diy solar

diy solar

Ethics and policy - would it be fine charging your 5kwh battery at a school/public library?

Riley

New Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2021
Messages
95
No matter how big the solar array we have, still, we end up with no power on rainy days. Do you think it's acceptable behavior for someone to put their battery in luggage and charge them at their school or public library? Cellphones and laptops are definitely fine, but what about something bigger - 2KWH or even 5KWH?
 
If you have no power on rainy days that's an indication that you have a poorly designed system. Anyone creating an off-grid system should have some kind of backup generator.
 
That's one heavy suitcase :) hope its's a wheelie kind.
If you ask and it doesn't become a habit, I don't see the harm.
If it's a matter of ethics, then maybe you could volunteer at the library while it's charging.
 
I wouldn't plug in at somebody's private business, but would have no qualms about plugging into a public building. 5kw to a school or library is chump change.
 
Continous use devices should draw no more than 80% of the circuits rated power.
You should be sure to use an outlet on a dedicated circuit.

5000 watts / 1440 watts / .8 efficiency = 4.340277778hours
 
Last edited:
On the ethics side: Lack of planning on your part doesn't mean that I, as a tax payer, should have to cover for you.

On the technical side: A typical outlet may be rated at only 15 amps. Since it's not residential, maybe they're all 20 amps. But if it's 15 amps, you may need to throttle your charger so it doesn't trip the breaker. Since we talking about a battery that can be transported in luggage I doubt that your battery is that big. Still, it's going to take a while.
 
On the ethics side: Lack of planning on your part doesn't mean that I, as a tax payer, should have to cover for you.
Ya, I can somehow ‘justify’ a homeless or risk vulnerable person stealing $2 of electricity, but not really.
Just like putting your personal trash bag in the library’s dumpster is a prosecutable theft of services, so is removing electricity from a place that is not yours without express permission and using it for your own purposes.

I told my kids when they were growing up, “the right thing to do never changes.” In other words: situations do not warp ethics aka “situational ethics” basically never should come into play.

Taking something not yours is stealing.
 
I told my kids when they were growing up, “the right thing to do never changes.” In other words: situations do not warp ethics aka “situational ethics” basically never should come into play.

Ethics are always situational. Take cannibalism as an example; as a human it seems fairly clear-cut, but zooming out and imagining yourself as a spider or preying mantis the female's choice to eat their mate is totally the right thing to do. For those species' individuals (which are already short-lived) eating the now useless male after mating avoids wasting resources and creates the best possible chances of success for their offspring.
 
Use public charging spots? Not sure where you are located, but here they are everywhere. An AC charger is always <5km away, in the city/towns usually <500m. You only need an adaptor cable and a tag/app to unlock them, but it's cheap and easy. And if you're in an RV you can easily park around them without having to take all this weight with you.
Here (at least in NL) about all of them provide at least 16A @ 240V, most of them 3-phase (3x16A) or more.

Might differ on your location tho, somewhere in the canadian forest availability of charging stations is much lower off course.
Here we have about 80.000 available public charging points or so in our tiny country. (and 200k+ private or so, but many are also available for other customers)


Only the adaptor to convert to a regular socket and an extensioncord needed, and for the price (here about 0,35 euro / kWh or so) you can't drag 5kWh of battery with you.

You only need a decent charger if you want to 'fastcharge', but that also applies to charging in a public libary or similar.

In my opionin, public charging points are even more convenient since you can do shopping / having diner or whatever during charging, where as at a libary you probably won't leave the battery charging unattended.
 
Last edited:
On the ethics side: Lack of planning on your part doesn't mean that I, as a tax payer, should have to cover for you.

Agreed close down warming shelters during winter storms when everyone loses power. These freeloaders need to learn a lesson.
 
Hauling a big 5kwH battery to a library and spending 3+ hours charging it? No, find another way, like a generator to run your house.
 
No matter how big the solar array we have, still, we end up with no power on rainy days. Do you think it's acceptable behavior for someone to put their battery in luggage and charge them at their school or public library? Cellphones and laptops are definitely fine, but what about something bigger - 2KWH or even 5KWH?
Is this a vehicle based system or a stationary system?

Ethics aside, I can't believe there isn't a better solution than lugging heavy ass battery in and out of public buildings anytime it rains.
 
What if the library has a free EV charging station? And someone charges their car daily at it?

Tax payers are picking up the tab for that.
 
What if the library has a free EV charging station? And someone charges their car daily at it?

Tax payers are picking up the tab for that.
Then they are providing free charging for EVs. That's all. Doesn't imply anything else,
 
Is this a vehicle based system or a stationary system?

Ethics aside, I can't believe there isn't a better solution than lugging heavy ass battery in and out of public buildings anytime it rains.
It's a 1990 5 MPG RV, too big and too costly to move in my eyes. But I am attending college and spending hours in the library every day.
 
If you use your car to power your house when you get home from say a 5 mile commute and use 20kwhr each night?
 
If you use your car to power your house when you get home from say a 5 mile commute and use 20kwhr each night?
No, I am dry camping in my RV, and I don't have any other vehicle than the RV.
 
I can't comprehend how you would haul a 5KWh battery into the library.
My 2KWh battery weigs a ton.
I think Will said his new g4l 5KWh weigh 160Lbs...
A 300 to 750Wh? Sure... but 5KWh?

I dontthink so...
 
Back
Top