Alternative Technology Assn Forums

1. 

   SunnyBeach
   Member

   Hi there,

   Long-time reader, first time poster, still working my way through the wealth of knowledge in these forums...

   My husband and I are planning to build on 5 acres in the Sunshine Coast hinterland in QLD. We are planning to move out there in about 3-4 years and use it as a weekender until then (probably visiting for 1-2 weekends a month).

   The site does not have water or sewage, but it does have power and phone running out the front of the block. We definitely want to install solar in the future, but while we're just using it as a weekend we thought it’s probably best to connect to the grid for now (assuming the cost to run power to the house site isn’t prohibitive – still waiting on info from Energex + sparky quotes). We would then wait until we are living out there full-time before installing a solar system - with the extra benefit that battery technology etc. will continue to get cheaper as well - eventually we’d like to even consider going completely off-grid if possible.)

   Just interested on peoples thoughts on this, and whether anyone had any advice regarding things we should plan for now at the time of building to ensure that we can fit a solar system with minimal fuss in the future e.g. wiring? (We’ll obviously make sure we have the appropriate roof angle/size/orientation and be choosing appliances/HWS/lighting etc. with solar power in mind but any advice on this would be welcome too)

   Thanks in advance for any advice, cheers.

   Posted Wednesday 6 Jul 2016 @ 1:15:37 am from IP #
2. 

   munter
   Member

   Roof space and orientation are probably the biggest things to ensure get considered when you are at the design stage. Possibly you could also consider the location of your inverter and any battery system in the space planning but this is secondary to my mind in comparison with ensuring good solar access.
   Other than those solar specific items, if you follow the principals of good passive solar design that will help minimise your electricity consumption and therefore reduce the load on any power supply system.

   Posted Wednesday 6 Jul 2016 @ 4:09:12 am from IP #
3. 

   AndrewATA
   Member

   Also if you're thinking of batteries it's a good idea plan ahead for a good spot to put the batteries, inverter, generator etc. Batteries live longer if they're in a spot with a stable cool temperature. But they need ventilation too, and depending on type can catch fire in the unlikely event of a fault.

   Posted Wednesday 6 Jul 2016 @ 4:30:08 am from IP #
4. 

   dax
   Member

   G'day sunnybeach, if you intend going off grid down the track, you may find it more economical to do it when you build. You may have the grid running past your place, but is there a transformer you can tap into close by and at what cost. Needing one pole on your place could raise the cost dramatically and sadly you get no return from grid connect, just constant bills. You need to consider the over all costs of two installs, grid then off grid.

   Personally I would go off grid, you can start now by purchasing some 250w solar panels which are pretty cheap, a couple of 100-120ah deep cycle AGM batteries, a cheap solar controller and cheap 1000w inverter. Then you can do many things, camp there, build your house and be off grid as you go. That way you will be off grid cheaply and can build up your solar system and energy storage as you need it.

   If you want to step into the future, get 100-200amp of lifepo4 cells, they will provide you with close to double the energy compared to what you will get from AGM and you can build your capacity as you want. You can leave lifepo4 packs for a year at least off charge without any detrimental outcomes and they are not as cumbersome, weighty, smelly or polluting as lead acid. There are many who take this route, they use their vehicle charging system to keep the batteries charged whilst using them on the build, or run a small generator to do the same thing.

   Of course lots of things will depend on the type of home you are building and whether you will be involved in the build yourselves. So an idea of what and how you intend building, would help with the type of advise you will get and the more detail of the built, will bring better advice. Being involved in the build, will give you the opportunity to fully understand your energy system and be able to fix anything that may go wrong. Rather than pay a fortune for someone to do it, just a little knowledge may save you a lot of money down the track.

   Posted Wednesday 6 Jul 2016 @ 4:46:56 am from IP #
5. 

   axess
   Member

   Hi SunnyBeach,

   How many square metres of house are you planning to build? The smaller the better is good if you want to control your future costs. Cheaper to heat and cool after your good solar and highly insulated design kicks in. Try and have level access to at least part of the house and any important sheds.

   Try to keep your wiring and plumbing runs centralised if possible too. And the less power and water you use the less you have to provide.

   Good luck and good on you for your advanced planning.

   Posted Wednesday 6 Jul 2016 @ 8:36:49 am from IP #
6. 

   SunnyBeach
   Member

   Wow thanks everyone for the replies! Lots of good advice to mull over.

   We will be building a custom designed home (with a local builder). We won't be OB-ing, but we do want to be as involved as possible in all aspects of the design and build process, to make sure that the house is perfect for us and meets our wants and needs (including things like energy efficiency, passive cooling, low maintenance, etc. etc.) Hence why I'm interested in doing as much research as I can - but also being open to guidance from the experts of course

   A bit more info - the block is totally level, however heavily vegetated with some large trees - will be planning the house site around those if possible, and only clearing as much as we need. (Gotta consider the BAL rating too.) We are in the very early stages of figuring out what we want house-wise, but our current idea is for a raised steel framed pole home for treetop views and to catch the breeze, with a dual skillion roof (the largest skillion will be facing north with the correct roof pitch for the solar panels, and will allow for some south-facing clerestory windows for ventilation.). Probably around 150 square metres for the whole house excluding decks. I've been reading about passive solar design and ventilation at http://www.yourhome.gov.au/ and checking out prevailing winds etc. in our area, we definitely want to make the home as comfortable as possible in the summer. (Once we have some more concrete plans I'll definitely be asking all you experts for advice on the house plan too.)

   Munter and AndrewATA, great advice re: battery and inverter storage. We weren't planning on building underneath the house (except possibly a laundry/utility room - still undecided about whether to have the laundry upstairs) but I guess that would be the best place for battery storage? (We'll also have a shed next to the house.)

   Axess, yep good call on keeping the wiring and plumbing as centralised as possible... We only want one bathroom so that does make it easier to keep the plumbing for kitchen and bathroom in close proximity. (With laundry underneath the house.) Also great advice re water usage... most of our neighbours have good quality bores but obviously that would just be in addition to a rainwater harvesting system & tanks and ensuring the home is water efficient. Something else to start researching! (And we havent even started thinking about waste treatment options...!)

   Dax, thanks for the reply, lots of food for thought there... Yeah the first thing is to find out how much it's going to cost us to get power to the property (and then to the house site). We do have a neighbour directly across the road from us who is hooked into a power pole out the front of their block, but yeah you never know how much Energex might sting us! I have been doing lots of reading here and on other sites to get my head around solar PV and what options we might have if we did decide to go off-grid from the start (and like you say, what a 'weekender' system might look like and what components we'd need to upgrade when we start living out there full-time.). No doubt I'll have lots more questions once we find out the cost to get grid-connected and if it makes more sense to just go ahead with solar from day 1.

   Anyway, thanks again all, looking forward to learning more from the forums (and maybe one day in the distant future I might even be able to contribute our own experiences to add to the knowledge...)

   Posted Thursday 7 Jul 2016 @ 7:14:14 am from IP #

RSS feed for this topic