[furryoldlobster]

Anybody have any experience with off-grid living (little to no reliance on public utilities)?  This can be a summer cabin, or hunting/fishing lodge situation, etc.

Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions would be fantastic. 

[Tslat]

Plan out how far you wanna take it..

You could take a number of things to help you out, or you could take less tools and more food, so you have to be more ingenuitive while you're staying

[furryoldlobster]

seems like a really fun hobby.  I found blueprints for several small cabins that can be built for around $1200 american, and a fantastic setup for solar power for just over $300 (panel, controller, battery/inverter) that'll power a shack just fine.  Guess I'm really wondering if anyone's tried it...

[Clay]

solar power is good but i think it should be supplemented with a wind turbine which i don't believe is too expensive ($1000-2000$ USD)

[Clay]

I love this topic and would love to do it some day but i need my computer

a video i love about this topic is done by less stroud, deff worth a watch

http://youtu.be/T4qfhbgb-BM

[furryoldlobster]

I like turbines a lot.  It really comes down to wind and southern exposure.  My eventual goal is a hybrid solar panel/wind turbine system connected to a circuit of 8-12 12V batteries.  It'd be strong enough to run a computer for quite a while  (a laptop can run off a single 12V for a few hours with the right inverter).

[Obi42]

My Dad has a cabin that's fully off-grid, out in the mountains.  4 Solar Panels, Mini Turbine, Batteries and Inverter. Has a large propane tank for the stove and a tankless hot water heater, though cabin heat comes from the fireplace.  I haven't played with installing that stuff in many years, but be careful with the turbine.  Even the "quiet" ones are quite noisy, but you can't put it too far away because it's all DC, it just won't travel far.  He's able to watch tv for a few hours every night, and keep his phone and laptop charged, so it's definitely doable.  Granted, it's also in a windy area (Tehachapi), so the turbine helps a lot.

[furryoldlobster]

That sounds like a great setup. 

Any power generated by solar or turbine is going to innitially be DC, hence the need for an inverter.  When I do install the turbine, I'm thinking it'll have a separate shed with its own inverter/battery circuit.  I can temporarily just cart the extra batteries over, but I think I'd want to wire it all together eventually.