How long could I run appliances on these 200 AH batteries?

I have recently gone off grid, here is my advice. Sell the TV, XBOX, gaming computer, Wii and all your games. Use the money to buy a generator, batteries, solar panels and an axe. Go chop some firewood and enjoy the fire outside with your favorite person of the opposite sex.

I didn't go with a propane fridge, because #1 you are still dependent on the system to provide you propane, #2 you can buy a cheap energy efficient fridge and use the money you saved to buy more solar panels and batteries to power it. Avoid fridges with ice makers, more expensive and use more energy.
That being said I am still dependent on my propane range and propane instant hot water heater. ...one step at a time.

 

Theres no way im selling my games and stuff, thats never going to happen. Besides, i'll have enough money for all that stuff anyways. Don't have a GF either, I dont like, or get along with others in real life very well at all which is my reason for wanting to go off grid, however I still want to play games and all of that and access the internet, so i'll have to figure out a way to generate electricity. I found a internet provider called FreedomPop that can be used for phones as well. But i want to try to live without having to depend on society as much as possible.

 

Less dependence on society is a great goal and is currently what my family and I are trying to achieve. My only point was that when you don't depend upon society for water, electricity, food, security etc. you end up living somewhere that is pretty remote and all your time is spent upon your water, electricity, food and security etc. sustainability. There isn't really time for anything else but I feel much better now chopping up wood and working on my solar system than I ever did watching a tv marathon. It takes a lot of consideration and I hope that you find the right balance and the right system that will meet your needs. Good luck.

 

I have decided to start the project in a few months or more. My friend is willing to move into a container house and pay rent so thats good. But I want to buy the property and buy some pop up campers and live on it for a while until i have enough money to buy the containers. I have been looking at some used pop ups, and they arent bad, no bathroom though, which is no problem, I can just buy a composting toilet. but what about electricity for our PC's and games and stuff? does anyone know if those things have batteries in them? I assume they do as they have lights and stuff, but not sure how much load I can put on them. I really dont use my Xbox or Wii u that much, but i still use them. I use my Gaming PC 99% of the time, and i can just use it while im there, but my friend will want to use his PS3 and PC so what should I do there? Do you guys think thats a good idea?

 

It powers two 550 watt a/c's all day long and the well pump. It's a 12 volt system. I would use a 48 volt system next time. Solar pnls can be wired to increase the voltage three or four wired in series should make the voltage 54/ 72 vdc. Might want to check with the manufacturer before doing it. I've been using this system for over five years now. 3200 watts of solar pnls, 12 395 amp hour batteries. The aims power inverter is 8k /16k surge. it's a small one now. I think the outback system is better 240 vac output 30 amps. I run the system hard during the daytime. avoid using it at night. Maybe lights and a small fan at night.

 

hmm, interesting, so do you think something like that would run the electricity on 2 small popup campers, along with 2 tv's an xbox 360, wii u, ps3, 2 gaming laptops and other smaller assorted stuff? (ipad's, cell phones etc) or would that setup be overkill? or not enough? I would also get a generator for when there is no sun, but this is temporary stuff here, but it will have to last 2 or 3 years until i can afford the shipping containers.

 

@ghrit, no getting out IS important, but i need something to do while im there. Im going to have things set up in such a way that i'll have more time than you think. Im not going to be living alone either, so work will be a turn based thing, unless it requires 2 people, like getting wood and such. Also im not living far outside of society, im going to be within city limits, i just want a place that mine, and created by me. I dont need a fancy house or any of that other crap, i just need the basics, and my games, thats it, and I will have those things because i'll do whatever it takes to get it.

"I think you are gaming the site, and taking advantage of the helpful hints you've received."

what does that even mean? gaming the site? i dont even know what that means, and taking advantage of the hints i've recieved? I dont think I fully understand what you mean.

"so far, you haven't addressed the necessities"

What? Food? I have food, and other stuff already covered, heat, AC, all that.

 

Chay,
What is your current electric bill KWH usage?

 

@Chay Hawk , a see a few problems. First, if you are incity, you will have to deal with building codes, and that may not allow for the kind of house you want.
Second, if you are incity, and going solar, you should consider a grid-tied system with battery bank, that would allow you to separate as needed, but would give you grid power for your games, but less power cost, and the possibility of paying for the grid power with buy-back credit for surplus power, when the games are not in use. You would be ALMOST completely off grid.
Third, I don't think you have a true concept of a typical week of off grid life. Perhaps, some of the off-gridders here would lay out a standard weeks worth of work for actually being off grid. You seem to think you will have lots of spare idle time to play games. I believe you will find you have far less free time than you believe, and far more to do, than you have even thought about.

 

I've been reading this thread (which smacks of previous visitors and their threads...but I digress) and this is going to come across as harsh but that's okay. Sometimes you need to get shook to realize that what you are saying and what you are doing are diametrically opposed to each other and neither seem to have a basis in reality.

I really don't like to have to say this but @Chay Hawk, you are delusional. At the absolute very least, you need to pare down and cut back on your electricity usage/requirements. If you have any desire to be self sufficient, you aren't going to have time for the electronic games and crap that you think you will. You just won't. No. No you won't. Quit arguing, no you won't. You are getting a huge amount of excellent, free advice from people who actually DO what you claim you want to do, and you are blowing it off. "Nope, not gonna happen, not gonna give up the XBOX, friends Playstation, Wii, gaming rig, Internet, TV, etc. Not gonna do it." Well then hey, you're gonna fail. Congratulations, any time, effort or money you spend on this endeavor is utterly wasted. Do yourself a favor and just set it on fire or send it to a charity because you will have frittered away every, single, dime you spend on this.

As for how much work it is, you are again, either smoking something or have bought into others telling you it's not that much work. Problem is, those people are either lying, telling you something to further their own agenda (sell you something) or they do it for a living and they are used to it and/or they are in a community that works together. Community (and 2 people is NOT a community) is the ONLY way you will ever have ANY free time, period. Even a single family is too small to be much more than subsistance.

All we (family in suburbia) have is five 4x8 garden boxes and those require at least an hour a day to weed, water and pick. Those boxes alone wouldn't even feed a single person with their output. Unless you live in a 12-month growing climate, you will have to produce more than you consume and store it for the cold times. A farm that will provide sufficient for you, just a single person, will require the vast majority of your time, every...single...day. No days off, no sick time, no vacation (unless it's the winter and nothing is growing). If you think for a second you might want any kind of livestock on top of the grown food you will be waking up before the sun and going to bed after dark 7 days a week, 365 days a year. You will drop into bed exhausted and throw the alarm clock in the morning and you won't even get the winter vacation time unless you have someone come in to handle the animals.

Living a self-sufficient lifestyle is so outside of our (cumulative) experience that we have literally no frame of reference. Camping? Nope, not really even close. That week at the "dude ranch"? Um...really?

You won't know what you don't know until you try to do something and it is a spectacular failure...I mean mind-blowingly awesome in it's epic, catastrophic failing-ness.

Gonna save seeds? Super. Have you tried to grow from the seeds you saved? My betting quarter says you get less than 1% success in sprouts and if they came from an envelop they are hybrid and won't "breed true". You'll get something that neither looks nor tastes anything like the plant the seeds came from...because that's how hybrids work.

I love me some Internet, in fact it is by far the largest time waster I have (although I love me some Bloons Tower Defense 5 HD on the iPad too). You aren't going to have that luxury if you have any intention of being self sufficient. Being "off-grid" isn't being self sufficient and unless you live in an area where sunshine is plentiful, you can put in a septic system and drop a well (nowhere near each other btw) coupled with crippling grid electricity costs, criminally high water rates and a sanitation system that costs more than your mortgage every month, "off-grid" is financially not possible for many people. Doing it to do it, well, be careful. You will probably be required to have grid-tie, city water and/or sewer if you live in city limits, even if you don't use them (septic is a possible exception as is a well but not always).

If you have a day job, just start saving money like a miser (with the intention of acquiring property and/or skills). Don't buy new games, don't buy the latest SonySoft Playstation 365 Gen 6 with Wii-nect and a 85 in wicked awesome 4x HD display. Quit updating your "gaming rig" and put that money into weekend range time or camping gear to get out each weekend and practice the skills you will need to be self sufficient.

Start a garden or expand the garden you already have. Plant some of those saved seeds and see what happens...or what doesn't happen. Learn the correct way to save seed. Learn how to dense garden for high yield and low space with less effort (because walking up and down rows and rows and ROWS of plants is a PITA at the very least and unless you are doing it commercially, NOT viable for personal survival long term).

If you do have a day job, keep in mind that you will NOT be outside working on keeping yourself alive (garden/farm, animals, splitting wood, repairing the fence, building a barn, pumping out the septic tank, stringing new barbed wire, dredging the silt from the pond, finding the freaking break in the wiring here or there, tracking down the (#@$)!*@ animal that took out half the chickens last night, etc, etc, etc). You will be at work, not doing those things. Will you learn how to sew and/or card wool and/or weave and/or tan leather and/or anything else you need to be self-sufficient? No, not all of them because that is 37 hrs a day worth of work. You will need to rely on other people...that community I spoke of and this won't be communist Russia. They will want to be paid (in kind possibly but something for something). So you will either need cold hard cash or something to barter with.

You are not being realistic about this at all. You want what you want and you want to do what you want to do but those aren't, at this point, compatible with each other.

As for gaming the site, it's a nice way to say you are trolling. You pretend to want advice when what you really want is to either be a thorn in people's sides (not accusing you of that) or you want validation for your preconceived notions of how it's going to be (THAT I am accusing you of). You won't really get that here. There are too many people actually doing what you are proposing, day in and day out, to blow smoke and tell you there's a magic box that poops butterflies and generates rainbows so you can go off half cocked and waste your time, energy and money.

Aaaaaand now I'm done being the cold hard voice of reality for the day. Time to go futz with the garden and maybe go on a rafting trip. See, I'm not pretending to be something I'm not...the grid-dependent, 9-5, slightly overweight, comfortable in my suburban lifestyle guy that I am. I just know that what you're claiming you want can't be done in the manner you are proposing.

 

You'll notice the other pure sign wave invert-er is a xantrex 2000 watt it is very capable of running computers and toys. pulling about 2000 watts on the inverter constantly during the day time is not an issue here. if power voltage drops to 11.4 the xantrex will auto shut down. about 11.3 the aims will shut down. This keeps you from draining the battery bank to harmful levels. If you look at the set up those poles are for three windmills. If you were like in Oklahoma where it's windy all the time. you could run it through the night.

 

I have a 55 acre farm, 25 goats four horses, a green house of 2,100 square ft. I built this set up to offset my electric costs here. This place will probably be sold to the casino people in sept. if everything goes right. The next project will be larger and differently set up. People need something to do when the world is coming to an end. Therefore the toys are needed. Put four large green houses on automatic systems, run a herd of cattle using automation to help you. and build the biggest solar/ wind/ water turbine set up you can afford. Use other people ideas on earth homes, monolithic style homes etc. until you develop a home where the heating and cooling are very limited. The first and most important item is the efficiently of the home, and it's location to water.

 

I plan on having a lot of help from people who I've known for decades and also family. To try large offgrid projects by yourself is dangerous and not very smart. One could not stop the theft that occurs on large properties, a group could limit the damage. On the next project it's going with the concept of a cattle farm. trying to produce cattle that sale for current market prices. This and multiple large automated greenhouses should provide food and income need for the group. At my age this project is for my families next generational needs. Where going to run it as a business. Got a lawyer daughter to figure out corporate issues.