Off-grid power
What solar, a battery bank, a wood stove, and wood gas are, in plain words, without a wiring diagram.
General information. Use it at your own risk. Follow the law. Seek a clinician, a licensed tradesperson, or the authorities when you can.
Written for a household in St. Johns County and northeast Florida. This is a planning aid. Orders, zones, and shelter instructions come from the county and the state.
Before
- A solar panel makes electricity while the sun is on it. A charge controller is the part that keeps that power from wrecking the battery. A battery bank stores it for night. An inverter turns battery power into the kind of power a lamp or a phone charger expects, and it wastes some along the way.
- Read the battery maker’s sheet. Do not short the terminals. A flooded lead-acid battery needs ventilation. Any large battery is a fire risk if it is damaged or wired by guess.
- A solar generator is the same idea in one box. Keep it dry and charge it before you need it.
- A wood stove is for heat and, with the right stove, cooking. It needs a chimney made for it, a carbon monoxide alarm, and ashes that are cold before you move them. A charcoal grill is not a wood stove and does not belong indoors.
- Wood gas is the idea of heating wood with little air so it gives off a gas an engine can burn. That gas is rich in carbon monoxide. It can kill in a closed room. People talk about it when gasoline is gone. This page explains the idea and stops. It does not include a build.
- Propane, stored outdoors, remains the simpler fuel for a listed camp stove. The fuel-safety guide covers cans, rotation, and why this site does not describe making fuel from plastic.
During
- Use the smallest load that does the job: a light, a radio, a phone. A battery is not a whole-house promise.
- If you smell exhaust or anyone gets a headache, get people to fresh air. Do not run an engine in the house or the garage.
- A generator still stays outdoors, at least 20 feet from doors and windows, the way Ready.gov and CDC describe.
After
- Check cables for heat damage. Do not keep using a battery that swelled or leaked.
- Write down what the sun actually charged on a Florida cloudy week so the next plan is honest.
Checklist
- Panel, controller, battery, and inverter named, or one solar generator
- Maker’s sheet read before any wiring
- Carbon monoxide alarm with a battery
- Wood stove only with a proper chimney
- Wood gas understood as deadly gas, not a weekend build
- Propane cylinder outdoors
Sources
Official pages only. Open them for the full instructions.