Living off-grid on 2.6 Amp Hours a day

Surfpath
Surfpath Solar Expert Posts: 468 ✭✭✭
in Off Grid Solar & Battery Systems #1
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Ok, it's a rhetorical statement, but I think it has a point.

For the past 4 months we've been living off a 2.6 amp hour power tool battery, plus about a dozen other AA and AAA's.

The 2.6 amp hour battery is our main source of light to cook and eat by. We also use it in the drill. There are 6 motion detector 'spot lights' throughout the house that come on as you enter the room. We get on the internet at work. Sometimes we keep a few items in the freezer there.

We use the genny now about 3 hours a week to do laundry and (at the same time) cool the fridge a little (a beer will stay chilled about 24 hours after 'charging'). We grow a lot of the food we eat. We also eat a lot of dry food stuffs (pasta, etc).

That said, this is just a temporary set up and we are looking forward to getting the solar system in a few weeks time.

I think the lesson we've learned over the last 4 months is that our Kwh needs really aren't that high. At first I thought we'd need 7Kwh/day, then 5, then 4, now maybe 3.

There is so much electricity out there that is unnecessary and wasted. It's great to not watch TV, the lights don't have to be blazing, fresh food tastes wonderful. I think the transition to being off grid can be made easier when you pare back what is really essential and live with that for a few months.

Those 370 amp hrs are going to be amazing.
-SP
Outback Flexpower 1 (FM80, VFX3048E-230v, Mate, FlexNetDC) 2,730watts of "Grid-type" PV, 370 AmpHrs Trojan RE-B's, Honda 2000 watt genny, 100% off grid.
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Comments

  • waynefromnscanada
    waynefromnscanada Solar Expert Posts: 3,009 ✭✭✭✭
    #2
    Re: Living off-grid on 2.6 Amp Hours a day
    Surfpath wrote: »
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    Oh is that ever true!
    Most living in Western countries were brought up to experience daily terrible waste of energy as normal, and not waste. I truly believe most North Americans have no idea how to live without wasting electricity and other forms of energy. It's a very sad way to live. And all the while those same people will be complaining about the high cost of their electric bill. :(
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  • Photowhit
    Photowhit Solar Expert Posts: 6,006 ✭✭✭✭✭
    #3
    Re: Living off-grid on 2.6 Amp Hours a day

    Lots of things here, energy use is all those things you've talked about, the generator, what ever yor cooking with, the stored energy in your AA and AAA batteries and what ever your heating with (if your heating) on top of that, if you've moved away from your job there is extra energy used for transportation.

    FWIW - "amps" is a measure of current and doesn't equate to energy until there is a measure of voltage as well.

    ...I do like the way your transitioning, it will make each added watt a pleasure.
    Home system 4000 watt (Evergreen) array standing, with 2 Midnite Classic Lites,  Midnite E-panel, Magnum MS4024, Prosine 1800(now backup) and Exeltech 1100(former backup...lol), 660 ah 24v Forklift battery(now 10 years old). Off grid for 20 years (if I include 8 months on a bicycle).
    - Assorted other systems, pieces and to many panels in the closet to not do more projects.
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  • Cariboocoot
    Cariboocoot Banned Posts: 17,615 ✭✭✭
    #4
    Re: Living off-grid on 2.6 Amp Hours a day

    Says he's going to have 370 @ 48 Volts, so that's a bit more than 8 kW hours to work with. Nearly 3X what we use at the cabin, you wastrel! :p

    Perhaps everyone should have to spend a year living without electricity sometime in their life just so they can appreciate it the rest of the time. We started out with nowt but flashlights, but I have to say as the years pile on top of you the convenience of the switch is very much welcome.

    And you're right, Wayne; how dare BC Hydro charge me ten cents per kW hour! Why, the last bill was nearly $40! Highway robbery! :p
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  • niel
    niel Solar Expert Posts: 10,300 ✭✭✭✭
    #5
    Re: Living off-grid on 2.6 Amp Hours a day

    sp,
    hmmm, i was going to suggest your wife have a good talking to my wasteful wife, but i fear my wife might contaminate her thinking. i'd bet if my wife put her mind to it she could use up that 8kwh in an hour or 2.
    feel sorry for me as she and i are total opposites in this respect.:cry:
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  • Surfpath
    Surfpath Solar Expert Posts: 468 ✭✭✭
    #6
    Re: Living off-grid on 2.6 Amp Hours a day
    niel wrote: »
    sp,
    hmmm, i was going to suggest your wife have a good talking to my wasteful wife, but i fear my wife might contaminate her thinking. i'd bet if my wife put her mind to it she could use up that 8kwh in an hour or 2.
    feel sorry for me as she and i are total opposites in this respect.:cry:

    Niel,
    You hit the nail on the head. The wife factor is so important. I am blessed with a Kwh friendly wife.

    I think there needs to be a derating/rating component in each of the solar calculations, in account of this wife factor.

    Photowhit, I agree we use more than the drill battery. But the premise is less = more

    Coot, I agree. After 2.6 amp hours for 4 months I think 370 will be excessive for us. It's our visiting guests I have to account for.

    ....hmmm, maybe I could have just run the genny for them...rats.
    Outback Flexpower 1 (FM80, VFX3048E-230v, Mate, FlexNetDC) 2,730watts of "Grid-type" PV, 370 AmpHrs Trojan RE-B's, Honda 2000 watt genny, 100% off grid.
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  • niel
    niel Solar Expert Posts: 10,300 ✭✭✭✭
    #7
    Re: Living off-grid on 2.6 Amp Hours a day

    sp,
    well we were nice to our wives to save face and just blamed some guy named murphy.:p

    as to your excess storage of electric, have no fear as your loads will grow. even the best of them that have lived with so very little electric in the past will tell you.
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  • solar_dave
    solar_dave Solar Expert Posts: 2,397 ✭✭✭✭
    #8
    Re: Living off-grid on 2.6 Amp Hours a day
    niel wrote: »
    sp,
    hmmm, i was going to suggest your wife have a good talking to my wasteful wife, but i fear my wife might contaminate her thinking. i'd bet if my wife put her mind to it she could use up that 8kwh in an hour or 2.
    feel sorry for me as she and i are total opposites in this respect.:cry:

    LMAO try an easy 40 kWh a day. LOL. I have to be fair, hair must be done with both blow dryer and some kind of hot iron thingie. Oh and the grand kids must run a TV while running 2 Mac mini computers.
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  • icarus
    icarus Solar Expert Posts: 5,436 ✭✭✭✭
    #9
    Re: Living off-grid on 2.6 Amp Hours a day

    Back tot he OP,, one thing you mentioned was the work, growing your own food etc. so much of what we do is a trade off, often times trading our money for labor. I can buy propane (or oil or gas or elect,) to het the house, or I can work to cut an haul ans split and stck wood. The equation works out roughly the same in my case. The days working to get the money to buy the fuel are roughly Eq to the days I spend getting It my self. Not true for everything, but the point is, to beoff grid, you often trade labor for convenience. For many of us, that is an easy trade to make.

    T
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  • Photowhit
    Photowhit Solar Expert Posts: 6,006 ✭✭✭✭✭
    #10
    Re: Living off-grid on 2.6 Amp Hours a day
    Surfpath wrote: »
    ... The wife factor is so important. I am blessed with a Kwh friendly wife...

    Truely! You'll be fine and enjoy your system as it comes 'on line'.

    As for growing loads, I was fine for most of a year bicycling around, living out of a tent and seeing most of the states east of the Mississippi, a 10 watt solar panel and a couple SLA batteries the size of a pack of cards, then I was fine on 200 watt array for 5 years(fridge at work), then 1700 watt array so I could have a little A/C and a cabin, now I found a deal on a tin can and looking at a 6.5Kw array....

    ...much like the bicycle trip, it's been fun and an interesting learning trip.
    Home system 4000 watt (Evergreen) array standing, with 2 Midnite Classic Lites,  Midnite E-panel, Magnum MS4024, Prosine 1800(now backup) and Exeltech 1100(former backup...lol), 660 ah 24v Forklift battery(now 10 years old). Off grid for 20 years (if I include 8 months on a bicycle).
    - Assorted other systems, pieces and to many panels in the closet to not do more projects.
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  • Surfpath
    Surfpath Solar Expert Posts: 468 ✭✭✭
    #11
    Re: Living off-grid on 2.6 Amp Hours a day
    niel wrote: »
    sp,
    well we were nice to our wives to save face and just blamed some guy named murphy.:p

    as to your excess storage of electric, have no fear as your loads will grow. even the best of them that have lived with so very little electric in the past will tell you.

    Well said about Murphy, Niel. Thanks for reminding me about him. I'll keep him in reserve.

    Incidentally, we just had dinner at a friend's house. It felt weird to have the lights stay on for more than 30 seconds. Normally I have to wave an arm around to keep things lit up ;)
    Outback Flexpower 1 (FM80, VFX3048E-230v, Mate, FlexNetDC) 2,730watts of "Grid-type" PV, 370 AmpHrs Trojan RE-B's, Honda 2000 watt genny, 100% off grid.
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