'My goal was to get independent
Source: Jackson Hole Star Tribune, by Nick Draper
November 25, 2007
BONNEVILLE, Idaho -- Long before reducing one's "carbon footprint" or going "green" became vogue, Karl Smith was relying primarily on sunshine and wind to power his Bonneville County home.
The retired Idaho National Laboratory engineer developed his own power plant and has lived "off the grid" for more than 20 years.
His Solar Electric Hybrid system, which he markets to people who live in remote areas where it is expensive to get "on the grid" power, is the size of a large shed and uses solar and wind power and diesel fuel to light homes year round.
That Smith lives off his own power isn't surprising once you know his history.
He was born in Colorado in 1938 to a government trapper.
For the first several years of his life, his family lived in a log home on the Blue River and had a "light generator," a small, gas-powered generator that only powered an incandescent light or two. They used an outhouse and hauled their own water.
Those light bulbs were the only "appliances" his family had.
He was 8 before he saw what the inside of a house could look like with abundant electricity.
"I could see the upgrade (then) from not having electricity to having electricity," Smith said. "I realized how much the quality of life depended on electricity."
Electricity would be a focal point of his life from then on.
He became an electrical engineer and worked at INL.
In 1984, with two of his five children still living at home, he decided to move his family to a 160-acre patch of land in the foothills east of Idaho Falls.
There were no power or water services where he planned to make his home, meaning his family would have to be totally self-sufficient.
But that appealed to Smith.
"My goal was to get independent," he said. "I'm interested in building systems that will provide electrical energy for people for a better use on their rural land."
Being self-sufficient didn't bother Smith's family either.
After living in big cities such as Las Vegas and Albuquerque, N.M., moving to the uninhabited tract of land was a relief, Janet Smith said.
There were some bumps in the early years, but their life remained pretty much the same when they moved off the grid.
"Sometimes it was like trying to build your spaceship on the way to the moon," Janet Smith said. "But (Karl) just always knew how to fix things."
The price of the land also was a top selling point.
With no electricity -- the power company at the time wouldn't even consider building a line to his home -- or water, Karl Smith bought the land for $300 an acre.
He dug a well and put in a septic tank, running everything off a China Diesel motor generator and self-built wind tower.
Solar power wasn't viable or affordable back in the Reagan era, so a fuel generator was the only option to people who wanted to exist off the grid.
The Smith family went through three diesel-powered generators before everything changed in the mid-1990s.
By that time, solar panels could be purchased at a reasonable price.
In 1996, Smith bought a new diesel generator, a new set of 24 deep-cycle batteries and a solar panel that follows the sun.
He constructed his own power plant from those basic parts, along with his existing wind turbine that rotates 360 degrees, and it's still keeping his lights on today.
