This morning, we woke up to find the solar power out, which was strange since we had a full day of sun yesterday. As I lay in bed, my mind raced with possible reasons. My first thought was that maybe we’d forgotten to turn off the PA after rehearsal with the animatronics. That thing pulls about 3,000 watts, and we’ve accidentally left it on a few times before. But I distinctly remembered us shutting it down, so that couldn’t be it. The next thought, which I dreaded, was that something might be wrong with the solar system itself.
Eventually, I gave in and got up, mostly because the dogs decided it was time. Vibria was already calling from her box, ready to start the day. After letting the dogs out, I usually throw in a bit of fetch, fill up their water, and inevitably annoy them by going inside to make coffee. But not today. Today, I was on a mission to figure out what happened with the solar.
It didn’t take long to crack the case. Somehow, the fridge had switched to using both electric and gas. That means it draws power from the batteries first before automatically switching to gas when the power runs out. To make things worse, the RV charging system had switched to boost mode, which draws extra power to charge the RV batteries faster. Running both the fridge and boost mode overnight drained the system. It’s fine during the day when the solar’s up and running, but overnight? Not so much.
With a sigh of relief, I realized nothing was broken. Now, we’re just waiting for the sun to come up and recharge the solar. It’s a bit cloudy this morning, so it may take longer than usual, but it only takes about an hour or two of full sun to get the batteries back to normal.
Meanwhile, the dogs got their morning playtime, barked at a camper stopping by to say hello, and are now back to napping. Vibria’s curled up at my feet, and we’re just waiting on that coffee to percolate.
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Tag: off-grid challenges
Adapting to Off-Grid Living: Challenges and Rewards at Ka-Hoon Campground
Today marks the third cloudy day in a row, and with the heat, it’s been harder to conserve electricity. We’ve been running fans, and the fridge has to work overtime to stay cool. Plus, we spent a lot of time working in the studio. So, it wasn’t a surprise when we woke up this morning to find we don’t have electricity. But that’s fine. Today is cooler, the sky will clear, the sun will come out, and we always have the option of firing up the generator.
Electricity is nice, but we’ve learned to work around these types of days. Before moving here to New Mexico, we lived at an Environmental Education Center where we site-managed and worked on the music production side. We started out in an 8.5×16 fish house that we had converted into a cabin. Before buying the cabin, we lived in tents on the land.
Electricity was limited in our cabin. Though we didn’t have solar power, we did have shore power, but it required running a 200-foot heavy power cable. This meant our electricity was limited; we ran one LED lamp and a TV, and we used propane for heat and cooking.
These experiences have taught us how to adapt and make the most of what we have. Living off-grid has its challenges, but it also offers a unique and rewarding lifestyle that we wouldn’t trade for anything.
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Ka-Hoon Campground and Event Center 