Welcome to Roland’s Good News File… brought to you by Royal LePage Don Hamilton Real Estate… I’m Roland Archer.
Living off the grid is something that usual brings images of living a simpler existence giving up most of the usual trappings of modern society. This hasn’t been the case for Kevin Armstrong and his family who live in Howick Township.
Kevin is an electrician by trade and after doing a few projects on renewable energy it got him curious on whether living entirely off the grid was feasible.
“I had a couple of small projects. A couple cottages up North for Family members. It was going to cost us a lot to get electricity back to our house so we thought we could put that money better into our own system and live off grid.”
So necessity was the mother of invention for Kevin. He takes us through some of the equipment that is required to setup a home with it’s own ability generate electricity.
“First of all we have 36 solar panels so it works out to 13 kilowatts. That produced dc power so you have to convert it to AC. So you have charge controllers. Then an inverter that changes it from DC to AC. We had lead acid batteries but we have upgraded to lithium which is a plus.”
Usually when you think of making as energy efficient a home as possible you would need to get the most energy efficient appliances as possible. Kevin tells us this hasn’t been the case.
“First the lighting was huge. We love the LED lighting. We do have a gas dryer and gas range.”
The great benefit the family found after using their house was an ample supply of electricity by early in the day. This brought them to their next decision… an electric Tesla car.
“We actually had a friend bring his over. We did a test overnight to see if it could handle it. It did great.”
If you have any questions about living off grid and renewable energy feel free to reach out to Kevin Armstrong. You can find him at newbridgesolarsolutions.com.
For Roland’s Good News File… brought to you by Royal LePage Don Hamilton Real Estate.. I’m Roland Archer.
If you have a person or organization you think should be a Good News File.. go to the Ranch 100.com and click on Roland’s Good News File.