Project: Save Your Home From Wildfires With Solar Power
Episode 1: Introduction
Can Solar Power Help Protect Your Home From Wildfire? Yes it can, and this project will show you how. There is a long list of preparations you can undertake to make your home more defensible. We’re going to cover most of them. But the core of this project is using stored water to soak down your home and the surrounding property.
YouTube has some trending videos on using a gas-powered portable pump, an intake line you drop into a swimming pool, and fire hoses to defend a home or other structures. I actually have a similar system mounted on a small trailer with a storage tank at my shop on the mainland. I used it last summer to fight a fire that I stupidly caused when I used an angle grinder to cut off a piece of rebar on the concrete mounts for my solar container project. The sparks started a smoldering fire that I didn’t see (even though I looked) which turned into a grass fire. My fire pump system worked well, though the fire department still had to come to extinguish the areas I couldn’t reach. My neighbors now call me “Fire Marshall Bill” after the Jim Carrey character–they even went so far as to ziptie signs on my shop gate that say “No Parking By Order Of The Fire Marshall”. That fire will take a while to live down. But on the plus side, I have an experience-based understanding that while the portable pump approach is an excellent idea and a useful approach it has a few drawbacks.
- It’s expensive–more expensive than most of the videos claim. The gas-powered pumps range from $400 to $1200. A 50 foot firehose ranges from $150 (single jacket) to $300 for double jacket hose. You’d probably need at least four for a typical home. Nozzles range from $50 for plastic to $300 for brass. You’d probably need three for a typical home. You’d need to store and occasionally replace gasoline, maintain the equipment, and store it all in a convenient location. The initial outlay would be $1150 to $3300 plus maintenance. I spent $2500 on my fire trailer and it actually needs another hose ($300) to be practical. That expense is for something that has no other use, and therefore would be unlikely to get the maintenance it actually requires.
- You and probably one other person have to be present to fight the fire. Not only is this dangerous, it’s also unreliable. If you are simply not present when fire threatens your home there’s no protection–if I had not been at my shop when a someone passing by spotted the fire and ran in to let me know the equipment would have been unused, and worthless. And any firefighting expert will discourage this approach. People staying in defiance of an evacuation order to defend their home not only endanger themselves but can also divert resources and the attention of firefighters who are better used defending entire neighborhoods. As one professional firefighter told me “we don’t just get to say ‘well it was their choice not to obey the evacuation order’. Our job is saving lives. If someone ignores evacuation orders, we’re going to have to try to save them when things go badly. That doesn’t just divert resources, it can put firefighters in danger.”
One of the better versions of the “pool-based fire defense” ideas is this one. It still requires you to be present, so if you aren’t home when a wildfire threatens it’s fundamentally worthless. But if you are, you could at least set it up, get it going, and evacuate assuming you have 60 minutes or so. The author also mentions two sources I drew from, and deals well with all the issues of linking together the various pipe and hose connector thread issues. So I can tell he’s done some good research. If you’re on a tight budget and vegetation control and general home hardening methods aren’t enough, this could be a good alternative to the complex system I’m building. But you still have to be there to make it work.
We’re going to bring you along as we build a system that can automatically defend your home without you being present. A system you can monitor and control from anywhere in the world. We’re not just theorizing about this system, nor are we trying to sell you anything or starting a business to offer this equipment. We’re building and testing it in this video series and in the blog posts that accompany it. Everything we do will be in the public domain. We’re going to give you a recipe for our design that you can DIY. One caveat, some of the links for specific equipment are affiliate links. We make a small commission if you use these, which may someday help support this channel. But the channel is a hobby for me. I’m a retired 78 year-old geezer with pro-level ADHD and I really only work this hard to keep my brain busy. I’m purely an expert amateur, I’m not going to do any of this stuff for income.
Don’t assume you have to buy everything you see me using to effectively mitigate the hazard to your property, and the cost will vary hugely depending on what you already have, and how much of the work you can do yourself. In fact you may already have most of the equipment.The core of the system is a battery-backed solar power system–that might be just an upgrade to a system you already own (as ours is). The same system that you install to protect your home is one you can use every day to power your home to reduce your power bill during normal use or keep your lights on and your refrigerator cold during power outages. It’s going to be valuable to you every day. You’ll maintain it–everyone does. And so it will be tanned, rested, and ready when you need to call on it.
The system that makes this possible is a hybrid solar inverter system—I am using the EG4 12000PV—and a 14kWh EG4 Wallmount battery from Signature Solar. The system can scale tremendously to mitigate the wildfire risk to larger homes and mid-sized businesses. And while it’s helping mitigate those risks it’s also supplying power to your home or business to reduce utility costs and deal with outages. There will be links (some are affiliate) in the video descriptions and at the end of the blog posts. Use them if you like or just type in the URL. If you use the links Signature Solar has agreed to give you a $50 discount.
Why solar? The original plan was to use existing pool circulation filter pumps to feed a perimeter header with large sprinklers to soak down the area surrounding your home as well as the walls and roof of your structures. Because of the way my pool system works I’m going to add a dedicated sprinkler pump. If you don’t have a pool then this might be a great opportunity to add one. A reasonably sized above ground pool will serve nicely, and you can probably use the circulation pump. But in almost every fire emergency grid power will be shut off which would render the system useless without solar/battery/inverter backup. There are automatic natural gas, diesel, or gasoline generators that can supply similar amounts of power but all have fuel and reliability issues to contend with. A properly sized PV system with a 14KWh battery can supply a 1.5HP sprinkler pump with the 2kW it consumes for at least seven hours pumping 80 gallons per minute even if the sun isn’t shining. With sun and intelligent management of the water, the system can suppress fire for as long as the water supply lasts, which could be a very long time if the water main continues to add water to the pool through the makeup valves. Even a natural gas-supplied autostart emergency generator will be less reliable–I also have firsthand experience that leads me to that conclusion. I had a Generac natural gas-fired backup generator at a home I used to own that had frequent power outages. Despite having it automatically run once a month and load test itself, and having it professionally maintained, every time I needed it there was something wrong.
We’ll also cover simpler fire safety efforts to create a defensible boundary around your home and build a plan that any homeowner can and should carry out, following guidance from state and national fire safety organizations. Both the videos and these blog posts will include links to resources that can help you plan for emergencies that could otherwise turn into disasters, for you, your family, and your neighbors.
We’re undertaking this effort at our home in Maui, and we’re enlisting our neighbors in the effort–sharing information with them and working with our local County Fire Prevention Bureau, the Maui County Department of Fire and Public Safety, the County Council, the Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization, and the Mayor’s office for advice, possible assistance, and whatever resources are available. But I also expect most of the effort and cost of mitigation will be up to those of us who own homes here. Part of this effort is reaching out to neighbors for their suggestions and concerns and sharing information with them about the resources available to help protect them. Below is a letter I wrote to our neighbors in the general area of our home. Perhaps you can use it as a template to begin communication with your neighbors.
Dear Neighbor
The Lahaina fire, the fires upcountry, and the current disaster in Los Angeles undoubtedly have people looking at their own fire hazard situation a bit more carefully. I think that <our neighbohood> street and the houses on streets that connect to it have some particular hazards that could be dealt with effectively. I believe we as neighbors should start an effort to reduce the hazards as much as is feasible and effective.
I’m reaching out to the Maui County Fire Prevention Bureau, the Maui County Department of Fire and Public Safety, the County Council, the Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization, and the Mayor’s office for advice, possible assistance, and whatever resources are available. But I also expect most of the effort and cost of mitigation will be up to those of us who own homes here. I’m asking for your suggestions and concerns, I think this is an issue that we can best deal with as neighbors.
Each of us can make some immediate headway by assessing our own preparedness. One of the responsibilities of the Maui County Fire Prevention Bureau is to advise Homeowners on fire safety of their property. You can reach them at: (808) 876-4690 or email: fireprevention@mauicounty.gov. I understand that they will do individual inspections and provide advice if you request it.
There is also an excellent website of wildfire preparedness at hhtps://www.hwmo.org and an even better document available as a PDF on that website on how to reduce wildfire risks to your family, home and assets.
Beyond whatever you believe about climate change, wildfires are clearly a growing problem. It might surprise you to know that Hawaii is now considered one of the most wildfire-prone states. Each year, about half a percent of Hawai’i’s total land area burns in wildfires, equal to or greater than the proportion burned of any other US state. The heavy rainfall in Haiku that we might consider protective is part of the hazard—it enables the rapid and heavy growth of brush and grasses that make up the fuel for large-scale wildfire. Add the wind the north shore is famous for, and increasingly dry summers and the result is a hazard worth mitigating.
Maui county has a massive and highly detailed hazard mitigation analysis and plan—1043 pages long, available as a PDF here: https://www.mauicounty.gov/DocumentCenter/View/125977/2020-Maui-County-Hazard-Mitigation-Plan-Final . I’m slowly making my way though it, but the plan considers the wildfire danger of our particular area to be low. That’s understandable, even in drought years we’re not in a dry area for most of the year, but there are some particular differences that I think make our immediate area more of a hazard than might be anticipated. I also assume the plan may be revised after the upcountry fires, which were also in areas considered low hazard which became dry, as our area is, in the summer months.
The particular differences that I believe add substantially to our risk are:
Our neighborhood is served by a single street—there is no alternate route to exit the area quickly in case of evacuation.
The end of our evacuation route is heavily covered in non-native Guinea Grass (Megathyrsus maximus), one of the most problematic invasive grasses on Maui. This grass and other non-native fire-adapted vegetation was directly involved in both the Lahina fire and the upcountry fires. This is the plant you see along the road growing 8-10 feet tall—it looks much taller in places. There are other equally dangerous species mixed in. These fire-adapted grasses spread rapidly from the big seed heads that you see from the road. The grasses take advantage of fires or mechanical clearing of native plants to out-compete native vegetation. It’s considered by experts to be the major fire hazard on Maui, especially during the dry summer months because it creates large masses of dry material that sustain and spread fires quickly. If there is a fire in the large areas this grass is growing in along both sides of our evacuation route the road would be impassible.
These invasive grasses have become widespread on Maui, particularly after the decline of sugar cane plantations. They grow quickly, dry out easily, and create a fuel load for wildfires. Their proliferation has transformed large areas of the island, making wildfire management a critical concern.
Eliminating this dangerous growth in our neighborhood is certainly possible. There was almost none of it when much of the north end of North Holokai was growing pineapple, but it isn’t just the former pineapple field that is the problem, it’s also the growth along the road and any untended area that the seed lands in. It won’t be easy or cheap to eliminate the hazard, and it will require sustained effort year to year. But the hazard is substantial.
Like every effort to mitigate a hazard, If we’re successful we’ll never know for sure if the effort was worthwhile. But if we aren’t the losses of life and property could be at the unthinkable level we all saw in Lahina.
Feel free to contact me with your concerns and suggestions.
Regards,
This series will consist of 12 videos and blog posts. This is the first blog post: episode one. Here are the planned topics for the remaining 11 episodes. We are committed to completing the series–all 12 videos and posts–by April 30, 2025.
Video 2: Assessment and plan—mitigating existing vegetation fire hazard, solar installation locations and planning. EG4 12000PV and wallmount specifications and features.
Video 3: Preparing the Perimeter. Assessing risk to your solar installation. Taking advantage of the EG4 system’s environmental resilience.
Video 4: EG4 12000PV and PowerPro battery installation—connecting 12000PV to existing AC coupled (enphase) system and configuring for emergency use.
Video 5: Meeting code requirements. Integration to existing AC coupled systems.
Video 6: Sizing the system for normal use. Energy audit and energy monitoring equipment. Which system is right for your needs.
Video 7: Configuring the system for emergency control. Using the grid as supplemental power.
Video 8: Perimeter Sprinkler layout and installation–Plumbing, mounting, painting and mounting so the aesthetics of our home aren’t compromised (required by She Who Must Be Obeyed)
Video 9: Electrical system modifications–emergency switching load panels to supply only the most vital loads.
Video 10: Configuring the control and monitoring system (controlling via Home Assistant) Connecting the pumps, valves, electrical system, cameras, and sensors via Home Assistant to the web enables remote monitoring and control by your smartphone.
Video 11: Testing and Tuning. Stress testing the PV system, how to make adjustments and measure successful distribution.
Video 12: Commissioning, final inspection, final tests.