Maintaining Off Grid Systems in Winter

Keeping things running when the sun's not shining

Some days, I wonder what it must be like to live off the grid in a truly warm climate like California.  Sunshine year-round, no snow covering your solar panels and I bet their generators never get jammed up with ice. 

While living off the grid in a cold climate has its challenges, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Read More: Maintaining Off-Grid Systems in Winter

We spent 5 years fully off-grid with a battery bank charged by solar and wind. I’ll admit, it felt like maintaining this house was a full-time job, and we found ourselves relying on generator power more than I liked in the winter months.

Five years ago, we decided to keep our off-grid setup…but add a grid tie. The idea was, we’d still live “off grid” but then could flip the grid switch to charge the batteries if need be, and we’d do that instead of running a noisy propane generator.

It’s actually worked out really well, and given that the grid goes down regularly for 4 to 5 days at a time during severe winter storms, our grid-tied “off-grid” house has been pretty spectacular. Kind of a best-of-both-worlds setup, with solar and batteries for every day and then both grid and generator as backup.

Off Grid Living

Looking for more off grid living inspiration?

• Our Off-Grid Solar and Wind Setup (Tour and Specs)

• How to Earn a Full-Time Income While Living Off Grid

• Moving Off Grid on a Budget (Affordable Off Grid)

• Off Grid Appliances

• How to Find Off-Grid Homes for Sale

• 7 Tips for a More Dependable Off-Grid System

• 3 Things We Wish We’d Budgeted for Before Moving Off Grid

• 6 Things I Wish I'd Known Before Moving Off Grid

• 10 Luxuries We Have Off Grid (That Most Suburban Homes Don't)

Things You Might Need This Week

• DIY Root Cellar Plans (Low Cost, Simple Design)

• Gravity Fed Household Water for Off Grid Living

• How to Use a Wood Cook Stove

• Pedal Powered Washing Machine for Off-Grid Laundry

My daughter running a pedal-powered washing machine in the summertime

Seasonal Preserving

Recipes to keep your larder full all year round…in season now:

• How to Preserve a Whole Pig Without Refrigeration - You’re really getting the off-grid theme of this newsletter by now, I hope =)

• Potted Meat (Historical Food Preservation Technique)

• Preserving Eggs in Limewater (Keeps 12+ Months)

Preserving Eggs in Limewater (That’s pickling lime, not the fruit lime…)

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Things I’m Loving

• Field Company ~ By far the nicest modern cast iron I’ve come across to date.  These are high quality, and live up to old-time standards.

• Etsy ~ Believe it or not, most of my best-cast iron came from collectors on etsy.  When modern manufacturers disappoint, you can always just buy dependable antique cast iron that was made to last millennia. (And if you’re curious, here’s how you make waffles on a stovetop cast iron waffle maker.)

Making waffles with a stovetop Cast Iron Waffle Maker

What are you harvesting, preserving, building, or exploring on your homestead this week? I’d love to hear about it!

Leave me a note in the comments…

(Comments only, please. Emails tend to get lost in my inbox, and as much as I’d love to get back to each and every one, my screen time is very limited…and things fall through the cracks, and emails get buried in my inbox. If you comment here, they’re all in one place, and it’s much easier to get back to every single one.)

Until Next Time,

Ashley at Practical Self Reliance