My Off-Grid Solar-Powered Air Conditioner

Reader Contribution by Cam Mather
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I always thought “air conditioning” and “off the grid” didn’t belong in the same sentence, unless it was suggesting that you COULDN’T have air conditioning off the grid. But like so many things in my life I have discovered that foundations can shift and reality can be altered.

Since moving to our off-grid home 13 years ago we have suffered through heat waves. I am not one of those people who like the heat. I love winter. I love being cold. In the winter I can just keep adding layers until I am warm. I find heat inescapable and debilitating. Of course you can’t grow food in the winter, so summer seems like a pretty essential season. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

I suppose if I lived in a city and had an air conditioned house, and office, and car, and didn’t have to grow food during droughts, I’d probably love summer too. But summer just wears me out. Early on in a heat wave I can still function, but after a few days I start dragging more and more. First I lose my appetite, which isn’t a good thing because I’m still burning calories working in the garden. Heat waves are usually accompanied by a drought so watering the gardening becomes a full time job. I’m in the garden by 6 a.m. but I usually can’t work much past 11 a.m. and so I have to wait until after dinner to finish up.

I think what wears me down the most is not sleeping. I end up sleeping on the couch on the main floor, which is usually cooler than my second floor bedroom, but it’s never a restful sleep. So after a few days of not eating properly and not sleeping, I feel like a dirt bag.

As I’ve described before, we have a solar domestic hot water heater that produces more than enough hot water for us at this time of year, especially since we often swim in a local lake during a heat wave, and we aren’t particularly anxious to have hot showers or baths. We also have the diversion load dumping excess electricity into a second hot water tank. So a few days into a heat wave when we are making lots of hot water and not using much, it gets scalding hot. And since these two hot water tanks are in our bedroom, they help to heat up the room just a bit more to make it really uncomfortable for sleeping. Yes, I know, what am I doing with hot water tanks in my bedroom?

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