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There is a wealth of info out there on doing solar/batteries.
Off grid’rs running entire household with all the creature comforts entirely off the grid, many on properties that will never ever have access to the grid. Unfortunately it is illegal for people to do that on LI, sorta. You could go off the grid but you would still need to be connected to utilities. Now, maybe you could get away with canceling/closing the account and not have the power turned on to your residence but I don’t know how long you could get away with that before someone picks up on it. I mean I guess at worst you would have to have service turned on and get the minimum monthly bill for delivery charges, taxes, etc…you would save on the usage part. But yeah, tons of videos and articles on how to do it, without breaking the bank.
There is a wealth of info out there on doing solar/batteries.
Off grid’rs running entire household with all the creature comforts entirely off the grid, many on properties that will never ever have access to the grid. Unfortunately it is illegal for people to do that on LI, sorta. You could go off the grid but you would still need to be connected to utilities. Now, maybe you could get away with canceling/closing the account and not have the power turned on to your residence but I don’t know how long you could get away with that before someone picks up on it. I mean I guess at worst you would have to have service turned on and get the minimum monthly bill for delivery charges, taxes, etc…you would save on the usage part. But yeah, tons of videos and articles on how to do it, without breaking the bank.
There is also a ton of building codes and local zoning laws that makes true “off the grid” very very difficult on LI
Which one did you buy? Gas as in propane?
I called Costco's service and they connected me with a company in Kings Park, they offered me $19k for whole house generator including 2 canisters of propane and cement base and whole thing or $16k for less powerful, more "essential" set up. And even if I go with bare minimum like fridge/internet/some outlets it's no less than $14k she said. These are generac units. She said we need to get permit from town, build a base, run lines etc.. I was thinking the generator is listed $5k on the Generac website, Costco also sells rebranded Generacs (under Honeywell) for $3-$5k.
How did you handle the connection to your home electric breaker panel? My panel is in my garage but since I have solar panels, I have a main shut off and switch outside, behind the house, seems like it's a straight forward connection to tap into that line at the main breaker. I don't need to keep everything going during an outage, but I am more worried of power loss while we are on vacation or something, and come back to a 3 day power loss with everything in fridge ruined, or at least be able to charge our phones, maintain internet and basic utilities like the oil burner which doesn't require too much electricity just to power the circuits to fire the burner.
My budget was $5k all-in, when I heard $19k I was shocked. And I thought power wall was too expensive!
Gas as in gasoline. But they sell an adapter that'll allow you to hook it up to a natural gas line and run off that. It's not a whole house generator, but a regular small one on wheels. But at 9kwh it outputs plenty of power for anything I'd need. And given that my house almost never loses power, I'm okay with the small inconvenience of wheeling it out of the garage once every decade or two.
The cheapest route is to string extension cords all over your house that run outside to the generator. The better way to do it is to install a transfer switch onto your electrical panel which will hardwire the house to the generator directly. You can DIY it if you know what you're doing, otherwise any electrician can do it.
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Originally Posted by rocafeller05
I thought the Tesla batteries can get you 5-6 full days of energy now? If so why even get a generator? Just get the solar put in.
Nah, a powerwall holds 13.5kwh. That's about what my home uses on given fall day when I'm not running any air conditioning or anything else electric intensive. If I really scrimped I could probably get my power usage down to about 10kwh, but definitely nowhere near the level that would allow 13.5kwh to last for multiple days. However it'll charge itself while the sun it out, but you better hope there are some sunny days in the forecast.
There is also a ton of building codes and local zoning laws that makes true “off the grid” very very difficult on LI
Yup. It’s mostly illegal like I said. But I think the average LI’er could get away with having solar panels on the roof without anybody making a stink out of it because it’s become more common now. How the hell is your neighbor to know you set it up off grid unless you tell them. With the right property you could do a rig in your yard as well. The gear doesn’t take up too much space either. Easy to do if you got a garage, basement, or a shed.
Yup. It’s mostly illegal like I said. But I think the average LI’er could get away with having solar panels on the roof without anybody making a stink out of it because it’s become more common now. How the hell is your neighbor to know you set it up off grid unless you tell them. With the right property you could do a rig in your yard as well. The gear doesn’t take up too much space either. Easy to do if you got a garage, basement, or a shed.
I think the biggest issue might be if your self installed/unpermitted battery backup caused a fire in your residence. Would the insurance company really cover it?
I've got CO issues on my property, so I can't go solar legally. I've been thinking of putting panels on my shed and backup batteries in it to run my pool. It shouldn't be an issue if that burns down, plus I can run a cord to a transfer switch if the power goes out.
Used panels are cheap. Batteries and inverters are a bit expensive. It's not rocket science to install.
I currently have a 9kw portable genny that I can hookup to the panel with an interlock to cut off pole power.
The idea of having a solar backup to the generator is pretty interesting to me.
I think the biggest issue might be if your self installed/unpermitted battery backup caused a fire in your residence. Would the insurance company really cover it?
I've got CO issues on my property, so I can't go solar legally. I've been thinking of putting panels on my shed and backup batteries in it to run my pool. It shouldn't be an issue if that burns down, plus I can run a cord to a transfer switch if the power goes out.
Used panels are cheap. Batteries and inverters are a bit expensive. It's not rocket science to install.
I currently have a 9kw portable genny that I can hookup to the panel with an interlock to cut off pole power.
The idea of having a solar backup to the generator is pretty interesting to me.
If you ever go to sell, you probably would have to take the panels down.
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