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Super budget/DIY energy hacks (lemmy.world)
submitted 7 months ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
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I just recently started using a solar charger to charge a 10k mah battery pack that I use to charge my phone every night. One device “off the grid.”

Short of installing solar on my home I’d really love to be able to charge a large battery that would output 120V so I could use household appliances “off the grid.”

Does anybody have some other energy hacks, or ways to reduce your energy consumption at home that’s not just “use less energy?”

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[–] 13 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (7 children)

Make your own solar system? Il built my first one out of 7 or 8 second hand panels, old truck batterys and eBay inverters, I can't find any photos, but it was enough to a fridge, tv, charge phones and lights

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  • [–] [S] 4 points 7 months ago (4 children)

    That’s cool! How much did that cost and where and when?

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  • [–] 7 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    Umm around 2022ish, the solar panels were free from the tip, the batteries were also free form a mine site(collapsed cells could hold 12v but couldn't crank out high amps), solar controlers were from eBay 150 bucks or something and a 5000w inverter was 600ish from memory also probably about 200 bucks worth of battery cable and connectors,

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 7 months ago (2 children)

    Dang, still pretty pricey. That’s awesome you built your own system tho. Hopefully I can do the same one day.

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago (1 child)

    The year was 2022 sorry, the system was probably about $1500ish still up there but compared to to my current one on my place is about 30k, keep an eye on market place people get rid of old systems all the time

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago (1 child)

    Would not help here, we get like zero sun for half the year, and surrounded by trees otherwise. I haven't seen the sun for more than a couple of hours in weeks.

    I was told the old batteries aren't trustworthy when I was going to salvage some from cars getting junked out, but you can get them to work still?

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago

    Yer I'm in Oz so no shortage of sun here lol

    Yer, that's the perfect getting in the way of the good problem, are old car batterys as good as 2v deep cycle ones? no, but there still fine to use if you have nothing else. Are you gonna run a whole house off em? No, but I ran my fridge, tv, lights and a small water pump most days up till about 11pm off I think about 12 old truck batterys,

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