I've paid, on average, around £30 a month for my electricity usage for the last decade, so I've never thought of it as a particularly significant expenditure - £30 a month is about the same as I spend on my broad band connection, about 50% less than what I spend on heating, about a third of what I spend on council tax, 25% of what it costs me to run my car, and a whopping 20 times less than I spend on mortgage payments.
TBH this has always irritated me a little - because one of the most fun things about my plan to go off grid is setting up a small solar electricity system - I mean, let's face it, off-grid solar energy systems are just cool, so I just kind of wish the cost of buying electricity from the grid was a little more expensive, so my relative savings could be better, compared to other aspects of off-grid living.
Having said that, if you look at things over a 10 year period, then a small'solar, off-grid electricity system does offer significant savings in the long term, even if you factor in a couple of new batteries along the way.
My Covid-impacted limited transitioning budget that I can only afford a very small scale system, the kind that's going to allow me to run mobile technology, and definitely not a washing machine!
How much will a small scale solar set up cost me?
Given that the plan is Portugal, where it's reasonably sunny, I figure I can get away with a 100 watt solar panel system, at least initially - that should be enough to power lap top, tablet, phone, lights, radio, and recharge some batteries for a few electric tools, as long as I'm careful.
Now I've already got a 100 Watt solar panel system - that cost me £220 (a bit pricey because it's easily portable, but I wanted low hassle at the time).
If I need to double up to a 200 Watt system, I can pick up another 100 Watt panel and connectors for just < £100, so that's somewhere between £220 - £320 total cost for the panels, and these should last me a good decade at least.
I've also already got a 1000 Watt inverter (hoping to run my 900 Watt Nutribullet), which cost £70.
I'm not sure what battery to buy, it's somewhere between the following two as 'entry level' batteries:
- A 20 Amp Hour Lithium Ion, for £120, or
- This 10.5 Amp hour portable charging unitfor £240, which has wireless phone charging and all the ports built in - it does look rather funky!
Total solar set up costs
- Total min cost = £220 + £120 + £70 = £410
- Total max cost = £320 + £240 + £70 = £630
- Total max cost with a couple of extra batteries (cheap ones!) = £750
These are for me personally, and guesstimated. You could probably do this for less, you could certainly do it for more!
How long until this pays back compared to regular leccy?
Below I've compared my total min solar cost with my total max solar cost over 10 years with my full £360 a month leccy bill, and also a £10 a month cost, which discounts all of those appliances I can't realistically use when off-grid, and which account for most of my grid-use.
Even with my worst case scenario estimates - I end up breaking even after 6 years in 2026, and after 10 years I've saved almost £500 with the off grid system.
If I compare the 'max expenditure on solar (let's be pessimistic!) to the £30 a month grid expenditure, then I break even after one year, and make a saving of around £2500 over 10 years - not too shabby!
Which is the fairest comparison?
Maybe comparing the off-grid scenario with the full cost of my £30 a month leccy maybe isn't fair - at home I run a fridge freezer, electric cooker, regular T.V. and (and am I going to miss this....)..... a washing machine. I'll be giving all of these up to go off-grid.
If I wanted an off grid system that allowed to me run those heavier load appliances, I dread to think how much it would cost. I'd need a huge battery capacity for the freezer alone, and to be able to handle the spikes when I washed anything.
You could argue it's a fair comparison, because the off-grid system forces you into not being to use heavy load items, so that is part of the saving!
However, the discounted £10 a month figure, which discounts the electricity I use for such appliances that you can't realistically use with a small-scale off-grid system is certainly fair, I think.
But it's not just about the money..
I've always just wanted wanted wanted my own off-grid solar set up - this is about tech-fun, self-reliance and this slightly obsessive streak I've got with monitoring everything - I mean once I get this set up I can start obsessively counting how much wattage or amps, or whatever the units are (see I'm so knowledgeable!) for whatever appliance I'm using - it'll be techno-autist spread sheet heaven!
Postscript: is this off-grid leccy stuff even eco-friendly?
I haven't researched the environmental impact of solar panels and batteries, I'm a bit scared to, I've got this suspicion I'd discover they're terrible news for the planet, with all those nasty chemicals in the batteries?
Compared to a green-grid system, I/ we small scale low impact people might not be that low impact at all?
Or maybe that's not true with Lithium Ion, and maybe not all panels are created equal in terms of their environmental impact?
Posted Using LeoFinance
I looked into the price of Grid tied Solar and it was very expensive. Then I priced batteries for offgrid and it was worse. Then I learned that you need to keep the batteries topped up with a gas fuelled generator.... and you pretty much can never go on holidays since you need to always be there to check on battery levels ..... so I just decided to reduce my energy consumption And look into some small solar gadgets to power up my devices.
I hear you, I think it's going to be a pain going off grid!
I see these people going off the grid here in Canada.... buying a large property and then having to chop many trees down to heat their offgrid cabin. It doesn’t make any sense.