The primary heater for domestic water is pictured above. There are two steel water heater cores, painted black and connected in series so that one flows into the other and then goes on to supply hot water in the house. The enclosure is insulated on all sides but the front, where dual pane glass is installed. This arrangement provides a much more reliable supply of hot water than a single tank would. In the distance you can see the PV array that provides all of the electricity for the homestead.
Continuing with our tour of Asher Gelbart’s off-grid homestead, above you can see him explaining how he uses common water storage tanks to make little cold frame/greenhouses. The plastic is sufficiently translucent that it serves to gently diffuse the sunlight and the plants obviously are thriving. The tank is cut into two parts at an angle and then hinged in back to make it easy to open and close the top. Not seen, are both a shade cloth and an insulating curtain that can be lifted over the top when needed. I think that in this way he is able to use these all year round.
Over the weekend I had a chance to tour a genuine off-grid homestead that has a lot going on to interest readers. The genius behind what I will show you is Asher Gelbart, who makes his living as a rainwater harvesting technician and Permaculture specialist.
Just getting to his home was a bit of an adventure, as it is necessary to plunge through the Mimbres River and along a rough track for about a mile beyond the little town of Mimbres in Southern New Mexico.
The house itself was not even part of the tour, as it is a fairly conventional home that Asher bought about a decade ago. It already had a 600 watt photovoltaic system installed with batteries for storage of the power when he bought the property, and he is still relying on this to produce all of the electricity that he uses. With this minimal system he is able to pump domestic water from a well below the house up to a large cistern on the hill above. The power also runs a small chest freezer that is set to refrigerator temperatures, which he claims is about ten times more efficient than a regular refrigerator with a vertical door because it doesn’t drain cool air when open. (You can read more about this, and other technology mentioned in this tour, at Asher’s website.)
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