Heating and Cooling an Off-Grid Home

Heating and cooling is important to making a home livable, but poses a unique challenge when living off-grid. Based on EIA statistics, 70% of overall American household energy usage is dedicated to heating and cooling. This means that it will be a crucial factor in the size and cost of an off-grid power system. Compared to grid power with virtually unlimited wattage available, an off-grid system has distinctly limited capacity, and has to be carefully planned. All this becomes a critical consideration when you go to build or buy an off grid home.

It’s not sufficient to simply take a normal house and drop a typical AC and central furnace in–the energy usage will necessitate a much larger and more expensive power system.

Ideally, this starts with optimizing the home’s efficiency. Good insulation is a basic starting place, but if starting on a new build, design for optimal efficiency from the beginning with consideration of passive solar design. Optimal home design will reduce the need for heating and cooling from the start, with construction that will optimize natural temperature regulation through managing solar gain, heat retention, and ventilation.

In hot climates, reducing and mitigating solar gain is essential to keep interior spaces relatively cool. In cold climates, good insulation is combined with thermal mass and maximizing solar gain to make the most of limited energy from the sun.

Long-Term Heating Solutions

Without relying on an electric source for heat, you will need to rely on stored fuel of one form or another. Possibilities include:

  • Propane
  • Coal
  • Heating oil
  • Fire wood
  • Wood pellets

Firewood has a unique advantage in that in many regions it can be procured readily, even with hand tools, while other more concentrated fuels must be shipped in. Of course, if you have the ability to locate in a coal or gas producing area, these will be highly attractive options.

There are several variations on wood heat, including fireplaces, wood stoves, wood furnaces, and pellet stoves. A traditional fireplace (without a stove insert) offers very low efficiency, and is generally more amenable to providing ambience than heat.

A wood stove provides a highly efficient burn, producing very little smoke when burning well-seasoned wood. The firebox limits the length of time that it can go untended, but with good use of the damper and air vent, it can be possible to burn consistently overnight. A wood stove does create very localized heat, so it should be positioned strategically within the home to heat it as evenly as possible. Further, because it relies on natural convection, heat from a fireplace will quickly rise in a multi-story home. A wood stove provides a very efficient and easily maintained heat source, needing only regular cleaning of the chimney, and daily tending.

A wood furnace can mitigate some of the disadvantages of wood heat. A hydronic wood furnace burns firewood to heat water for indoor heating and domestic use. This allows direct control of the heat delivered and produces a steady and even heat. Additionally, a wood furnace can be located outside the home reducing the risk to the structure in the case of a chimney fire or other problem. On the downside, the additional controls generally require electricity to function, and an electric pump is required to circulate the hot water. This means that most residential wood boilers are not true non-electric heat sources, but their energy consumption is generally low.

Cooling Strategies

Without a massive solar power system or heavy generator usage, air conditioning is too energy-intensive for use off-grid. To mitigate high temperatures, there are a number of strategies that you can use. Prior to the 1950s, indoor air conditioning was simply unavailable. Most relied on passive cooling, ventilation, and adaptation.

Minimize solar gain. Awnings or trees can provide shade on your walls and roof, reducing the amount of heat from the sun entering your home. Blinds, blackout curtains, or even reflective window coatings (aluminum foil is a cost effective option!) can reduce the heat entering your home or reflect it back out.

Take advantage of nighttime temperatures and cool the home as much as possible at night. Maximize cross-ventilation by opening windows, allowing hot air to exit and be replaced by cold air. By maximally cooling the home overnight, the retained heat is reduced, preventing even greater heat rise the following day. A whole-house fan (although briefly energy intensive) can help provide rapid cooling in the evenings.

Because hot air rises, and additional heat is transmitted through the attic, downstairs and basements can remain substantially cooler than upstairs and aboveground living spaces. Similarly, avoid creating heat indoors–opt for no-cook meals, or doing your cooking on a grill outside.

If all else fails, and the outdoor temperatures are not excessive, it may be preferably to embrace the heat, and simply opt to maximize ventilation regardless of the temperature. It can be preferably to have fresh 90 degree air from outside rather than stagnant and gradually warming indoor air.

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