Saturday
Linda
The weather today was beautiful. Blue clear skies and warm temperatures made it the perfect day to be outside. John came over bright and early this morning to help Sonny install the new bank of batteries that arrived yesterday.
Connecting cables
All he asked in payment was a cup of coffee to get him started. You would not believe how heavy each one of those batteries are. I definitely would not have the strength to lift and carry them to the battery box where Sonny would install them.
Getting them in place
We are hoping to get a little more juice for those extended cloudy and rainy days that come along. Winter will be a another good test for our system with its months of grey and overcast days.
We still need to finish that project we started a few weeks ago of putting the R-19 insulation under the house. That will be a big improvement. We don’t want a repeat of last years wool socks and L.L. Bean slipper requirement. Back then you could get frost bite by just touching the floor with your bare foot. Brrrrrr. Cold feet don’t set well with me. Cold weather is ok, but I am too old to be like Ebenezer Scrooge eating gruel in a fireless room.
Off-Grid in West Virginia 
I’ve thought about using a solar water heater and using plastic tubing in a subfloor to heat the floor and house. Probably wouldn’t be enough for your primary source of heat though.
Although I’m not an expert in that area it can be done. Pretty sure it will also require a large insulated tank to hold the water that was heated and a circulating pump. We are pretty happy with our wood stove and back-up propane heat.