neil in gemini space

off-grid power 0 - 2022-10-25

quite a few significant life events and my ongoing quest to be a more authentic human had me thinking about living off-grid despite living in the Guernsey suburban area.

my objective is to be self sufficient for power - specifically electricity. i choose solar for this.

i am much more aware of the cost of running individual appliances, computers, monitors, etc. for example: i am using a pi4 for nearly all my computer tasks - ryzen beast not run for over a week.

house build:

as many panels as i can fit on a flat roof and south(ish) facing roof: 8 panels with an 3.5 Kw output.

battery; telsa on order but i plan to switch to AGM batteries once i grok them to save loadsamoney forever. i will need to do this myself as this is outside the knowledge set of my current solar installer.

grid connection to sell back excess electricity and as a backup should my solar system fail.

thing to divert solar power to heat water.

inverter to feed house (can't recall size at the moment, need to check details again).

none of this fitted yet:-(

cabin/site-shed:

2 out of 4 400w panels on a single string ground mounted running.

charge controller.

4.8 Kwh battery bank.

3000 W inverter.

working for only 2 full days and weather is overcast, gales, rain, pestilence etc. so big win output on day 1 was 1.06 Kw:-) i may resort to petitioning Nut for more sun:-)

panels are ground mounted at a winter angle. i'm iterating on the frame design and hope to move to a beta frame today from the first alpha frame.

i consume less than 2 Kw per day excluding hot water heating (do not have yet) and cooking, washing machine, dryer (heat pump type). i can't see that my total needs exceed 3 Kw per day.

i have marker penned Kw loads on higher power items and i'm developing habits to only run one at a time: i only have 3 kw continuous available.

more to come on frame design, electrics connections, site, etc.

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