We also have a small wind turbine for the house… a Christmas present from FIL, so when I get that darn roof on…
the Jackery are great backup options, and they are so expensive because it really is an all in one, foolproof system. You could check out “Mobile Solar Power made easy” by William Errol Prowse IV (plus you
have to love his name!) or his YouTube channel, although I find that a little harder to follow. Your Jackery is so nice and light because it uses the lithium Battery, which is where a lot of the cost comes in as well.
I plan on having essentially three separate sets of wiring in the house, a straight 12v for lighting and USB chargers, and one or two plugs running off an inverter in key locations from the battery bank for our TV and DVD as well as hopefully some small kitchen appliances. I will also install a full circuit per room on standard A/C which we can power with a generator on a 30 Amp breaker, so we will only be able to run one big appliance at a time, but there’s the potential for powering a washing machine, a dishwasher, and running a vacuum or other high draw appliance in each room. (Note this is Way below acceptable electrical code in most places, but I will never have a grid tie in at this location so it doesn’t really matter, as long as it is safe and meets our needs). Where Solar gets confusing to me is when you need to do a grid tie in system.
It was nice when we had the solar running at full capacity during the summer and we could watch 3 hours or more of DVD’s without having to use any gasoline. Now, the downside to my “alternative powering” of the heat plates is this (also consider as electrical talk tax) 9:30pm as I finished getting all the big chickens up and had to run down with the jeep to swap out my batteries on the charger down there, As I won’t leave a fire hazard running while I am away from the trailer. Between me turning the diesel heater off and putting up the bigs and coming back in for a couple odds and ends to take down, this is what they did. By the time I got back up an hour later from the round trip (hauling and swapping out 4 heavy batteries, filling 20 gallons of water, and starting a load of laundry) they had basically all settled into a soft fuzzy sleeping carpet in the same spot. Now I need to head out and turn off said generator!
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as I plan to install some panels to heat water for chooks in winter ( I have a low wattage heated dog bowl, a low wattage base heater suitable for a plastic chicken waterer. ) Who knows when hubby will get around to having electrician in to give me power out there!
for the story and making me giggle!
