I have previously investigated the possibility of installing solar panels and generating our own electricity, firstly because power cuts are normal in the summer time (in this apartment we seem to have a couple of several-hour cuts each summer, but in other parts of the city, it's more than that), and secondly, I'd love to eliminate that particular dependence on fossil fuels.
However, the upshot of my investigations and calculations was that, to go off the electricity grid, we'd need to plaster our whole roof with panels, and have space somewhere for a whole bunch of batteries.
An alternative I'd thought of was to buy a small solar generator that could, at a pinch, provide light, charge devices, and maybe a fan for midsummer ventilation (at least); i.e. something that wouldn't run the fridge or air conditioning, but would allow us to at least keep informed, working, and illuminated in case of a prolonged power cut.
And finally, I did it; I splashed out $20K ARS (a little under $200NZD) on a kit that includes a 50W solar panel and a 12V 20Ah battery, with some 12V lights, USB ports, and a 75W inverter for 220V AC, for maybe charging a laptop or running the broadband modem.
It also has an FM radio, which is a boon particularly bescause, during the last power cut we had, which also took out broadband and mobile internet, I realised that without internet, we actually have no access to news, so couldn't find out if the outage was localized or widespread.
As a trial I put the panel on the roof, leaning north...
...and dropped the cable through our bedroom window to see how it would go.
Measuring the voltage and current from the panel, and observing the way the battery charged or didn't, I could see that it climbed pretty well during the morning, was high around midday, and then dropped off a cliff around 3pm. Observation confirmed that this was because of shadows from the low wall next to the panel.
I could see that if I just mounted the panel on the wall behind, I'd get at least another coupld of hours of sun (a nearby buidling shadows our entire roof from around 5pm.
So I splashed on a $30NZD solar panel bracket, that works a treat!
I've now run the cable through the wall instead of the window, so there's no need for unplugging it at night and plugging in again in the morning.
For a couple of weeks now, we've been charging all our devices almost entirely from the sun, along with a USB battery that runs a string of LED lights we have in the dimmest, most cave-like part of the apartment, which for me is reassuring, and I've been surprised that C is not bothered by the ugly blue plastic box that now lives in our bedroom, and also at the inordinate pleasure she seems to get from running our fairy lights from the previous day's sunlight.
It's not really much, and it's certainly not independence from a fossil-fueled electricity grid. But it's something.
