I want only portable devices like solar, and hand-crank chargers. I want to be able to boil water, charge my Laptop and phone, run my induction stove for a few minutes thrice a day, want it rugerdized at some point, and want to depend on my equipment for day to day life as preparation for having no support.
How am I doing so far? Did I waste money?
Hand crank chargers are a waste of money and time. They barely are good enough for a radio and seize up in a few years in flashlights.
Oh well. Guess I’m limited there then. It was supposed to be a backup in-case no sun
That’s what batteries are for, so you need to size appropriately.
Solar panels – > charger —> batteries —> inverter ----> you
You can also have a have a camp stove and do boiling water with that as a back up after days of rain and your batteries are running low. Charging a phone is nothing boiling water and using an induction cooker are where your power draws are at.
We lived off grid for a decade. The longest we went in 10 years was 21 days straight of rain.
If you are near a creek with some drop a small hydro would complement a solar if you are good at DIY ie when its raining a lot you’ll have water flow but it brings a whole heap of maontence issues eg clearing intakes etc
Seems you achieved the dream! Yes I’m mostly concerned about the cookers, and heaters. Even though the water only takes a minute or so to boil. I need at least some capability to do it, in order to start experimenting now. So I will see if I can find an appropriate, budget-friendly kit.
Maybe look into a biolite stove for cooking if you are doing cooking outside. You just need a small amount of wood to boil water or fry an egg or two.
You can either use scrap wood or tree branches off the ground, if you want a space efficient fuel then buy the wood pellets used as kitty litter or pellet stove fuel.
It has the bonus of charging electronics while it cooks you dinner. Make sure to have a long cord so your food doesn’t splatter on the screen.
https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2022/03/how-to-build-a-practical-household-bike-generator/
Thank you! Seems quite useful to have at home. Though, I will ultimately have to assemble all-portable equipment, and make a bill of materials. Then estimate prices. This is purely because I want to encourage others. I want to start some sort of group to actively help people aquire a sort of kit for living independently.
You could probably build one that functions as a bike rack for a fully functional bicycle, similar to those work-out ones that reuse your real bike.
I have an actual bike, and we have some not so useful bikes here that are rusting. We can do something with them.