Off Grid By Design

06/09/2023

The look on his face! ❤️

You can make this easy egg-free, homemade vanilla ice cream recipe using farm-fresh or store-bought ingredients. Read on to learn how.

05/28/2023

Galatians 5:22

08/06/2020

We have had many people ask us about EMP protection, especially lately! A good friend introduced us to EMP Shield the other day and it looks like a great solution if you're looking for one. These units have been tested by the military as well as listed by the Department of Homeland Security in their February 5th 2019 EMP Resilience Report. The test results are provided on the website.

I have included a link to the site w/us as their affiliate. If you use our affiliate link, it works like a coupon and you will get $50 off of EVERY device you purchase. There's devices for solar/wind, grid-power, rv and auto, etc... If you need help deciding what you need, feel free to call EMP Shield at 620-412-9978 or just pm me and I'll give you our number to call! If you need information what to do with the device once you get it, we can help with that too! We are certainly living in crazy times - sometimes a little peace of mind is a very good thing!

www.empshield.com/off-grid-by-design
update: if this link makes it to where the coupon doesn't work, just copy/paste it. Facebook adds something to it so I'm not sure what happens from there.

Our team specializes in EMP shielding for your home, vehicle and business from the effects of lightning, solar flares and electromagnetic pulses, with the world's first EMP attack defense technology. Our revolutionary products offer lightning protection for your valuables & shielding from emp surges...

05/26/2018

TECH TIP: The effect of shadows on a solar panel is something you need to know! This is why it is so important to get all those beautiful trees out of the way of your panels! Even a small shadow is going to make a huge difference.

For ease in understanding, let's take a string of 4 solar panels - each panel having 60 cells (so you have a total of 240 cells). If a leaf lands on one of those cells and totally blocks that cell from getting sun - your power will decrease by 1/12 or 8.3% of your total production. If that leaf only covers 1/2 of one cell, your power will decrease by an astounding 50% through the whole array. Yes... if a leaf covers only 1/2 of one cell ... you have lost 50% of the total production of all 4 solar panels!

Surprised??? We were too... this is true for all solar panels - except for the older panels (20 years). The older panels you would loose 100% of your total power if the leaf covered 100% of one cell. The reason the 100% loss doesn't occur anymore is the new bypass diodes built into the new panels limits the loss to 1/3 per panel. (Each panel has 3 diodes, so you only loose 1/3 of that particular panel.)

Any way you cut it - your panels need to stay free of shadows and they need to stay clean (even pollen will cause loss - just hose them off will go a long ways in keeping them clean!) to provide you with the optimum service.

As always - we are here to help you with your off-grid questions and products! Solar panels are getting better and better and we have some great deals going now on panels and mounting poles!

Dave & MP Adams

01/02/2018

Here is a very basic illustration of a simple solar system. In the daytime, sunlight is turned into electricity at the solar panels and sent to the charge controller - which puts it in usable levels for your batteries. When power is needed, it is taken from the batteries to the inverter - which inverts it to 120/220 volts for use in your house or cabin. At night, you would be using the energy that is stored in the batteries for your power. In times of no sun, an alternative would be needed for electricity like a back-up generator or a wind generator.