My path to energy independence  was influenced by those that came before me.

I thought by sharing my families experience I might make converting to home based renewable energy production seem possible to someone out there.

My wife, son and I began looking for a home to buy in the late 80's. Even though we were both nurses and together made what seemed to us to be an adequate amount of money, the houses in Santa Fe were all out of the price range that we wanted to pay. So we started looking for land to build a house on. At the time solar and wind wasn't a consideration but as we looked it became apparent the the only land we could afford was off the grid and 45 minutes from town. What followed was my education in the world of off the grid living.

I began by asking who at the local hospital, where I worked, lived off the grid. The only person I found was a fellow we came to know as Pharmacy Jim. He had built a solar powered home south of town. I went to visit and he show me around his system. He had some old 2 volt phone company batteries that he had wired to put out 12 volts.  He also had a first generation Heart inverter.  An inverter inverts the the polarity of DC (direct current) to AC (alternating current) and bumps the voltage from 12 volts to 120 volts - note: there are different configurations of voltage outputs. Most of the early solar systems were 12v partly because it was cannibalizing components commonly available, such as auto and golf cart batteries and 12v appliances created for use in RVs. The early inverters produced a modified sine wave that tended to create interference in radios, TVs and computers. Let me get back to Pharmacy Jim.

It was day time and no need for lights so it was hard to get a sense of the functionality of what I was seeing. When he hauled out his old Kirby vacuum clear flipped the switch and that beast roared to life, I was sold on solar.

For water Jim had water delivered to a large storage tank which was gravity fed into his system. Water can be hard to find in NM. While Jim has since has found water, after drilling a 3 or 4 time. We have yet to try for a well. One problem is that if you drll and don't find water you still owe the well guy. I'll address our solution later.

Our next step was to broaden our search for land. To make this short we finally found some old ranch land south of town that was within the realm of reasonable commuting time. With the help my sister we ended up with 80 acres for about the price of a lot in town. I'll say this now. In the end we didn't end up saving that mush money. Even doing all the labor ourselves the cost of building with quality windows, stoves, materials brought our total cost to a bit over 150,000.00 not counting all the bloody interest. Plus the time it took to get the project done almost cost my marriage several times.

We moved out to our land in April of 1991 and lived in a tent while I built the first part of the house which took about two months. It rained like a mother that April and we spent many nights at the Thunderbird Motel. At that time we were using a gas generator for power. We were finally able to afford 4 golf cart batteries and 4 Solarex panel and a car size plug in inverter that would run a small TV and VCR. All of our lights at that time were DC, obtained from a RV store.

The next purchase that inched us closer to civilization was a propane refrigerator that was made in Brazil. The amount of propane it uses is about the same as the pilot on a water heater. I can't tell you what moving my beer and soggy cheese out of the ice chest into a real refrigerator was some kind of feeling. We have the same refrigerator today and it still works great, although one time it developed a bubble in the piping behind it and had to turn it upside down for 24 hours. That was about 8 years ago and it's been fine since then.

Progress continued in bits and spurts for a year or two. Sarah became pregnant and we needed to add two rooms. We decided we'd try straw bale. It was the rage at the time (1993) in NM. It's high R-value, thick walls and low use of timber sounded good.

Our house is build on bedrock so carving out a footer by hand is a bitch. We made the call to go up instead of out. We went out to the North with a 2 story addition. This complicated the straw bale process and I think in the end I would have saved wood and money if I had just framed the whole thing. But the walls look cool and insulate well.

By then we had a house size inverter and started building with solar power instead of the generator. In the winter we sill had to crank up the generator to charge the batteries.

By 2000 our system had grown to one wind generator 6 panels and 6 L-16 house size batteries. The battery industry had started making batteries to be used in solar homes. Each one is 6 volts, weighs 100+ pounds and last 8 to 10 years. At this point the kids were needing the internet to do home work so we hooked up the the heavens and got satellite TV and internet access. By now we were using more and more 120 volt appliances and lights. The advent of the compact florescent bulbs fundamentally made this possible.

In 2003 we started a 1000 square foot addition made out of a cool material called Rastra or Perform Wall. Basicall they're the same thing. Perform wall is Made in Mexico and Rastra is made in Albuquerque. Basically, they mix styrofoam and cement and pour it in to a mold. The end product comes in a 10 foot long block that comes in various widths. I used 10". I loved building with it and love the way it looks completed. It's best suited for application that require a plastered finish. It also has a killer R-Value, about 30 and it's fireproof.

The material is so flexible that I built a solar powered hot tub out of it.

Now in 2008 we have 8 solar panels, a larger inverter and 2 wind generators. On a daily basis we watch 2 to 3 hours of TV, run 4 to 8 lights, and have two computers on most of the time. I can run a skill saw do a load of laundry and basically do anything anyone else would do on an average day. Now this isn't without a cost. If it's a cloudy still day we have to be carefull. In the spring when the wind blow 24/7 we are flush with power. Personally I like being subject to mother nature. It gives me and teaches my children humility, patience  and helps us all to be aware the power we use is related to real variables. We take nothing for granted, not power or water.

Oh yea, I said I would speak to how we solved our water issue. Basically I copied my neighbor Steve's idea of building a stone and cement above ground cistern. Mine holds 4500 gallons and took a year of weekends to complete. It leaks a little but the cracks seem to self seal. I think the cement desolves and forms calcite crystals that accumulate in the cracks. Because we live in the desert and have experienced a drought on and off since we moved out there are time when the water runs low. In those cases I haul water from my neighbor Russ's well.

We don't need too much water because we have little land scaping, and all of the land scaping we do have are native plants. But the biggest water saver is our composting toilet. about 5 years ago we bought a Phoenix composter made in Montana. It's awesome. We only have to clean out the bottom every year and a half or so and what comes out is dirt. I'm serious, no smell, no funky looking things, dirt.

If any of you end up going this way I promise that price becomes secondary. Being off the grid and being responsible for what you produce, consume and excrete is a life changing experience.

Matthew

PS In the interest of full disclosure we are not perfect. The amount of gas we use commuting is more than if we walked to work and has a gas generator going all the time. We've tried to reduce our use. We have a Toyota Yarus that we use to commute with, and traded in our big truck for a small diesel Jeep and a trailer. I'm hoping that rising gas prices will force some serious innovation from the Automakers. I'd like to see us in an electric car in the next decade.