I was invited to take a look at an off-grid home in Pendelton Co., West Virginia this past weekend.  Imagine running across this in the midst of fields and forests.................!

Our friend Jason recently turned us onto a great website that features special off the grid places like this one from across the globe.  Free Cabin Porn is well worth a look if you like to daydream about being somewhere that is pretty much just awesome.  There are lots of off-grid homes pictured and the site really does feature eye candy that spans our corner of the Appalachians all the way to Austrailia, Norway and beyond. 

History of Off-grid Inverter Companies

Posted at MidNite Solar is the story of off-grid inverter manufacturers in the Northwest U.S.  The story is short, interesting and if you live in a home that is off-grid or has battery backup then you likely have a piece of inverter equipment (Outback, Trace, Xantrex, Schneider) that had its start thanks to these folks.
 

A Xantrex SW series inverter (top) with an Outback charge controller (right) and breaker enclosures at an off-grid home in Preston County, West Virginia

We Use Creek Water to Power Our House

Some readers of the Charleston Gazette may have caught an op/ed piece by Mickey Janowski back on January 4, 2013.  His home has now been powered for more than 110 days without interruption and with power to spare. 

We use creek water to power our house
 
Editor:
I live up a holler that has a nice little creek in Webster County. I'm not connected to the electric grid and for years have used photovoltaic panels for our electricity. During prolonged times of rain, snow and diminished sunlight, I used to have to fire up the nasty, noisy, stinky, fossil fuel generator to recharge the house's deep-cycle batteries.

Not lately. On Oct. 29, the day that Hurricane Sandy's related snowstorm hit (We got just over three feet), my mini hydro-electric generator, the "Stream Engine," began tapping energy of the water flowing down the mountain. Almost three weeks of snowmelt has provided more electricity than we can use. The excess powers a space heater.

I'd like to thank Matt Sherald of PIMBY Energy in Thomas for the electrical work, Marvin Woodie and Larry Agnew from Conn-Weld Industries in Princeton for the design and fabrication of the intake screen, and Paul Cunningham of Energy Systems and Design LTD, builder of the Stream Engine.

It added another aspect as to how I look at the water in my creek. It's power to be converted to electricity, with virtually zero impact on the environment. A little diversion and it's back in the creek. Let it rain (or snow).

Mickey Janowski
Webster Springs  

 

Mickey getting his feet wet (nice hat!)

Avian Conservation Center of Appalachia

We were flagged down by a screech owl this past summer.  My wife and I were traveling home from looking at a PIMBY job when we saw him kind of standing mid-lane (there was of course only one lane) and waving.

We were astounded and a bit befuddled about what to do.  He was hurt and it was obvious that he wasn't going to fair well if left by the side of the road so we bundled him up and headed toward home.


This was a Friday evening and I remember thinking that we were probably going to have this little fellow until Monday or until he checked out.  But we lucked out and found a fantastic resource in Jo Santiago (Flying Higher LLC) and the Avian Conservation Center of Appalachia.  Jo met us at 10PM in a Walmart parking lot and she was immediately able to begin re-hydrating the owl.  The next day, Saturday, she shuttled him to the ACCA in Morgantown where he underwent surgery for two broken legs.

I had no idea that surgery for a wounded bird was even a possibility. Amazing!  Not only that, but there is this really impressive network of dedicated volunteers in West Virginia who can help injured birds.  I brought home a copy of our county paper last week and was pleased to see a photo of Jo helping to release a red-shouldered hawk that she and the ACCA had been able to help.

Our little screech owl died.  The trauma to his head etc just proved to be too much.  They really are such wonderful delicate creatures.  Despite the sad end we were really heartened to have found such a great group of people in our state.  If you find an injured bird call the hotline (304) 906-5438.  Last year the ACCA treated 40 different species (about 120 birds total).

Hurricane (Blizzard) Sandy

It's hard to believe, but if you live in the highlands your truck probably looked like this last week.......

We lost power and got snowed in.  Everyone coped with the situation differently.  This guy picked up five gas cans and seven cases of light beer. Getting loaded and keeping the generator running  is a common strategy when dealing with mother nature at her worst.

After installing super slick battery backup systems for others I was forced to engineer a less glamorous and and far more limited version of my own simply to get the heat back up and running for a couple of days while MonPower worked to restore the juice.  It's not pretty, automatic, code-compliant or otherwise sustainable, but it kept us warm (until the old batteries I had lying around finally pooped out and we had to go stay with mom and dad).

Great photos of Autumns arrival at the Sheeps and Peeps Farm blog!