Hands-on generation
Now you generate. A small off-grid solar setup, even a single 100W panel with a charge controller, battery, and inverter, will teach you more about electrical systems than any book, because when you wire it wrong, nothing turns on. Rocket stoves and passive solar design round out heat and cooking. Your phase 1 audit numbers tell you exactly what to size for; this is why the audit came first.
Start here
DIY Solar Power with Will Prowse — Prowse is the clearest explainer in DIY solar, full stop. Sizing, components, wiring, and safety for a small first system.
Paul Wheaton — Working rocket mass heaters at Wheaton Labs: efficient wood combustion that heats a space on scrap wood.
Orientation, glazing, thermal mass, ventilation. The conceptual frame to hold in your head before designing or retrofitting anything.
First project
Small off-grid solar install
Build a small off-grid system: one or two 100W panels, a PWM or MPPT charge controller, a 100Ah lithium or AGM battery, and a 400W inverter. Power a lights circuit, a USB charging station, or a small fridge. Wire it correctly, fuse everything, and draw the system diagram when you're done. The diagram is not optional; future-you will need it.
Other ways in
Solar batch water heater
Build or buy a simple thermosiphon batch water heater for an outdoor shower or to pre-heat tank water feeding the house. Demonstrates a fact most people miss: thermal solar is dramatically more efficient than PV for hot water, and hot water is one of the largest household energy loads. A practical answer to half of your energy bill that does not involve any electronics.
Rocket stove cooker
Build a J-tube rocket stove from brick, cinder block, or a 20-gallon steel drum for outdoor cooking. Burns small-diameter scrap wood (sticks and twigs) cleanly and hot enough to boil water in minutes. The combustion physics here (insulated burn tunnel, internal chimney, secondary burn) are the same physics behind the rocket mass heater you may eventually build for indoor heat. The skill transfers directly to that larger build. Useful immediately: cooks during outages, displaces propane for camp meals, and sharpens the wood-handling habits you will need at larger combustion scale.
Phase 3 energy is community-scale: microgrid design, biogas digesters, and whether that creek on the property is worth a micro-hydro turbine. See energy in phase 3 →
Go deeper
Community Experiences
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