Photos of a Super Insulated House Getting Built

[yakrafter]

The wind turbine we put up was not needed, but still in the price...1000 w Wisper 200 cost about $5k installed (I did it). It produces another 3 Kw per day. Some days it produces 24 Kw when the wind is kicking....those are the days we run electric heat just cause we can with no cost or consequence...it did not even tough our batteries. Turbine right to heater. This house just has more energy than it knows what to do with.

[yakrafter]

Just a reminder those thinking of going off grid....30%, yes $3 out of $10 will be paid for by the federal govt if you do this before 2016. You get the 30% back as a credit, at the time we did it with NO limit. So our $25k off grid system only cost about $18k to us. The was put up in 2008. Solar panels today are less than 1/2 the cost of 2008. We have about 2 Kw in panels making about 14 Kw a day. 5 Kw a day is enough for an efficient home, 14 Kw is way more than we need.

[yakrafter]

This house cost <$150k to build including land, house, septic, deep well, solar, wind system. It uses less than one cord of wood per year (but beetle kill wood is free locally) and minimal propane (mostly for cooking/water heating). No elec bill due to solar. Land was purchased for $30k less than nearby lots on the grid, so we actually saved money by being off grid. Now being off grid, you do need to learn to deal with the fact that you NEVER loose power, but most people can adjust ;)

[yakrafter]

@yakrafter

Oh and some people think you cannot finance off grid homes with banks. This is typically true if you live in a urban or suburban setting. If you are in the stix and there are others in your community, off grid finance should not be a problem. Also if you can find a good local bank with real people behind the desk (hard these days), you can finance this anywhere in the USA. We used Colorado East Bank & Trust for this house. They sold the loan to a big bank no issues.

[yakrafter]

@yakrafter

We have done off grid financing with real banks 5 times just in the last 7 years. Two of these were after the meltdown.

If there are not other off grid homes in the area, appraisers just don't have the tools to value. If there are other off grid homes, the appraiser will likely be jelous of your awesome new home and value it well, perhaps more than others with grid power. Gee if it is like us, you will be bidding the appraisers next home to be off grid!

[rmmann1]

Really amazing!