Electricity

NRJ

this a an introduction video on the subject of electricity off grid, a crucial ressource to not give up on comfort

we’ll talk about how to gather it, store it and how to preserve it using it wisely.

So first lets see the different methods to generate electricity, could be solar, hydro or wind power, and let’s about our old and trusty fossil fuel generators.

let’s start with solar it s Scalable, reliable, and affordable

It could be as simple as a simple and cheap, as small solar panel connected to a USB outlet, that will allow you to recharge your devices and a small power bank to have light at night. No expensive battery, no inverter, no charge controler that’s actually the system we are currently using at the island, we can also plug a 12v appliencies such as a fan or a pump to get water out the well.

Well, that would really be a survival set up, now for more a more conventional and comfortable set up lets use my boat as an exemple. Here i have around 500 w of solar, going through charge controller. Which will allow to safely charge a 300 amps lithium battery, enough for a good comfort, allowing me power a watermaker, starlink, fridge, power tools, 3d printer, lighting fans, usb outlet… well not all in the same time, and not all day long, I definitely need to be mindful of my usage but I don’t feel limited unless there is no sun for week.

Solar and batteries are direct current system orDC system, so you cannot power regular house appliances which are made for Ac, alternative current, such as a blender, a vacuum cleaner, or a tv without the help of an inverter, a piece of equipment that will transform your battery power into AC current.

if you want more comfort, you will need a bigger set up, simply keep the same structure but just more of everythig, you could then power anything, freezer, air, conditioner, washing machine, you name it…

with solar pannel you can exepct 70 percent of efficency from the rated capacity, so to give you an idea a 100w panel in ideal condition will output around 5amps, and to give you an idea of what 5 Amps can power it’s more or less what starlink needs,

This is just an introduction, In another video, we will Dive deeper into the system, set up, efficency upgrade, wiring them in a smarter way, using multiple charge controler, and even ways to keep your panel ideally exposed to the sun through the day .

So as we just saw solar panels and batteries are dealing with direct current electricity, and direct current differs from alternative current. Alternative current is from far the most used type of current it is what’s used by the energy providers to provide the grid , alternative is produced by something turning , it’s turning thanks to coal, dinosor juice, nuclear reaction, or renewable sources, such as water or wind .

In those cases, it’s pretty much the same that’s happening, something is turning, There are magnet involved, it makes electrons move. It goes plus minus plus minus plus minus and that’s why we’re calling it. Alternative current

So if on your property, you have enough water flowing or enough wind, you can tap into those resources, you can use that energy to power directly regular house appliances or charge your battery with it.

Best case scenario you have a small or big river Passing through your Land and you would be blessed. If it’s the case You could imagine providing for all your needs and even much more. I once visited a place in Peru, where The river was powering the whole house with freezer and washing machines, but also a big hydraulic press that was used to to compact earth into bricks to build more houses.

The beauty of Hydro electricity power is the consistency run day and night and so you don’t need batteries.

There’s different type of turbines, depending on the type of river you have,

It could be a high drop, small flow situation,

You would then use a high pressure turbine type such as pelton turbine or Tesla turbine

And in a low drop and more flow context, such as a river, you’d better go with a vortex type generator, it s possible to generate huge power that way, doesn’t disturb the river much, no need to build a damn, fish safe they just have a little fun ride through the turbine, very resilient to xxxx. as well, that’s the type I ve seen in Pérou and it s mesmerising to watch.

or you can also opt for a traditional style, water mill type set up, not the most efficient in my opinion…

Of course, the electricity production will greatly depend on the flow of the river and so maybe the seasons, but if you’re looking for land, definitely keep that in mind cause it will make a huge difference in your off grid set up

So now, if you live in a Windy place, you could look into a bunch of different wind turbine desings, and generate electricity that way. But wind power is intermitent so you d better have batteries.

So whether we are talking about Hydro wind generator, we are talking of a generator and Those devices can either be bought or could be diy for a fraction of the cost. I am all in for the DIY option. It’s not cheaper. It’s also that if you build it, you have to understand it, and if you understand it, you can repair and simply make another one if you need more electricity, you can imagine building one salvaging a gear system, from, a motor bike or a car for the roatation mouvement, add an alternator or a generator to transform the rotation into electricity add bits and pieces of electronic to stabilise voltage and that’s it you made it!

last of AC production are fossil fuel generator

even if we want to be ecofriendly I think it still make sens to have one, not only as a emergency back up but also to power big very power tools such as a welding machine.

If you want to charge your battery with that kind of alternative current systems, youll have have to Add some electronics, To convert the electricity to DC current which will be assimilable by the batteries.

But anyway, if you want to be truly autonomous, you’re gonna need to diversify your electricity sources, You can’t rely on just one something might break the weather might not be providing, Best case scenario, you have the four sources set up a decent solar system, by wind and or hydraulic electricity, and also have the first fuel generator in back up.

Next up, the battery systems

to know how much battery you need you need to think of how much what you need to run will consume until you ll be able to refill your battery again, for that you need to understand some basics.

let’s go for a little amp volt and watts introduction

think of elecricity like a river Volts is the width of a river, amps represent the amount of water passing through, aka the current, and watts represent the total amount of water passing through that river

so watts are equal to the witdh multiplied by the current. And so in the same logic amp, is equal to the total flow divided by the witdth of the river, amps equal W divided by voltage.

so lets calculate your needs

define at you need to power and for how much hours a day you’ll need to power it, lets keep running starlink as an exemple, it takes in average 60w, that i power from my 12v. Batteries. so divided by 12 equal 5, it takes around 5 amps, you d like internet to be on for let’s say 7 hours a day so it will consume, 7x5 amps, so 35 amps.

I have a fridge, which draws six amp for nine hours a day let’s say, so here’s 54 amps, and let’s add my lights which takes 3 A for 4 hours, so 12 A let’s add all of that together we’re around 100 amp, so let’s say I start with my 300 amp capacity battery full, and there’s no more sun starting tomorrow, my set up would last a little less than three days.

Now, as I live in the tropics, I can count on around five hours of optimal sun per day, so with four 100w solar panels, producing 5 A for five hours each, it would produce 100 amp per day and we would be able to run that set up indefinitely.

And same if you live in a windy place, Let’s say you have 5 wind turbines, producing five amps for five hours, you get the logic.

So you need to calculate your needs of what you want to run, The bigger your needs the more expensive, so if you can’t afford it you might want to rethink what you really need.

So lets take a quick dive into the different Battery chemistry available…

so far the most common type was the lead acid type,

they are the cheapest option, heavy and bulky, pretty reliable, they last around 3 to 5 years if you care well after them, which means you can not go under 30 percent of their capacity or they’ll get damage, some called deep cycle can go a little lower though.

lithium and especially the life po 4 type is a much better option, in my opinion, more expensive but they last up to 10 years, maybe more, can be used all the way down to 5 or 10 percent of their capacity without getting damage, it’s the best price safety durability and capacity compromise so far

there’s also other interesting lithium chemistry on the market such Ion sodium, and LTO cells, phosphate cells and much more…. But you probably already seen some video of electric bike battery catching fire. It’s pretty impressive. Life four type do not catch fire like that that’s why it’s a good option for boat camper van and homes,

for lithium batteries you ll need a BMS, aka battery management sys, its very important to keep your system safe.

Thats all about batteries, well not really some Other unconventional batteries also exist such as, gravity battery, flywheel, heat battery, and much more, but they’re all a little experimental… one that could be of interested in our off grid set up is a water gravity battery, imagine you have a slopped terrain, a pool at the top and one at the bottom, in the day solar panels pump the water to higher pool and at night, open the valves and little turbines in the pipe work the other way around and generate electricity from the follow, i ve never seen that in use but it might be something interesting, please let me know if you have any info on that.

Optimizing usage Saving power

limit current conversion from 12v to 110v,

So as we saw earlier, you can’t power your regular home appliances directly from 12v, such as Your computer, 3D printer, starlink, power tool battery , and other device. They are sold to be used in a regular household and so to be connected to regular 110 outlets, but they are actually using DC voltage to run, so they convert the alternative current to dc to run. Every time the voltage is converted, there are some losses, so when you transform your battery to AC through the inventor, and then the device transform that back to DC you have double losses, so you could save a little bit of electricity by powering appliance directly with dc power, using a DC to DC step up converter to match the exact indicated voltage.

Another way to optimize usage and comfort is using potentiometer, to lower the voltage and so dim the lights or slow down the fan, and so use less electricity

Also dont forget to use efficent technologie such as Led, brushless technologie, battery powered tool instead of corded ones…