Our Cabin, how things evolve
We've had a remote cabin for many years, it a great proving ground for AE (Alternative Energy) solutions. in the beginning, disposable propane bottles fed the cooking stove and the lantern. About 15 years ago, one of our friends bought us a refill adapter that allowed us to fill disposables from a 5 gallon propane bottle. What a significant savings this seemed to be at the time. Put the empty in the freezer for a bit and then screw it onto the adapter. Sometimes you got a complete refill in one shot, sometimes you needed to return the bottle to the freezer for an additional cool down. Some folks make a tool that allows them to open the safety valve for refills, I always thought this was too much trouble, it's a lot quicker to cool em off before filling. If you're smart, you'll weigh a full bottle and have some idea as to what you need to put back in. If you overfill one, it will vent via the pressure relief valve, if you have a bunch of overfilled bottles in the trunk, and you have a spark, you could blow yourself up. Building a simple balance scale could help you to fill at the proper weight. Placing a drop or two of oil into the valve will help you detect an improperly seated (leaking) valve. Sometimes you can plunge the head of a finish nail into a leaking valve and get a proper seat. Only takes a minute to check them. I carry them in our open utility trailer or in the back of the pickup for an added measure of safety. Done properly, it can save you money. You can get the refill adapter at Harbor Freight, and probably lots of other places. If you're not going to take precautions, spend the extra money and buy the bottles or get an adapter and run your stuff directly from the 5 gallon or larger bottles. We will probably use the smaller bottles for years; running the propane torch, using the lanterns outside for yard lights. Lighting in the out house. They have their place, and we have dozens of them.
Propane makes noise, some lanterns seem to make enough racket where they're hard to talk over. On top of this annoyance, they are a safety hazard. The longer you listen to them hiss, the more attractive electric lights get. Of course, you could try kerosene, we did, but it was difficult to get a good wick, good lamp and good fuel all at the same time. There were times I thought we'd be better off with smudge pots. I know some people get the hang of it, but we never did.
Sooner or later, you rediscover the electric light. I used to grab tail light bulbs out of junked cars, I'd collect them in a little plastic box for replacement bulbs and lighting solutions at one cabin or the other. You often start out with a Deep Cycle battery from Wall Mart and run 12 volt stuff. Some folks find a little black and white 12 volt TV and enjoy getting a little bit of the evening news. You can haul your battery back to your vehicle for a charge now and then, but as you would expect this gets old after you do it for a few years, or is it the fact that we get older?
The next step seems to be the modified sign wave inverter. Connect this with short heavy leads to your battery and you will do away with many of the problems found with the poor man's 12 volt system mentioned above. With the inverter, you can power 120 Volt AC compact florescent fixtures and have bright lights with a lot less current draw off the batteries. I personally like the 13 watt twisted bulbs that are found in lots of stores across the country. You can power almost all the small household appliances off a decent inexpensive inverter, TV, Satellite receiver, blender, electric shaver, Computer, Water pump, and much more. If the Modified sine wave inverter was this cheap in 1980, I would have gone this way from the start. The inverter does use a little energy in the standby mode, but running 12 volts any distance creates more losses than a run of 120 volts AC.
After you start living with 120 volts AC off the grid, you start plugging in more things. You discover direct TV, and how easy it is to run your receiver and color TV off a small inverter. In fact, I found our 19 inch color TV, and DSS receiver ran very well off a $40 inverter! Ahh, the cabin is getting very comfortable.. propane for heating water, you can take a hot shower, catch up on the news before bed and enjoy the peace and quiet when you want it. Pretty soon you're spending more time there and pushing your system to the limits. Don and Patti Rowe have the best deals on inexpensive inverters I could find, and I looked a long time, check them out.
You may have arrived at a point in life where it might be worthwhile (or at least fun) to know what the world has to offer in the way of off the grid solutions. There's good news for folks that enjoy working with their hands, lots of this stuff can be built at home for less money. If you have wind at your site, consider building your own wind machine, if you have lots of sun, buy some solar panels and build your own system. If you're forced to use an engine for your power source, maybe there's a way to harness more of that energy and put it to work heating water for the shower or washing dishes?
