Many of our friends and family know that we have a decent generator for our home in Maryland that is in a rural area outside Washington D.C. Our only utility is electricity and there are no sewer, water or gas lines in our community. We are surrounded by farms with animals such as cows, horses, chickens, goats and even a peacock. It is a very peaceful area but having only above ground electric lines we are very vulnerable to outages due to severe storms year round. Last Friday night the entire DC area was hit by a derecho (a land hurricane) which left millions without power during one of the hottest heat waves to hit the Mid-Atlantic in years.

Thankfully, we have a generator that can power our well pump, fridges, lights, Internet, TVs/phones, and microwave. But it is not powerful enough to run our heating/cooling units. During this heat wave, being without air conditioning is downright dangerous to your health. In addition to storm damage (some of our siding was blown off which I have since repaired), roads were blocked by downed trees and power lines and businesses like gas stations, ATMs and grocery stores were closed because they had no power either.

These conditions and the slow response by our local electric company, PEPCO to restore power throughout the area taught me that I need to be more prepared and self-sufficient when it comes to providing energy for my home. As a result, I am looking to purchase a larger portable gas generator to power all of our appliances and HVAC systems but I will still be faced with the problem of needing to have a long-lasting supply of gas on hand. During this latest outage, we had to make long-distance gas runs to keep our smaller generator running and it was not easy to find an open and working gas station that had fuel. Some were out of gas! The larger gas generator is obviously not a long-term solution for lengthy disasters. Standby generators that use propane are another consideration but they would probably last about a week until the propane runs out and again, this type of fuel supply is vulnerable to vendor outages.

So I am considering a solar option. It is a renewable energy source and can be operated off the grid or tied into the grid. I am leaning toward pole-mounted sun tracker solutions since they are 25% more efficient than fixed roof-mounted solar panels and I have lots of land to set it up a pole-mounted system. Problem is some of these solar systems are 3 times as costly as a large gas generator and wind damage to the panels is a concern of mine. We get a lot wind here during storms being at the highest point in our county. So the system will need to have a low profile to reduce being affected by the wind. Also, I need a decent amount of wattage for all our appliances, so I will need a fair amount of panels to get the power we need. Again, more panels means more money. Of course, I need to upgrade my power intakes to adapt to a solar system which is even more money. So I am looking at least a $10K system with a battery backup.

So my research continues but I need to get a solution set up short-term since I am certain that we will face another outage event again this year (from perhaps a hurricane coming up the coast, a snowstorm or just another wicked line of severe thunderstorms). In the 21st century, it should not be difficult to set yourself up to live off the grid but unfortunately it does take a lot of effort. I am determined to find a way for us! It would give me peace of mind living in such a beautiful but remote area. Stay cool!

- Tom