Off grid yard - tips?

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Countrygirl40

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Hi all - i have a few questions. I have taken on my own yard (by yard i mean land and 2 stables!) but would like to know all your off grid tips.
We have no electric or water there (the land is rented so cant bring any in) so looking at what everyone does for water and light?
Not bothered on electric but mostly stable and hay barn lighting plus water collection? Have linked 2 IBC's up for now but know in the summer will plough through it!
Or any other off grid tips! I have a limited budget but can make some changes.

Thanks!
 
Well the electric can be relatively easily sorted by solar/batteries/generator depending on how much you want to invest or do.

The water will be a PITA in dry spells.
Could you invest in an ibc on a trailer so you can tow and fill from a tap?
 
As a very basic budget option for lighting there are good rechargeable lamps that are surprisingly bright and last quite well. They’d certainly be good enough for mucking out and general yard jobs. Search Amazon for ‘rechargeable work light’. You could buy several for less than £100 and so rotate between having them on charge and in use.

A step up is a small generator which would be good enough to power arena lights - we bought ours for about £500 and you’d need an electrician to wire up some lighting. I’m about to start looking into solar, the generator is fine but I tend to avoid using it because of the noise and it’s just a little extra effort to start and maintain.
 
We had no water in the foal's field. Used guttering off the stables to fill up 3 troughs in wet weather. Had a bath by the gate which we topped up with 20L water carriers if the troughs looked like they were getting a bit low. Just once after a long dry spell, we got a kind local farmer to use his buggy and drive over 100L to see us through - but most of the time the guttering was fine.
 
We have solar lights, solar cameras and solar electric fence energiser.
Lights are:

15W Off-Grid Solar Lighting System with 4 LED Lights, Solar Panel, Battery and Cables - Complete Solar Lighting Kit​

 
Ibc collecting water from stable roof and one fixed to a trailer which I drive home and fill, this is for the horses drinking water. For lighting it's a good quality headtorch and lamps.
 
We supply water to someone who hasn't got water on her yard, she bought a water tank, we bring it home, fill it up, take it back on a tractor and trailer and take it off for her. It lady her a good while and we don't ask for a lot to do it. Have you got any local friendly farmers who wouldn't mind doing a job like that?
 
YorksG said:
We have solar lights, solar cameras and solar electric fence energiser.
Lights are:

15W Off-Grid Solar Lighting System with 4 LED Lights, Solar Panel, Battery and Cables - Complete Solar Lighting Kit​

Click to expand...
Can you talk to me about solar cameras please. All the details? Cheers
 
Slowly becoming more available here but invest in an agricultural water tank filled from the gutters.
E.g https://thetankshop.co.uk/collections/rainwater-harvesting-tanks?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=437405669&utm_content=1338107293966695&utm_term=rainwater tank&msclkid=becf042cb9921a1a22bb61c41f7fa8c4&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=GV | Search | Water | Rainwater&utm_term=rainwater tank&utm_content=Rainwater Tank

In Aus the horses water trough was fed from a 1600L tank and it only ran out once at the end of 3 years of drought and it was watering most of the local wildlife as well as the horses (hosing etc was off another tank).

The dry periods here are never that long, really, 1000L would be plenty.
 
I was on a yard with no water for about 20 years, we used to fill carriers up at home and bring them in the car, then my OH rigged up a pump for us to pump water from the river . It was hard work but at least we had water. Eventually we found someone who rigged up a tap for us from the mains, probably highly illegal but very effective
 
Esmae said:
Can you talk to me about solar cameras please. All the details? Cheers
Click to expand...
They are ctronics, from amazon, a set of four and I use them with an ee wifi dongle. The dongle has to have a power bank, as the solar isn't strong enough at this time of year. The picture quality is excellent and the range isn't bad either.
 
I bought a water bowser. It was a few hundred and I sold it years later for the same as I paid for it. I used to tow it home and it took an hour to fill from the hose. That lasted a couple of weeks in summer.
 
I've got a portable power station that I take home and recharge every couple of weeks

uk.iallpowers.com

ALLPOWERS S300 Portable Power Station | 288Wh 300W

With 288Wh capacity and 300W AC output, the compact S300 power station charges phones, drones, cameras, and more via AC, USB-C, USB-A and 12V car outlet.
uk.iallpowers.com uk.iallpowers.com

I bought a couple of cheap "work lights" (floodlights basically) from Wickes that I plug into it, I've attached the lights to the stable ceiling and it's blimming bright!

Other than that I've got 3 IBCs that fill up off the roof - they're constantly overflowing as it NEVER STOPS RAINING! I can trickle fill from a hose running up from a trough that's at the bottom of my field if I need to, but haven't had to yet. If I didn't have that option I'd be putting an IBC on a trailer and taking it home to fill up.
 
YorksG said:
They are ctronics, from amazon, a set of four and I use them with an ee wifi dongle. The dongle has to have a power bank, as the solar isn't strong enough at this time of year. The picture quality is excellent and the range isn't bad either.
Click to expand...
Honey, you have just spoken to me in Swahili. What is a dongle? What exactly do you mean by power bank? Would the range (if I can get past the rest of the puzzle LOL ) be more than 1/2 mile?
 
Ambers Echo said:
We had no water in the foal's field. Used guttering off the stables to fill up 3 troughs in wet weather. Had a bath by the gate which we topped up with 20L water carriers if the troughs looked like they were getting a bit low. Just once after a long dry spell, we got a kind local farmer to use his buggy and drive over 100L to see us through - but most of the time the guttering was fine.
Click to expand...
It's amazing how much water you get from guttering. After years of longing for a water butt, my mum finally had one installed to collect the water from her 8'x6' shed. She's since had to swap it for a bigger one, then add a second, and it still keeps overflowing. (Which is a problem because there isn't a drain near the butts. so it ends up with water all over her driveway and patio.)
 
Cover or paint your IBCs a dark colour to exclude light so they don't get algae in them - it's really hard to clean the insides.

As has been said, you'd need to use some sort of moveable bowser for dry spells but not as much as you might imagine. (They're dear to buy but you can hire them.)

We have a "site light" on a tripod. It runs off a motorcycle battery.
 
Esmae said:
Honey, you have just spoken to me in Swahili. What is a dongle? What exactly do you mean by power bank? Would the range (if I can get past the rest of the puzzle LOL ) be more than 1/2 mile?
Click to expand...
A dongle is essentially a basic mobile sim card in a small plastic case that enables Internet access.

It needs a battery as it is just a sim card so you'll need a battery, but one that can charge a USB device for days without a recharge. That is called a power bank.
 
Pippity said:
It's amazing how much water you get from guttering. After years of longing for a water butt, my mum finally had one installed to collect the water from her 8'x6' shed. She's since had to swap it for a bigger one, then add a second, and it still keeps overflowing. (Which is a problem because there isn't a drain near the butts. so it ends up with water all over her driveway and patio.)
Click to expand...

Yes I was amazed. We had 2 big deep troughs arranged to cascade one into the other when the one the gutter fed into overflowed. Plus one more off a different roof. We rarely had to top up.
 
We have those big,green water butts connected to guttering which do collect a lot of water and work well- but you’d still probably need an IBC for drier times.
 
Esmae said:
Honey, you have just spoken to me in Swahili. What is a dongle? What exactly do you mean by power bank? Would the range (if I can get past the rest of the puzzle LOL ) be more than 1/2 mile?
Click to expand...
Ah right, a dongle is a mini wifi provider thingy, the range I was talking about is the distance from the dongle to the camera. The whole thing works via an app on your phone and can be seen from anywhere that your phone has Internet access. A power bank is like a set of rechargeable batteries in their own box, I have two so that I can charge one and use one. Hope that helps a bit🙂
 
YorksG said:
Ah right, a dongle is a mini wifi provider thingy, the range I was talking about is the distance from the dongle to the camera. The whole thing works via an app on your phone and can be seen from anywhere that your phone has Internet access. A power bank is like a set of rechargeable batteries in their own box, I have two so that I can charge one and use one. Hope that helps a bit🙂
Click to expand...
Thank you. You are a darling. That makes more sense to me, the ultimate techno numpty. Will look into it. Where am I putting the dongle thingy? (keep it clean) Is it next to camera or what?
 
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OrangeAndLemon said:
A dongle is essentially a basic mobile sim card in a small plastic case that enables Internet access.

It needs a battery as it is just a sim card so you'll need a battery, but one that can charge a USB device for days without a recharge. That is called a power bank.
Click to expand...
Thank you. Sorry to be useless but all of this is a mystery to me.
 
Esmae said:
Thank you. You are a darling. That makes more sense to me, the ultimate techno numpty. Will look into it. Where am I putting the dongle thingy? (keep it clean) Is it next to camera or what?
Click to expand...
Our dongle lives in a plastic drawer, on an upside down bin, round the back of our field shelter. The drawer also houses the battery and controls for the solar lights. I'll take a pick when we go to do the hay a bit later on.
 
In 10 years on my little yard I got through a lot of lights before investing in Bedazzled off grid lighting, it was really good - almost as good as mains.

I had a generator for clippers and hoover (pony allergic to life - don’t ask!) but tried not to use this a lot as I didn’t want the noise attracting unwanted attention from thieves

An IBC did me for about 10 months a year. I bought water from home to top up in the driest months.

I had an Aqua2go unit for bathing ponies in the show season but nowadays I think I’d buy a Hippo pumped self contained shower.
 
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