Solar panels

[graynomad]

hot AND humid area then they may ?need? the cooling system more

Yes good point, when it gets too humid we head south. Humidity is a real pain.

leave your domicile less often and purchase in bulk.  Many people going 'off the grid' don't stockpile food that goes bad so quickly.

We try to buy every 2-3 months and can easily live that long without hitting the shops although the choices are a bit slim after a while and there's obviously no fresh stuff left.

a fridge isn't really required

I'll have to disagree most strongly there, where would I put my beer?

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Rob

[ryandamartini]

sounds neat

[keeper63]

Of course, as you may know, a fridge isn't really required for many of us, it's more of a city folk appliance for keeping goods fresh as long as possible so you can leave your domicile less often and purchase in bulk.  Many people going 'off the grid' don't stockpile food that goes bad so quickly.

If I was really going off the grid, and lived out in the boonies here in Arizona, I would try to use "dark/night sky" radiation for my refrigeration needs. It would at least be worth experimenting with.

For cooling, I would investigate a couple of possibilities, if A/C wasn't in the budget: Evaporative cooling via a "waterfall" cooling tower, and/or underground buried piping. Both methods though are low energy use (basically a pump and/or fan) compared to A/C, and both work well in arid environments.

They both do have the drawback that you would need to carefully monitor them and not leave standing water (less an issue in the underground pipe system), so as not to have a legionnaires disease breeding ground. They also take up a lot of room, but if you are living in the boonies, you generally will have some land to spare, so its not a big issue, other than the time to build and install (and the equipment needed).

[graynomad]

Running water down hessian walls is good. I had a mate years ago on an outback property, they had a cool room with hessian walls soaked by a tank on top and some drip mechanism that I can't remember now. It worked pretty well but was bore water so stunk like rotten eggs, after a while you don't notice though.

Another thing to do (as you mentioned) is use the "deep earth" temp that never really varies and rig up a heat exchanger. Just bury X metres of pipe in the ground and circulate between that and a "radiator" in the house. Because it's a closed system there's very little energy used to move the water and you don't have the legionnaires problem.

In Aus we have towns where half of the people live underground like something from star wars. You buy your land and dig into the side of a hill to make a house.



This is a shot of the hill above a motel, the pipes are ventilation for the guest rooms.

On a similar note, check out this hot water system



A role of poly pipe layed out in the sun. It works a treat and I actually recommended this to an Aid agency working in Africa a few years ago as a cheap low-tech method of getting hot water. Apparently it did the job.

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Rob

[Reboticon]

Another thing to do (as you mentioned) is use the "deep earth" temp that never really varies and rig up a heat exchanger. Just bury X metres of pipe in the ground and circulate between that and a "radiator" in the house. Because it's a closed system there's very little energy used to move the water and you don't have the legionnaires problem.

forgive me for being uninformed, but what is the legionnaires problem?

[graynomad]

forgive me for being uninformed, but what is the legionnaires problem?

Sorry Reboticon, I lost track of this thread.

Legionaires is a really bad disease that grows in water, I don't know much about it but you always hear that it's been found in A/C cooling towers in office blocks and half the workers are sick. It's often fatal.

@Mohr Power Solar, you look very much like a spammer to me.

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Rob