I’m only half kidding. I’m a bit of a prepper and I have lots of powerbanks and devices that charge from USB but besides idling my truck I really had no other way to charge any of them in case of a long-term power outage which seemed a bit of an oversight on my part.
Not like this solves the issue. 30 watts (under ideal conditions) isn’t much but it’s a start.
All i need is a gun to kill the local prepper and I’m set.
A looter - finally!
- That local prepper, probably
The prepper will likely be camped and there will be signs someone’s been in the area recently, the looter or looters would have a pretty big advantage.
Doesn’t the defending side in a war usually suffer fewer casualties?
If you’re talking about an entrenched battle. A looter would have the element of surprise, which in a 1v1 is basically an instant win.
See preppers camp, setup in some shrubs, wait, pew pew, now you have the preppers stuff.
Be sure to check your local raid boss’s tier now before the content releases. A lot of them you’ll be able to solo with the right load out, but if you’re unlucky you’ll need to start putting together your party roster now because they aren’t all made to be soloed.
This can power a Steam Deck. Good choice.
Can it charge up enough batteries to run a typical Factorio session? So until sunrise where you can start charging the accumulators again.
If you weren’t using your Steam Deck all-out during the day then probably. Steam Decks draw about 29W max (the LCD models I have at least).
Factorio GPU demands are fairly low, CPU will be maxed out by late game though…
I have stockpiled an absolutely MASSIVE amounts of manure. That shit is going to be worth a fortune in the future. Every paycheck, I dump at least 10% of it into buying the freshest cow pie I can find. The neighbors hate me, but we’ll see who gets the last laugh when they sell their in-laws into indentured servitude to afford a bag of my brown gold!
Doesn’t it have a limited shelf life? Do you need to maintain it?
Well, I keep it fresh by urinating on it. I collect all my family’s urine in a bathtub so we can have an extra sanitary bath once a week, together, and then I dump the leftover on the pile with this big crane I rigged up outta grocery carts.
I didnt know the meaning of “manure” but it became clear by the end of the paragraph
Nuclear war is followed by nuclear winter, which, among other things is caused by thick clouds, sorry!
The more solar the better. As much as is safe, reasonable, and affordable. A lot of little things add up. Great work dude!
The material and electronics are not neutral though. Usually it’s more efficient to have a big shared solar plant than having everyone build their own systems. It’s not just about the source being renewable.
There is value in decentralization and redundancy though.
I’m gonna give this warning: I have a panel of that type but much larger. It’s rated at ~200 watts. I’ve never seen it make more than 80. I don’t think it’s a great idea to make large, flexible solar panels, I bet something internal is cracked in it. It’s…virtually impossible to handle gently. It has kick stands on 3 of its 4 panels and you CANNOT stop that one inner panel from twisting. So…I am going to avoid that style of panel if it’s larger than, say, a book. OP’s 30 watt panel is probably fine but if you’re dealing in the hundreds of watts honestly my glass panels are easier to deal with.
I’ve got one of these for camping. It’s great for keeping my phone charged when there is no power available.
Yeah 30 watts isn’t enough. The rule of thumb for off grid is it needs to be able to boil water (12A power station)
It seems they just wanted something to help power their devices during an outage. You can use fire (like your stove) to boil water during a power outage.
30 watts into a power bank that can output more watts on demand should keep your phone and one laptop usable indefinitely unless you use them 24/7.
Obviously a proper setup in the range of at least a few kilowatts would be more useful, but that’s expensive, may require permitting (changes appearance of the house), etc.
With 30watts, you can power the electrical lighter to light a fire. Or something like that.
Or just use some matches or a lighter…
Do you really need electricity to light a fire? 🤔
You need a safe place to burn. It’s illegal where I live.
Who’s arresting me during the apocalypse?
If you are preparing for an emergency situation, laws like that probably don’t apply anymore.
Don’t you have a fireplace, or can’t you get/build one? Even if it is a temporary stove.
You have multiple options. The most popular one is probably a hobostow. :)
If we’re boiling water why not skip the middle man and get a solar kettle?
Why not wood stove?
I live in Sonora Mexico, sun is abundant, wood isn’t
OP probably doesn’t. This is something I find odd about replies to stuff like this.
Hey guys, got 30w! Should be plenty.
Omg no you need 50kW to run a desalination plant.
But I have a fresh water spring next to me?
Yeah but I live next to the dead sea.
Obviously discussing different use cases and needs is cool, but some seem to try and apply requirements to others when it doesn’t really apply to them.
If you actually read this thread it would make more sense right? Are you able to read? Do you know how conversations in a thread work?
OP says they got 30w, they don’t actually say it “should be plenty” and you just made that up and in fact plainly says “it isn’t much but it is a start”
The person who replied to them says “Yeah 30 watts isn’t enough. The rule of thumb for off grid is it needs to be able to boil water (12A power station)”
to which the next person says “If we’re boiling water why not skip the middle man and get a solar kettle?” please note this one because this is where the context for my comment comes from
then the next person says “Why not wood stove?”
If you were able to understand how threaded conversations work you’d understand I was agreeing with 9point6@lemmy.world who said why don’t you skip the middle man and get a solar kettle and giving a reason to thatGuyWithGlasses who said why not a wood stove. In some places, like in my specific use case, a solar kettle makes more sense than a wood stove.
Then you wrote to me your non sequitur post about whatever it is you wrote that doesn’t accurately reflect OP and doesn’t accurately reflect the thread.
I’ve kept the old wood stoves in my house just in case I ever need them. I used them all last winter cause they were all I had at the time. Learned how to chop wood and start a fire and everything. It was kinda fun, but hard work. Defo not something anyone should have to do their whole life, but perhaps something everyone should try once. Quite humbling
EDIT: I used them for heating. Had to keep a fire going about 3 hours a day in each
Love my Kelly kettles - yes I have multiple, different sizes. Gathering wood to boil enough hot water to make tea for 6 people? About 30 seconds of work. Once you have filled 1 hand with sticks and twigs that is about enough firewood.
My primary heat source is the wood stove. I have my heat pump as back up.
I have a 400 yo oak tree shading by home and a metal roof so I only need to turn on the ac from 5-8pm in the hottest days of summer.
Wood is a potentially scarce resource, access to it is situational, it requires significant storage space, wood smoke is bad for you, fire is dangerous and requires skill to manage that can take a long time to learn, same goes for the process of preparing the wood.
Depends a lot on what you are making and how. Haybox cookers require very little fuel. Just get the food up to almost boiling point and that is all the fuel you need.
I looked up haybox cookers, seems like a neat idea to insulate already boiling water, but a wood fire doesn’t seem like the most convenient or efficient choice if what you want is to efficiently heat something up a specific amount but no more.
Just light a small fire and keep it pretty small and it can burn out once you are done.
I use a Kelly kettle stove a lot, tiny fire but still a few thousand watts of thermal energy. A few sticks at a time as fuel.
Depends what you actually need power for. If you just want to power some basic communication devices and batteries for them, 30w may well be overkill.
I have multiple ways to boil water that take no electricity at all.
I think if it gets down to it, you’re not going to worry too much about your shiny toys when you haven’t eaten in three days.
Why wouldn’t I have eaten in three days?
Taco truck dude got eaten by clowns
How do you define apocalypse? You’re just larping, friend.
You’re just larping, friend.
Please elaborate. I have nothing against larping but that doesn’t seem to carry utility beyond the enjoyment gained from the act itself. A small solar panel, however, seems useful for any scenario ranging from a few day power outage to full societal collapse and zombies. It’s a genuine functional panel - not a prop.
How will a solar panel help against full societal collapse? I am on tenterhooks.
I can charge my flashlights/lanterns, powerbanks, tool batteries, a phone with offline maps and offline wikipedia …
OK buddy, good luck.
What’s with that passive-aggressive smugness? If you’ve got something to say then say it.
30w is plenty to run a few small lights and phone chargers. You can cook over a wood fire if necessary, or store food that doesn’t need cooking.
Kinda curious now what the back to reasonable normality for essential needs time is for most disasters. Don’t need to stockpile enough to last until completely rebuilt, if food supplies are going to be restored fairly quickly but housing takes a year you don’t need the full years food supply.
Judging by the comment section, this is also the secret solarpunk forum.
You can buy a 100ah battery and 200w solar blanket for fairly cheap. its not a terrible idea to be a little bit prepped. Saw a car on youtube the other day that was 8k, had 10kwh battery, range of 150k and had a retractable roof solar panel that gives the car 55km a day of solar generation. perfect for the apocalype. cruise around the wastelands in style.
had 10kwh battery, range of 150k
That doesn’t really math out, its like 3 times the efficiency that car manufacturers normally give, and they already assume optimal conditions.
That sounds more like a beach buggy with a battery bolted to the back and a top speed of 40 on an even road.
It is the Solarky SunV, it has an aluminum frame and plastic panels. It probably wouldn’t pass safety inspections in EU/US and is really designed as a step up from motor bikes in places like Thailand and where I live in Mexico. I think the safety regulations and requirements for people in sprawl cities like the US are overkill for most of the rest of the world. I’ve had people on lemmy tell me that 200 km range isn’t enough but that is around how much I drive in a week lol. I never need it to go highway speeds, there are no highways thru my city only connecting to the next and for that I’d prefer the bus. For puttering around to my friends house or to grab something from the store I can’t walk to it would be perfect. I have a BYD Dolphin now.
It can pass EU safety if apply for a L6/L7 vehicle category
But from the website it looks like vaporware…
I don’t really know anything about the EU other than they have a lot of regulations. I’ll probably never go there.
These cars exist and have been sold in Thailand and Indonesia for the past few months, there are tons of videos about them on Youtube. Most people on Lemmy live in places where Chinese EVs are illegal and have no idea what we have available now. These are just typical cheap EVs with a retractable panel on top.
Interesting, it’s not vaporware, Google already tracked my Lemmy posts and showed me this in the YT algorithm
This is enough for my commute, I would never need to pay for energy again. Problem is that European resellers are going to sell that for at least 25k
Wow, got a link?
Lol just watched a video on it yesterday.
car
perfect for the apocalype
battery
Yeah. Right.
With a carousel of 3 poorly AI-generated images.
In the event of an apocalypse basically nothing that you can charge is going to be of any use other than flashlights.
devices with offline knowledge. you can download wikipedia to your device.
also gaming consoles against the boredom and to maybe connect to the neighbor for fun?
Depends on tge apocolypse, but Refrigeration… HVAC… Power tools… Could go on.
Maybe even your phone if you’ve downloaded books/manuals/maps needed to rebuild before hand
What is 30 watts going to do for any of those? I don’t think people here know how weak a 30 W panel is.
The argument was that: “basically nothing that you can charge is going to be of any use other than flashlights” not that 30 watts is sufficient for long term.
The one statement I replied to gave examples like refrigeration and HVAC that a 30w panel will not run. I made no commentary on what use can be made outside of flashlights.
That being said, as someone who runs 100w panels on my trailer parked on some land, 100w is not much other then topping off a deep cycle battery to then run lights and a propane furnace and fridge. Not that it is not useful at anything, just that those rollup ones are generally used to charge a power bank for phones, lights, and such. One of the better uses I have seen is hooking up one to a car to keep it topped up while sitting. But if you are going to use a panel you need a battery and at that point why not go with a non flexable 100w panel that is about the same size or smaller?
are generally used to charge a power bank for phones, lights, and such.
That’s exactly the use case I bought it for. In the picture I’m charging a powerbank. I’m intending to play around with a small-scale solar setup on my shed at some point but for now this is the one cheap investment that enables me to keep critical small electronics running indefinitely.
Check out some auctions, estate sales and such for some deep cycle batteries, solar charge controllers and panels. I have fixed my set up a few times over the years on the super cheap that way. The whole system is not bad other then the batteries for cost.
My strimmer battery charger takes 65w. So 8 hours of 30w to charge a battery is almost 4 hours charging the strimmer battery which would probably fill it’s small battery a few times over. If you are not depleting the strimmer battery multiple times a day, that is more than enough power.
You of course do need a battery to store it so many hours of solar are used in several minute short time loads.
A 30W solar panel is likely going to charge at about 5W, given the inefficiency.
There is some inefficiency in charging a battery but not that much. Main losses would be that the solar panel isn’t actually outputting 30w as you won’t be getting ideal conditions all day.
But it doesn’t necessarily matter either. 65w to charge a battery but you only need it once a week for an hour can easily be managed by 5w all day for a week.
Though planning for an apocalypse is kinda pointless anyway. Preparing for a disaster is more reasonable, such as a storm knocking out power for a while.
The inefficiency isn’t the battery, it’s the panel. They run at about 20-25% efficiency at best.
The rated wattage should take that into consideration.
I was getting around 12 watts during the sunset when I was testing it. It can probably reach around 20 watts under ideal conditions.
Highly doubtful. ~30% efficiency is already pushing the limit of solar panels. No way you’d get over 65%.
Efficiency means how much of the sunlight hitting the panels gets converted into electricity. How accurately manufacturers report the true output of the panel is a completely different thing. Plenty of reputable brands reach the advertised output.
Person I was responding to said nothing that can be charged, not specifically charged by 30 W. People live comfortably off grid these days with panels and batteries to store. Nothing perfect, but the right setup could matter if things went bad
We’re not talking about a whole off grid home here lol. We’re talking about a guy with a 30W solar panel.
You’re moving the goalposts. You said nothing rechargeable besides flashlights isn’t going to be of any use in the apocalypse which is an obviously false statement as demonstrated by the pushback you’re getting. The size of the solar system wasn’t part of the argument you made.
Interesting, because I said this
nothing that you can charge
“you” is you, the OP, the one showcasing his 30W solar panel.
You’d still be falsely assuming that I’m limited by the output wattage of the panel itself despite it enabling me to charge a powerbank that can output 150 watts.
I don’t really understand exactly what you’re doing here anyway. Like, do you just find people who get excited about things and then go piss all over it because that’s fun or something?
You just get to learn to be VERY patient.
do you have somewhere to be? if the power goes down long enough, it’s not like you’re going to be in a hurry. but yes 30w is pretty small. you can buy a 450w solar panel for under 200 bucks. add a inverter and 100ah battery and you’re laughing. most shit you can run on dc like lighting and small devices.
30w can charge a battery bank like a Jackery, and those can put out 1000w continously. It would take ages to charge, but it’s more than nothing.
It might be better than nothing for some things, but providing enough power to run heaters as needed when it’s -20F outside over the next week ain’t going to happen. And while it would work for an LP furnace for a while, that tank WILL go empty, and then where do you get more fuel?
Burning wood seems like the obvious solution to keeping warm in the winter. There’s much better uses for the little solar power there is available then.
Burning wood comes with its own extra work and costs. Plus the danger of burning your house down. I live in a forest, and wood heat is not uncommon here. There were 4 wood heat fires that destroyed homes this past winter, it was a cold and long winter this year. And I did grow up with wood heat as a kid, so I’m very familiar with it. I do remember a couple of chimney fires quite well.
I don’t think a high wattage battery is something that could keep you warm. I was talking more like creature comforts. Not something you would want on-the-go because of the weight, but if you were hunkered down you might at least have lights or some amount of entertainment. Shit, it could even power a tablet, router, and NAS, and give you something to watch in dark times. That’s a good thing to have on solar power if you are staying put.
It will keep you warm for a little while, but not for long.
If things hit the fan, lights can be a cheerful thing to have. But if it’s a widespread power outage that lasts, the internet goes down, and cell service follows pretty quickly. Maybe a Game Boy is usable, but your tablet will be a paperweight, and forget the NAS. On the upside, there just won’t be much you are going to need electricity to run at that point.
I’m saying watch movies on the tablet off of the NAS. That should work perfectly fine with no internet. You would only need to power the NAS and router. And charge the tablet.
Laughing with mp3-player.
In an apocalypse I’m not drowning out my hearing with music! Good way to get your mp3 player, battery, and solar panel stolen! Haha
And meshtastic or meshcore to communicate
Intriguing. Go on…
There are small devices for off-grid text communication based on radio frequencies. It’s uses LoRa and it requires no Internet after setting up(you may need to download the app). Be aware that Line of sight is a bit factor and that buildings, tress and other stuff might affect it.
You can buy a device or build one on your own (you need to buy first chip and battery) and install/flash mesh on it.
Be careful though, do not get hyped from what you read or see, because in the end might not suit you. Here in Europe it has grown up a lot, lots of people use it, especially when traveling in another country l.I just gave you a basic explanation, for more information visit the meshtastic community
https://mander.xyz/c/meshtasticMeshtastic and meshcore websites https://meshtastic.org// https://meshcore.io/
Wow, okay, so this is way better and longer-range than Bluetooth. Cool. Thanks for sharing!
That’s a pretty ignorant thing to say.
Nah, those electric shoe polishers? All eight of them? Why did you get so many of them?
Those I can live without. I can just have people polish my shoes by hand for exchange to letting them charge their devices using my solar panel.
Electric fire starter. Mesh nodes. Walkie talkies. Small computer with offline Wikipedia and Google maps. GPS may still be working for a while, so that would be useful to charge and use. Portable fans. MP3 player or other entertainment device. Camera. Small power tool batteries…
Yeah, in an apocalypse, a small about of electricity would be a luxury.
30W panel ain’t gonna do that.
Wrong!
https://meshtastic.org/docs/hardware/devices/seeed-studio/sensecap/solar-node/
Runs on a 5W panel… So yes, a 30W panel can certainly do that.
That’s one of the half a dozen things you listed lol. You gonna power a computer off a 30W solar panel that realistically will give you about 6W? Power tool batteries?
Sure, a very small one, with a battery. My smartphone will charge off 5W.
I’ve got a mini Dremel that will charge off 5W USB. It ain’t gonna be fast, but it will definitely work.
You’re batting 0/3, still want to keep trying?
Strange how you ignored the example of yours that I specifically pointed out in the comment on just replied to - a pc.
Strange that you think “computer” must only mean “PC”.
Still 0/3 btw. Why don’t you quit while you are only this far behind?
Hmm. So let’s talk resilience; lighting, battery power tools, refrigeration, Mobility (mountain eBikes, with solar recharging would make for great post apocalyptic transportation), and many more things.
Look: I plan solar panels, batteries, and a small TV set, so during the apocalypse, I will have my Netflix shows! And with the right EV, I will be one of the few who can still go to Costco!
You see: I’m ready!!
Why wouldn’t you just get Amazon delivery? Come on now!
You underestimate the amount of digital hoarders out there.
Or maybe hoarders overestimate how much and how long they can rely on their digital stuff.
Once you let go of heating and cooling, larger temperature variations are going to do a number on you consumer grade electrical devices. Your solar panels are one heavy hails storm away from destruction, and if we assume climate change is the cause of the apocalypse, you can count on those.
The best way to survive an apocalypse is to rebuild communities with a wide set of skills, and still dramatically lower our quality-of-life AND HEALTH expectations.
You know, you can charge your house? With a large enough battery and enoug PV power you can operate a heat pump off the grid to control the climate of your home.
The feasibility varies a bit, depending on where exactly you live, but there are definitely useful things you can do with solar power and batteries.
Nothing that a 30W panel can manage though. And I definitely agree to your point about rebuilding communities.
Yeah whole home battery systems and a portable 30W panel are a bit different haha.
I’ve got solar with a 42kWh home battery system, with a petrol generator backup that can power the whole house via a change-over switch, but even that in an apocalypse isn’t gonna do much - especially when, like in a blackout now, I’m the only house on the street with lights on.
Ofc, that’s on a whole different level.
Your 42 kWh is huge. Pair that with an approriately sized roof solar panel, and you won’t need a grid much. Seriously, look into that. Not even for living off the grid, but for financial reasons.
Though yeah, having the lights on and appliances running, might paint a target on your house in an apocalyptic scenario. But nobody’s forcing you to use the lights, and a heat pump with ground water or earth collector as a source is pretty stealthy. So you can sit in a dark, but warm, house.
In the event of an apocalypse basically nothing that you can charge is going to be of any use other than flashlights.
My house is quite rural and I have a water well with a battery backup for the pump and UV filter. The battery lasts for about 5-6 days depending on use. I can charge the battery from the grid or with solar.
If the cities get nuked, my well system will still function.
Can you repair it if it breaks?
We did a battery backup system! I think we’ll do panels next. Did you buy enough panel generation to replace it as you use it?
We bought the ecoflow batteries; we haven’t shopped around for panels yet. I was hoping their panels were competitively priced so we could kind of just plug 'n play.
gasmask, radiation tablets and suits, a working moter bike and a ton of gas are higher on my list.
How long does gasoline keep?
2 or so year, but that long enough to get you to where you need to, if it take over 2 years of driving to get what you need and you can’t find any more, sorry but you were probubly fucked from the get go
That is where a diesel bike and maybe a diesel truck as well would come in handy. You can continue making biodiesel long term, and use the engine for generator power in a pinch. You can even go with mechanically controlled engines and not have problems with EMP to be extra prepared.
Hm Good point
Ehh, disagree. We have a battery backup system (they charge from the electric lines) for our house because we have a well instead of septic lines, so when the power goes out we don’t have water. Our next big purchase will be panels to charge the batteries as further backup.
Interesting. Where do you live?
Around here (Germany), most people get solar power first and THEN buy a battery, when they realize it’s financially more feasible to use as much of the energy the generated themselves instead of using grid power.
We live in the US (Maryland). We’re kind of rural, but not really that far out. A lot of folks in rural areas of the US have gasoline generators; this is just an alternative to that. The trees around here take out the power lines somewhat frequently and well… the state of the country makes us anxious. Around the time we bought the system, some right wing groups were floating ideas about shooting up electrical substations.
Anyway, if we were making the transition just for economics, we would also have gone in the reverse order. But we have two small kids, so we were worried about preparedness.
yeah, I get it. I know very few people who really have to make similar considerations, so naturally the thought process is different. Germany is fairly densely populated and even in more rural areas, like the one I live in, the power grid is pretty reliable. I can count the amont of power outages I experienced in my few decades of lifetime with my fingers, and when there is one it usually only lasts a few minutes to hours.
Nothing, a healthy person with a few supplies can’t bridge easily.
Yeah, light in the dark is totally useless.
I feel like you must have stopped reading my comment half way through to say that……
It wasn’t worth finishing.
It was, because I specifically said flashlights you peanut.
A 30W panel isn’t charging much else’s.
Idk I use mine to charge tool batteries as well. Thanks for calling me a delicious and useful nut, accurate.
I get water from 800ft underground. Not a long term solution but being able to drink, cook, and bathe for a few weeks or months is going to be important. It is useful to be able to power the pump with batteries charged by the sun until enough people have died so I can migrate to a more tolerant climate without having to mad max it.
Gonna need a lot more than a 30W portable panel for that.
There are power tools that run on batteries these days. I don’t know about you, but a chainsaw seems pretty useful to me.
Charging a chainsaw battery at the 5-6W a 30W solar panel will charge at is gonna take a while.
At 30watts max I guess you can cut a log or two every once and a while sure.
This seems quite big for a 30W 😅.
If that’s really an usb A port on the side, my own 25W is basically the size of one of your panels. But mine is 5V only. In theory, it is 2 15W ports (5V3A), but in reality it is more 10W (5V2A) each, when both are used, in ideal conditions.
https://www.amazon.fr/gp/aw/d/B0DMNY4HWV
Got another one which delivers 60W (45W using the PD USBC port), with integrated stand.
https://www.amazon.fr/gp/aw/d/B0DQ8PY91X
(Links are not sponsored)
I also tested for Amazon Vime multiple solar pannel, but my biggest grief with all of them is that they lies about their IP rating. They simply gives the pannel own rating, wich doesn’t applies to the connection box. That’s not respecting the specs, which requires the whole item to be rated, not only part of it. If one follow that logic, my e-bike is IP68 too (if you take the chassis only and not the electronic bits).
im always wanted to setup solar panel in mountain to reduce hiker gone missing type stuff
You thinking about setting up a public charging spot in the wilderness? I like that.
That’s a massive panel for so little wattage.
Look up 25% next time, they maximize the area! N-type’s are also great for enduring high temps and weathering high uv.
Is 25% the brand name?
Refers to the efficiency. 25% needs less area to generate the same amount of power. The efficiency has been steadily rising from 18% now to 25%.
Oh I get what you’re saying now, wow, I had to read it like 10 times, lol. My bad.
Yeah it’s a lot of panel for 30W.
To add to my comment, many cheaper portable brands underperform greatly as well.
Get a rigid panel (not flexible) and you’ll see a huge improvement.
The flexible panels are great for keeping weight down, though. Probably the only way to go if you’re hiking or backpacking!
