James,
I am new to SurvivalBlog but I thought that I would share my experience and thoughts with everyone. I have a totally off the grid ranch that is powered by wind and solar. We have more electricity than we can use with a 40 kilowatt (KW) battery bank, 2 KW of photovoltaics and 1.4 KW of wind power.
First I highly recommend a hybrid system, solar and wind. Usually when the sun isn’t shinning, the wind is blowing, especially when a storm is blowing in. My batteries are usually full by 1100 hours in the summer and 1200 hours in the winter. The rest of the power is wasted. The inverters can be programmed for a diversion load such as a water heater or air heater. I have decided to get a 4WD electric vehicle to dump the extra power into. The unit I have decided on is the Bad Boy Buggy . It is used for hunting in the south because it is totally quiet. It has a 27 mile range. There is no fuel to store and it would be excellent for silent patrolling as well as chores around the ranch. I plan on storing extra batteries.
There was recently an post on wood-fired brick ovens. I got my plans from www.ovencrafters.net. They have it all figured out and you can get as many as 12 baking batches from one firing. You can bake bread, cook pizza, roasts and turkey as well. They are also fun and look cool.
There is a fairly new solar water pump out which is made by Grundfos. It is called the SQ Flex. It can run on solar, wind or generator or any combination of the three. You can pump water when its dark when the wind is blowing.
There are a lot of wind machines out there. I have found that many come and go. The two [brands] that have always been there are Bergey Wind Power and Southwest Wind Power. These guys have great customer support. I have one of each. Storing spare parts is no problem. The SQ Flex pump is designed to work with one of the Southwest Wind Power machines. Thanks for all the great info you provide. – PED