Off Grid Heating: Options For You To Consider For on or Off Grid Comfort

Off Grid heating and Cooling

It’s becoming increasingly important to get off the grid in times of uncertainty. This is a secure manner to live, if something happens you and your family are protected.This makes off grid heating and cooling a major concern.

While older homes make it easy for people to get off the grid, newer models will require some changes to their design. One area of concern in colder locations is providing heating off the grid. With many gas powered options, how do you ensure that you and your family are kept warm?

the truth is most homes, on grid and off, are not well designed to take advantage of the best uses for heating and cooling. Before spending any money on either your best bet is to make your home as energy efficient as possible.

The Dept. of Energy estimates that the typical house loses as much heating and cooling as if they had a three foot square hole in the wall. That's a lot of wasted resources. So the first thing to do is to make your house as energy efficient as possible.

Once you have improved the energy efficiency of your home you can begin thinking about the best types of off grid heating systems. There are a variety of options available, each with various pros and cons. These include wood burning stoves, active solar heating, propane gas, and other carbon based fuels such as gasoline, coal, oil and diesel.

Off Grid Heating

Wood stoves

Thanks to the insulation in the walls, you shouldn’t experience much heat loss as a result.

To enjoy heat off the grid, you do need to plan on having additional insulation in the home. It’s vital that you take the time to ensure that there is an adequate amount of insulation in the walls, ceiling, and floors to help trap the heat in the winter, while helping to keep things cooler in the summer.

Insulating is an easy DIY job that can be done over the weekend in steps.

Propane Heaters

Propane is another way to heat your off grid home. An advantage to using propane is that propane is very energy efficient. Another advantage is that it can used in a variety of appliances. It’s particularly useful as an off-grid fuel since it’s so versatile and can be used for a wide variety of different appliances including propane space heaters, generators, and cookers.

Active and Passive solar heat.

For active solar heat you can use your windows to target the suns rays. Or even create a simple solar heater by adding a black garbage bag to the sunniest windows. The garbage bag will collect the heat and since heat flows upward will heat the room.

This will heat and use the power of the sun. This is done by adding dark colored walls and windows to the home, so that they absorb more heat. While this is great in the winter, this approach does cause some problems in the summer months when it becomes warmer.

The downside to this system is that it requires a lot of daylight hours to be viable and it also  requires some power to keep the pump running.

Passive solar heating

Involves the use of walls and/or floor to collect heat during the day and release it at night. this isn't as difficult as it sounds but does require more thought and expense than active solar heating.

 For heating off the grid, you need to explore ways to generate heat. The power that you have coming in from an alternative energy source can help. But it isn’t enough to just generate the power, so an active  and passive passive solar heat are another worthwhile options to look into.

Biomass Boiler

Another example of an off-grid heating system is a biomass boiler. This might be a solution if you live in a rural area. However, the upfront cost can sometimes be a disadvantage. Luckily, this is a one-time cost, and you would be able to earn it back through significant utility bill savings.