planning and gathering of materials stage. We have 2 1983 eagles and and a 1985 ford pickup that I hope someone can tell us if they would be easy to EMP proof. Next summer I will get 100 feet of irrigation hose to hook from lake to water pump. Even if more needs to be done to use for house it can be used for fire suppression and for a small garden by house. We are not young anymore so everything takes more time and seems like more work.
I have gotten to know many of you through your posts, so now you know about me. I hope some of you have some encouragement and suggestions for us to progress further. Thank you.
Peppercorn- I know you were really interested in solar system but you got the whole enchilada. If you want more details on make of batteries, inverter and charge controller it will have to wait till I get back home.
Thanks, good info. Lots of area's in BC arent the best for solar do to valleys/mountains, but you do have shorter winters to make up for it.
Ill take a stab at it...you have somewhere around <500 amphrs of batts at 24 volts?
Why such a large inverter? it must kill you on idle/light load current, though maybe not to bad if mod sign.
Charge control type?
You need more panels...good news is if you bought yours 6 years ago you will find them dirt cheap now.
Ground mount or roof?
water heating for the wood stove is a great way to go. No rain water collection?
Just remembered since your in BC, I dealt with a company out of Vancover couple years back, they landed panels straight from China...panels were good,pricing was great, but I couldnt risk buying from them again as they couldnt package anything worth a damn. By the time anything got to alberta there would be shipping damage...but if you pick up at their warehouse then they would be ok to deal with, if you are interested in more panels in the future I can try and find their contact info.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
I would at times be happy for a longer winter in exchange for a longer, sunnier day.Specs at home. Don't know off the top of my head. Do know it is a pure sine wave inverter. We live in an A frame and panels are roof mounted. We knew nothing when we got them installed. Not many companies then either. Neighbour was getting same system from company on the island. So we split on travel costs. Now we have people here with even larger systems that they got more locally.
A frame doesn't lend itself to rain barrels. Rain just in spring. Summer we get 5 minute showers if we are lucky. 2,000 ft elevation and we still have sagebrush.
Do know it is a pure sine wave inverter.
a 4000 watt pure sign at what I suspect is very light loading since your fridge and freezer are directly connected to the batts must be costing you a good bit amphr wise to run...it clearly works for you ofcourse....just I am always looking to minimise lead requirements in battery form, or to make them last longer. That fridge and freezer you have took some serious coin, but they should last you a long time, good quallity.. I think this year even better requirements energy wise for fridges came into effect, its about time. I would be curious if when you get back home you could get me the model of inverter, and humor me a little by just having a laptop running and a couple lights, nothing more that 100-150 watts total and measure the dc amp draw from your batts......I have been finding manufacturers are not really accurate in some of their specs, sort of like energuide labels on some things....I have been building a data base as to what different models really consume. The voltage also needs to be measured when the amp reading is taken.
A frames....lots in BC, I miss seeing those, I think I have only ever seen one in Alberta, maybe more towards the mountains
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
Hi valleygirl, thanks so much for sharing your experiences with us. I am new here but not new to prepping. We moved to a rural isolated place with land. We have our own wood, wood burning stoves, a bore hole for the water, a stream, ponies and are in the process of putting in fruit and nut trees and other perennial plants for food. The bore hole sounds great but it has to be pumped up (the electricity comes from the grid at present) and then filtered and uv treated. It must be great having a community on hand. We have neighbours not too far away and they would help if we got into trouble but usually keep themselves to themselves. I find you really do have to rely on yourself when you move out of the cities to a rural location. You have to plan for every eventuality. We have been here for nearly a year and one thing that struck me was how long it often takes to do things (e.g. mend fences and gates) and that if you can't do them yourself you often have to pay a lot of money to get someone else to do it (e.g. fix a leaky roof!)
I love hearing of setups that folks have and the more off grid, the better. Sounds like you have a nice setup and quite a ways down the path to being off the grid. What is the possibility of having a well drilled instead of hauling water? I'm guessing they could get expensive in mountain terrain... That seems the Achilles heal to your otherwise perfect setup and would then allow a garden closer to home. Water trapping off all them roofs possible? Do you have higher land above your home where you could build your own man made catchment system from snow melting and such to later use gravity feed? We have lots of rock in the Canadian shield like the mountains have and many such natural ponds. If they don't have flow they can become stagnant but some folks say even this rank boggy ground is excellent for gardens.
I too have thought often of going solar somewhat but the expenses of batteries seems to dissuade me in the end. Next is the snow and it's effects on panels too. No one every seems to mention icing up being a factor worth mention as to what it might do to such panels either. Such always leave me hesitant even though I bought the parts to start already.
Of the many places, BC would be a nice place to setup too. The fallout from city evacuations would be higher due to the "run for the hills or higher ground" mindset and thoroughfares channeling people thru the passes somewhat risky, but the location has such attraction too. And then I would be closer to all my kids as they are all in Calgary..... And that is indeed biking country (sigh)!
I remember Kelowna being a retirement city even back in the 80's. As work seems to have petered out where I live, I know having means of income is getting harder when in your 50's. Cost of living is often far higher closer in to populated regions due to housing costs becoming the major investment. An acreage such as you describe would be the way to go for sustainability with little income, and thus the garden nearby is therefore a priority.
The wife often wants to sell all and move closer to the kids and grandkids. I do not wish to relive the hectic days of city life at my age. I did like living in Hinton, Alberta and that seems a temptation at times to meet the wife 1/2 way sorta.. 🙄 Anyways, your place sounds fantastic and it is nice to know that some can still find a peaceful life in this crazy world of today.
I completely forgot but if you know your yearly hrs that you rack up on your gennie charging that would be good info too.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
As for your 1985 ford... is that carbureted or fuel injected? 1985 was the year ford started changing over to Fuel Injection . Some models had Fuel Injection, some did not. If it's still carbureted your pretty safe. Ford did use a very basic computer ignition system but if you really want to play things safe you could swap that out for an older points distributor. We did that for our demolition derby car and nothing killed it... well, other then the lack off coolant.