@inam What are you trying to accomplish? What do you want to be able to do during a power outage, and for how long?

I've gone #PartialOffGrid last summer, and if I'm not heating or cooking, I won't even notice a power outage. I've turned my #FridgeOff for the winter, storing food outside.

Without knowing more, my suggestion is solar + battery + saving energy. You don't have to take *everything* off-grid, you can mix and match.

What are the #PartialOffGrid commitments? In a nutshell, everything DC.

That includes all phones & laptops, but also indoor lighting (USB-rechargeable), flashlights (USB-rechargeable) and even my bicycle's rear light. (Replaced with USB-rechargeable model, previously AA.)

What does the commitment entail? These devices are #OffGrid and won't ever see grid power (again) if I can help it. This means their usage has to be reduced when there isn't enough sun. (Mainly affects the laptop.)

Second day in a row that I'm doing BFP (Battery-Full Prevention.)

It's good to know that even with less than a week to go before Winter Solstice, the sun is giving me enough energy to meet my #PartialOffGrid commitments, which total to about 2 permaWatts.

Also thankful that there have not yet been any really long spells of cloudy weather. (>1 week)

#Solar #OffGrid #Winter

I love how long sunny spells just spontaneously *materialize*, when the forecast says all clouds all day every day for the foreseeable future. And during TOP-4, too.

*knocks on wood*

Anyway, the sun is adding to my room temperature which started at 15°C and is now 16.5, and the #infrared panels are keeping me toasty on 100% #solar power. I'm #heating for free. Battery is nearly full.

How's your day going?

#OffGrid #PartialOffGrid

Whew! What a weekend! Came home to a power station that wasn't charging, because it was FF*!

So of course that was a big scramble to find as many devices to charge before the sun ran out.

#Solar #PartialOffGrid #OffGrid

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* [V]ery [F]ull

@alemana frag mal bei @Coffee nach (und schau Dir seine Solar-Toot-Serie an) :awesome: Darüber hinaus gibt es wohl noch ein paar Hashtags für Dich: #OffGrid #PartialOffGrid etc (in Coffee's Bio sind noch ein paar mehr).

Good news for me: the #microwave also runs from the power station. (On low power. 580W to put 300W of heat info the food. Gotta love #inverter microwave ovens.)

Reheating food with today's catch of #solar.

#PartialOffGrid #OffGrid

08:15 UTC

The power station survived powering the fridge through the night, but just now it finally shut down the inverter, even as it was already receiving enough solar to keep it afloat (I thought). Fridge has been #OffGrid on #Solar for 60 hours.

#PartialOffGrid

Anyway,
"running the battery down to empty" -- check

- End of Thread -

(maybe)

20:00 UTC

I made it 48 hours! I have just slightly less battery than yesterday at this time. I suppose I could end it here, but let's see if I can run down the battery _this_ time around.

#PartialOffGrid #OffGrid #Solar

06:00 UTC

Secret bar discovered below deck!

No wonder these bars felt a bit small in capacity, as did the power station's total capacity. There are actually 7 battery levels instead of 6.

Looks like my initial estimate of the fridge's power consumption is fairly accurate after all.

Yep, fridge is still running as you can see. Wouldn't have been if not for this secret bar.

34h of fridge energy taken #OffGrid and fed from 100% clean #Solar. Take that, coal plants!

#PartialOffGrid

Well, here we go!

The fridge is _off_ the grid since 20:00 UTC.

If enough sunshine shows up tomorrow, and the power station fills up as predicted, I might just turn this into a 48h run.

#PartialOffGrid #OffGrid #Solar

I've been thinking that from a cost-saving perspective, it doesn't make sense to try and keep the battery as full as possible, only to then not be able to store any more sun. 🤔

I am very very full. All power banks are full, all devices are charged, as is the powerstation itself.

Well, charging to full was only a maintenance thing in the first place.

#PartialOffGrid #OffGrid #Solar

4 panels!

#PartialOffGrid #OffGrid #Solar

No silly, you're not inexplicably losing power in full sunlight! The power station is now actually Full!

(Me, still getting caught off-guard after explaining all this yesterday, and with the explicit goal of charging until full.)

#PartialOffGrid #OffGrid #Solar

This is some serious charging. The solar's so hot the powerstation has to fan itself.

2/4 panels connected. Working on the 3rd.

Already gained a bar. Previously, the number of bars hadn't changed since the cooking experiment.

#Solar #PartialOffGrid

Wired up the second New Panel today, and for 30 seconds, they were cooking at 106W. (Tried to take a picture, but I was too slow.)

30 minutes earlier I also observed the single 55Wp panel cooking at 50W for a few seconds.

That concludes the few breaks in the clouds. Now cooking at *checks display* 0W.

#PartialOffGrid #Solar

As predicted, nearly 0 from #solar today, and 56.9Wh went out.

Still at 2 bars (20-40%).

This second bar seems nearly infinite.

In a way, it is. One single bar is probably double what the Venture 75 can store in total.

Well, I wanted to be able to survive a week of weather like this, and it looks like this is going to be more than adequate.

#PartialOffGrid

Tonight's dinner is fueled by 100% grid energy. Though it was fairly sunny, not enough sun was captured to even move the battery level indicator, which is still at 20-40%*.

34.9Wh was used to recharge various devices.

Weather for the coming days is predicted to be bad, so I'm expecting even less.

I miss knowing exactly how much I captured. Do generic DC energy meters exist?

#Solar #PartialOffGrid

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* the usual caveats regarding the inaccuracy of battery level indicators apply

Literally cooking at full power.

By running the #InstantPot off of the powerstation.

(Pressure-cooking potatoes + brussels sprouts).

#PartialOffGrid #OffGrid #Solar

Good news:

1) The powerstation arrived
2) it works

Bad news:

1) Not able to track the amount of energy collected

#PartialOffGrid #Solar