Thank you so much for the feedback. This is very helpful. My hubby wants me to do the building. I don’t want to waste my time doing it if it isn’t going to be very efficient.
Right now we have a windmill that produces on average 1/4 to 1/3 of our electricity. And 2 wood stoves with propane back up. We have looked into heating our water with the wood stoves but, haven’t really study it out yet.
It is even possible to use the waste heat drom the generator to heat water.
As others have said,the first step is to reduce your power needs to the very minimum.This means spending more money on lots of insulation and careful siting of the home.It is actually cheaper,probably a necessity,to buy the super-efficient EXPENSIVE refrigerators and other applianes,rather than try to buy enough solar panels to power the convential ones.
There just isn't a way for individuals to produce/harvest electricity at the price the utilities sell it to you.
The only real exception is those very few lucky enough to have a year-round stream of adequate flow and drop in which case home hydroelectic plant is great.