This guest post is written by Ron Friedman who represents Craftstrom, a company that makes portable solar power generators. In this post, Ron Friedman shares innovative and sustainable solutions to provide electrical in your Yurt.
The location of your yurt will determine what fuels and power sources you may be able to use for HVAC, cooking, lights, and USB charging. If you're in an area where electricity can be delivered to the site, there is no difference between a traditional on-grid home. On the other hand, if you are miles from a utility line and the expense to run power to your yurt is astronomical, that leaves you with propane, wood, wind, and solar.
Many island styled electric generators are available from companies like Bluetti, Jackery, and Inergytek. They can provide a fair amount of energy and allow you to carry their system to other locations for work purposes. Fairly new in this world is the elegantly designed and smart system produced by Craftstrom that will work for homes, rented condos or apartments, as well as tiny homes, Canvas Cottages, and Yurts without the need for grid connection as there is no back feeding to the grid. It is a simple installation that just about anyone can handle. Use the code CS23NEW for a discount.
Michael and Stephan Scherer have roots in various energy sectors including oil and gas, leading them to the development of Craftstorm. They witnessed disregard for the environment and abuse by the providers to consumers. The devastating hurricane damage experienced in the US and the deep freeze experienced in Texas in 2021 brought major power outages. Michael and Stephan Scherer invented a solution for energy during crisis moments and for traditional usage. Michael is the product designer. Stephan is an industrial engineer. They filled out their team with expertise in electrical and mechanical engineering. The software development is around battery development, energy efficiency, machine learning, the economics behind energy, and marketing.
Craftstrom consists of solar panels that can be placed on a deck, on the deck rails, on a pergola, or ground mounted. In most situations, an outdoor receptacle is needed to plug into your home wiring, access to your breaker box, and a wifi connection. Power from the panels is fed to their smart inverter (changing power from DC to AC) before plugging into a standard outdoor outlet. If you have a breaker box, the Craftstrom Power Merter allows the system to be permitted free as it balances solar produced and the demand from your appliances. Your generated solar power will offset any additional power needed from the grid.
If you are off-grid and do not have a breaker box and house wiring, you can use the two outlets built into their battery and inverter module. In the case of a yurt, you will need to go through the wall or the floor with this cable. If you need more than two outlets, you can connect a strip. The total power from the battery is 600 watts. It is plenty of power to run most home appliances outside of heating and cooling. However, minsplit efficiency has grown tremendously and can be used in some instances.
To calculate your energy needs add up the wattages of your appliances. That will give you an idea of the size solar system you will require. Craftstrom has a system configurator on their website that will allow you to match your requirements with their system here. Michael, who works out of the Houston office is available for consultation as well. Stephan runs the European office out of Cologne & Austria. The company culture is dedicated to ingenuity, sustainability, safety, and cooperation with a mission to make renewable energy available to all.
- Ron Friedman
