How We Get Our Energy

Well, we're one year in and...we've learned a lot and we're not ready to give up yet.  I must admit, the engineer (a.k.a. geek) in me has really gotten a kick out of studying and maximizing the efficiency of our energy system.  There are several ways to survive/thrive off-grid.  Here are few in no particular order:

1. Hire a company to design/maintain a state-of-the-art renewable energy system designed to meet all of your needs.  
2. Buy a lot of propane.
3. Scrape together what you can to get by and go to bed when the lights go out.  
4. Use less energy.

Most people I've met that live off-grid in Montana do a combination of #2 , 3, and 4. Not many people get by completely with number 1. The people we bought the house from tried to get by with #1 and a fair bit of #2.  They bought a good system.  Unfortunately it wasn't designed very well for them and they never really embraced the idea of energy conservation.  I feel like we've done pretty well on the energy conservation side things (more on that later).  We have also learned that you're better off learning how to maintain your system yourself than relying on any company to take care of it for you.

So here are the nuts and bolts.

Energy Producers:

• Solar: We have ten 150w solar panel with a total energy producing capability of 1500w in full sun. They are mounted on a stationary pole and no, they don't "track" the sun.  We could add a sun tracker and may at some point.  The concern is that it may be more trouble than it's worth since we get so much wind.  

• Wind:  We have a 1000w Bergey wind turbine.  Bergey is a reputable company, but the wind turbine never really functioned properly for the first winter of use.  It produced very little power and was extremely noisy.  Enough so to keep us awake at night.  By spring, the power production dwindled down to zero and we knew that it was time for maintenance.  With longer summer days (and plenty of solar input), we opted to lower the tower in May and perform repairs over the summer.  Turns out the rectifying unit (the part that converts the AC to DC current) inside the wind generator completely burnt up.  The turbine blades were also in need of replacement.  We contacted Bergey and they replaced all parts under warranty.  We finally raised the tower again last week.  So far it runs like a champ and is a lot quieter.  It will be nice to have this winter.    

I suckered a group of friends into helping me lower the tower.
We got the tower about 10% of the way down before raising
the tower back up and running away with our tails between our
legs.  100' is a long way up!  Some things are better left for the professionals.  

• Generator: Kohler 12 kw propane standby generator.  Our goal is to use this as little as possible, but some use is unavoidable.  Having enough solar and wind to account for every day of the year in Montana is an expensive proposition.  A more realistic solution is to size the system to meet your needs for the majority of the year and use a generator to get you through the darkest of days.  Last year, we used our generator about a total of 75 hours.  Just for comparison, the previous owners put 3500 hours on it in roughly 4 years.  That was after they burnt up their first (undersized) generator.  The generator comes on automatically when then batteries get down to a certain voltage.  Once it comes on, it generally runs for a couple hours and shuts itself down after the batteries get back into a comfortable range.   

Energy Storage:

Batteries and lots of 'em.  (This part gets a little technical.) When we first moved in we had twenty  6-volt batteries. Each battery has about 400Amp-hours of storage.  To put this into perspective, an average car battery has about 100 Amp-hours of storage.  Since our batteries are 6-volt, however, it takes 2 batteries, wired in series, to make a 12-volt circuit with 400Amp-hours. So, 2 of our batteries have about 4 times the amount of storage as a car battery -- we have 20.  However, since our system is designed to run at 24-volts, it actually takes 4 batteries wired in series to make a single 24-volt circuit.  Since we "had" 20 batteries, we had 5 sets of four batteries, each set was wired in parallel which increased our total capacity to 5 x 400 = 2000Amp-hours (or 48,000 watt-hours). What does this mean?  Well, since we use about 4000 watt-hour per day, we should have 12 days of storage, right?  Nope!    

• Problem 1:  Batteries should stay above 50% at all times.  That drops us to 6 days.
• Problem 2:  Batteries like to be fully charged every day or at least every few days.  We don't generate enough power to charge that many batteries.  Here are all the details if you want to know why.  

So we have lots of good batteries, but because they haven't been taken care of, they are dying young.  Based on my recent calculations, our current system and our needs, we are much better off with only 8 batteries.  I am in the process of pairing down our batteries to the best 8 and we will give that a try for a year.  Hopefully we can keep them charged and make them last a little bit longer.  A few of the batteries have already expired.  The rest we will keep in storage, and charge a couple of times of year, cycling them into duty as other batteries die. Eight batteries should give us roughly 2.5-3 days of storage.  We rarely have a 3 day period where the sun doesn't come out or the wind doesn't blow.  Even if that happens, that generator will come on automatically anyway.  We can live with that.  

Energy Use:

Since our batteries are wired for 24-volts DC, do we need 24-volt appliances?  Nope. Our house is wired just like everyone else's, with both 120V and 240V AC outlets.  Two, 3500-watt inverters convert the electricity into AC current.  Having 7000 watts of capability means we have roughly 50 amp service.  Most people who are connected to the grid have 100 amp or 200 amp service.  To be honest, we rarely use more than 1000 watts at any one time, so this really isn't a problem for us.  It does mean I can't run woodworking tools with large motors, but that's about the only downside so far. 

Energy Conservation:

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the average American household uses about 29kw hours of electricity each day.  We don't really have a good monitoring system, but we estimate the we average about 4 kw/day.  We are going to invest in a monitoring system as soon as we can fit it into our budget, so then we'll have a much better idea.  Here are some steps we've taken to lower our energy usage:

• Lighting: All of our lights are compact florescents and we turn them off when we're not using them.  In the grand scheme of things, lighting accounts for a very small percentage of our total energy usage. 
• Deep well water pump:  We have a very efficient water pump for our well that runs directly off our batteries.  Although it doesn't have very high capacity, it meets our needs and uses very little energy.
• Refrigeration:  Our refrigerator and freezer are certainly unique.  A standard stand-up fridge uses about 2000watt-hours per day!  This varies widely.  If you're interested in lowering your energy usage, take a good look at your refrigerator.  We don't have a stand-up fridge.  Instead, we use a chest-freezer and regulate the temperature using an external thermostat designed for beer coolers.  Packing a chest freezer took a little getting used, but the benefits in energy savings are significant.  Freezer are inherently well insulated and since the door is on the top, the cold air sinks to the bottom when the door is opened.  In a stand-up fridge, much of the cold escapes when the door is opened.  This freezer-converted-to-fridge design uses about 300 watt-hours per day.  We also have a solar-specific chest freezer. It is super-insulated and runs directly off our batteries.  It runs on about 600 watt-hours per day.  So, we use under 1000 watt-hours per day on refrigeration, with a lot of food-space capacity.
• Space Heating: First of all, our house is very well insulated.  A central wood stove easily keeps the house in the 60's even on the coldest of winter days.  The house is equipped with in-floor heat, powered by a propane boiler, but so far we haven't used it very much.  Firewood is plentiful and we just don't really like the idea of burning propane if we don't have to. We used roughly three cords last winter to keep us warm and happy--not too bad for a Montana winter. In the long run we are hoping to incorporate some solar hot water heaters.  If we design it right, we will be able to pump the hot water through the floors on sunny winter days.  
• Water heating:  We have an on-demand propane hot water heater.  The on-demand aspect of it is efficient, but we hope to limit our use of propane once we install solar hot water heaters.   We also hope to install a hot water heating coil in our wood stove which will help distribute the heat through the floors. 
• Cooking:  Our stove and oven are propane.  OK, not really energy efficient, but we sure like it.  This is a luxury that we are unlikely to give up. 

Otherwise, we live pretty much like everyone else.  We have a computer (with satellite internet), a big screen TV, and most modern appliances.  We are a lot more conscious of the energy we use and both like that aspect of it.  We also feel like we are much more in tune with the weather and what's going on outside.  It's been a great experience so far!

Unazungumza kiSwahili?

Jambo, habari sana!

I've just returned back from a two-week venture into Tanzania. I went there with a small, local group of medical professionals from the Helena area. Coming home took some serious transitioning. I caught myself, on the large airliner, somewhere over northern Africa, admiring the spaciousness and cleanliness of the lavatory, until I realized it was exactly the same as before--it's just that my brief experiences of third-world poverty reshaped my view of the flushing toilet. It was very humbling to work in the circumstances we did and to see and treat the people of Tanzania, who were grateful for anything we could do.

While in Tanzania, our small team of two PAs, one ophthalmologist, five nurses (one in training) was able to see and treat over 1,000 Tanzanians. Most of our time was spent in clinic, but there was some time set aside to see the sights of the very cool Ngorongoro Crater, which is part of the Serengeti. More on that later...

Mt. Kilimanjaro, viewed from our base in Sakila.

We were based out of Sakila, about a 45-minute nail-biting drive--eastward--from Arusha, and well within easy viewing distance of the awe-striking Mt. Kilimanjaro, whenever the clouds parted to permit us to see it.

Loaded up in the truck, ready for another day in clinic.

I found this video put together by the medical team who preceded us in Arusha. The main difference is that my group did not operate out of the Sakila clinic. We were on the road every day, loading up our supplies, and ourselves, into the back of an open truck, and then bouncing down the road to a new village every couple of days. We did not have the luxory of shelving or, for that matter, organization beyond cardboard boxes on the ground. Each clinic we set up was in a village church house, sometimes on a dirt floor. We hung sheets between the two examination rooms, grabbed our indispensable interpreters, and then we opened up the doors and worked like hell until our last patient was seen.

The vast extent of the medical care that is needed in these small villages is overwhelming. Only some of the people who show up in the mornings are able to get through the doors before we have to shut down. Some people wait for hours and are never seen. It is very true, as in the video, that many people you just cannot help. I was able to do some small procedures, pull some teeth, and hand out the supplies (ie: pain meds, antibiotics, vitamins, antifungals) we had. More importantly--but most challenging for me--we had the ability to give a limited amount of life-changing referrals. Our funds allowed us to send some people for more intensive, life-changing procedures (ie: large mass removals from the head, extremities and torso, or simple surgical procedures like hernia repairs or hysterectomies). The decision came down to those we could help, and those whom we had to send away. Some were way too progressed in their illness and likely to die, despite treatment. Some required treatment which was not even available in the hospitals of Tanzania. To determine when to help, what you could do to help, and when holding the heroics was the help, was the difficult part.

Amani clinic. ("Amani" is Swahilian for "peace".)

The women, who are the manual workhorses, inevitably had neck problems, back pains and headaches, which came at no great surprise; a typical woman you see walking down the roadway or trail has something on top of her head, whether it's a bundle of bananas, or a five gallon bucket full of water. I get a headache just thinking about it.

The children struck me most of all. Many of them were hungry. Many of them had not eaten or had anything to drink in more than a day (we arrived to Tanzania in the midst of a drought). Many were infected with scabies or intestinal worms, and nearly all had some form or another of ringworm. We sent many for ventral hernia repairs, some for mass removals, and others for orthopedic procedures.

Kids at clinics in Roadtoll and Amani.

However, when we rattled down the roads, they would rush from out of the bush, barefoot, sometimes howling "Mzungu!!!" (white person), each child waving one or both of their arms frantically, eyes dancing. I was always surprised that each time a child climbed up onto my exam table in the clinic, each one--no exceptions--first politely removed her or his shoes, despite that their feet were as filthy as whatever they had on their feet.

Running after us in Sakila.

Here are some more of the patients I saw. Beautiful Tanzanians...

Majichai Clinic

 Without an exception, every day in clinic, the town leader, which was always the local pastor, stopped our work to serve us coffee and snacks. Roasted fresh peanuts were served, most of the time, with boiled eggs. Then again, we would stop for lunch. Always lunch consisted of rice (which is actually an expensive nicety in this part of Tanzania, where corn is the staple), some form of meat stew (beef or goat), boiled spinach, and sometimes skinny pieces of fried chicken. Watermelon, too, which is an Arusha export. Nearly each meal we were also served bottled soda. This special treatment came at great cost to the villagers, most of whom eat ugali (boiled cornmeal, which basically tastes like a form of polenta) every day, period. No frills. Even more maddening, one day after clinic, we were tossing out our used wash water, and the preacher stopped us, requesting us to put the water into a big plastic bin for them to reuse the water. I treasured every warm bottle of Coke after that, even though, going down, it burned my throat and my eyes, having to drink it in front of all those hungry kids watching me.

Roadtoll Clinic (pronounced: Rho-add-tall)

A typical day started when the 3 AM gong woke us up, though we didn't have to be up and moving until 6AM. Breakfast at 7, on the road by 8, travel and set up clinic, then close down shop at 5PM to make the return trip. Dinner at 7PM. By then, I was dirt tired, dirt-caked, and ready to crash. We got a shower every third day, which consisted of a cold rinse off for a few seconds, enough to jolt you awake and wash off some grime.

The last day of clinic was heartbreaking. When people realized they would not be seen, there rose almost a panic outside the church. Mothers held their children up against the barred, but open-aired, windows of the church. Old women pointed to their bodily infirmities or the rotten teeth in their mouths. People cried and yelled and begged. It was all I could do to keep focus on those who were already inside the church, those who were lucky enough to be seen this time.

Ngordito Clinic

At the tail end of our visit, we took a day safari into the Serengeti. During the 4.5 hour drive to get there, we traveled out of the desert, and through coffee plantations, into banana fields and eventually rice paddies, and then up and over the great African rift, into Maasai country. Entering the Ngorongoro crater was mystical, with the fog heavy and the visibility short. Eventually we burst through the fog and could see the giant crater below. Apparently the drought this year has wreaked havoc on the large herds, but there was still plenty to see. Dancing zebras. Terrified hyenas tearing through the grass. One lone, methodical elephant with enormous tusks. Lazy wildebeasts. Snorting rhinos. Birds of every color and size, including ostrich and the African crowned crane. And a lion snoozing right by the side of the dirt track. It was absolutely magical.

Looking down into Ngorongoro Crater

Wildlife of the Serengeti, viewed from the pop top of our forerunner. 

Herd of Wildebeasts

Interestingly, there is somewhat of a battle between the Tanzanian government and the Maasai people, nomadic herders, who have inhabited the Ngorongoro crater for the last few centuries. (One of the towns we held clinic in was home to many uprooted Maasai; they had been stripped of their cattle and their land. And they were, basically, pathetic, poverty-stricken, and lost.) The government plans to uproot the Maasai from the crater, as well, as their cattle are contributing to erosion problems in the crater. I see no easy answer to this problem.

On the way out of the crater, we were able to visit a tourist-friendly Maasai village. Most folks in the tribe abhor their picture being taken, as it is believed that photos rob them of their souls; however, this particular village was happy to take our American dollars in exchange for a mug shot and entry into one of their dung huts. Our tour guide, the chief's son, took questions while we sat in the dark hut (with two windows the size of softballs on either side). For whatever reason, out of my mouth popped a question about the community toilet. Chieftain Jr.'s limited English comprehension did him a disservice that day, as he proceeded to tell me how his father, with 16 wives, sent the kids away to another wive's house during copulation. It was extremely awkward, and hot, in that small hut, and I was happy to escape.

Maasai village: The kid is peaking out from behind a dung hut. The women are sitting in the cattle corral making jewelry. The men are dancing. The Maasai dress in beautiful reds and purples, and the men always carry their spears or herding sticks.

Part of our time working was spent giving medical care to kids in an orphanage near Arusha. Nearly all of the kids here have lost their parents to AIDS. Looking these kids over and spending time with each one was certainly a highlight of my trip. Overall, they were well taken care of. 

Orphanage near Arusha.

Probably most of the adventure I had, besides sampling and sustaining myself on the local village fare, was riding down the road, whether in the way back of the truck, or inside the land rover, speeding down the narrow, heavily-peopled highways. Seatbelts? Nope. Helmeted motorcyclists? Definitely nope. Pedestrian rights-of-way? Hell no. Here's some of what I saw from the road...

Thanks for reading. It was certainly a remarkable, and life-changing, trip. Good times and memories in Tanzania. Until next time, Kwaheri. 

Turkey Harvest

Earlier this year, I came home from Murdoch's, the local ranch supply store, with 10 baby chicks and high hopes for self-sufficiency, at least in the egg department. However, to Bill's chagrin, as if the chicks weren't enough, I also got suckered into picking up three baby turkeys as well. I thought, what the hell, why not?

We'd come to enjoy the soon-to-be giant gobblers, who, when allowed to roam, basically followed us around like they were our pets. Whitey, the only female, really had a thing for me, while the two Toms basically flirted with whatever walked by.

So, this morning, Bill and I both awoke with a certain feeling of dread in the pits of our stomachs, as today, at 23 weeks old, our turkeys were facing harvest day. None the less, we were resolved to having three birds in the freezer by nightfall. Getting the damn things out of our crafty turkey/chicken arena proved to be one of the most difficult, as we didn't build a gate into the 6 foot high fence that made up the bird corral, and by now, two of the three turkeys were too big to fit back through the chicken door into the coop, which we had access to.

We managed to wrangle a ladder over the fence, and somehow were able to lift the big birds up and over without falling and breaking our own necks. We both sustained a few flaps to the face in the process.

Thanks to a tutorial on turkey processing (kudos to Howling Duck Ranch), we managed to proceed with our own turkeys fairly efficiently. The dunking tank, to prep the birds for de-feathering, is a drum that we hope to eventually turn into the stove to heat a wood-fired sauna.

The dogs stuck close all day long, and were rewarded eventually with some cooked up gizzards.

Here's our final product! All dressed out, the big ones came in at about 32 lbs each, and the small one at 18.