Comment by adrianN

Comment by adrianN 2 days ago

3 replies

With the panels I have on my balcony I get about 200 watts even on overcast days. I would love to have appliances that were optimized for lower peak consumption. But many appliances like the fridge have low average consumption but high peak consumption so that while the panels on average produce about as much as I consume per day in reality I still have to buy power from the grid.

Scoundreller 2 days ago

> But many appliances like the fridge have low average consumption but high peak consumption

You need an “inverter drive” fridge. It’s effectively soft-start and stays on continuously instead of justt a binary on/off.

Many options available at the consumer level.

Dunno if it gets angry if it senses that it’s browning out its own circuit or just reduces its draw (vs increasing current draw). But does mean it can dial up and down its draw on a continuous basis.

electroglyph 2 days ago

batteryhookup is a great source for used batteries, it's pretty affordable to build your own setup to run stuff like a fridge

  • adrianN 2 days ago

    Jerryrigging a setup of used batteries and an inverter for my fridge sounds like a great way to save two euros a months in exchange for burning my apartment down :D.