Archived Insights
Making Estate Homes Self-Sufficient and Resilient
Power Outages Are Becoming More Frequent
Wildfires, extreme weather events and ‘public safety power shutoffs’ make it critical that estate home properties have the capability to be fully ‘off-grid’, because their high net worth home owners often work from home remotely and can’t afford to be disconnected from their business operations. Gas generators are designed for short term emergency use. Unfortunately, most residential battery packs only store enough electricity to run a house for 12 hours (less if the household has one or more EV’s). Given a week or more of extended smoky, cloudy, rainy and/or snowy conditions, an estate home property would require a dozen or more battery packs. A more cost effective solution is required.
Solar PV Arrays + Hydrogen Fuel Cells & Batteries
Together, solar PV arrays, plus hydrogen fuel cells and fast charge/discharge batteries can economically power estate home properties 24/7 - 365 days per year. Solar PV arrays generate electricity ‘on-demand’, while their ’excess electricity’ can electrolyze purified grey water into hydrogen (stored for use in a fuel cell) to generate electricity at night and on non-sunny days. Fast charging/discharging batteries can be used when a lot of electricity is suddenly needed - such as quickly charging EV’s. It is important to compare the cost of hydrogen to the cost of lithium batteries, as both are ‘storage mediums’ for solar generated electricity.
Passive Design Elements, Building Systems & Micro-grid
To cost effectively use the electricity generated, estate buildings need to be well-insulated, have sun-control devices, a radiant heating and cooling system that runs off an energy efficient heat
pump, an AI-enabled interior environment control system, and a micro-grid that ties together the estate home with out-buildings. To take this a step further, Mayacamas Architects developed a master plan for a 125-acre vineyard community in Sonoma Valley, consisting of (7) estate home sites that share their electricity over a neighborhood micro-grid - taking the concept of ‘living off-the-grid’ to a new level.