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Does anyone have plans for self-sufficient power supply for a small house?

I am tired of paying high electric bills. Plus, using fossil fuel.

Public Comments

1. There are several plans available. The plan you need depends on what you are wanting, like to be off the grid or just something like net metering.
2. do like we did when there wasn't,t electricity, Ya in the late 40,s early 50,s electricity wasn't"t available for homes we use kerosene lamps, for light cooked on a wood stove, hand pump your water, heated with wood &coal did laundry in a tub took a bath in a tub and listen to a battery powered radio,
3. If you don't want to use fossil fuel, you'll need water, wind or solar energy to provide electricity. Ask yourself how badly you even need electricity in the first place. You may find you get along very well without it. If you have a stream or a water source uphill from where you need power, you can tap the power of gravity and the fluid motion of water to generate power. Look into water wheels and other methods for generating mechanical and electric power from streams. Don't overlook mechanical power applied directly to things you need to spin or move. Sometimes the effort to convert to electricity and store the electricity add a lot of expense that is unnecessary if all you plan to do with it is go back to mechanical motion with the electrical power anyway. If you have a lot of direct sunlight, you can charge car or golf cart batteries with inexpensive solar panels and use 12 volt power for most of the things people need around a home that normally use 110 volts. For those that have no 12 volt version, you can use an inverter to create 110 as needed from your 12 volt batteries. Batteries are not cheap. If you need shorter bursts of a lot of power, you can wire two 6 volt golf cart batteries together for a lot of electrical storage at a reasonable price. Look at the RV web sites for information on this. Heat your water using the sun with solar systems designed to capture energy and heat water directly, storing it in well insulated tanks until needed. Good luck
4. Go to the Real Goods website. http://www.realgoods.com They are one of the best resources for technologies for self-sufficient power including solar and wind. They test all the products they sell to make sure they are effective, sell books about building your own systems, offer courses in how to do it and offer consulting services for home owners and businesses to help them figure out what will work for them. Also, pick up "Mother Earth News" magazine, which has great homesteading and alternative energy articles. There are no "simple plans" for making a small house self-sufficient but it is a reasonablly achievable goal with a number of strategies and installations, depending on your location, budget and personal abilities. In fact, if you create a good enough power generating system for yourself, the power company has to pay YOU for any excess you contribute to the grid.