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Visited a tiny town in Vermont last weekend and saw something wild with their solar setup
I was in St. Johnsbury visiting my cousin and he showed me this old farmhouse that runs entirely on a single 400 watt panel and a homemade battery bank from scrapped car batteries. They said it powers their lights, radio, and a small fridge with no issues for two years now. Has anyone else seen setups that tiny actually work long term?
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max_brown1mo ago
Yeah I've seen a few setups like that actually and they work fine as long as you keep your expectations realistic. A 400 watt panel with good sun and a well insulated fridge can run for days no problem, but that fridge has to be a small energy star model not a full size one. The key is the battery bank maintenance too, swapping out old car batteries every 6 months or so keeps things running smooth. I'd guess their setup uses way less power than people think, like maybe 2-3 kwh per day total for lights and a small fridge.
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dylan_brown301mo ago
Wait, swapping out car batteries every 6 months? That seems like a lot of work and money. Most people I know who run solar setups like that use deep cycle batteries, not regular car batteries, and they can last 2-3 years easy if you take care of them. @amy_craig28 your buddy probably gets way better life out of his if he's running a proper battery. Regular car batteries aren't made for deep discharge like solar needs, you'll kill them way faster than that. I'd say the real trick is getting a cheap solar charge controller to keep the batteries from overcharging. That makes a bigger difference than swapping batteries all the time.
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