Hey folks a few years later and i am now setting up a solar system in my shed. I have bought a 200w solar panel and a tiny 40amp hour battery (40amps @ 12v= 480w @ 50% drain = 240w) (will upgrade later) to run lights and my soldering iron and a fan maybe a radio lol. This setup should give me a few hours of run time maybe i can eek out 5 hours total so not bad. Soldering iron will be run on less than 20w.
Brings up an important question how much power could you live of at a minimum? You would still want to be happy and live a comfortable life? A big factor would be heating and cooling depending on where you live? Would you consider moving to live of the grid?
My usual home activity would be like this per average hour awake at night. These figures are a rough estimate. My house has no AC and we rarely have to use the heater in winter.
PC= 130w
Screen= 40w
Lights = 30w (various lights on)
Radio = 20w
Chargers of various sorts = 10w
Fridge/ freezer not sure about maybe 150w? (figure could be high) ( depending on weather)
Fan = 50w
WiFi/modem = 20w
Total here is 450w per hour in summer
Once of per night
Hot water heater is a heat as you go gas system so my guess is as good as yours but id say 3-4kw @ maybe 20mins = 800w?
Gas stove and oven 3kw for the oven maybe 1.5kw for the big burner ( estimate) = 1200w
Microwave is only used on some days
My total minimum would probably be around 220w per hour at night and still live normally as such. Id get a smaller PC like a 60w laptop and a smaller more energy efficient fridge 50w and turn me radio off and some lights. 170-60=110w , 150-50=100, Plus radio and lights –30w = 240w saving.
I thought about this at one time quite a few years ago. Now days mind you the wife and kids wouldn’t go for any of my nonsense but if I had it my way I would be off the grid. The only thing I would really need electricity for is to charge a few batteries maybe once a week and a few very very low output general lighting bulbs. This was 20 years ago I thought about this so technology has come a long way as far as battery and lighting efficiency goes. So I could really use a few deep cycle batteries, inverter, and a not so huge solar panel to accomplish that. Then I though about using DC only for both lighting and charging. That is about where my planning came to an end. We decided to have a child and knew that was the end of my living in the middle of nowhere, depending on nobody.
I still have a small solar panel I use to charge a deep cycle battery but, that battery only keeps the DC flowing to a few ham radios. The only reason being I am too busy spending money on flashlights and knives to buy a proper semi high amp regulated DC supply. Switching power supplies make too much noise on lower frequencies. All the noise in switching supplies in consumer electronics are a pain to mitigate as well. Even when I get my own noise down to a minimum, some jackleg buys a new TV or UPS system that throws out some wicked noise from half a mile away or birdies every 5mhz.
Also, yes, I would most certainly move to a more constant climate to make life a little more pleasant. Nobody likes freezing or sweating when trying to sleep at night.
Some of your quoted power figures are way to high. A laptop does not need 60W during normal usage. During normal usage a PC/laptop idles most of the time. The power consumption should be somewhere between 5W and 30W. The same can be said for a PC. 130W is way too much if you aren’t gaming. The typical (idle) power consumption should be between 10W and 50W for a modern pc.
Most importantly you didn’t account for how long you use your devices. You listen to radio every hour of the evening every night while also using the pc all the time?
Your fridge and freezer also don’t need 150W continously. That would be unbeliveably inefficient. You might as well throw ice cubes at your frozen food to keep it cool. A modern full size fridge can run on 0.008-0.010kW/h per hour.
Investing in a modern fridge with a high efficiency (buy it used) is one of the best things you can do to save money in the long run.
Since my last divorce I have been living mostly in my van. Just dont want the expense and all the upkeep of another house right now.
I have 1 285 watt high voltage panel and 225 amp hours of deep cycle batteries.
My small 12 volt fridge (45 quarts) pulls around 3 Amps for 15 minutes or so out of every hour. The fridge is my main power user. Next would be the rooftop and countertop fans.
I mostly only use laptop for banking. I use a tablet for Netflix and everything else and it is very efficient.
For lights I tail stand my flashlights because the tint
is more to my liking then ceiling lights I installed.
Most everything I use charges with 12volts so I rarely have to use an inverter which looses power converting to 120AC.
My batteries usually at 90% by the time the sun is high enough to start charging again and have never gone lower then 80%.
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