Temporary off-grid report
Wed May 08, 2024 12:14 pm
So, I bitched about power being out at the Weenie shack.
I have a little over 2KW of solar panels that I have not been able to put up yet due to the fact that they're supposed to go on the WeenieWagun and even a 'temporary' mount would cost too much. So, in the meantime, I'm running things off a single 12V 120Ah (yes, 120, not 100) Lifepo4 battery
I work from home, 8+ hours a day.
Devices -
1. 15W LED string lights - maybe an hour a night
2. 3W LED table lamp - 24 hours a day
3. 3 cellphones - 2 charged 1x a day, 1 charged every 2-3 days
4. Laptop - charged 1x day
5. Portable hotspot - uses a 20ah battery bank every day or so.
6. Misc. keychain/pocket flashlights recharging 1x/week
7. Smart watch - Every 2 days
All the above run off a single 120AH LifePo4 battery for about a week.. It then takes about 2 hours to charge with my car, or I can drag it to where I have access to power and it takes about 2 hours with my 80A charger. If I drive anywhere I take the opportunity to top off a portable battery bank or charge my cellphone, but that's rare.
So, if I had just a single 100W solar panel set up, even with some cloudy days, I would practically have unlimited energy for the next 8-10 years (or however long the battery lasted).
This is also using all DC->DC power supplies, which are very efficient - no inverters here.
So, very simple, inexpensive systems can be made for very little money, or kept in reserve in case of an emergency.
Food has been shelf stable, and cooked on a single burner propane stove fed from a 20lb tank.
Very easily doable.
-- If I wanted to, I could permanently install the battery into the car (it already has a secondary battery, but it's SLA, I'd just replace it with this LIfepo4), and since I'm running low power draws (less than 3A) I could run a wire from the car to the shack, then just disconnect the shack since nothing when I leave so if I'm driving around anywhere, it uses that time to always charge the battery.
I have a little over 2KW of solar panels that I have not been able to put up yet due to the fact that they're supposed to go on the WeenieWagun and even a 'temporary' mount would cost too much. So, in the meantime, I'm running things off a single 12V 120Ah (yes, 120, not 100) Lifepo4 battery
I work from home, 8+ hours a day.
Devices -
1. 15W LED string lights - maybe an hour a night
2. 3W LED table lamp - 24 hours a day
3. 3 cellphones - 2 charged 1x a day, 1 charged every 2-3 days
4. Laptop - charged 1x day
5. Portable hotspot - uses a 20ah battery bank every day or so.
6. Misc. keychain/pocket flashlights recharging 1x/week
7. Smart watch - Every 2 days
All the above run off a single 120AH LifePo4 battery for about a week.. It then takes about 2 hours to charge with my car, or I can drag it to where I have access to power and it takes about 2 hours with my 80A charger. If I drive anywhere I take the opportunity to top off a portable battery bank or charge my cellphone, but that's rare.
So, if I had just a single 100W solar panel set up, even with some cloudy days, I would practically have unlimited energy for the next 8-10 years (or however long the battery lasted).
This is also using all DC->DC power supplies, which are very efficient - no inverters here.
So, very simple, inexpensive systems can be made for very little money, or kept in reserve in case of an emergency.
Food has been shelf stable, and cooked on a single burner propane stove fed from a 20lb tank.
Very easily doable.
-- If I wanted to, I could permanently install the battery into the car (it already has a secondary battery, but it's SLA, I'd just replace it with this LIfepo4), and since I'm running low power draws (less than 3A) I could run a wire from the car to the shack, then just disconnect the shack since nothing when I leave so if I'm driving around anywhere, it uses that time to always charge the battery.