So you see, I have not had to pay a electric bill for over seven years now! Yeah, that's great! The house I live in, has never had wires hooked up to it and the electrical grid is about half a mile away. This house was built in the 1850s, and has never even had any kind wiring inside of it - not even the telephone. Until I put it in.

Most people think, to live "off the grid" you must have a big fancy solar system, that will cost so much money that it won't pay to unhook from the utility companies. If you wanted to, you could hook up with a small, add as you can afford it system, like I have. When we first moved here, our system consisted of two fork lift truck batteries (deep cell lead acid), one 50 watt solar panel, an automotive inverter, a small charge controller, and a old car we used to charge the system when there was no sun (Hey! I live in New York! You need twice the amount of panels that other places do.).

The batteries store the energy until you need or use it. The inverter converts the 12 volt DC (Direct Current) from the battery into 120 AC so you can plug in your normal household appliances. When the charge level is low, you can use a generator to recharge the batteries. A charge controller is a small unit that receives the power from the solar and controls the amount of power that goes into your batteries. To prevent the batteries from being overcharged, it automatically stops charging once your batteries are full. Meters are necessary to keep you aware of what is going in and going out at all times. Fuses or circuit breakers are a neccessary part of your system in the connections between the batteries and other power components (in my case, solar and the generator).

 Setting up your system can take a few hours to a few days. It all depends on how much you know about it and how big of a system you are installing. A small system like this isn't too hard for someone who knows something about electrical power. You can also hire a certified installer to do it for you.

Now, our system has been enlarged a little since then, and we keep adding to it. We now have have four fork lift truck batteries, a meter, a better charge controller, two more solar panels, and a generator, that is made special for this system, it's DC only. Soon, we will be adding a wind turbine and more panels, and putting them on our new barn's roof, to get better sun.

 I have learned to use very little power, so in fact, I run my online internet store using my laptop computer. Of course, you have to watch how much power is coming in or going out. And when you buy electrical appliances, you have to be sure they are not power hogs. Even buying a gas cooking range, I had to order one special, that has absolutely no electrical parts to it at all. If your power goes out and you have a glow bar in your oven, you can't use it. I do use a Serval gas refrigerator. But as I build my system, I could buy one of those new Sun Frost Electric Refrigerators. They use way less electrical power, than even the newest energy efficient models on the market now.

 One other point that I thought would be worth mentioning, is that many states now have rebates for the people who want to install alternative power systems. In New York state, I know that you have to be connected to the power grid system to get the rebate and you have to use a certified installer. I don't know about the other states, but it is worth looking into.

You can do all the things most other people do, in fact we watch movies on a home theater system that my husband set up especially for watching western movies. The only thing you do different is to keep an eye on the system and be aware of your power usage. But that's worth not having to pay that bill every month!

 If you are interested in setting up your own small homestead and small solar system, I have detailed the way I did it in my eBook, My Homesteading Journey. It is 66 pages with photographs as well. Comes as a PDF file and you can download it onto your computer. Copywritten by me and you will not be able to purchase it anywhere else for a penny.  It is listed for sale in the eBooks category. I think you'll like it.

Kathleen G. Lupole is a writer specializing in homesteading type of articles. She has been published in a number of publications, such as Countryside Magazine, Mother Earth, Horse & Rider Magazine and American Profile Magazine. She is currently writing her own blog at www.katlupesblog.blogspot.com.

Kathleen lives in the middle of thousands of acres of  New York state forest on her off the grid homestead, growing food in her gardens and raising her horses, cats and dog.