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Location matters. I live in rural northern Minnesota, and in 30+ years of living here, we have never had more than a few hours of power outage. My normal grid rate is about $0.12 per kWh, but we also have Peak-Power grid for heating the house, water, dryer, etc... which is at $0.067 per kWh...

So many good thoughts. Thank you. Found myself agreeing with just about everything. Have highlighted a few quotes to talk about. First of all, I was only looking at a small solar panel to recharge my power tool batteries from "free" solar. But when I crunched the numbers and considered that, on...

Very nice. It kind of breaks my heart that I have not been able to find a place to use the old wood stove that I grew up with out at our cabin when I was kid. But I kept it safe and sound in the garage hoping the day may come when it can be used again.

I still have my grandparents wood cook stove sitting out in one of my garages. It was the kind with an oven, side compartment for warming water, and an upper warming chamber above the stove top. I found a google picture of what my wood stove looks like, almost to the tee.... The one I have...

:old When I was growing up, we had a lake cabin that had no electricity. We used kerosene lamps and our refrigerator ran on propane. We had a small propane stove, but mainly grandma cooked on a wood burning stove in the main room. The wood burning stove provided us with hot water, heat for the...

I just watched an interesting YouTube video on some guy who was proposing a "down grid" backup system as opposed to a total "off grid" solar setup. He had already purchased a massive total house solar off grid system that cost him over $90,000.00. But he was now advising people to consider "down...

Thanks for the reply. I agree with you on all points. I live in northern Minnesota, not considered a sunny state, so I was only looking at a small solar panel to recharge my tool batteries and not a full house solution. When I found out that it only costs me 3 cents to recharge my 40v battery...

I switched over to cordless tools once they started having ~equivalent power of a corded tool. The cordless tool had to be strong enough to get the job done. Way back in the day, I had purchased a number of cordless tools from a number of different manufacturers. Seemed like the battery...

I also have an off peak electric furnace. I also have a propane tank backup in case the electric company temporarily turns off (controls) the electricity for the furnace. The furnace will automatically switch to propane if the the off peak power is being controled (turned off). Off peak...

Yeah, using solar energy to run an electric heater to heat water wastes a lot of energy. I have seen some passive solar water heater systems where the water is heated in coils directly from the sun and stored in a black water tank. Lots of passive solar energy soaked up by the black coils and...

:caf Just reporting on a real life test of charging one of my outdoor 40v power tool batteries... I was out today using my new Ryobi 40v power snow shovel. It's only good for small jobs like sidewalk cleaning and decks. But I have also found it useful for tight spots that I cannot use my big...

I know some people have great success with those open heated dog dishes. But where I live, the Fleet store mainly sells the metal waterers... And the heated base, which I just see is 125 watts, looks like this.... Well, I guess at 125 watts, running 24/7 in our winters, that would take a...

Well, that might work in some areas. My water heater has a 60 watt(?) draw and I think it would burn through a battery in little time. Plus, we currently have about 2 feet of snow on the ground, with more snow falling today, so the last thing I want to do is to have to take out a dead battery...

Well, I already have a couple of 12v auto inverters purchased years ago. They still work. So, no cost to me. As far as adding a second "house" battery, that is just a thought at this point. We have a pontoon boat and that requires us to get a new battery about every 3 years. The old pontoon...

Yep, I live in northern Minnesota and a small solar panel with battery would never be enough to keep my metal water fount heater running 24/7. I have converted most, but not all, of my yard equipment and tools to battery. Still have gas riding mowers and gas snow blower. But I have more or less...

I know I'm going to hurt the sensibilities of some good people here on the BYC community, but I am going to tell you what I have learned in my process of educating myself on using small Solar panel kits to recharge something as little as my power tool batteries. First of all, I was thinking...