Hello from Cincinnati Ohio
 

Hello all.. My name is rob.. Im about to buy my first house at 24.. I plan on overtime (hopefully in the next 5 years or so) to be off grid... And I plan on doing the solar dhw as well..


Edit and by off grid I mean grid tied with net metering...

Welcome to the site Rob. Have you selected land that is good for solar setup?

It's not perfect but it's pretty good... And I have almost 2 acres of field next to the house

That's a pretty big field. Hope you don't have to mow it! :)

How's that field look as a site for some solar panels?
It stinks not having any wide open space to install ground mounted panels..
My backyard is about the worse place I can imagine for installing PV.. :(

Welcome aboard Rob,
Tell us about the house, and What kind of improvements are you planing..etc.. :)

Sorry for the long wait been busy moving in I closed on the house wednesday.. The house seems to be pretty well insulated and has newer windows that don't seem to be drafty at all.. So from that stand point ive got a pretty good start.. The furnace is older but seems to do a pretty good job looking into possible replacing it at some point with geothermal.. But that might be a few years from now.. Main goals are solar power and solar dhw. I haven't really decided if I'm going to put them on the roof or in the field next to the house. I'm not sure if I like the idea of them in the field yet..

You may think the house is well insulated, but you never really know unless you have an energy audit done. I highly recommend this. They cost a few hundred dollars, but they tell you exactly what needs to be done with the house to cut down on your heating bill. They also come back once you are done doing improvements and can qualify you for tax credits that can more than pay for the audit price. My guess is even if its well insulated, its probably not sealed all that great. This is the most common problems with houses.

Congrats on the house btw!

You should read about Gary's ground mounted PV system.
Designing and Installing a Grid-Tie PV System
Might take an hour to finish reading the highlights and looking at the pictures.. :)

That's a very informational link.. Thanks xringer.. Well upon closer review I'll have good solar production in the summer time.. Winter time not so much.. (for roof mount that is) id have to remove a few trees but i really dont want to... but then I got thinking about wind... I'm on top of a hill for the most part... So I'll try to get a few pics up in the next few days... Been reading into axial flux alternators.. Only thing I don't really like about them is the 300-400$ for magnets lol anyone know where to get them cheaper??

Trees can also be a problem with wind power. Unless they are very small trees.

I know one guy who has been pretty successful with wind power.
He also has a lot of PV too, since he lives off-grid.
Check out his wind videos on Youtube.. Bubblytubebob's Channel - YouTube

I've also seen a lot of videos of windmills that weren't turning, since they were
installed in a bad location. Be careful to fully test your site, to insure it has
enough wind to make it worthwhile.

We've been getting some 5 MPH wind around here today.. Gusts aren't too bad. :o
http://pauland.net/wspeeddaycomp.png

What weather station/ anemometer are you using?