Thanks Sian...thanks for reading...and if you know anyone who you'd be interested or think could help advise us on our madcap journey please spread the love! Al
I must know how they start their generator and feed their pellet stove with a phone app! Is it a smart pellet stove? Did they build a contraption? I need this! 😆
I believe the generator comes on automatically…all the battery/hot water monitoring is done by App…there are a load of new systems out there which I’m investigating while trying to work out how best to heat the water for our new buildings. I’m wanting to combine a heatpump, solar thermal and a pellet burner and move hot water around…and so will let you know more as I learn! I’m hoping to write a magazine article on the challenges and the solutions for solar power and off-grid living.
Ola is building a system for automatically filling his pellet stove with a conveyor belt…amazing…but he did say he might have gone for a heatpump in retrospect (but you still need some solar PV obviously to make it work)…I still think a pellet heater is a good backup for three weeks of cloud for example. I’ve been looking at Solzaima which come highly recommended, but they are super-expensive.
Do heat pumps use a lot of energy? We love our pellet stove. It does have some automatic timer functions which is amazing compared to a wood stove. I am interested in learning about solar thermal. We never have 3 weeks of clouds here, or one week really. But we don't have water.
Hey there - I've just signed up for your blog...so you're off grid in the High Desert of New Mexico? It looks amazing...and with some of the similar challenges we're working through! We average around 300 days of sunshine a year here too, but this year had about three weeks of rain...and cloud...it inspired us to work on winter solutions to help extend the amount of time people can stay with us. We're working on a whole load of options at the moment in terms of supply, storage, purification, waste treatment and recycling. We have boreholes, but they are slightly salty...so we have to decide if we are going to go reverse osmosis, or whether we can cope without...we are going the route you have taken and will install some big tanks to collect rainwater to blend with the borehole water probably. In terms of heat pumps...there are air and ground-based ones. We think the best bet in Portugal is air...because the temperature difference is not as great as in places like Northern Europe...or the high desert! Perhaps a ground-based system will be best for you? They are amazing...they use electricity, but every 1 unit of power translates into 4 units of water heating...so it's very good. maybe you need to upgrade your solar? Panels are soooo cheap these days? I'm looking into solar thermal...we have two old systems here on our house and the guesthouse and they provide all the hot water we need when the sun is out. The only backup is either a load of PV panels and batteries for getting through the cloudy days, a generator to top it up...or a boiler. We have bottled gas at the moment but would like to do the pellet route for the next winter I think. For the new build...it's a matter of working out what we can afford...we're balancing the cost of heat pumps solar thermal, very well insulated pipes and PV...watch this space!!
I'll keep reading. You sound much more advance than us. I'm learning a lot from you about different systems. Currently we heat water with propane but I agree there's a much better way. Have you heard of Earthships? They were invented here. We have a straw bale home, which is amazing. Earthships have great recycled water systems. Currently our gray water goes to the yard for plants. We don't have black water. Thanks for taking the time to respond to me. Looking forward to your future updates!
I love reading about your adventures... never a dull moment... keep them coming❤️
Thanks Sian...thanks for reading...and if you know anyone who you'd be interested or think could help advise us on our madcap journey please spread the love! Al
I must know how they start their generator and feed their pellet stove with a phone app! Is it a smart pellet stove? Did they build a contraption? I need this! 😆
I believe the generator comes on automatically…all the battery/hot water monitoring is done by App…there are a load of new systems out there which I’m investigating while trying to work out how best to heat the water for our new buildings. I’m wanting to combine a heatpump, solar thermal and a pellet burner and move hot water around…and so will let you know more as I learn! I’m hoping to write a magazine article on the challenges and the solutions for solar power and off-grid living.
Ola is building a system for automatically filling his pellet stove with a conveyor belt…amazing…but he did say he might have gone for a heatpump in retrospect (but you still need some solar PV obviously to make it work)…I still think a pellet heater is a good backup for three weeks of cloud for example. I’ve been looking at Solzaima which come highly recommended, but they are super-expensive.
Do heat pumps use a lot of energy? We love our pellet stove. It does have some automatic timer functions which is amazing compared to a wood stove. I am interested in learning about solar thermal. We never have 3 weeks of clouds here, or one week really. But we don't have water.
Hey there - I've just signed up for your blog...so you're off grid in the High Desert of New Mexico? It looks amazing...and with some of the similar challenges we're working through! We average around 300 days of sunshine a year here too, but this year had about three weeks of rain...and cloud...it inspired us to work on winter solutions to help extend the amount of time people can stay with us. We're working on a whole load of options at the moment in terms of supply, storage, purification, waste treatment and recycling. We have boreholes, but they are slightly salty...so we have to decide if we are going to go reverse osmosis, or whether we can cope without...we are going the route you have taken and will install some big tanks to collect rainwater to blend with the borehole water probably. In terms of heat pumps...there are air and ground-based ones. We think the best bet in Portugal is air...because the temperature difference is not as great as in places like Northern Europe...or the high desert! Perhaps a ground-based system will be best for you? They are amazing...they use electricity, but every 1 unit of power translates into 4 units of water heating...so it's very good. maybe you need to upgrade your solar? Panels are soooo cheap these days? I'm looking into solar thermal...we have two old systems here on our house and the guesthouse and they provide all the hot water we need when the sun is out. The only backup is either a load of PV panels and batteries for getting through the cloudy days, a generator to top it up...or a boiler. We have bottled gas at the moment but would like to do the pellet route for the next winter I think. For the new build...it's a matter of working out what we can afford...we're balancing the cost of heat pumps solar thermal, very well insulated pipes and PV...watch this space!!
I'll keep reading. You sound much more advance than us. I'm learning a lot from you about different systems. Currently we heat water with propane but I agree there's a much better way. Have you heard of Earthships? They were invented here. We have a straw bale home, which is amazing. Earthships have great recycled water systems. Currently our gray water goes to the yard for plants. We don't have black water. Thanks for taking the time to respond to me. Looking forward to your future updates!
Great read as usual, do you ever have a normal boring week?
One worry though, pink trousers, really ?
They used to be red...but I guess they have faded a little...;)