Off-Grid Recommendations

• Electric heating
• Electric heat pumps

• Wood stove or furnace
• Solar thermal radiant floor heat
• Super-efficient propane or natural gas furnace
• Convection furnaces (relying on the principal that hot air rises) and vented heaters that do not require electricity to distribute their heat

• Air-conditioning

• Open floor plan with well-placed windows for natural ventilation
• Small, efficient fans

• Electric cook stove

• Liquid Propane (LP) or Natural Gas (NG) cook stove
  • without an electric glow bar (which draws electric the entire time the oven is in use)
  • without an electric pilot

• Electric hot water heating

• Solar thermal
• LP or NG instantaneous water heater
• LP or NG tank heater

• Electric dryer

• Clothes line
• LP or NG dryer

• Standard refrigeration

• Super-efficient refrigeration
  • AC models
    • Sunfrost
    • Conserv
    • Sundanzer (chest-style refrigerator)
    • Crosley (chest-style freezer)
    • Super-efficient EnergyStar rated refrigerators are possible with larger PV systems.
  • DC models
    • Sunfrost
    • Sundanzer (chest-style, refrigerator or freezer)
    • Novacool

• Standard lightbulbs
  • Incandescent bulbs
  • Halogen lights

• Compact fluorescent lights (CFLs)
• LED bulbs (mostly DC, some AC)
• Task lighting on separate switches will be more efficient than general room lighting
• Install timer switches where lights are unintentionally left on

• Standard water pumps (which require a start-up electric surge of 5x to 7x the current required to run the pump). If possible, use a 120VAC pump. Deep wells will require 240VAC, and therefore an additional inverter or transformer for your system depending on its design.

• Grundfos SQ series Soft-Start pump (no starting surge)
• Grundfos submersible pump (starting surge about 2x running electric draw)
• DC pump (with or without a storage tank)
• 1/3 hp, 120VAC pump with oversized pressure tank

• Phantom or "ghost" loads (items drawing electricity even when not in use - such as TVs, stereos, computer equipment, devices with digital displays, etc., etc.)

• Plug potential phantom loads into a power strip and turn off when not in use.

• Items continuously drawing electric, such as doorbells, phone answering machines, cordless phones, cell phone chargers, hard-wired AC smoke alarms!

• Just avoid these appliances or put them on a switched power strip.

• Some items, such as laser printers and cordless tool battery chargers may require a true sine wave inverter as opposed to a less expensive modified sine wave inverter.

• Get a true sine wave inverter or do without these appliances.