I recently ordered a Ryobi riding lawn mower. Living off the grid and relying exclusively on solar panels for power, I was especially intrigued by a mower that could be off the grid as well.Ā Any reduction in trips to the gas station is a good thing in my book š For those that are inquisitive like me, here are some of the battery specs: 48V battery system [(4) x 12V batteries in series = 48V] AGM batteries ~2 hours or
My family has lived off the grid for the past 25 years. No power lines, no phone lines and no utility bills. Over those many years, we have primarily used solar panels for our electricity needs. They do a stellar job, however, occasionally in rareĀ multi-week cloudy periods we still need a good backup generator. We have used a variety of generators over the years, with our traditional favorite being Honda. However, four years ago I bought my first WEN generator.
Here are some new updates on Exede’s latestĀ plans: Personally, I would only pick a plan that has their new Speedboost + WiFi modem and the Liberty Pass. Initially I enjoyed the “late night free zone” (or LNFZ) but as of late it just became too much of a hassle to manage data usage during the daytime (and saving all the heavy stuff for late night)Ā so now I much prefer the ease and simplicity of the Liberty Pass. Plus I absolutely
NOTE:Ā If you’ve read this blog long you probably already know that my family lives of the grid. So when my good friend K asked me for sample info about a very basic solar setup (for a wilderness cabin that would only be sporadically used onĀ weekendsĀ for lights and radio etc.) I was happy to respond… Hola K! Here’s the solar checklist that we spoke about earlier, with these components your dad would have a basic solar setup: NOTE: I recommend a
This morning I performed a couple simple maintenance tasks for our off-the-grid solar system: Washing the solar panels This is actually optional maintenance, as you don’t haveĀ to wash your panels. However, keeping solar panels clean and free of dust etc. can appreciably boost your power output. After washing the panels (it has been pretty dry and dusty lately) I had about 10% more electricity being generated. Woot! Adding distilled water to the batteries Flooded lead acid* batteries periodically require distilled
Going off the grid A friend’s dad is serious about going off the grid and doing it with solar. This man has worked hard for a long time and is ready for a new challenge, I think part of that challenge is to be more self-sufficient and independent. There is definitely something to be said for being self-sufficient. š I am not going to get into the merits of on-grid vs off-the-grid, but I can say that for particular situations
2009.09.04 updated with URLs for equipment (see bottom of post) Since we’ve been married, Samantha and I have lived off the grid. We don’t have any utility bills and we haven’t had a single power outage. However, today (September 3rd, 2000) still marks a big day for us in our off the grid living. Because today we connected our new batteries and solar setup to our house. We now have over 30x the electrical storage capacity! Energy during the day