A Hard Road to a Great Place

copyright by REX A. EWING

(originally published in Countryside in 2009)

A Colorado Family's 18-year Off-grid Odyssey

Life, it seems, can be just about as hard as you make it, but that doesn't mean the hard way is without its own allure. By taking the steeper, rockier path you will sometimes discover that it leads to an extraordinary place where shallow dreamers and the faint of spirit will never tread.

Lane and Sue Dukart illustrate the point. Since buying their 42-acre parcel of secluded Rocky Mountain land in 1991, they have—usually by choice, though often by compulsion, chance, karma or curious and unforeseen twists of fate —done things the hard way. It's made for a long, arduous trek through the past two decades, but it's earned them a way of life most would find enchanting. And that, Lane and Sue concur, makes it worth every backache, blister, and gray hair.

What is today a thriving homestead beside a usually somnolent creek in a narrow, nameless valley, began 18 years ago when Lane and Sue, then in their twenties and practically tripping over their own exuberance, decided to build a small but cozy cabin on their newly purchased Colorado land. In order to save on rent and be close to the building site—which lies two miles back in on a steep, winding track of rock and gravel—the couple decided to live onsite in a teepee during the cabin's construction. So, with plan in hand and a solid vision for the future (though lacking both construction skills and a building permit), the teepee became their sole residence from April of 1992 until the following January, when Sue gave birth to their first child, a bright-eyed daughter they named Haley.

By then the first phase of the cabin was somewhat livable, though hardly complete, but when Sue and baby came home from the hospital they at least had a metal roof over their heads, walls to stave off the cold winds of winter, and a pot-belly stove to keep them warm. After spending her entire pregnancy in a home with a flap and smoke hole, "Doors and windows were a real religious experience," Sue recalled. Even though she was smiling when she said it, I don't think she was kidding.

Change, which is to say improvements, came slowly and only as needed. Lane added a glassed-in front room to the cabin in '94. During the days Sue worked in town young Haley watched her father work while safely harnessed into a swing that dangled from a cantilevered roof beam. And after their son Finn was born in 1999, Lane added back bedrooms to the cabin while the boy rode in a backpack, accessorized with an infant-sized hard hat and goggles.

Any lifestyle, however prudently practiced and pursued, requires a source of income to be maintained. With a young child it became necessary to pay the future greater heed than when it was just Lane and Sue and a few coveted dreams. Sue's part-time profession as an occupational therapist has always been a steady source of income, but Lane, having a bachelor's degree in art, was anxious to do something with an artistic bent, and the starving-artist role just wasn't in his repertoire. Instead, he found himself drawn to ceramics, or, more specifically, stoneware bells. "I just thought that bells would be different," Lane says, "rare enough to stand out and be noticed." He was right. Today bells, chimes and planters from the Lane Dukart Studio can be found in art galleries and gift shops all across the country.

Of course, as a business grows, so must the facility in which the business is housed. The original studio built in '92 was wholly inadequate by 1997, when Lane—who by then was really getting the hang of trial-and-error learn-by-doing construction techniques—built a bigger one that today remains adequate for his needs.

The Dukarts have always been off the grid in every sense of the word. Propane fires Lane's kiln and a few of the cabin's appliances, but all their electricity was, and is, provided by a small 12-volt solar array mounted high enough up the mountainside to catch a few precious hours of winter sunlight. The original array was a mere 240 watts, comprising four 60-watt panels that fed into a small bank of four golf-cart batteries. A well-seasoned Trace modified-sine-wave inverter provided the 120-volt house current. The system has since been upgraded, though no more than necessary: four more panels have brought the array up to 480 watts, six additional golf-cart batteries help store the extra power, and a newer Trace DR-series inverter now provides the house current. A small gasoline generator picks up the slack.

It's not much, but it's enough. Just as the spring box, kept cool in the creek that runs just in front of the cabin, was refrigeration enough for the first 10 years, before the addition of a propane fridge. And just as the outhouse was enough until Lane installed an indoor toilet a couple of years ago, at about the same time a new propane range replaced the camping stove.

The Dukart theme has always been to keep things simple and manageable, but sometimes things get complicated all by themselves. By 2004 Lane and Sue had begun to feel the consequences of never having pulled a building permit. They had no legal address and therefore no way to purchase insurance for their increasingly valuable homestead. And it was just a matter of time before the county—with its satellite imagery and ubiquitous agents—sniffed them out. Since they had built on a flood plain it was entirely possible the county might even make them tear everything down, unless Lane and Sue acted first and in good faith. So after much deliberation they bit a very hard bullet and turned themselves in.

The process of becoming county and state compliant drew out over a stressful and expensive year, requiring a sizeable loan (the Dukarts' first ever) and countless inspections, hydrology studies and engineering fees. But in the end they were clean and legal with no more bureaucratic monkeys on their backs. And even stinging lessons can be taken philosophically, as Sue demonstrated when she told me she was actually glad they did things they way they did. Why? "Because without involving the county from the beginning we were able to build little by little and at our own pace. Besides," she added with a coy smile, "they never would have let us build so close to the creek if we hadn't already done it."

This summer, as I drove onto Lane and Sue's land, I first spied a sleek Arabian gelding grazing in belly-high grass in one of the few meadows along the steep valley's length. Taking the narrow, winding drive across the timbers spanning the creek I passed a large bear- and deer-proof garden and a rustic tree house that hearkened mightily to my youth, before my eyes rested on a gracefully arched footbridge—pretentiously guarded by Jasmine, the family's golden retriever—that took me back across the creek to the cabin and studio. Before even entering the cabin I was embraced by the artistry and pervasive harmony the place emanates. And I knew immediately that the people who live here have paid their dues.

When asked if he would like to live anywhere else, 10-year-old Finn shakes his head. "Not even in an RV parked outside Disneyland."

Haley, now 16 and in her 17th year of living off the grid, is a bit more circumspect. "Before we had an indoor bathroom I was embarrassed when my friends saw that all we had an outhouse."—Even though, I should add, said outhouse is artistically rendered and tied into a septic system—"But now," She continues, "I'm proud of the fact that we live so well with so little." Would she trade it for anything else? "Maybe a Hobbit hole," she laughs, "but that's about it."

Though conspicuously modest about their accomplishments, the Dukarts are understandably proud of what they've done. "We wanted a place with visual interest that was conducive to the soul. I think we've done it."

So they have. And now, looking back on the past 18 years, it's easy to imagine that the hard way really wasn't all that hard, after all.

Rex Ewing is the author of several books, including Got Sun? Go Solar, Power With Nature, and Crafting Log Homes Solar Style.

Keeping Electricity in its Place

Is there an off-grid solar-electric system lurking somewhere in your not-too-distant future? If so, you’ve probably spent a bit of time looking over schematics of simple installations. I’ll bet they were neat and uncluttered, with tidy wires flowing uninterrupted from solar array to charge controller, from battery to inverter to AC panel to wall outlet. While very useful, these diagrams give the impression that electricity is a well-trained and highly domesticated creature. But we all know better: it’s a beast; a sharp-toothed, quick-witted predator that searches frantically and incessantly for the tiniest breach in its confines. Or the first opportunity to strike out at the guileless human who endeavors to tame it. That’s its nature.

Fortunately, aside from certain natural phenomena such as lightning, electricity is also highly predictable. It’s the reason we are, for better or worse, living in the 21^st century instead the 19^th, and the reason you’re reading this article. We know, for example, exactly what size wire it takes to safely run any manner of current from point A to point B, and exactly what the drop in voltage will be along the way. This is because electricity, in spite of its fiery disposition, always plays by the rules, a fact for which we should all be eternally grateful. It means that, with a bit of knowledge and a lot of common sense, we can get it to do our bidding, safely and efficiently.

Protecting the solar array

A solar array is like an electrical watershed, beginning with the micro-channels which gather current within the individual solar cells, and ending with the heavy wires that run to the charge controller. Every electron sunlight dislodges from the array’s silicon matrix adds force and substance to an ever-growing river of electricity. Your job is to make sure the river doesn’t leave its banks.

Under normal circumstances, electrons careen merrily down an electrical gradient en route from the solar array to the batteries, via the charge controller. It’s the natural direction for current to flow, since when the sun is shining the array is operating at a higher voltage than the batteries. A lightning strike or an electrical short, however, can send a surge of current flowing upstream, right back into the delicate wiring of the solar array.

To keep this from happening, you need to do two things. First, your array should be thoroughly grounded. This will offer an easy path for an errant current to follow and may save you the cost of a slew of new solar panels. Grounding an array involves grounding every solar panel to every adjacent panel with heavy copper wire, then grounding the whole affair to the common house ground rod.

Next, you will need to install fuses or breakers at certain critical junctions, namely wherever there is an increase in amperage. Typically, this is where one series string is joined with another. As an example, let’s suppose you have a 48-volt system comprising sixteen 12-volt panels. In this case, each group of four panels would constitute a 48-volt (12 + 12 + 12 + 12) series string designed to operate at a given amperage, giving you a total of 4 series strings. (Since series strings increase voltage without increasing amperage, the amperage of the entire string would be equal to the amperage of an individual panel within the string.) So, wherever you join one series string to another, you will have to include a fuse or a breaker to disconnect the circuit if and when an unsafe amperage occurs.

For several series strings, this is best accomplished with a combiner box—an enclosure into which each individual series string is fed and wired into its own breaker. A combiner box is a specialty item, however, so don’t expect to find one at your local hardware store. Instead, check with a solar supplier. OutBack Power Systems makes a good one. If you only have 2 or 4 series strings you might be money ahead by buying one or two off-the-shelf, outdoor-rated breaker boxes and using standard breakers. Just make sure the breakers are rated for direct current. Those made by Square-D are easily obtainable and they are DC rated.

And finally, install a lightning surge protector on the side of your combiner or breaker box. This a small cylindrical component that acts as a capacitor by soaking up any excess current that finds its way into the system. At $35 to $45 they’re not exactly free, but they are a whole lot cheaper than even one new solar panel.

Isolating the other components

The other components in a solar-electric system deserve the same kind of protection you have afforded the solar array. Specifically, you will want to be able to isolate every component from every other component. There are two main reasons for this. First, if something goes awry, strategically located fuses or breakers will be able to contain the problem before it spreads like a light-speed plague to the rest of system. And secondly, it allows you to replace or repair any part of the system without having to worry about disconnecting (or worse—working with) current-carrying wires.

Where do you put these breakers? It’s simple. Name a component and then add “breaker box.” Stop when you get to “AC service panel.” So, it goes like this: solar array—breaker (or combiner) box. Charge controller—breaker box. Battery bank—breaker box (DC disconnect). Inverter—breaker box (AC disconnect). And finally, AC service panel.

There is some argument over whether an AC disconnect is needed in an off-grid system, since the DC disconnect—a very large and expensive circuit breaker designed to handle up to 250 amps of direct current—will just as easily and effectively stop any current from flowing into the house wiring. But by flipping the AC disconnect downstream from the inverter to shut off power to the house, you will not have to reprogram your inverter, once the problem is fixed (unless, of course, the inverter was the problem).

Grounding the components

More than anything, electricity wants to go to ground. In fact, the whole point of insulated wires is to direct electricity through different components and appliances so we can get some work out of it before it gets there. On the other hand, should an electric current find a breach in its confines, it is in our best interests to do everything we can to help it find its way to ground as quickly and efficiently as possible.

In all probability, the DC components you will install between the solar array and the inverter, including the above-mentioned breaker boxes, will be enclosed in metal cases. This means that they can, and will, become dutiful conductors of electricity, should they come in contact with a loose or frayed current-carrying wire. So, just as on the AC side of things, they will all have to be grounded to the main house ground to carry away any stray current that may otherwise have considered you as a poor, but acceptable, path the ground.

Keeping your off-grid installation safe is not particularly difficult but, like anything, there are right and wrong ways to go about it. To make sure it’s done right, do yourself a favor and consult the National Electrical Code. Or one of the numerous women and men well versed in the NEC’s myriad nuances. They’re called electricians these days, though in former times they would have been magicians. Listen to them; they understand the nature of the beast.

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