Beating the (Power) System

The East Coast blackout is the second time there has been a power crisis in recent years, both for different reasons. The growing pressure of population and increased use of electricity in our daily living almost guarantees that this is only the beginning of problems with a massive grid, especially if Bush fixes power the way he is fixing the economy.

Five years ago I set about to see if I could build a solar electric system that would be cost competitive with a motor driven generator for emergency power. Here is what happened.

I set $5,000.00 as a goal and nearly reached it. My original system cost $6,000. BUT here are the differences.

We do not have to store volatile and dangerous gasoline to run it, nor wonder if the gas supply will continue. Gas stations rely on electric pumps to lift gas from their storage tanks. Most urban areas will allow only five gallons of gasoline to be stored on a residential property. Five gallons is not usually enough for a power outage. Bad news.

My solar electric system keeps on working, regardless of the Grid.

I didn't want to waste electrical power, so my office and computer are permanently connected directly to the solar electric system. It has supplied electricity to that portion of my house continuously since then. I still have power during blackouts because of a storm or some other failure of the Grid. Each day the batteries are recharged and I have power to work at night, which is when I work as a self-published writer.

The solar system works even on cloudy days, not to peak performance, but enough so that the batteries are recharged for the next night's work. Usually my batteries are recharged by 10:00 AM; it takes a little longer with clouds.

The details of building this system are in a book, Using Sunlight For Your Own Solar Electricity, and recently, we published a second volume of the same title that describes experience, maintenance and applications of the system in Volume 1.

We have gone solar. Our water is supplied from a solar driven well, our hot water is heated by a solar water heater, and we have two passive solar space heaters that heat our house during the day, even on a cold day with snow on the ground.

I don't have to be worried about engine wear and maintenance as would be the case if an M-G set was used for emergency power. I don't have to worry about the neighborhood fighting the engine noise. I don't have to be concerned about exhaust pollution either.

There are other benefits.

When power prices soared on the West Coast, the power cost from my solar electric system remained the same as it had when the cost was established five years ago.

I have a truly un-interruptible power source for the computer. It continues to work no matter what is happening on the grid.

Solar power is derived from the sun's distributed energy over the earth's surface. It does not lend itself to massive power generation systems, but provides independent energy to a given location. It is difficult to see how large government-regulated power companies can control a distributed system. It is a nuclear source that is not accumulating radioactive waste here on the planet.

It is not a gift. If you decide to have a solar system, built by others, plan on doubling the price. The books tell how you can build your own.

Here we are, in the Pacific Northwest, a location that is not best suited for solar applications. Who decided that? It works. We are happily satisfied to keep on using the sunlight, demonstrate that there are other ways of having power, and laugh at grid dependency. Sure we need more power for our "all electric home," but we need a lot less this way.

Would I totally use solar electricity? If I could afford it, I would, but this has been a great head start. Candles? Only for the time it takes to switch over to our emergency system.

August 20, 2003

Ralph W. Ritchie [send him mail] is a freelance writer.

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