Keeping in mind that I've already admitted I'm not an expert on this...
Here's a "high level overview" of "the plan". Some day.
Find that 20 acres, within 20 miles (or so) of a city. Best case? A "shack" that can be lived in while I build the main house. (Have I ever mentioned that I've built several houses, and worked for Habitat for Humanity? Not bad for a dumb ol' chemist, eh?)
The reason that's the best case is the essential services will already be there. Water, sewer, maybe gas, phone and electric. Get it off the grid, not "start there". I'll need a saw and a drill. Lights would be nice.
Other options; Twenty acres with a "fixer upper" house on it. Even load-bearing walls can be remodeled. Just remember to use beams to hold things in place while you work on them. Make sure you've got plenty of southern exposure, because "passive solar" is your friend. Or, how 'bout this? Twenty acres, no house, and a camping trailer with a solar shower. I'll have to put in the well and septic, or hook up the rural water. I don't need to be off the "water grid", but a backup well would be nice. So, remember to check for "water rights" when I buy.
OK, the basic structure. The US Department of Energy has a site with plenty of tips on passive solar. But remember, it doesn't have to be entirely "passive". Retractable/extendable awnings can help keep the place cooler in the summer, warmer in the winter. Make sure those interior walls have a lot of "mass" to hold heat in the winter. Use glass that will reflect in the summer (index of refraction, it bounces off at the greater angle when the sun is higher in the sky) and transmit in the winter. Window coverings will play a role here, too. Use reflective shades in the summer and heat absorbing shades in the winter, or better yet leave them open in the winter. This is a big topic in itself, so I'm not going to spend a lot more time on it. But that attached greenhouse will sure be a nice place to go in the winter. Just make sure it's well ventilated in the summer.
A friend has his solar water heater circulate under his kitchen and living room floors in the winter. The floors are slabs with a lot of sand under them. The heat transfers to the house when it's not being used for showers, etc. He installed a bypass so it doesn't heat the house up in the summer, the heated water goes to a storage tank. Just a thought.
Moving on...
Do you want to be "off the grid", or "not dependent on the grid"? Or maybe "grid-tied", because you're going to go nuts and generate far more power than you'll ever use? There's nothing wrong with making a little extra money sending power out to businesses, during the day. And you can feel less guilty about drawing power from the grid, at night, if you're a "green power generator".
Let's assume you want to be off the grid. You're gonna need power 24/7, so what if the wind isn't blowing (and you probably don't need to be reminded that the sun doesn't shine at night.) You need a battery bank. This is the second of a series on "Solar Power 101" that talks about batteries. You'll need to decide what kind of batteries you want to use. (Part 1 is here.) And at some point you're going to have to go through the pain of doing a load calculation. How many hours a day do you want to run the "mind into mush" box? The fancy thinkin' box? Are you going all electric, or will you use some gas, too? If you're all-electric, how soon can you get point of use water heaters installed?
Hopefully, those links will get you started on what you need for power storage. Now, you've got to start generating some power.
I'm not going to spend as much time on solar panels, now, as you may like. Here's a link to The Solar Panel Store. For now, I'll just leave it at this. You'll want to decide what kind of panels you want (tracking, stationary, brand, etc.) based on your budget. We have a 7.? Kw system that actually produces closer to 10 Kw because they're oriented so close to "perfectly" south. It supplies way more than we can use in the summer, even with the AC on full blast. It supplies LESS than we need in the winter, though. Days are shorter in the winter, so they're exposed to less sun (and it's coming at them from a lower, less efficient angle). So, based on this experience, my advice is that you really shouldn't ever count on getting ALL your power from solar panels. Besides, you might want to leave some of your roof for heating water. The question is, how much does the wind blow where you live?
You can put up a lot of windmills if you have 20 acres. Make sure they're the kind that are "bird friendly". Birds don't see fast spinning blades and fly right into them. Here's an example of a company that makes "bird friendly" wind generators that start cranking out some serious power when the wind hits 20 mph. At 5 mph the power generation drops off to near nothing, though. I haven't found a good place to get a "low wind" generator, but I'll bet they're out there somewhere.
You'll want a backup generator for last ditch energy, too. Of course, the goal is to never have that sucker fired up, but hey, we can't control the weather, yet. Sometimes the sun don't shine and the wind don't blow.
OK, so now you've got 3 sources of power. Solar for during the day, wind for whenever the wind's blowing, and a generator for those days that you're probably going to be inside watching the "brain into mush box" or sitting in front of the fancy thinkin' box. (Ummm, consider reading a book.) And, you've got batteries to store power on days when you're generating more than you're using. So, how do you get that power to your major appliances?
You need an inverter, and here's where you have to decide "grid-tied", "off the grid", or "bi-functional". I haven't looked into it, recently, but the last I know the order given is roughly the low to high price range.
This is only intended to be a "high level overview". Every topic could be expanded on, and I'd appreciate feedback from anyone who knows more about any of them. Starting with, so, does anyone know a good electrician who will work for beer and pizza?
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Some other cool stuff:
"Solatubes" can be used to pipe sunlight to any room in the house.
Good ol' Mother Earth News has an example of a solar water heater.
How Living Off the Grid Works
"What does a low-consumption house look like? Can comfort and conservation co-exist?"
Top 7 alternative energies listed