There's nothing to post about because things are going pretty well now. No news is actually good news. If stuff were to be going wrong, I'd want to make note of it, and think up ways to deal with it. But nothing is going wrong. Perhaps I'm jinxing myself?
I'm looking around for new things to do. Did some yard work this morning. That's not really off-grid, though.
I've played small ball, so far. This comes a bit short of the ambitious goals I had in mind at the beginning. Back then, I wanted to be able to run my domicile on solar panels only. I'm far from that. Just 400 watts of solar panels is not going to be anywhere in the ballpark of the original goals.
The lessons I've learned ( or think I've learned) might enable me to put together the rest in a short time. So, how much of a leap do I need to make?
That's what is called a "good question". It all depends upon how much of the modern conveniences that I want to keep. Getting rid of the air conditioner may be too ambitious. To get rid of it, I need to go underground. That's a non-starter where I am now. It is also a non-starter out west, because it would be a pain in the neck to pick up everything and move. I'm stuck here for the time-being.
It would be relatively easy to go "bigger" without actually going "big". Another "beast" plus 4 more 100 watt panels is a possibiltity. I wouldn't necessarily have to build a stand for it. Just use the "wall" I recently built. It would need some more bracing. It may not be big enough for 4. Then maybe two 200 watt panels. That may be pushing it a little too far. Now I had 3 panels in parallel once upon a time. Now that can fit.
For such a system, it would require pretty much the same as what I have now, but it really wouldn't add any capability. I'd like to run something heavy duty for short bursts of time. Even the a/c! But I'd like to get away from big power draws. Therefore, it could run the dehumidier. It could run one for a few hours per day. What I've got now couldn't do that. At least it couldn't without unplugging some other stuff I'd rather not.
If a dehumidifier ran, it would take the humidity out that the swamper puts in. It would have to have its exhaust directed outside. I wouldn't know if this would improve performance any, but I could experiment a bit prior to building anything. Now that is an idea. Relatively clean water could be a bonus.
An upgrade to a second swamper to run off the water thus collected would be a possibility. This would keep the southern end of the trailer cooler. That's where I sleep.
Knocking around some ideas, but no moves are imminent. That's all for now... Time to think it over.
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