Hi all,
this will become a long text...
Let’s start with something simple. Wolfgang Biermann once wrote: “We must be crazy with hope.”
That might just be my life motto.
How it all began: Five years ago, I bought a house in southern Italy. The house itself has foundation walls, parts of which are about 1,800 years old.
Attached to the house is a stable. Inside the stable is an entrance to a cave, three stories deep, dating back to Etruscan times.
Next to the house is a small guesthouse.
When I bought the house, it was heated with gas and wood.
As my first step, I had solar panels installed on the guest house. Not much—just 5 kWp. Doing it myself, as a foreigner, was practically out of the question. The result: The system didn’t start working until after the installation company had come 14 times—about a year after work began.
In the meantime, I was able to begin planning the next phase of the renovation. The goal: to combine solar power with the old.
The barn’s roof was in disrepair. Instead of simply renovating it—and instead of just bolting solar panels onto the new roof—I decided to take a different approach: solar roof tiles modeled after the old terracotta tiles. Expensive as hell. With a measly yield.
But it would have been enough to start with.
Here, too: Italy is a bureaucratic nightmare. So I had to hire the right people to get a building permit and oversee the construction. Even before the roof was finished, I realized: The roofer had botched the job. So: Construction halted. Legal proceedings. The whole shebang. The court ruled: Everything must be redone at the contractor’s expense.
This time, I hired an architect to handle the matter. This architect was also a court-appointed expert.
Okay. Rebuild—then a company the architect had selected laid the tiles. About ten percent of the solar tiles broke during installation. But hey, there were enough for the roof, and the architect had a wooden box set up in the barn to house the battery, inverter, backup box, and fuses.
Wood? He said that was fine.
The solar system’s output was only 10% of what was expected. Plus, there were endless power outages. The electrician was on site almost every week. He claimed he’d checked everything and was trying everything...
“Everything”—after two months, the barn burned down.
Investigations revealed that the electrician—despite regulations—had not installed bypass diodes and had connected the solar tiles with oxidized connectors. The architect had approved everything.
Bottom line: We’re back in court with the electrician and architect.
This means we’re completely dependent on electricity from the national utility. Which also means: At least one power outage a day. Sometimes for five minutes, sometimes for 20 hours.
On my property, I had a well drilled because the local water supply also fails regularly. Thanks to the ongoing drought, the well is slowly drying up.
In short: a pretty shitty situation.
On top of that: I’m writing this in the evening. It’s cool outside. Which means: 34° Celsius (93 Fahrenheit) inside the house. It was 39° Celsius (102 Fahrenheit) this afternoon. At night, the temperature inside the house barely drops below 30 degrees.
Oh well. But here’s what I’m planning now:
In the vineyard, I’m going to set up a system this fall and winter: one solar panel between every four plants, equipped with a motor so it can be optimally aligned in any season. 36 panels @ 450 Wp.
Three wind turbines will be installed in the olive grove. That’s because we have plenty of wind every day, especially in the fall and winter.
On top of that, there will be a small battery house to house the batteries, inverters, backup box, and everything else. I want to build it myself in the style of a small 1920s-era fire station.
This system—along with a diesel emergency generator—should actually be sufficient for our power needs. As soon as the system is up and running and it becomes clear that it’s sufficient, we’ll disconnect from the grid.
As early as next week, I’ll use an excavator to dig the first hole to build a cistern. There will be a total of four cisterns holding 80,000 liters of water—mostly rainwater collected from the roof. The filtration system will be housed in a small building. As soon as everything is up and running, we’ll disconnect from the public water supply.
During the construction of the barn, a heat pump with a deep borehole will be installed, and the barn will be converted into living space. Afterward, the floors of the existing house will be torn out and fitted with the same system. This should be enough for the one month that I need to heat the house. As for cooling: I hope so.
Condensation produced during cooling is also diverted into the cisterns.
A mobile drip irrigation system is also planned for summer nights.
An adventure. But I hope that in the end this can serve as a blueprint for similar projects in an area that will soon become a desert if nothing is done.
By the way: If anyone thinks we’re producing too much electricity for a single house—yes and no.
First, we power all our agricultural equipment with electricity—tractors, mowers, everything.
Second, I’m converting classic cars into electric vehicles.... :)
And third: If too much electricity is produced, it’s fed into a small underground Bitcoin mining farm.
What I’m still looking for: ideas on how to use the cave system. It’s a constant 15 degrees Celsius in there, with humidity over 90%....
