bookrabbit
doorkeeper
I have always wanted to 'go solar' but with children and no money it was never an option. For the past couple of decades I had to settle for buying from a solar utility company instead. Expensive, yes, but I always saw it as as much a charitable donation as a utility bill and an investment in my children's future. Anyway those children are grown up and I live on my own in a cabin with a roof I can reach. So although I couldn't get my head around the technicalities or do a good job of planning I decided to take the plunge and buy a power station/ solar generator unit and a flexible solar panel that wasn't very heavy and that I could manage to get up on the roof by myself. And retrieve if there is a storm.
From there I have bought several more power stations each with a panel avoiding complicated wiring as my head just doesn't work these days. I have had long covid really badly. Fatigue and brain fog and shortness of breath. None of which helped but which didn't stop me either.
I have the solar bug badly. I get a ridiculous amount of pleasure from seeing those batteries charge up. I think it has even been helpful in clearing some of the fog out of my head, better even than Duolingo, my previous obsession.
Anyway I have lived entirely off grid for the last six weeks or two months or so. As opposed to the time living with just an extension cord for power. I moved out here at the end of 2019 and it has evolved from there spurred on in part by a fear of a tree falling on my power cable. One came very close only missing it because it got tangled in a vine and stopped about a foot above the cord! The cord got badly stripped where it came out of a window from the outbuilding where the mains reached and I knew I really shouldn't be using it. That spurred me on. Next winter will be difficult without that cable as a life line but I am determined to manage. So far Spring and Summer have proved easy. I more often have excess power than too little.
It hasn't been smooth sailing but the problems are manageable, more challenges than barriers. Of course I am still only practising a watered down tame version of solar life but the terms etc are becoming more familiar again. I did some physics at university level so I haven't always had this difficulty. That knowledge is still in this malfunctioning head of mine somewhere. Well hopefully it is.
I came across this forum while trying to work out what solar panel to match with my bluetti eb70 and have been back several times. Now when I am considering moving on from prebuilt units to buying individual components I thought I would join and ask for some advice.
Louise
From there I have bought several more power stations each with a panel avoiding complicated wiring as my head just doesn't work these days. I have had long covid really badly. Fatigue and brain fog and shortness of breath. None of which helped but which didn't stop me either.
I have the solar bug badly. I get a ridiculous amount of pleasure from seeing those batteries charge up. I think it has even been helpful in clearing some of the fog out of my head, better even than Duolingo, my previous obsession.
Anyway I have lived entirely off grid for the last six weeks or two months or so. As opposed to the time living with just an extension cord for power. I moved out here at the end of 2019 and it has evolved from there spurred on in part by a fear of a tree falling on my power cable. One came very close only missing it because it got tangled in a vine and stopped about a foot above the cord! The cord got badly stripped where it came out of a window from the outbuilding where the mains reached and I knew I really shouldn't be using it. That spurred me on. Next winter will be difficult without that cable as a life line but I am determined to manage. So far Spring and Summer have proved easy. I more often have excess power than too little.
It hasn't been smooth sailing but the problems are manageable, more challenges than barriers. Of course I am still only practising a watered down tame version of solar life but the terms etc are becoming more familiar again. I did some physics at university level so I haven't always had this difficulty. That knowledge is still in this malfunctioning head of mine somewhere. Well hopefully it is.
I came across this forum while trying to work out what solar panel to match with my bluetti eb70 and have been back several times. Now when I am considering moving on from prebuilt units to buying individual components I thought I would join and ask for some advice.
Louise