Off-grid post, 4-3-22

Yesterday I did an experiment to see how much power could be transmitted via the 12-volt inverter to the 24-volt charger, which charges the power-tote. What I found was that the 12 volt battery could only work (at best) for 30 minutes at a time. At that point, the voltage drop was too great to sustain the inverter, and so it had to be shut down so that it could recharge.

This deficiency might be aided somewhat with some parts that I ordered. The RV battery outside will be hooked up with the inverter, which is an upgrade in power available. The solar panel only puts out about 100 watts, so it cannot keep up either. But it won't drain the battery as quickly, and it won't be necessary to shut down so often, or maybe not at all. ( That might be wishful thinking).

For every 30 minutes of charging, it needed 1 hour of recharging. It got to be rather tedious to keep shutting down and restarting. I wouldn't want to have to do it this way.

In the meantime, I did some water filtration with some rainwater obtained recently. This produced one gallon of fairly clean water. ( not potable though)

This effort was a lot of work, and the economic benefit could be measured in pennies. However, out in the desert, which has no power and no running water; these experiments will give valuable insights into how to make that situation work more smoothly and efficiently. So there's a method behind the madness.

With water, you can sustain yourself. With enough water, you can grow food. Combine that with power, and you can not only do all that, but you can be comfortable as well. Or, perhaps not as uncomfortable.

One way to reduce the power requirements may be to adopt the old ways of yesteryear. Recently, I read about salt pork. It is rather simple to prepare. That means even yours truly could do it. To add to that technique, I googled up a video that shows how to pickle ANYTHING. ( according to that author) With these techniques, the need for refrigeration could be greatly diminished. I was also thinking that it would help to keep the refrigerator in the basement area that I am thinking of building out there. If that is cooler than at grade level, then the fridge doesn't have to work as hard, and that would save energy too.

Of course, all of this may seem insane. But what the heck? Nobody is sane anymore, so I might as well join the party.