Hulk the dog was already on site inspecting our work. { “lightbox_close”: “Close”, “lightbox_next”: “Next”, “lightbox_previous”: “Previous”, “lightbox_error”: “The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.”, “lightbox_start_slideshow”: “Start slideshow”, “lightbox_stop_slideshow”: “Stop slideshow”, “lightbox_full_screen”: “Full screen”, “lightbox_thumbnails”: “Thumbnails”, “lightbox_download”:...Continue reading
A Day in the Life of an Off-Grid Solar Installer
This is our project journal — field stories from off-grid solar installs around Northern Arizona. The 4 a.m. starts, the parts that don't show up, the problems solved on the fly, and a behind-the-scenes look at how these systems actually get built — plus a bit of life on the fringe along the way. Originally posted on the River Daves Place forum; you can read the full thread here.
If anyone here has ever built a steel building, you know damn well that the red iron is the…
If anyone here has ever built a steel building, you know damn well that the red iron is the fastest, easiest part of the build and always looks impressively fast going up. The details and sheet metal seem like they...Continue reading
A memory popped up in my phone today that seems relevant to where this thread is currently at.
How Denise and I ended up moving out here is quite the story in itself, and parallels Joel’s Going Off The Grid story. But that story is for another day. What’s important is that on September 11, 2016, we hauled...Continue reading
One of the biggest challenges we face when we are doing off grid installations in northern Arizona is the weather.
Newcomers just don’t understand-and it usually takes them a couple years of living out here to “get it”. Someone with a vacation home out in the sticks isn’t likely to grasp the issues either. And when I talk about weather...Continue reading
The rest of the shop construction would grind on for about another year, with Joel, Amy, Denise and…
The rest of the shop construction would grind on for about another year, with Joel, Amy, Denise and myself working on it when we could during the long, wet winter months. Just a day after the roof was on, I...Continue reading
Ok, so a slight detour from the shop construction.
I’m pretty excited to share this post. The few of you here from the old GD.com days may remember this vehicle, its story, and may have guessed what I’m about to post. I’d like to introduce the rest of you...Continue reading
Don’t look now-but we are back out in the field!
Today was mostly getting there, meetings, and getting set up. And a whole new truck load of parts: And a little bit of conduit. 😬 Got to spend a few minutes and check out one of my favorite spots here....Continue reading
So this week we have been back up at the Camp on Mingus Mountain, and while we’ve been busy, there…
So this week we have been back up at the Camp on Mingus Mountain, and while we’ve been busy, there hasn’t been much that was picture worthy, and we’ve busy enough that getting pictures has been low on our priority...Continue reading
Alright!
We spent a long week on the job, got a bunch of odds and ends taken care of, then headed home for a nice, carefree, relaxing weekend doing nothing, right? Insert record scratching noise here. Well, there wasn’t a whole...Continue reading
This week has been a bit crazy.
A bunch of time got sucked up by circumstances beyond our control that limited how much work we were able to get done-but we did get good progress on our current project. When we arrived on site on Monday, the...Continue reading