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Sunbeam Borb 🌻:pirate_flag:

I'm experimenting with running some stuff off solar today while I'm at work. I'm running my Thinkpad T420, a second monitor, a Pi3 and a Pi4, and whatever else is plugged into this power strip, idk. There's also an MQTT sensor module that runs off a ESP8266 in there.

I'm using a 100 watt panel and a 296Wh battery bank. The battery bank only accepts 65w input, but it was overcast when I left, and there's quite a bit of tree cover for the panel.

It's a short work day, so if I find that the battery is dead by the time I get home, I'll have a slightly better idea of how long it'll last than if it was a full work day.

I fully expect things to still be running when I get home, but I know I need both more panels and more batteries AND to simply leave less electronic shit running in order to make a dent in my electric load.

So, I guess it'll run about 8 hours with that kind of load.

Now the experiment is to see how long it takes to charge from 0% off the solar panel.

We're 6% full, panel is giving me 5w, and the sun rose 5 hours ago.

I guess I forgot to post this last night. Ended up at 29%.

Need at least another panel, and more sunlight, but also need more battery capacity.

Receiving 10w this morning. Battery is at 34%

59% this morning, receiving 1w.

Forgot to check last night. But we're at 76% this morning and it's raining.

We got there, folks. Only took...4 days.

Room for improvement. 😮‍💨

@teslas_moustache
I have a 1KW unit that me and my spouse can get two nights of our CPAP/BIPAP machines running.