Drove past a farm in central Vermont last month that had four diesel generators running at once in broad daylight

I pulled over to ask what was going on and the guy said his solar setup failed during that cold snap, so now he burns 50 bucks a day in fuel just to keep his off grid homestead running has anyone else seen people quietly giving up on solar for generators up here?

2 comments

2 Comments

taylor.paige1mo ago

Shoot, that's rough. I mean, I barely trust my truck battery to start when it's that cold, let alone a whole house solar setup. Must feel like pouring money right into the wind, literally. Guess off-grid living ain't all sunshine and rainbows, more like frozen pipes and diesel fumes. Funny how the dream of being self-sufficient turns into being a fuel delivery guy's best customer. Hope that guy's generators are at least keeping his coffee hot, that's all that'd matter to me!

butler.abby1mo ago

Oh man, that is so rough. I feel for that guy, honestly. Solar sounds great on paper until you're in the middle of a deep freeze with no backup plan. I've heard of a few other folks up in northern New Hampshire switching to generators full-time because their battery banks just couldn't hack it through the long cloudy stretches. It's like people don't talk about how much maintenance and cost goes into keeping those systems running when the weather gets nasty. Makes you wonder how many off grid setups are actually working long term versus just limping along.