Ahhhhh....Mosquito Coast.......one great movie....one mans dream and his families nightmare. "Ohhh sure I blew up the house but we're all here together now....right?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC2eC_pN7ZE
OK then...Nothing wrong with "full immersion" if you want. Also nothing wrong with re- creating a NA environment and nothing wrong with something in between.
My issue with complex systems proposed by KWP and BBC is this....only THEY understand it and only THEY can maintain it. I am a EE and I do not want to go down that road. My (yet to be implemented) decision was to forget about solar and wind generation of electricity due to the complexity of construction and maintenance on a remote island coupled with a lack of personnel other than myself to maintain it. Island power is only available 12 hours per day but that is enough to charge batteries and power appliances. Heavy loads like air conditioning and water pumps can be wired directly to the available city electricity. This keeps the battery bank small and the inverters small as well. Batteries to run led lights, fans, refrigeration, computer, and frig. Cooking is propane.
The only problem is island power going from 12 hours per day to zero due to lack of diesel (for political reasons), and that threat seems to be increasing daily. Solution is a standby generator (gasoline).
So the theory is...when the island power is off, the house is partially powered by batteries and when the power is on, the house is powered fully.....no relays or logic involved and the batteries are being re-charged. Forgot to mention that most inverters will switch over to island power automatically when it is available.
The changing costs of batteries and solar panels may drive me to re-think all this, but for now it seems reasonable for this location.
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