solar power Archives - Rick's Daily Tips

Q&A: Can I run a fan off solar power without using a battery?

Posted on May 18, 2023

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Question from Adam: I hope you can answer a question about solar power for me.

I have a small outbuilding that’s located about 120 yards from my house. This outbuilding has a dark green roof and it gets extremely hot inside on hot summer days.

What I’d like to do is install a fan in the eve of the building to pull fresh air into the building while expelling the hot air, but there’s no electric service there to power the fan. Can you help me with this? [Read more…]

Q&A: Will light bulbs make solar panels work at night?

Posted on May 6, 2023

Question from Mark: I saw your video on YouTube about how you took your home office off the grid and switched it to solar power.

I too have a small solar power setup (about 400 watts) that’s powering the lights and the TV in the small off-grid cabin I built for weekend getaways.

I tried running a portable refrigerator and a couple of other small appliances off the solar and they work fine during the day, but my 12V/100Ah battery is dead by morning when I leave everything running overnight.

My question is will solar panels work with artificial light? [Read more…]

Q&A: How do you take just part of a house off-grid to go solar?

Posted on March 7, 2023

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Question from Keith: I just finished reading your post about taking your home office off-grid and I found it very encouraging because I’d love to that for just a couple of rooms in my own house.

My question is how do you take just part of a house off-grid while leaving the rest of it connected to the power line? [Read more…]

How (and why) I took my home office off-grid and went solar

Posted on December 29, 2022

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If you work from home you know how important it is to have a dependable power source to run your computer, printer, modem, router, lights and other essential work-related gear.

That’s why power interruptions are such a hassle, even when they are relatively short-lived.

Our local power grid isn’t the best so my neck of the woods experiences frequent outages that last anywhere from a few minutes to several hours. And every now and then, an outage can literally last for days.

This post explains what I did to avoid that inconvenience and aggravation in the future. [Read more…]

Q&A: Should I buy solar panels or a generator for my RV?

Posted on December 16, 2022

Question from Stanley: My wife and I bought an RV and we’re planning to do some traveling (and of course camping).

Not a lot at first, just an occasional long weekend visit to one of the parks in our area (there are several).

Then after I retire in three years we’re going to hit the road and do some serious travelling (and LOTS of camping).

My question: Which is better for RV camping – solar panels or a generator? [Read more…]