Is it possible to provide 100% of your home’s power needs with solar panels? The short answer is YES. Solar power is a viable option to provide all of your electrical needs if: But it’s more than just some solar panels. If you’re considering going off the grid with solar power, there are a lot…
Does Solar Power Work in the Winter? Our 7 Most Commonly Asked Questions
How well does solar power work in the winter? Can solar panels even make power in the cold winter months? The short answer is YES, a solar panel system can work quite well in the cold, dark winter months! But there are many common misconceptions about how well solar systems can work in the wintertime….
What Size Berkey Water Filter Do You Need?
SUMMER 2024 UPDATE: While we are still having a great experience with our Berkey, actually obtaining one can be difficult if not impossible right now. There are many reasons for this, and I’ve written a thorough post explaining all of the issues surrounding Berkey Filters right now. I also take some time to evaluate several viable Berkey…
Expanding an Existing Small Solar Power System
Looking at installing your own off-grid solar power system? It’s exciting, but it’s hard to know where to start, especially on a small budget. In this post, I’ll show you how we created our original off-grid power system, how we expanded it, and the lessons you can learn from our mistakes.
How to Get Started With Solar Power for Your Home
Where do you start when you want to get solar power for your home? The costs of going solar are always going down, and with the increasing demands of climate change, maybe now seems like a good idea to install solar power. But where do you actually start? Do you have to be rich to…
How We Run Air Conditioning With Off-Grid Solar Power
Our family has been living with off-grid solar power since 2017. When we first started, we had a relatively small solar power system. We could run many things with the system that we had! But there was one problem: We didn’t have enough power to run air conditioning. Everything changed last year when we tripled…
How We Built Our Cordwood Shed
From 2017 through the first half of 2020 we had a modest 1.14-kilowatt off-grid solar system. We had six 190-watt panels, a single Morningstar charge controller, and a 4000-watt MagnaSine inverter feeding 500 aH worth of lead-acid AGM batteries. Through great providence and the generosity of some friends of the blog, we were able to…
7 Tips for Beginning Homesteaders
In March 2020, grocery store shelves ran barren of toilet paper, milk, eggs, and bread. Everyone panicked about where they were going to get the staples they needed to feed their families. Well, almost everyone. You see, most seasoned homesteaders were doing just fine. And as regular folks slowly realized the value of keeping backyard…
Our Relaxed Homeschool Schedule and Routine
If you’re a new or sudden homeschooler, especially if you’re home because of the ongoing crisis, this schedule reflects what our typical day looked like pre-crisis. I look forward to when we can get back to this. Our daily routine is pretty similar even with social distancing; we’re just not going out to our favorite…
Four Big Worries of New and Sudden Homeschool Parents: How You Can Relax and Succeed Right Now
If you’re suddenly homeschooling because your school is closed or if you are relatively new to it by choice, there’s no doubt that it can be a difficult adjustment from traditional schooling. You might be struggling to find a routine that works for you. Or maybe you’re constantly fighting with your kids to get school…