I can buy 100 acres of land in AZ for $120k. Id like to build a nice 3/3 1500SQ FT house on the land. Its desert mountain of course. I've a couple questions:

• Would I need solar?
• Could I have a well drilled?
• What about internet?
• Can I get a professional builder to even build this far out?
• I know it would be in the middle of the desert, would it be doable on a $600K budget?
• Would this be living off the grid?

Thanks for any help!

First off I didn't know where to post this so where can I buy some of grid buildable land in the eu

I appreciate this post may not fully fit the subject of the group, but I've struggled to find a more suitable subreddit so far, please feel free to recommend a better one if you know of any 🙂

I'm looking for some advice on an efficient way to charge a mobility scooter from a van with solar setup.

TLDR: Specifically, I would like to know if a mobility scooter (or power wheelchair) charger has any intelligence built into it or is the charge process controlled by the scooter itself?

The scooter: The scooter is a 24v unit with 2x 45Ah lead acid batteries. It has a "standard" mains charger that outputs 24v with an XLR plug, the type of charger which is common among most mobility scooters and powered wheelchairs. Chargers may be a heavy transformer-based unit, or a lighter/smaller switched mode unit, we've used both types over the years and believe they are interchangeable. I don't have one readily available to look at or check details, and I'm not sure of the make/model of the scooter as it belongs to someone else.

The vehicle: a regular van with a 345w solar panel on the roof and leisure battery, 12v DC power is readily available every day via solar.

Charging issues: I have bought a number of 12v vehicle chargers over the years which have a 12v input and 24v output to charge the scooter, they generally work fine but have a low output current so take a long time to charge, and every one of them is of very poor quality so they die after a few months, and they appear very uncommon and hard to find. I would like to try a different option such as a DC-DC converter such as a Victron Orion 12v-24v unit, but I need to know whether the scooter expects a controlled charge input or whether the charge process is handled onboard. I have found conflicting information online for both chargers and scooters. For various reasons I strongly prefer not to use a mains inverter and would rather stick with DC charging.

I have lithium batteries for my solar system that have built-in management system and bluetooth. The vendor has an app for checking the status of the batteries - state-of-charge, discharge rate, etc. but the app is poorly designed in some ways and the vendor has gone out of business. Are there any "generic" bluetooth battery apps out there, or apps that would work with a hybrid system? I will soon have to replace one of the batteries and the replacement will likely have its own bluetooth app - would be nice to not have TWO apps for checking the batteries. IDK, maybe it is real rocket science, but I fear it is just proprietary.

We have a natural spring on our land and this cistern was covered by a downed tree for many years. We recently started cleaning the area up and found fairly significant water flow. The water is potable at the source. We’d like to pump the water uphill to our future cabin site. Is this old concrete cistern worth saving or should we go with a different option?

I'm working on designing a small off grid cabin solar setup. I currently have a small bluetti setup but I'm going to upgrade that when I'm full time at cabin.

My question is - I'm looking at purchasing some LifePO4 batteries but I won't be really using them for maybe another year or 2. How detrimental would it be to the batteries if I purchased them and just set them in a closet for a year or 2? I would check voltage/etc every month or 2 and recharge as needed. Or I could set them up as a battery bank at my current home and use them just for backup. Would they degrade faster this way? Would I be better off just waiting to purchase until I'm living out there full time? Thanks in advance!

Do you suggest buying a plot of land and then putting a tiny home on it or buying land that comes with a house?

I've been scrolling through Zillow looking at land with homes and just not liking what I've seen. Then I've looked at land only and found beautiful sites but it would mean adding a home to it -- torn between a kit or prefab.

My rough plan right now is: 2 acres, rainwater catchment, solar, greenhouse, composting toilet and chickens (eggs - and fertilizer - only because I'm a vegetarian). My budget would be upwards of 100k, preferably a little south of there.

Do you have any suggestions based on my plan, particularly when it comes to water? Is rainwater the best route for both drinking and showering, etc?

I'm looking at this type of zone and trying to figure out ways to maximize water usage/recycling are there any clever gray(grey) water kits? I bet some RV's have it like a shower-prewash ? Or anything better than using a dish soap to wash to reclaim that water?

Or should I add some more items to be more self-sufficient with solar? I'm not exactly familiar with the below listed.

I have the following:

100 W Solar Panel

200 W Solar Panel x 2

30 Amp Random Solar Controller (generic)

Ansoufien Solar Panel Conenctor to XT60 Connector Cable 10 Ft (not sure if helpful)

Runaway Cool Camper (small camper)

PowerMax PMTS-30 30 Amp Automatic Transfer Switch with 12 Volt DC Delay (not sure if helpful)

10ah LiFePO4 Battery x 2 (not sure if helpful)

20ah LiFePO4 Battery (not sure if helpful)

Yinleader 500W Voltage Transformer Power Converter Step Up/Down Converter (not sure if helpful)

Bluetti EB3A Power Station (very helpful)

SOGTICPS 60A Solar Charge Controller (not sure if helpful)

Xijiia 2000W Sine Wave Converter (not sure if helpful)

Short Term Goal: To sleep. Have a light or two on, charge my phone.

Long Term Goal: Add a small fridge with a heat pump. Install a small kitchen area powered by propane.

We just bought a property in Bocas del Toro, Panama. Solar and water catchment are set up on the main house. About 1200 gallons in 3 tanks, but the house has been unused for about 2 years. Is there a way to shock or treat the water, or would we be best to darin, clean and start over ?

So I am interested in using my vehicle vs a generator to recharge and power things on a temporary basis. Was thinking of hooking up an inverter to my car battery. How does this workout fuel wise? Am I better off using a generator and burning fuel that way or will my high gas millage vehicle be the better option? From my research my alternator should put out about 1500 watts of power.

After recent events Ive discovered an interest in going off grid. Are there any good resources for doing so for someone who is completely new to it and discovering it at an older age? Especially if I want to keep my job that requires 24 hour internet access. I intend to eventually, over the course of a few years, transition to fully off-grid living, with my only point of contact being my job and whenever i have to go into town to purchase groceries.

Instead of solar I am hoping to use TEG chips to power fans. This is for a solar furnace for heating a greenhouse in winter (Montana). Any suggestions?

I am going to hookup a system to my greenhouse. I calculated I need 400 feet of drainage tubing that’s 8 feet down (Montana). Any suggestions?

Just seen how cheap the ecoflow and watt cycle 12v lifepo4 batteries have become and thought it would be cool to run my infrared sauna seperate from my house solar/battery, and have 4 x 100ah 12v batteries in series with a mttp controller and a few solar panels. I'm sure there's people who do this for pumps etc, can anyone recommend a good 12v to 240v inverter that's 3000 watts? I've done a little DIY setup with 12v to 240c 300 watts and it randomly went bang and started smoking, my sparkie in law looked and said I didn't do anything wrong so I'm sure you can understand I want to get a good quality product. Cheers

I am a commercial fisherman during the summer months up in Alaska and am looking for some insight on a potential battery set up. I will be running a Honda EU 2200 to power very basic things like power tools, phones, and one main house battery. I have struggled in the past keeping a charge on the house battery. Battery might be on its last leg but this has happen with newer batteries as well. Any tips would be appreciated.

I have a bunch of dried pinto beans in Mylar bags with o2 absorbers. I have some dried onions, salt and pepper. Can anyone point me to a video, or information on how to cook them with a rocket stove or campfire?

I have alot to learn. Should be a fun challenge tho

I know that building, septic, and water codes vary by county. But in general, what state would I have the best luck looking in?

I’d like to build a small cabin retreat, bring in a tank of water whenever I go for a getaway (no well), and use a composting toilet (no septic).

Is this just a pipe dream? Or is there anywhere in the United States where you can do this?

a while back, I installed a bank of lithium batteries - 48V bank composed of four 12V nominal batteries in series. After a while - a year or so - I decided I needed more capacity, so I added a second bank parallel. Although I am not convinced that it was crucial, the vendor insisted that I connect the two banks to a common bus-bar at each terminal so the cable lengths could be precisely the same lengths. Anyway, one of the eight batteries appears to have lost about half of its storage capacity recently - and since I think these batteries are commonly made of four packs of cells in series, that makes a sort of sense.

Anyway, what brands of replacements do people recommend and what thoughts do you have about replacing a single 12V unit in a 48V bank? Obviously, replacing a whole bank for the failure of a single unit is not a very attractive option.

The failed unit is a KiloVault 1200 - the company is out of business. The seller is AltE store, which appears to be a zombie or near-zombie website. I think they were significant backers of KiloVault and perhaps are facing some adverse consequences from the KiloVault business failure? Not sure.

For the past two years I habe used a indoor poynting puck. Its not very good. All mobile phones that have been on board habe had way better connectivity. I have installed a gigabit cable to the top mast, so a outdoor antenna with POE injection would be the best solution I think.

I don't know what I'm looking for here. I've been dreaming of selling everything and going off grid for years now. Buy a boat or a van and just leave, travel and live in peace. I know my day dream is totally not based in real life but I still dream. Would love to here some experiences.

Check my Off-Grid Electrical Plan for Northern Canada

Hi all,

I'm planning for an off-grid electrical setup, still trying to learn my way around what's required, so looking for some feedback.

Goals

1. Run a generator for 1-2 hours per day to charge a battery enough to run the cabin for the rest of the day.
2. Bonus: Get enough solar during the summer months to cut generator charging in half

Context

The cabin is 2 bed, 1.5 bath, and I'd like it to be comfortable for 2-4 adults for 4-7 nights. It's located in Canada between 51-52 deg latitude, with a fair bit of cloud. Cabin will really only be used when temps are above freezing, but not necessarily much above freezing.

Heating is via wood stove, hot water and stove are gas with 2x 30 lb propane tanks, and I'll be installing 2 x 330 gallon water tanks for rainwater from a 500 sq ft sloped roof. Potable water is just 9 gal bottled water jugs.

There's a 4500 watt generator (non inverter type) up there now, and I've take a few readings to get a sense for various loads to plan for a battery system.

Expected Power Usage

Electrical Plan

So here's what I'm thinking about doing if I can get some good deals this month:

• Renogy REGO 12V 3000W Pure Sine Wave Inverter Charger w/ LCD Display
• Renogy REGO 12V 400Ah (4800 Wh) Cold Weather Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery
• Renogy Rover 100Amp MPPT Solar Charge Controller 12V/24V/36V/48V
• Renogy BT-2 Bluetooth Module W/ RS485 Port
• 200 Watt 12 Volt Monocrystalline Solar Panel (6 of these)

(Why Renogy? Not married to them, just found their website easy to naviagte)

Would this be a good plan? Have I forgotten any components, or picked anything that doesn't work well together?

Appreciate your feedback greatly!

Note: posted this on r/OffGridCabins and they suggested posting this here instead