ecosprog´s web

The last couple of months have seen a major overhaul of our solar system. Due to increasing power requirements we found ourselves having to resort to our diesel generator to make up the for a shortfall in electricity more often than we liked. To remedy this we finally bit the bullet and added 2 more solar panels to the system. These are 170 watt, 24 volt panels , and the addition of these boosts our small solar farm to a total of 1.47 kilowatts. We should now be producing, on average, 6 kilowatts a day from our photovoltaic´s. Added to this we also have the output from our wind generator with an average daily production of 2 kilowatts.

Before adding the 2 new panels we also had to install a bigger solar charge controller to handle the extra amperage. We managed to source a second-hand Steca Tarom 2070 on eBay. This has boosted our total possible output from the PV system from its original 45 amps to 70 amps, giving us scope for future expansion. Along with upgrading the charge controller, we also upgraded the infrastucture connecting the solar panels back to the shed containing the regulators, inverter and batteries. The original cables were 10 sq mm and ran along our fence. This was originally a temporary situation which turned permanent. This has now been replaced with a run of 50 mm conduit buried in the ground. The feed  lines have been upgraded to 20 square millimetre cable and are now terminated in an IP55 steel cabinet using copper DIN rail mounted terminal blocks. Ideally we would have liked to use 35 square millimetre cabling  but as we had the 20 millimetre sitting around it was difficult justifying the expense of purchasing new cable.

To top it all off I finally got around to installing fencing, which we bought 2 years ago, around the bank of solar panels and the wind generator. The area inside the fencing was then covered in crushed marble which was well packed down to inhibit any plant growth.

We are now looking forward to a year with little, or no need for our diesel generator. If we can keep our power consumption at its current level of between 6 to 7 kilowatts a day we should produce more than enough electricy to avoid the need for the generator. Ther are , however, bound to be periods without sun or wind when we will be grateful for this backup supply.

Ok, so we´ve fallen at the first hurdle. I know we said that the new site was easier to update and meant we would post more frequently but, alas, we have slipped back into our old ways. The only excuse we can offer is that the Holiday season came upon us and we were far too busy to do anything but enjoy ourselves. Hope you all buy this line.

The beginning of a new year here always starts with our olive harvest (all 3 trees). This year we managed an astounding 1.5 litres of oil. We´re hoping to plant a few more trees this year, and with half a dozen plus, we might just be able to be self sufficient in our olive oil needs.

Christmas and the new year festivities were a quiet affair this year, and we tried our best to keep the commercial aspect of the season to a minimum. We really couldn´t see the point in cluttering up our house with even more brightly coloured and overpriced pieces of plastic - Bah Humbug! We are hoping to instill a sense of the value of things in the kids and trying to steer them away from the all to prevalent attitude that you should have, or get, everything you want. Probably a concept which is lost on a 4 year old but I think Joshua gets it. Thankfully, Christmas here is a more toned down affair than in the UK or North America, with nothing really happening until the middle of December. In fact, the big holiday here is ´Three Kings´ and not Christmas.

Following the Christmas and New Year festivities things have pretty much returned to normal here. The kids are back to school, and assorted after-school activities. I´m back to work installing renewable energy systems. Although on a slightly reduced work week due to the down-turn in the building industry. I don´t really mind the reduction in work hours as it will give me an opportunity to get to grips with jobs that need doing around the house. In particular, finishing our bedroom. It will also give me a bit of time to sort out a long list of IT issues around the house, as well as, up-dating the renewable energy section of our BLOG. For those of you interested in that side of things - keep watching this space.

Many of you will, no doubt, have been wondering what we have been up to here in our little corner of Spain. Our old website was horribly out of date and we certainly haven´t been very good with our crrespondence. The simple truth of the matter is that we have been very busy with all sorts of things, but principly with the daily routine that having 2 young children brings. Added to this, Jane is now doing a lot of bakng for a couple of local restaurants and I have turned my interest in renewable energy into a full time job. So much for the relaxed life in Spain!

Our new Blog site is an attempt to provide an easier way of keeping our news current. It is certainly simpler to update, and should mean that we can keep you all posted of any noteworthy happenings here at La Beata. I won´t attempt to provide an update of family news in this post . I´ll leave that up to Jane as she´s so much better at it than I am. I will restrict myself to the technical items on renewable energy, and our installation in particular. Our aim is to post something at least once a week, no matter how mundane, and to get a photo gallery up and running so you can all see how much fun we´re having here.

Keep watching this space.

Welcome to ecosprog’s web, a site we’ve put together to let our family and friends see what we’re up to here in Spain, as well as, anyone else who is interested. We moved to Pinoso in Southern Spain in the summer of 2003 in the hope that we could leave behind the rat race that was our previous life. Our old farmhouse, La Beata, is in the process of being restored and has allowed us to adopt a more self sufficient lifestyle and live off-grid both through necessity and desire. The experience to-date has been both fun and rewarding and has often required inventiveness, persistence, and the odd bit of lateral thinking to overcome the hurdles which arise at regular intervals.

We hope that over the next few months we can evolve this site into something which others hoping to move to Spain and/or take on an off-grid lifestyle may find useful as a source of information and a place to read about others who have faced similar situations or problems.

If you are interested in Wind and Solar power systems, or Internet connectivity in remote areas, have a look at the living off-grid section of the site. We’ve tried to provide information which we found useful getting started and as we find new material we will try and publish as much as possible on the site.