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?
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
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.
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.
