When we started planning to build our farmhouse, we considered many aspects of the build. One such aspect was solar electricity or grid tie electricity. Though some people are now choosing to build houses without any electricity, we weren’t among them! If folks want to live like it’s the 1800’s then that is their prerogative. I like running water, a flushing toilet, humidity control, refrigeration, light bulbs, etc.
(This post contains affiliate links, please see site policies.)
A little advice
If you are among those that are considering living without modern conveniences, try living without them before building an entire house without them. It’s cheaper to add them while building than to add them after construction is completed! We’ve lived without modern conveniences for nearly two years! It starts out as an adventure but can eventually turn into a lot of work. Walking through ice-covered snow uphill to an outhouse in the dark isn’t much fun. Cleaning composting toilets or the like ain’t for me! Hauling water every day or two to your dry cabin gets old. Constantly monitoring your electricity consumption is aggravating. Changing out an empty propane tank at 3 A.M. in 15 degree F weather is a pain in the neck. You can get accustomed to many things, but try living without them before spending tens of thousands of dollars building a house without them.
In the beginning
We originally wanted to install a solar system at the time of construction. After all, I’m a licensed electrician with over 20 years experience, and people do it all the time on YouTube and they don’t have any electrical experience! It must be easy, and it works so it must be right! Plus, the power lines are over 2,000 feet from our building site and I’ve already “heard” that it’s expensive to get power that far! With these two “facts” in mind, I started researching everything that I could about solar power. Thankfully, I went to legitimate sources of information
1. Construction budgets are rarely kept.
I already knew this, but I felt like we would be the exception. After all, this ain’t my first rodeo! I worked for a residential builder for a while. I’ve been in the construction industry for years. I’ve got this! Right? Wrong!
There are some things that can occur during construction that are completely out of your control. These are especially so if you are building in the mountains or a rural area.
- Uncovering boulders during driveway construction, septic system excavation or during basement and footer excavation.
- Deep wells. There is no guarantee that you will ever hit water and you have to pay regardless.
- Weather disasters can increase materials or fuel prices.
- Union strikes.
- Engineer mistakes.
- House plan mistakes.
- Upgrades to nicer flooring/appliances/light fixtures/cabinets, etc.
These and others can all impact your budget significantly. The unknowns can destroy a budget quickly or even in an instant. By not installing a solar system, one aspect of the “unknown” equation gets removed from the picture.
2. Building a grid-tie house is stressful enough already.
If you’ve never built a house then allow me to explain. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands of decisions made during the construction process. Many, before any dirt is disturbed or the first board gets cut. Still, many get made in real-time. This is stressful if there is only one homeowner. And if there is more than one person making these decisions, the stress gets multiplied exponentially! Because everybody has an opinion and those opinions don’t always match each other. Most marriage counselors recommend against couples building a house due to the marriage problems that can occur from it.
What could go wrong you ask?
- Contractors show up late or not at all.
- Contractors perform part of the work and take all of your money.
- Sub-standard work.
- Failed building inspections.
- Delays
- Disagreements
- Misunderstandings
- Writing checks for thousands of dollars at the time.
- Material and/or equipment theft.
- Weather related damage.
- Contractor related damage.
- Wrong color.
- Incorrect size.
- Wrong name brand.
- Missing scheduled deadlines.
- Running out of money.
It is a stressful time. Very stressful! Add in the complexity of installing a solar system and the stress level only climbs.
3. Unknown weather.
Solar systems need the sun’s rays and lots of them. There are charts and statistics available as a guide for your area so you can determine temperatures, wind, rain, etc. The reality is, weather can vary drastically from year to year and even within a zip code. If you live in the mountains like we do, weather can vary drastically within a few hundred yards! Trying to get factual weather data from locals is impossible due to the dramatic difference the elevation and terrain makes. You need to live on the property at least three years to get an average. Even then, you need to keep a diary or have a weather station that logs the data for you.
Living here off-grid for the last two years, we’ve learned a lot about our weather. We’ve learned that solar panels are nearly useless in the winter and wind turbines and water turbines are nearly useless in the summer.
This is vital information we wouldn’t have known without being on the property every day. Not knowing your annual weather can cause you to oversize or under size your solar system. It could also leave you in the dark by purchasing the wrong type of alternative energy system altogether!
4. Unknown electrical consumption.
It’s critical to know your average electrical consumption before purchasing a solar system. Well, that information is not available on a house that is not even built. Yes, you could perform mathematical equations on your appliances and lighting but the reality is, that would just be an educated guess. And guessing is for lottery numbers and not sizing solar systems! Solar arrays and batteries are expensive. If you guess low then you end up with an undersized system. If you guess high, then you waste money on an oversized system.
Living in a grid tie house for at least a year will give you real data in order to size your system properly. Living in the house 2-3 years will give you an average which will enable you to size the system as accurately as possible.
5. Extra electrical consumption during the construction process.
A building site is a very busy place. It’s also a very noisy place. The sound of saws, air compressors, nail guns, spray foam machines, floor sanders, shop vacs, etc. fill the air. All these consume electricity. And lots of it! Especially the spray foam machine and floor sander. If you have grid power on a temporary pole then having enough electricity isn’t a problem.
If all you have is solar, then you are going to have problems!
New solar systems perform better as they age due to battery break in time. Over drawing the new batteries could damage them. Complimenting the system with a gas guzzling generator is fine if you want the contractors mad at you and you have plenty of gas money. Contractors hate generators and most generators couldn’t handle the spray foam machine and hardwood floor sander anyway.
6. A standby generator.
Most off-grid homes require a back-up generator. It could be an inexpensive manual start gas generator (not ideal) or an automatic propane generator. Either way, one is necessary for a normal functioning house. It’s best to opt for the automatic back-up as it is one less thing to remember and they auto test monthly. Depending on the size and options, they cost $3,000 – $15,000. We moved to rural Appalachia for peace and quiet not to hear a generator run most of the winter.
7. In my opinion, increasing home efficiency during construction is normally a better investment.
Let’s face it, a quality, properly sized and properly installed solar system for the normal, functioning house is expensive. You can easily spend $20,000-$50,000. The batteries and some other parts would be replaced before you began to recoup that initial investment. The only up front benefit is constant electricity no matter what state the electrical grid is in.
From my prospective, $20,000 – $50,000 can purchase many efficiency upgrades for your house!
- Most homes can upgrade to Premium, Low E, Argon filled windows for $2,000 or less. Those windows make a huge difference on the heat gain/heat loss of the home.
- Upgrading from batted or blown in attic insulation to open cell spray foam insulation is normally $2,000 – $5,000 over blown or batted insulation costs in most homes. Again, this makes a huge difference.
- If possible, increasing the exterior wall studs from 2×4 to 2×6 will make the house stronger and will allow for more wall insulation and thus reducing the heat gain/heat loss. Depending on your framer and house size, this could done for an additional $3,000 – $5,000.
- Increasing the floor insulation R-value or insulating under the basement concrete slab is another worthy investment that can cost between $1,000 – $3,000.
- Increasing the heating and cooling system efficiency can usually be obtained for $2,000 – $5,000.
So, in many instances, all these upgrades could be had for less than most solar systems. These upgrades could potentially reduce the energy bill on your new home by 50% or more! For us, this just makes more sense and we will get a return on our money much, much quicker!
8. Potential for solar equipment damage.
As I stated earlier, construction sites are busy places. Work vans, box trucks, heavy equipment, concrete trucks and delivery trucks are in and out daily. Some sites will even have a crane on site for a brief time. At times, contractors are stepping on top of one another. Unfortunately, some contractors don’t care about another contractor’s work. And sometimes there are just accidents. Therefore, things get damaged and sometimes destroyed. And at some point during this chaos, your very expensive, somewhat delicate solar system gets installed!
I am not a fan of roof installed solar panels. It’s obvious to me that roof installations are much harder to install and maintain than ground installed systems. Not to mention all the holes created in the roof from the mounting brackets. Having said that, I was nervous about having ground mounted panels with all those vehicles and equipment on the building site daily. I figured it would only be a matter of time before something got damaged.
9. Necessity of a lifestyle change.
Many people who are new to the idea of living off-grid don’t realize the difficulty of having a solar system that allows you to live as you did while on the grid. The cruel reality is that it takes a massive system to allow you to live like you did before. To some degree, your lifestyle will change by necessity. Some comforts and conveniences that you once took for granted are no longer an option. Additionally, solar systems are not as passive as they seem.
Your new freedom from the grid will include monitoring, checking, cleaning or servicing the following:
- Cleaning panels. This includes bird droppings, snow, tree shading, etc.
- Panel connections.
- Electrical connections.
- Equipment operation.
- Battery connections and battery acid levels.
- Exercising the batteries.
- Equalizing flooded batteries.
- Watering batteries.
- Monitoring power output.
Once off-grid, you ARE the power company! The basic fundamental things you once paid them to do is now your job!
Additionally, there are some appliances that you will no longer be able to use as they are energy hogs and will drain your batteries.
- Electric water heaters. Propane, natural gas or wood fired water heating systems are all options.
- Electric ranges. A propane, natural gas or a wood fired cook stove are your choices.
- Electric clothes driers. Propane or natural gas dryers are your options. Or the old-fashioned clothes line!
- Sometimes, to reduce the overall size of the solar system, it is necessary to use a DC powered or propane powered refrigerator. These appliances aren’t necessarily cheap and aren’t always that pretty.
Some people opt for DC powered lighting to reduce overall consumption. We use DC lighting in our cabin. The bulbs are relatively expensive and don’t have a long life span.
In my opinion, there is enough of a lifestyle change occurring when moving to a new area in a new house. Making the leap from grid tie to off-grid wasn’t a lifestyle change we were ready to make or had time for!
10. Future property development.
Building a new house on a new piece of raw property is difficult and time consuming. Getting it completed is always on the forefront of your thinking and takes complete priority. At some point in the future the house gets completed and you move on to other projects. Perhaps building a shop, barn or garden? Either way, your building projects probably won’t end when you finish building your house.
A concern of ours was future land development. We were not putting the solar array on the roof and didn’t want to put the panels in an area that would have suited something else better. With raw land basically being a blank canvas, it can take a significant amount of time to figure out what you want and where. To further complicate the matter, mountain land limits what you can put in any given location. We didn’t want to further limit our options by placing a solar array in a location that would be needed in the future for something else.
What’s right for us
We have lived in our solar-powered tiny cabin for nearly 2 years.
That has allowed us to have first hand knowledge of how to live on solar and how a solar system performs on our property. With that in mind, and the 10 reasons listed above, we chose not to install a solar system for our new house. That’s not to say that we won’t install some type of alternative energy source in the future once the house gets completed and more infrastructure is in place. But for now, we are content with living on the grid.
Do you have a solar system for your house? What has been your experience with it?
Ambitious Feller
Got questions? Email me at: ambitiousfeller@yahoo.com
“If the women don’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy!” Red Green
