| Home Toys Article - June99 - [HTI Home Page] |
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 Prepared by Michael Lulchak Saskatoon, Canada |
This article gives you a VERY general overview of the things you should consider when trying to have every modern convenience (and some toys) without the support of a local utility. I’ve included some references that I think you’ll find useful for additional information on each of the topics. If you are interested in the topics outlined, please send me some feedback and we’ll see how many articles get filled in (there is no point writing about topics that no one wants to read about!). |
1. INTRODUCTION
2. ELECTRICITY
2.1. Solar-Generated Electricity
2.2. Wind-Generated Electricity
2.3. Motor-driven Generator Electricity
2.4. Un-interruptible Power Supply (UPS)
2.5. Solar generation and a UPS
2.6. Wind generation and a UPS
2.7. Diesel Generation with a UPS
2.7.1. Generator Sizing
2.7.2. Noise
2.7.3. Fuel Storage
2.7.4. Load Shedding
3. HEAT
3.1. Electrical heat
3.2. Wood-burning heating system
3.3. Coal-burning heating system
3.4. Solar heat
3.5. Propane heat
3.6. Solar heat with Propane or Wood-Burning Standby and Electric Circulation
4.1. Cellular
4.1.1. Cellular telephones for each adult (replace land-line telephone)
4.1.2. A cellular telephone for the house (replace land-line telephone)
4.1.3. A cellular telephone for internet use
4.2. Satellite
4.2.1. A satellite telephone for the house (replace land-line telephone)
4.2.2. A satellite receiver for internet use
5. WATER
5.1.1. Pump water from a dugout, stream or other available
source.
5.1.2. Dig a well
5.1.3. Collect rain water in a cistern
5.1.4. Haul city water to a water tank or a cistern
6.1. Replace wired-cable with a satellite system
6.2. Replace wired-cable with a wireless cable system
- ELECTRICITY
- Solar-Generated Electricity
- Wind-Generated Electricity
- Motor-driven Generator Electricity
- Un-interruptible Power Supply (UPS)
- Solar generation and a UPS
- Wind generation and a UPS
- Diesel Generation with a UPS
- Generator Sizing
- Noise
- Fuel Storage
- Load Shedding
- HEAT
- Electrical heat
- Wood-burning heating system
- Coal-burning heating system
- Solar heat
- Propane heat
- Solar heat with Propane or Wood-Burning Standby and Electric Circulation
- COMMUNICATION
- Cellular
- Cellular telephones for each adult (replace land-line telephone)
- A cellular telephone for the house (replace land-line telephone)
- A cellular telephone for internet use
- Satellite
- A satellite telephone for the house (replace land-line telephone)
- A satellite receiver for internet use
If your home is isolated from the electrical grid, can you still have all the modern conveniences?
This is a question that I was asked when someone I know decided to build an acreage. Their dream home was more than a dream. The land was purchased, the location of the house was set, they had started planting trees and shrubs and were inquiring about servicing the property. The costs were very high! So high that they seriously considered generating their own power, not connecting to the electrical grid. They also considered not connecting to the natural gas line and the telephone line. They didn't have the option of not connecting to the water line or cable-channel TV services, as they are not available within a reasonable distance.
This acreage is not isolated. It is within 15 minutes of a city of 200,000 people. The utility services are at most a mile away. The alternatives that will be discussed, however, apply to homes, cottages and cabins that are far-removed from the grid and other utility services. Distance has nothing to do with the decision if installation costs are high enough.
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Solar power (sunlight) is converted to electricity using a Solar Cell. The Solar Cell is a wafer of silicon that is treated with specific chemicals. The combination of these chemicals is responsible for generating an electric current when the wafer is exposed to sunlight (or most other kinds of light, for that matter). The electricity is DC or Direct Current. In sufficient number and connected correctly, this can drive 12 Volt appliances and recharge batteries directly. Used with an AC Inverter, it can also power TVs or Microwave ovens, for example. Due to their expense they are practical for small amounts of power in areas that get a lot of sunlight. Due to the fact that they only generate electricity during the day, they are normally used with battery storage systems for electricity production at night.
Wind is used to generate electricity by having the wind drive fan blades, which turns an electric generator. The windmills can be purchased in various sizes, in kit form all the way through fully assembled with the required electronics to supply electricity to the electrical utility. Wind generated electricity, like solar, is not available all of the time so a battery-storage system is normally used. The initial purchase price is quite reasonable, and maintenance is something that a Do-It-Yourselfer (DIYer) could do. The down side of using the wind is the structure that you must put up to hold a large wind mill high in the air, the anchors that must be used in some cases to ensure that it doesn’t fall over, the noise that is made by wind rotating the wind mill, and the danger of the wind-mill to birds. Progress has been made in the smaller models to the point where you can purchase roof-mounted units that don't requirea tower and that are much less noisy than in the past. Large wind generators are not really appropriate in an urban setting.
Motors, whether gasoline, diesel, or even steam driven, are very popular methods to drive a generator. The motors are relatively compact (except steam), have good speed control, and have fuel that can be supplied reliably. As long as there is fuel, there is electricity (this ignores breakdowns, which occur with everything). Because the motors are so reliable and compact, gasoline motor driven generators are used by contractors at construction sites and by many cabin-owners. These generators are normally not continuous duty (they must be turned off and allowed to cool before re-fueling). When more power or continuous power is needed, a diesel motor is often used instead. These motors use less expensive fuel but are often bulkier. They require less maintenance, have fewer heat problems and can generally be re-fueled without turning them off.
Un-interruptible Power Supplies take AC electricity in and provide AC electricity out. They also convert some of it to DC and charge up batteries. When the AC electricity in is interrupted, they will switch to generating AC electricity out from the batteries. These are popular for ensuring that power is not interrupted to computers. The size and location of the batteries normally decides how long the AC electricity out will last without AC electricity in. The rating of the Inverter, which generates AC electricity from the DC battery power, determines how many things you can power with the UPS. Some UPS’s will also provide DC electricity out. These UPS’s are sometimes used to power lights in motorhomes. A UPS requires AC or DC input electricity, so it is not normally used by itself. It is used with solar, wind, or motor-driven electricity to store the electricity and have it available when the primary source is not available.
For a small cabin with two or three low power lights that are used for a few hours each night and not much during the day, this is an economical solution. The solar cells can be placed on a movable rack that faces the sun all of the time during the day, or permanently mounted on the roof of the cabin. The UPS stores the electricity from the day and it is available during the evening and during cloudy days. The solar cells last around ten years and the UPS batteries last from one to five years depending on how often they are discharged and how much the cabin is used. The UPS can power AC or DC lights. If the electrical load is higher than a few lights, the number of solar cells required becomes expensive and the number of batteries required to store the evening’s supply of electricity causes storage problems and additional cost.
Wind generation with a UPS gives you inexpensive electricity if you have near-constant wind, or if you have small electricity requirements. Remember, if it is calm for a few days, you have no lights! The location of the windmill is perhaps the largest problem. The higher the tower, the more likely you are to have an uninterrupted flow of wind for more of the time. You also have a more expensive tower, more guy wires, etc. The UPS used with wind generation is often larger than that used with a similar installation for solar simply because solar generates some electricity on a cloudy day. Wind generation generates nothing if there is no wind. Wind generation units can also be much larger than solar units.
This combination allows the generator to be turned off during times when electricity is not being used at all, or very little is being used. The generator must have an automatic start feature, but this allows the generator to require no fuel for substantial portions of most days. The noise of the generator is gone, of course, when it is not running. This is another advantage. The UPS can be sized according to power usage in the cabin, cottage, or home. Battery storage and replacement are still large concerns. If the cost of putting in such a system is justifiable, the use is normally more permanent, such as a cabin used all summer. The use of a UPS with the generator also allows the generator size to be smaller. At times of peak load, the generator is running at capacity and the UPS is running off battery power.
In an installation such as this, several factors must be considered:
The size of the generator in terms of output is a highly cost-sensitive issue both in terms of initial purchase and the cost of fuel to produce electricity.
The type and size of the motor used is highly cost-sensitive and the costs of maintenance are also a big concern.
Generator output is measured in Watts (W). It is the amount of electricity that the generator can produce continuously, for hours at a time. Another output measure is the peak power, also in Watts, that the generator can produce for a few seconds in order to start up a motor or other device that takes more power to start than to run. Generator sizes are typically 1200W, 2200W, 3500W, 5000W, 6500W, 8000W and 10000W. More than 10,000W starts getting very expensive because of physical size and the type of customer that uses that much electricity – commercial or industrial – is not as cost sensitive as private homes are.
The motor used to turn the generator can be gasoline, diesel, propane, natural gas, or almost any other fuel that you can envisage. Utilities use natural gas turbines to turn 5,000,000W and higher generators. Gasoline and Diesel motors will be discussed here to simplify things, and because these are the most common.
I think that the most direct approach to explain how to determine the generator size you need is to use an example.
The example house has:
Description |
Starting |
Continuous |
Natural gas furnace, .5 HP furnace motor |
2000 |
375 |
Deep freeze |
1500 |
1000 |
.5 HP water pressure pump |
2000 |
375 |
1 HP water pump |
4000 |
750 |
.5 HP sewage pump |
2000 |
375 |
TV |
300 |
300 |
VCR |
200 |
200 |
Satellite dish |
150 |
150 |
Stereo |
200 |
200 |
Computer |
250 |
250 |
Refrigerator |
1500 |
1000 |
Microwave oven |
600 |
600 |
toaster oven |
1200 |
1200 |
kettle |
1200 |
1200 |
coffee maker |
1200 |
1200 |
various lights |
1000 |
1000 |
driveway lights |
180 |
180 |
Total |
19230 |
11355 |
The size of the generator is the maximum output in Watts that it is required to generate. There are two numbers, Peak Power and Continuous Power.
Peak Power is the maximum power that the generator can produce for a few seconds, to get a larger load like a furnace motor to start. A furnace motor, or any other motor, can take five times the power to start that it takes to run.
Continuous Power is the power that the generator can produce for hours at a time.
To get the Continuous Power required, you must first get the power required for each of the electrical appliances that you have. Many of these power consumptions can be located on the devices themselves, like lights, toaster, coffeepot, etc. Our example values are in the table above.
Once you have all of this information, you could simply add all of it together and get the worst case scenario of all devices on at once. If you can afford to get a generator this large, do it and you are done.
Our example total comes to 11355W. This is an odd size. The next highest size above 10000 is 15000W. This generator, with the diesel motor, a tank that will hold about a week of fuel, and installation would cost at least $20,000.00
We’ll discuss how we might be able to use a smaller generator a little later.
The noise of the generator running is an issue since the generator will be running a good deal of the time. The location you choose should block your sleeping and recreation areas from this noise if possible.
The location and method of storing fuel is subject to stringent regulations in many areas. The location of the fuel is important to allow easy access to refill the tanks and at the same time it should not be an eyesore.
Load shedding is the process of turning off things that don’t HAVE to be on right now, so that things that HAVE to be on now can run. After some of those really important things have turned off, then the things that are not so important, that were shut off (shed) can be turned back on. This is a way to make better use of a smaller generator instead of buying a larger one. The rules used can be simple for small systems where you are not concerned with small inconveniences like not being able to have all of the lights on while watching TV. The rules can become very complex for larger systems or when you are concerned that there be very little inconvenience. If your rules allowed the deep freeze to be running, but it would turn off if your water pump turned on or your furnace turned on, then turn the deep freeze back on after the furnace cut out or the water pump cut out, it would be convenient but complex. If it was too inconvenient to have the kettle turn off in the kitchen when you already had your microwave, popcorn popper, and all the lights on then the rules could become complex because it would be hard to determine what could be shed to make sure that the generator wasn’t overloaded.
Back to our example house, let’s try to look for ways to reduce the power that is required. Try thinking of the things that you would normally do during a day. For our house example, these are activities like getting ready for work in the morning, making lunch, making supper, washing the dishes and watching TV in the evening. On the weekends it would be making brunch, cooking supper, and watching a movie in the evening.
Lets take a couple of those tasks and figure out how much power is required for each
Getting ready for work in the morning
Description |
Starting |
Continuous |
Water heater for shower - natural gas |
0 |
0 |
.5 HP water pressure pump |
2000 |
375 |
Stereo |
200 |
200 |
coffee maker |
1200 |
1200 |
Bedroom, bathroom, kitchen lights |
400 |
400 |
Autonomous devices that may cut in to set temperature
Description |
Starting |
Continuous |
natural gas furnace, .5 HP furnace motor |
2000 |
375 |
Deep Freeze |
1500 |
1000 |
Refrigerator |
1500 |
1000 |
Totals |
8600 |
5075 |
Making Lunch
Description |
Starting |
Continuous |
Oven – Natural Gas. |
0 |
0 |
Stereo |
200 |
200 |
Coffee maker |
1200 |
1200 |
Kitchen lights |
200 |
200 |
Autonomous devices that may cut in to set temperature
Description |
Starting |
Continuous |
natural gas furnace, .5 HP furnace motor |
2000 |
375 |
Deep Freeze |
1500 |
1000 |
Refrigerator |
1500 |
1000 |
.5 HP water pressure pump |
2000 |
375 |
Totals |
8600 |
4350 |
Making supper
Description |
Starting |
Continuous |
Oven – Natural Gas. |
0 |
0 |
Microwave Oven |
600 |
600 |
TV |
300 |
300 |
VCR |
200 |
200 |
Stereo |
200 |
200 |
Coffee maker |
1200 |
1200 |
Family Room, Kitchen lights |
400 |
400 |
Autonomous devices that may cut in to set temperature
Description |
Starting |
Continuous |
natural gas furnace, .5 HP furnace motor |
2000 |
375 |
Deep Freeze |
1500 |
1000 |
Refrigerator |
1500 |
1000 |
.5 HP water pressure pump |
2000 |
375 |
Totals |
9900 |
5650 |
This is how you calculate the rest as well. Note that this example has been simplified. The real system must include the cycling of the sewage and well water pumps in addition to the water pressure pump.
To make a long set of tables short ... cooking supper and washing the dishes, especially if you have an electric hot water heater, takes the most power you're likely to need during the day.
As you can see, it is quite easy to use a lot of electricity cooking. The generator must be sized so that it does not inconvenience you for cooking and other tasks of living.
The oven and hot water heaters are very large loads. Use natural gas or propane appliances remove these large loads from sizing the generator if at all possible.
Calculating the maximum power that you are likely to use allows you to purchase a smaller generator than your worst case. If you exceed the generator capacity, the generator will trip the breaker and stop. You must then turn something off and restart the generator. This is a manual way of controlling which devices are allowed to be on.
The automatic way to control which devices are allowed to be on is called Load Shedding
Lets start with an example generator of 5000W continuous, 6250W peak power. Load shedding is the process of turning off electrical items that are not required so that items that are required can start or continue to run. The generator can generate a maximum amount of power. It can, in our example, generate 5000 W or 5 kW continuously. But things like electric motors take much more power to start than to run. A motor can take 5 times its running power to start. This power is required for a short time, to actually start the motor rotating. The faster it turns, the less power it uses until it is running at rated power. This is normally a few seconds. In our example, the generator can produce 6250 W or 6.250 kW for 10 seconds.
Let’s say you come home and are getting ready to make supper, the highest power problem situation.
You turn on some lights (700W), then the TV, VCR and Stereo (700W). Your home automation system and computer are running as well, using another 300W. We’ll say the fridge (1000W) and the deep freeze (1000W) are also running for a total of 3700W. The furnace (2000W for 10 seconds, 375W for the next 10 minutes) will turn on because you walked in the door and the draft cooled off your thermostat, but that is delayed because the furnace burner starts up and runs for 30 seconds before the fan starts (normal).
You turn the stove on (0W) and start the microwave oven (600W). The furnace cuts in and adds 2000W to bring the power up to 6300W. This is over the 6250W that the generator can supply. The home automation system sheds the lowest priority load. The lights at the front door turn off (100W). This drops the load to 6200W, which is OK.
10 seconds later, the home automation controller sees a continuous load of 6200W,over the 5000W that the generator can supply. The hallway light (60W) and the driveway lights (200W) turn off, giving 5940W. The last light is in the kitchen and is high priority since the motion sensors show that people are there. The deep freeze is medium priority, a sheddable load. Turning it off drops 1000W, giving us 4940W continuous, which is OK for the 5000W generator.
Just as the deep freeze is turned off, the furnace motor drops from 2000W start-up power to 375W running power. The power use is now down to 3315W. The last thing shed, the deep freeze, turns back on (4315W). The lights then turn back on in sequence, driveway (200W), then hallway (60W), then the front door lights (100W). This adds up to 4675W, still below the 5000W that the generator can handle. All the shed devices are now enabled again.
This situation is complex. The more rules we add, the more complex it is. The more devices we can shed, the more complex it is. Simpler rules can be used if you have a fairly set pattern in your life. Fewer rules make the system more predictable, but may require more inconvenience.
To simplify things, the deep freeze could be turned off each day during the high use times, 7 am to 8:30 am while we are getting ready to go to work, 12 noon until 1pm for lunch, and 5pm until 7pm for supper.
Another approach to the problem of momentary overloads that tax the generator during high use periods of the day is to install a UPS. The UPS takes power and stores it in batteries for future use. It can power a few key lights, the home automation controller, and remove the annoyance of lights going on and off due to shedding. Other lights are set to simply turn off when shed, and not turn back on until manually turned on. Since the UPS charges batteries when the generator is running, it can be a sheddable load and the lights will stay on because the UPS is using battery power to keep them on. In another situation, the generator could be TURNED OFF by the home automation controller if only a couple of lights were turned on. This would save fuel and make it much less noisy. The generator would have to have the electric start option so that the home automation controller, or the owner, could start the generator again when the UPS was running out of battery power or when something else was turned on that required the generator to run.
The control logic for this type of system is quite complex, and subject to interpretation. Lowest priority is different for every person, even different for the same person on different days. My advice is to make the system as flexible as you are able to.
Sensors
Fridge, deep-freeze, pressure pump and furnace fan - try a vibration switch. These appliances shake quite a bit when they are running (at least mine do!!) and an inexpensive vibration switch can be connected directly to a digital input on the home controller or through a power-flash module to X10 and on to the home controller.
Lights - this one is pretty tough. You can add a lot of expense and connect your home automation controller to the breaker panel and measure the current used for each circuit, but that's getting carried away (in my opinion). I assume you'll be using X10, since it is very cost effective, so you could just have your home controller monitor the house wiring and note ON and OFF signals to determine if the lights are on or not. The home controller can also simply turn off all low priority lighting first (with no sensing of which lights are off already).
Stereo, TV and VCR - Your home controller can use an Infrared system to turn them on and off (for example, the One-for-all remote). This requires that your remote signal the home controller, and the home controller turn the appliances on and off. This is impractical in many cases. You can also have the home controller 'read' the infra-red signals that are sent to the appliances and determine if they are 'on'. This is not as important, because you generally turn on the TV when you want to watch it. Having the TV turn off regularly to shed the power use so the generator won't trip is a sign that your rules are not correct, or that your generator may be too small. Positive feedback (a switch that signals the TV is on because it detects radiation behind the TV, current sensors that you plug into the receptacle, then plug the appliance into the sensor) are available but are quite expensive.
The home controller needs a lot of sensors. It needs feedback on all of the loads that it controls. It can get by with less information, but the more sensors that give it feedback, the better the control. It needs to control all lights, the fridge, the deep freeze, the washer and dryer ... almost everything. The home controller is the only way to bring down the required size of the generator. All of this automation provides many benefits, but all of it costs money. At the time of writing, a 5000 W light duty gasoline driven generator can be had for about $2000. A 10000W generator continuous duty diesel generator costs about $10000. $8000 is a lot to automate with if you do it yourself. If you get a professional to do it, it's probably worth it to put in the larger generator and run everything you have at once if you like. Just get a larger diesel tank.
This is a very inefficient use for the electricity that you would generate yourself. If you have utility electricity, this can be an economical way to heat a cabin or cottage. Baseboard or fan-driven portable heaters can be placed almost anywhere. More permanent installations require wiring, but that is not too complex.
A wood burning stove, fireplace or furnace is an attractive way to heat a small space. The heat radiates from the central location and many people find it very rustic. Larger spaces require multiple heat sources or an air-circulation system to provide comfort in all heated areas. Remote locations often have an abundance of wood fuel. Electricity requirements for forced air circulation are sometimes tricky to deal with where the electricity is self-supplied. This makes larger homes impractical to heat with wood. Large storage requirements for keeping an adequate supply of fuel dry, very coarse temperature control, and low humidity in the cabin or cottage are the down side of using wood as fuel.
A coal-burning furnace is an economical way to heat a small space. The heat radiates from a central location. Larger spaces require multiple heat sources or an air-circulation system to provide comfort in all heated areas. A coal-burning boiler can heat water for a radiator or in-floor heating system. This type of hybrid system requires electricity to move the water around. If you run out of coal, you can use wood as an interim fuel in most cases. Electricity requirements for forced air circulation are sometimes tricky to deal with where the electricity is self-supplied. This makes larger homes without utility electricity impractical to heat with coal. On the plus side, coal can be automatically fed into a boiler with an auger system. Low humidity in the cabin or cottage is a down side of using coal as fuel.
Solar heat is normally used to heat water, or water and anti-freeze, which is circulated through radiators or through in-floor heating. It is economical because so much of the energy is converted to useful heat. It does require a well-designed control system to ensure that the heating mixture is not over-heated (start to boil) and it normally requires some electricity to operate. Gravity-fed circulation systems are available, but they tend to have very little temperature control. Heat storage during the day and circulation during the evening and night normally involve pumps and thermostats. Solar heat can be just as economically be installed in an urban setting. The largest advantage is the almost continuous supply of hot water available. The lack of forced air heating ducts ranks a close second. The complexity of the circulation system and the anti-freeze that is in it are the major dis-advantages. Some people also dislike the look of the solar collectors on their roof or on their lawn. This is not as much a problem in cabin and cottage situations.
Propane stoves and furnaces are used quite extensively in motor homes. They are quite economical in both purchase price and in fuel usage. A small furnace may not require a circulation fan. Again, the larger the space to be heated, the more sources are required or a circulation fan must be used. The practicality of requiring electricity for heating is a major consideration when choosing a method to heat any space.
As with most solutions, good designs often include combinations of methods. Solar heat with radiators or in-floor heat may be combined with a propane stove or wood-burning fireplace to ensure that heat is always available. A propane or wood-burning furnace combined with an electric circulation fan may provide primary heat with a wood-burning fireplace or stove, or a propane stove for heat without electricity.
In a retirement situation with two adults to worry about, replacing a single buried line telephone with two cellular phones is an option to consider. The telephones are mobile and there does not have to be a monthly fee. They do have to be recharged constantly and battery life is a concern. Coverage area and service providers are concerns.
A single cellular phone can replace a buried line telephone with a simple DC adapter to replace the battery. It can be mobile with the addition of a battery. Coverage area and service providers are a concern.
Cellular-ready modems are inexpensive and readily available. Laptop users find them quite handy. They are not well suited to high throughput situations, as they normally will not sustain over 9600 baud links. Very occasional use may tolerate these low data rates. Again, coverage area is a concern.
Satellite telephones are expensive now, but have a very large coverage area. They are high bandwidth voice and data connections with pricey hardware and pricey connection fees.
A Satellite receiver can be used to receive encrypted messages from a broadcast satellite while a telephone can be used to provide Internet interaction. IE you upload files and send your web browser selections through your phone but receive data via satellite. This is high bandwidth in the area most people need it, with a coverage area that may include your cabin or cottage.
- Pump water from a dugout, stream or other available source.
This saves the cost of digging a well, but the cost of bringing the water to the cabin, cottage or home is still there. The likelihood of the water requiring treatment is also quite high with these sources. You may require a water purifier, a water softener, and/or an iron filter. An additional problem is the reliability of the water. Will the water source dry up in the middle of winter, or during a dry year in the summer?
- Dig a well
This involves finding a likely location on your land to dig a well, that is accessible to the well drilling equipment, the cost of digging the well and bringing the water into the cottage, home or cabin, and treating the water if required. Wells may require a water purifier, a water softener, and/or an iron filter.
- Collect rain water in a cistern
This involves installing a tank to hold the water (concrete, plastic, fibre-glass), putting up gutters to collect rain water, and treating the collected water to make it safe to drink. Bugs, leaves, and all of the other things that you find when you clean out your gutters will fall into the cistern. The water system must avoid pumping out the sludge at the bottom of the tank and the scum floating at the top of the tank. Rainfall must be large enough to supply your needs. This is never ideal, but is economical in isolated and infrequently used cabins, cottages and homes. Hauling water in times of drought or heavy water usage can augment it. If freezing temperatures are frequent or probable, this system must be drained or there must be a reliable heat source to keep the tank and pipes from freezing.
- Haul city water to a water tank or a cistern
A cistern or enclosed tank can be used to store city or town water that is hauled to your location. This is popular for locations where well water is hard to find or requires lots of treating. This is more expensive the further the water must be hauled.
- Replace wired-cable with a satellite system
- Replace wired-cable with a wireless cable system
In some areas, wired cable can be replaced with a point-to-point form of
wireless cable for about the same price. The coverage area is often larger than the
wired-cable area with similar service.
Satellite dish receivers of various sizes can give the most isolated location access to any number of channels. Service areas are extensive but not all-inclusive, and electricity is required to enjoy the signals received.
References
Cutler-hammer breaker panel - optional current sensing, on/off control via computer - looks cool http://www.ch.cutler-hammer.com/buildersprogram/advanced.html
Chinadiesel sells generators, diesel motors, tractors, and complete packages for backup generators and continuous-duty generation systems. I haven't dealt with them, but have used some of the information on their web site. http://chinadiesel.com
Statpower sells invertors. I haven't dealt with them, but they've been around quite a while. I've also used some of the information from their web site. http://www.statpower.com
