Mastodawn

I have reached the end of the first phase of shifting load to solar power.

All the household rechargeable devices - phones, tablets, headphones, and the big cordless tool batteries for snow blower, leaf blower, drills, drivers, etc, are now 100% replenished using the 500W solar panel

Next step is rigging the furnace blower to run from the solar "generator", making witing changes, and adding 800W of permanent solar panels

Show thread

cobalt 1d ago

@mloxton @Pollinators Whoa—first time I’ve heard something appealing about trying out a 500W solar panel. That’s doable here. I wish we could go for solar panels on our roof but it is unbelievably cost-prohibitive here in sunny Phoenix, AZ.

Show thread

Matthew Loxton 22h ago

@cobalt123
Surprisingly, a lot of household solar is actually cost prohibitive, but that's often because people start with the intention of selling power back to the grid

I started with the aim of being able to work from home if storms or fire cut my power.
PC plus screens plus phones, tablets, a few LED lamps, and the 5G router burn ~30 W
A 3 kW solar "generator" plus a 500W panel lets me run that setup indefinately
It could also run a minimal household for many days.

@Pollinators

Show thread

cobalt 22h ago

@mloxton @Pollinators Ah, a little searching finds me some 3kW but prices $400 to $3000. So many products are 3000kW or sumsuch. Hmmm. Thinking I’ll start small and see what happens.

Show thread

Pollinators

@cobalt123 @mloxton The solar panel prices in many countries are a fraction of the cost of the same equipment in the USA. This confuses international comparisons. However, Phoenix, Arizona is in the USA. The possibility of variable energy pricing from your energy provider is an incentive to you to support a portion of your home energy load with solar and batteries. #solar, #SolarPV, #energyprices.