Great Sounds

[Deans BMW]

As most of you know, we live out in the country miles from the nearest electric utility and as a happy, I might add, result we are totally solar powered, no utility bills. In our constant quest to improve our little abode we add energy saving goodies. Five or six months ago we replaced our 32" tube type TV with a....................get this............60" Sony DLP HDTV set up. Simply fantastic and it uses less electricity than the old 32 did, now like going to the movies. To complete the system, saturday I set out on a quest to find a compatable sound system. I wanted small speakers, no surround sound because I did not want any wires running to speakers behind me. We have a Radio Shack and a Walmart Super center up here and nothing they had intrested me. Saturday brite and early I set out for Flagstaff, about 145 miles away. The first stop was at Sams club and they had the perfect set up, exactly what we wanted. It is the Bose 3.2.1 Home Enterainment System. It consists of two small speakers a base subwhoofer and control unit. My goal was to find a high efficency system that I could run every thing into and control with one unit, a system that would allow me to listen to the programing from the Direct TV reciever with out the TV being on, woulkd allow me to listen to both AM and FM...have to get my marching instructions from Rush.....you know.......play both CD's and DVD's thru and of course sound for the TV.

They just sold the last one just before I arrived in Flagstaff, they called down to Pheonix and had one held for me at a Phoenix Sam's. Drove down to Pheonix, another 150-160 miles, found the store and picked up the Bose, and $747.74 plus tax later loaded up the Subaru and headed the 180 plus miles back to Show Low. What a fantastic system, excellent sounds, just like in a movie theater, fantastic base watched a DVD before the game yesterday, fantastic, watched the Super Bowl also fantastic and am just now listening to channel 851 on Direct TV which is now broadcasting XM for their music channels. Could not be happier, sounds as good as any fancy system that I have run across.

Life is good off the beaten track.

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[DJ Down Under]

The best thing is that you can turn the sound way up without worrying about disturbing the neihbours....you're so,so,so lucky Dean-O.

You must have a permanent smile from ear to ear....http://members.optusnet.com.au/~djp1/mypic1771.gif http://members.optusnet.com.au/~djp1/mypic1771.gif http://members.optusnet.com.au/~djp1/mypic1771.gif http://members.optusnet.com.au/~djp1/mypic1771.gif http://members.optusnet.com.au/~djp1/mypic1771.gif

DJ

[Promethean]

Now I understand why you called yourself off-grid. :D

[geechie]

Abhijeet,

Yeah, at first I thought he was talking about a starting grid... then I remembered tales of his energy independence.

Dean,

Enjoy, dude!

George

[Bones]

At our house we have one TV, purchased in 1986. Last night we went to some friends' house for dinner and to watch some of the game. They had the set up you describe. OMG!!!!!! 60 " in hi def with full audio system. It is really beyond belief. If only could have gotten John Madden to stuff an old sock in his mouth to stop the constant blathering. I wanted to say "SHUT THE HELL UP YOU FAT BASTARD" but thought it might ruin the ambience with the kids milling around.

You have a great set up. I fear that all I might do if I had one is sit in front of it and yell " honey....can you get me a beer?" That might not go over so well.


Enjoy it.

Jeff

[Deans BMW]

A few more details on our "off grid" living.

The first pic is behind the workshop, The tank on the left is a 3,500 gal water tank that I fill from our well. All the piping is under ground aand the tank fills thru aaan opening in the bottom of the tank, ie nothing will freeze. In the forgroundis 8 - 120 watt solar panels mounted on a tracker that follows the sun all day, on the roof in the back are another 4 - 80 watt panels on a fixed mount. The pic was just taken this afternoon and as you can see, we get plenty of sun. These panels thru a charge controller, (very much like the voltage regulator on our bike or in a car). On a sunny day, the panels charge the batteries at a rate of about 85-90 amps at 12 VDC all day, ie a lot of energy stored in the batteries.

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This pic is in the workshop. On the right on the wall in white is the inverter that takes the DC voltage out of the batteries and converts it to a very clean 120 VAC. The system has the capicity to continously put out 5500 watts at 120 VAC and to double that for a surge load, that is 45 amps continously and close to 100 amps on a surge basis. On the lower right in red with blue tops are 8 - 140# 6 volt batteries connected in series to give 48 VDC. They are extremely large capicity deep cycle batteries, each battery has a capicity of 580 amp/hours at a 100 hour discharge rate for a total capicity of 4640 amp hours. The batteries are like your gastank and the panels are like the gas pump. The black box on the white panel is a 120VAC to 220VAC transformer to run our well. The blue tank to the left of the tall propane tank is the bladder pressure tank that maintains the house water pressure between 40 and 55 PSIG. Behind the propane tank is a 1/2 HP water pump that keeps the house water pressure up. The well pumps water into the large tank outside and the 1/2 hp pump runs when the pressure tank drops to 40 PSI and shuts off as soon as 55 PSI is reached.

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A little better pic of the water pump.

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The propane tank is to keep the shop comfortable for the Beemers.

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[MilesAway]

Dean, your setup is amazing!

I would like to do something similar one day. I'm actually looking at land right now with a view to building something in the future. Got some convincing to do on the SO on this point though.

Couple of questions:
Do you use the holding tank only out of concern with regards to the no power/no water problem? Or are there other practical considerations?

Is snow accumulation on the solar panels an issue (I didn't think it snowed in Az, your pictures say otherwise) This would be an issue for me here.

Does your setup allow for the normal use of washer/dryer dishwasher etc...

How do you manage your internet connection?

Thanks and congrats on an awsome setup.

Justin

[Deans BMW]

Justin, a lot of good questions.

The holding tank, (the large water storage tank outside) is filled with the well under my control, ie. not automatic. I run my well for an hour or two every 10 days or so. The tank is large enough to supply water for a month without using the well. I tend to keep the tank full, never more than 1/3rd down from the top. My insurance company has approved the tank as a source of water in lu of a fire hydrant.

As far as a "no power" situation, it has never happened since we moved here in 1997, I also have a back up generator that is directly connected to the inverter so that with a prolonged series of cloudy days the generator can charge the batteries with the inverters internal battery charger, the battery charger is adjustable and I have it set to charge the batteries at a rate of about 180 amps.

On normal sunny days the pannels have enough capicity to have the batterys at full charge by the end of the day even after 4 loads of laundry and the same 4 loads run thru the gas (propane) clothes dryer .I run the well with out ever starting the generator, in fact on sunny days the batterys are always full no matter what I do. I never let them get below 20% and rarely 25% discharged, maintaining them the way I do will enable them to last at least 12 years.

I live at 6300 ft elevation so we do get snow in the winter, the batteries have enough capicity to last 4 or 5 days with any charging what so ever and I can always crank up the generator if needed.

My internet is thru Directway as is our television, ie satellite

As far north as you are, the sun at a low angle and with your cloudy and snowy days would definitely be more of a challange.

It has taken us many years to get the system as good as it is. It is now almost completely invisable as far as any impact on our lives, we do not any more really conserve our power consumption as the panels provide at least as much power as we can use...and then some, our only consumables your electric and water and sewer bills are replacing the batteries every 12 years at the cost of appx. $2,000.00.

[geechie]

Dean,

Just out of curiosity; what is your latitude? SC sits between 32 and 35 degrees N.

George

[MilesAway]

Thanks for the detail Dean, you truely have an amazing setup. Something to work towards for myself.

I would never even have thought of the water tank as fire hydrant - clever.

[Deans BMW]

I would say that Johns Island, SC. is between 50 and 100 miles south of Show Low, Az. and about 2000 miles east. The air here is dry and sky is clear so that means we get a lot of solar gain. I have been able to develop sources so that I can now get battries and other equipment at or near dealer cost which has helped greatly in slowly building our system. It doesn't hurt either being an Engineer in one of my former lives to be able to understand and build our system.

[Brakecheck]

Dean O,
Love your place. I'm a big fan of Az having spent a lot of time over there when I lived in San Diego. We also have similar entertainment systems. I bought a 55" Sony High Definition projection "LCD" set about four months ago and have been way happy with it. I also have a Bose Lifestyle 12 surround sound system that has proven to be a good investment. You'll be happy to know that I've used the Bose system for ten years now and it still sounds as good as when I brought it home. Hope you get the same long-term use.

[Deans BMW]

Thanks Dana, the system truly sounds great and movies are fantastic.