Equipment

Leaving in a remote place comes with a few strings attached

Lobelha is a house that is autonomous but at the same time provides the comfort you expect in a modern property. You therefore have different systems to provide electricity, water and heating.

First, electricity is getting closer to the house, year by year. Right now, the closest grid is 6 km from the house, so if you’re interested in getting connected, it might be possible.

But the house is equipped to live off the grid, through the use of different equipments: solar panels, solar pump, batteries, tracker, generator and gas tank.

Solar panels & batteries

The house is equipped with 2 sets of solar panels.

The first set is located above the batteries room, on the roof.

The main source and main solar panels are on a 2 axis tracker from Deger-Energie. You have 12 panels of max 170W/36V that track the sun’s course.

All this energy is directed to a bank of 12 2V batteries. The batteries have been changed in 2020, after more than 20 years of use for the previous batch.

It provides enough power for 10 people living in the house and using such appliances as the dishwasher or the washing machine, two fridges, the compressor for water, etc.

Generator

Should the sun hide, or if you need an extra boost, you have a diesel generator that is located 100m from the house with a 1 000 liters tank. The generator fills the batteries to a full charge in 2 hours.

Wind turbine

There is an areo generador that’s been installed in the beginning of the 90s, still working but its efficiency is not as good as the solar panels. It’s a good way to know where the wind is coming from and the speed ;-)

Solar pump & water

A tank is located on top of the land, with a capacity of over 16 cubic meters (4 meters diameter and 1.5 meters height approx) filled by two pumps :

• one working with the normal electricity circuit, but with a 2 KW power. Useful when the tank gets empty and there is not enough sun to refill it.
• another pump is connected to solar panels on the side of the hill. It is a Lorentz PS 1800. This provides water all sunny days.

All water is taken from the lake. Water for the house is filtered, but it is not drinking water.

The water from the tank is then pressurized again to provide pressure in the house and top levels of the garden through a Grundfos compressor.

Gas & heating

There is also a gas tank for heating and cooking using propane in front of the garage. This tank provides heating to the smaller house too.

Sprinklers

The garden has many zones for sprinkling. The electric valves have been replaced 2 years ago, and the system changed to a radio frequency one controlled by a Samcla hub with repeaters and rain sensor.

Other main house (Monte de Lobelha)

This second main house comes with no equipment. A pipe has been installed to provide water from the Casa Novas house, but the capacity of the tank (with sprinklers) is too low to provide for both. Also a wire has been installed between the houses: I strongly advise against using it.

This house needs to be equipped.