Many people up North have solar setups and are off grid, usually with older lead-acid battery setups which work just fine.

Solar is great in the summer when the sun is up for 20+ hours a day, but slim in the winter when we only get ~4 hours of sunlight. Most people supplement with a generator for a couple of hours a day which is what I really hope to avoid with ideas like this TEC on the woodstove.

The stove is already pumping out so much heat, and it's so cold outside I feel like the temperature difference is just begging me to do something with it!

My other dream is to by land on moving water (river, stream) and make a little water wheel that turns an old pickup truck alternator. It will be killer in summer, but it's a problem in the winter because the water will be solid for ~5 months.