I want only portable devices like solar, and hand-crank chargers. I want to be able to boil water, charge my Laptop and phone, run my induction stove for a few minutes thrice a day, want it rugerdized at some point, and want to depend on my equipment for day to day life as preparation for having no support.
How am I doing so far? Did I waste money?
I have been using off-grid gear primarily for the last 6 years, both things that I can backpack with (I like goal zero crush light btw) and the larger/heavier stuff in my car.
Overall, the practical use of energy makes most cooking separate from my solar system. The acception is a 12v water boiler, but that is mostly while on the road. A wood stove is what I use most of the time, either a full size in a cabin, or a portable titanium one, with twigs and pinecones. It’s surprising how little is needed to boil a few cups of water.
If it’s a sunny day, just setting a black pot out in the sun will help get most of the heat (and mirrors if you want to get fancy), then less energy will be needed to bring it to boil.
It’s not impossible to cook off my system, but it would be a huge drain, and I rather run a computer all day or an electric blanket all night.
poVoq linked an article from Low Tech Magazine, which is a great resource for low energy sustainable living. I wanted to highlight this older article from them, too:
https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2016/05/how-to-get-your-apartment-off-the-grid/
It’s not clear to me, from your post, if you’re thinking about making a home/apartment “off grid”, and limiting your powered appliances to what solar power can cover to prepare for future disruptions to the power grid, or about living outside a fixed dwelling and using portable solar to power a few accessories like a portable induction stove. This matters because solar panels are bulky and batteries are heavy - charging a laptop and phone is trivial with a man-portable setup, but a solar generator capable of boiling water and cooking is not going to fit in a reasonably sized backpack 😆
If you’re thinking about “bugging out” or “going off the grid” in the survivalist sense, living with only the equipment you take with you, you might get better answers on equipment from camping and survivalist forums.
Yes, I am planning to actively make use of a bugout kit every day at home. The idea is to be comfortable living with what would otherwise be an emergency situation, falling back on the grid only when necessary. I then want to make more of the exact same kits for my family, and then convince other people to do it too.
Yeah, that’s definitely a camping/survivalist/prepping question and outside my expertise. I suspect it’ll take you a long time to learn to be “comfortable” living that way, though 😆
Oh what the hell, I already lived like ass. What’s a bit more in return for true freedom?
I have been using a BLUETTI battery with solar panels for over 6 months now.
We can power an electrical skillet (over 1000w) and an air popcorn maker (1500w) or a microwave (1500w). The battery we have is 3000w and the inverter is also 3000w. As for boiling water we have 2 kettles, one small on that uses 300w and a large one that uses much more.
We started with only 400w of portable solar when we lived in the car, but now in the RV we went to 1000w then 2000w of solar. By 10am the battery went from 40% to 100%. This is with the panels laying on the dirt, we do not have a stand yet.
We bought the panels at an electric store as new/old stock, so the 255w panels were only $90, although we have seen them elsewhere for cheaper (around $50).
We have been happy and can power anything we need. We borrowed a carpet shampooing machine and it used 1600w and we have a big shop vac too.
400+ Wp PV modules are 70 EUR new.
Wow that’s really affordable! That’s only $80 USD.
Thank you for the insight. Always nice to see real-world experiences with solar.
Oh I know about that one. Way out of my budget for now, and less portable than I’d like, but it is an option. I’m basically going for frugality/low power. That does sound cheap…except for the bluetti generator. And it is fairly reasonable.
I got the battery from their official eBay as a refurbished unit so it was a huge discount.
Another option is buying one or more lithium battery such as 12v 100ah and using a charge controller and inverter. Then you can scale or grow the system to your needs, it’s a bit more complicated to setup but way more versatile.
Hand crank chargers are a waste of money and time. They barely are good enough for a radio and seize up in a few years in flashlights.
Oh well. Guess I’m limited there then. It was supposed to be a backup in-case no sun
That’s what batteries are for, so you need to size appropriately.
Solar panels – > charger —> batteries —> inverter ----> you
You can also have a have a camp stove and do boiling water with that as a back up after days of rain and your batteries are running low. Charging a phone is nothing boiling water and using an induction cooker are where your power draws are at.
We lived off grid for a decade. The longest we went in 10 years was 21 days straight of rain.
If you are near a creek with some drop a small hydro would complement a solar if you are good at DIY ie when its raining a lot you’ll have water flow but it brings a whole heap of maontence issues eg clearing intakes etc
Seems you achieved the dream! Yes I’m mostly concerned about the cookers, and heaters. Even though the water only takes a minute or so to boil. I need at least some capability to do it, in order to start experimenting now. So I will see if I can find an appropriate, budget-friendly kit.
Maybe look into a biolite stove for cooking if you are doing cooking outside. You just need a small amount of wood to boil water or fry an egg or two.
You can either use scrap wood or tree branches off the ground, if you want a space efficient fuel then buy the wood pellets used as kitty litter or pellet stove fuel.
It has the bonus of charging electronics while it cooks you dinner. Make sure to have a long cord so your food doesn’t splatter on the screen.
Thank you! Seems quite useful to have at home. Though, I will ultimately have to assemble all-portable equipment, and make a bill of materials. Then estimate prices. This is purely because I want to encourage others. I want to start some sort of group to actively help people aquire a sort of kit for living independently.
You could probably build one that functions as a bike rack for a fully functional bicycle, similar to those work-out ones that reuse your real bike.
I have an actual bike, and we have some not so useful bikes here that are rusting. We can do something with them.
