With solar electricity the
list of appliances is short. The few things described here are
carefully selected to work with our system, and in fact, half
of them are non-electric!
Refrigerator:
I knew that choosing and installing this relatively
important appliance would require some thought. An electric
refrigerator easily represents the single largest power
consumer in an off-the-grid home. Something to ponder
with a 300 watt array!
There's off course the propane option, but since cost
and ethics speak strongly against this solution, it
was rejected early on.
Also a monster free standing unit would gobble up a
lot of precious floorspace.
Again Backwoods
Solar came to the rescue. They suggested the Novacool
R4500, a 12V, built-in reefer of modest dimension and
power consumption. The unit is high quality, plenty
big for us (others beware!!) and equipped with a silent
Danfoss compressor.
From mid april to mid october our system can easily
fuel Nova's average needs of 300 watt hours/day. So
far so good. But what to do in the remaining months?
Framing the refrigerator into a northfacing exterior
wall with half the unit protruding into the frigid winter
air was the elegant solution. Simply turn off the power
when the days get short and cloudy and wait for nature
to passively preserve the crisp veggies. It works remarkably
well.
The portion that sticks out in the elements is framed
in by a bottomless plywood box with a sloping metal
roof. In the summer, when the temps hover around 90
degrees we wrap the refrigerator with precut pieces
of rigid insulation.
I expected some condensation to form on the outside
of the refrigerators metal casing, given the steep temperature
gradient from inside the cabin to outside. With this
in mind the wall opening is tightly packed with rigid
insulation to eliminate airflow before applying a sturdy
vapor barrier. The bottom of the hole is gently sloping
to the outside. Inspections at various seasons have
not revealed any moisture, though.
KitchenAid:
A 110v indulgence. The only item inside the cabin that
require turning on the inverter, but the delicious dips
and smoothies Sonja make are essential.
Stove,
cooking:
Non electric propane stove. We found a 20" model
with standing pilot lights. It is just one step up from
a camping unit in size. In fact, install this stove
in any normal sized kitchen and it would look ridiculous,
but here it fits right in!
It has 4 burners and a decent oven and is made by Premier.
Stove,
heating:
Cast iron wood burning unit from Vermont Castings. See
more on heating here
CoyoteCottage.com
is NOT a commercial site. Neither are we on a quest to change your
political or religious leanings.
All this is about is simplefying and downsizing because it makes
sense. Web design by fivenineclimber.com