solar panel with trickle

solar panel with trickle

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Living in a cabin that is off the grid offers its own set of unique and difficult problems. They can range from power to water, and can really force you to change your day to day life. Here is a short list of anticipated challenges and ways you can overcome them to streamline your green lifestyle.

Water

Drilling a well can be extremely expensive and is not always realistic depending on many factors like the depth of the water table in your area. If the water table is more than a few hundred feet down, you may not be able to afford one at all. Add in the permitting fees and other maintenance and set up costs and you are looking at an expense that most people simply have to finance.

The solution to the water well option is to consider putting in a cistern for domestic water. This is a popular option in the many rural settings and cabins are prime candidates for them. A cistern is nothing more than a large tank which holds water for use in your water system. They range from plastic to concrete in construction and can even be placed up hill from your cabin to avoid using a pump for pressurization.

Putting gutters on your cabin can help you keep your cistern full by directing rainfall and snow-melt into your cistern, instead of onto your lot. Given the relatively low costs of gutters they are an easy way to augment your cistern system. They can even be used to fill landscaping water barrels so you have water you can use only for landscaping if you so choose.

Electricity

Connecting to the grid can be very costly and is not always feasible for many cabin builders or owners. The easiest way to connect your cabin with a reliable power source is to use a generator to charge a deep cycle battery bank. Using the DC outlet on the generator and connecting directly to the batteries is the least preferred method, but plugging in a trickle charger to the generator, and using that to recharge your battery bank is the best way.

Between the battery bank and the house wiring an inverter should be inserted to prevent sensitive electronics from being damaged by the harsh sine waves of some electricity. Once this is done you can run any computer, DVD player or television you want to off of your power system.

Realty In Idaho is a great website that allows users access to search the Boise MLS, find cabins in Idaho now and put to use the information within its pages to help you with your real estate investments!

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