Starting solar-based back-up system.

Re: Starting solar-based back-up system.

Your best plan--Start with conservation. Pick a radio that does not use much power or even has solar/rechargable battery backup.

I have a small Sony radio with head phones that will run 100-140 hours on one AA battery.

Or even a larger one like this Sony ICF-38 will run upwards of 80 hours on 4x AA batteries.

For lighting, you can get a small LED lithium CR 123 two cell flashlight that will run 100-900 hours on low/very low (very low is just enough light to not trip when walking around a dark house). They also have a two cell AA version (not quite as bright on high). Keeping with the AA battery theme--Buy a 48 pack from Costco every five years and get appliances with same battery size/type to keep things simple (you can also get AA Lithium batteries too).

And, you can get AA (or other cell type) Head Lamps--very handy to use when walking/working and you need to keep your hands free. I personally like the slightly more expensive ones that two or three+ levels of power settings. You can keep them on low to preserve batteries and only turn them on high when needed (high is generally too bright to, for example, read a newspaper).

The fan--that is a different animal... It requires a fair amount of electrical power to keep things moving. A larger battery system (storage batteries) and alternative power source (solar panels / genset / etc.).

Towards that end, you should look at ensuring that you use very energy efficient appliances to keep your battery/solar/fuel usage low.

A Kill-a-Watt meter (AC Watt*Hour meter) and/or a DC Watt/Amp*Hour meter (similar for DC powered devices) is a very handy device to plan your power needs (and for conservation to find those little power wasters we all have around our homes).

Once you know what your loads are--it is pretty straight forward to plan an emergency/off-grid supply.

There are a lot of different options out there... You can build a system from discrete components (solar charger charger, AC battery, inverter, AC transfer switch), or use Inverter/Charger/AC transfer switch and just connect a battery bank (and solar panels + charger later).

People have built their own systems (Mike90045's Solar Monolith):




Unfortunately, Mike's instructions to make this unit have disappeared from his original link--but we can give you some suggestions of how to start.

And here is a very long thread that walks through all of the questions and answers (the best we have) for a person that was starting from ground zero:

Emergency Power

If you want to read a thread talking about the various issues of inverter, battery types, emergency power usage, etc.:

Does This System Make Sense?

Questions?

-Bill