It has been a while, but I know that at least a few people have asked about the current status of off-grid projects and life in the boreal forest. And there has been much progress since my last update! I will give a brief overview here, and then follow with a series of posts describing our current set of off-grid projects and adventures.
For newcomers who might have just stumbled across this page. We live off-grid, not connected to any physical utilities. While our energy generation is fully autonomous in that every watt we consume is produced locally, we still rely on a mixture of fuel sources and solar. Because we are so far north, we are completely dependent on our diesel generator for the three months in winter. I have been adding additional PV capacity over time, but I am reaching the point of almost being maxed out on my system as it is currently configured. I am using 5 of the 6 available MPPT inputs across my two inverters. So I have to choose wisely about what to do with that 6th slot!
Off the top of my head here is a brief update on the energy project:
- Upgraded our battery bank to two Homegrid Stacks for about 75 kwh of rated storage.
- Added a second Sol-ark 15k hybrid inverter charger
- Added additional PV panels on the garage roof
- Added additional monitoring (still in progress):
- Solar Assistant
- Tigo Optimizers on garage panels for per PV monitoring and partial shade optimization
- TG-410 generator controller with modbus and CT sensors
- New switchgear to support bypass and backup generator input
These are just the highlights. Each of these was a major project! I will give more updates later, but I want to share a sneak preview of my current set of projects: an off-gird home automation / SCADA / digital twin system that is optimized for our Alaskan homestead. Here are some of the applications that I hope to build over the next few years:
The first application is fuel tank monitoring. Running out of fuel is one of the biggest challenges and worries, especially in winter with multiple tanks for different purposes. During winter, it can take days to get a fuel delivery, so there should be no question of whether someone ordered heating fuel or the amount in the tank. The goals are to be able to view the current amount of fuel in the tank in gallons, correct for temperature, and then compute the estimated energy content. This will allow me to eventually use tools to predict how many days of fuel remain and to act on that. Also, it allows for alerts and active load control should the fuel level become low and track fuel usage over time.
Related is power system monitoring and automation. I have tools for this now: Solar Assistant, the Tigo App, Homegrid has an app, Sol-ark has an app. There is an app for my generator. But each one of those only shows a portion of the data and none of them provide for automation. Solar Assistant is closest, and it does provide integration into Home Assistant which I use now. But it does have some limitations. Ideally I want to monitor and control not just the generation and storage but also distribution and consumption so that I can answer questions like. “what device is triggering issues at 2AM? How much power is the dishwasher using? Is the generator running? Can I start the washing machine now?”
Do you have a pantry? Do you have a grain mill, or do you roast your own coffee, or brew beer? Or do you just have a prepper pantry with long term storage? In all of these cases, there is an inventory challenge in tracking bulk dry goods like grain and beans. Especially if you buy in bulk as we do, tracking the amount of product in storage, and predicting when to order another 25 to 50 pounds of grain can become challenging once you have 5 or 10 (or 30) bins stacked on shelving in the pantry. So I am working on an automated bin monitoring system to track and alert when products are low. The same system could track usage over time.
Living in Alaska means dealing with snow in winter. Living off-grid in Alaska means that dealing with snow becomes a priority. Knowing how much snow fell overnight lets me know how I will be spending the day. More importantly, it gives me the opportunity to automatically melt snow on my deck stairs, if I have the power available. Expanding the scope of environmental monitoring to seismic events and lightening (not that we get much of that) is also at least informative and a safety feature.
Another uniquely Alaskan (or at least Northern) experience is aurora viewing. The Northern Lights are spectacular, and they are often visible on cold dark nights. It can be exciting when you hear a family member look outside and say, “the lights are out tonight!” This summer I bought a magnetometer (that I need to build and set up!) that can monitor solar magnetic flux. I plan to use this as both an aurora alert system, but also as a solar weather tracker. Since the lights are often behind clouds, I cannot always seem them, but now at least I know that they are there if there is a break in the clouds.
Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city, has the nickname “the city of lights” because historically, at least, the community is filled with holiday lights. Permanent exterior holiday lights are very popular, as are lit winter displays. Living off-grid precludes the use of always on holiday lights, but we have long had LED string lights on our sauna. Those could be replaced with controllable pixel strings and we might add them to the main house and garage with load control and battery awareness so that the lights are only on when we are home and awake and if there is enough power stored in the batteries.
Lighting control is a standard feature of most home automation systems, but with the magnetometer available, the current flux levels could be used to change light and color levels, effectively bringing the aurora inside or compensating for cloud cover.
We have some other niche needs, such as aquarium water quality monitoring and bird call classification that we might incorporate over time.
About time! I was growing roots waiting!!