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Listening off grid with batteries

Finished the design phase for my new home which will be in a remote off grid location. The design and modeling process has taken over a year. Absolutely amazing what can be done by a talented architect, computer modeling, shading,virtual tour etc. Now it's down to the music room details before we start.

Electric Power will come from solar and micro hydro. Gen set for back up, but only as a last resort.
Does anyone here on Agon have any first hand experience with this kind of set up.
Thinking of a split electrical system where one grid is for the hifi and the other is for the home. Some say it's a waste of time and money but I want to get it right the first time.
Is this necessary when using a solar set up ?
Building homes for 25 years but this will be my first off grid home.
rugyboogie

Showing 3 responses by t_bone

t_bone
1,182 posts
 
That's very cool. Congrats. And thanks!
I think micro hydro is cool, but it requires a certain setting. I would love to figure out a way to do that for my second system house. I have the water not too far away, but it's theoretically not "mine." If I could wire the electricity a full kilometer, I could definitely make it work - and could probably power the whole hamlet - but that would require a bit more capital, plus a bunch of permissions that I doubt would be easy to get. But it's an idea and you've inspired me so I'll take a look at what is possible.

As to what is possible, no matter what I would go for high-efficiency speakers to get the most bang for your juice buck.
t_bone
1,182 posts
 
The Jadis are not quite as efficient as they could be. The isobaric woofers are 96dB. The mid/trebles are padded down (or they would be 100dB+). My 8W amps are sublime in the treble/mids, but can't hack it in the bass. To get the most out of the bass (which I think goes to 4ohms), I need more power - probably 30W at a minimum.

How much vertical drop and/or flow do you have for the stream? And how much power can you get out of it?
t_bone
1,182 posts
 
Rugyboogie,
Thanks for the details. I wouldn't figured that much usable power was available from that little flow but I need to learn more. If you can get that much, it certainly makes life easier. One of my interests is learning more about energy storage - i.e. energy transformation to the most efficient and flexible "battery" possible, whether physical or not (with hydro, usually the physical battery is a dam), and how to do so with the lowest monetary and energy cost to create the battery (it makes little sense to build a "green system" if building the green system costs so much excess energy beyond existing usage that it is difficult to "break even" on an energy basis. But that's me doing some philosophical navel-gazing...

There is an interesting site called Wattzon.com and it has a bunch of interesting tools which can help people learn about their own electricity consumption and energy consumption, and an especially interesting introductory article called the devil is in the details.

Best of luck in a successful implementation. Please share your results when you are done!
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