I'be been in Portugal for over 5 weeks now, and little by little I keep making improvements in the farm to make life easier while I still work on ending the tiny house.
The image above is the Bluetteti AC200 power unit. I charge it with the two 500Warr solar panels I have provisionally placed under an olive tree. The idea is to get sum from both, morning and afternoon.
Of course this is not at all an optimal place. My plan is to build w moving wood structure that I can easily place on the best spot to catch the most power as possible. Up till now, the most power I have gotten is 150Watt as only one panel is hit by the sun, so I have plenty of room for improvement.
This power unit can only take up to 900Watt from solar, that is the reason I bought only two 500Watt panels. I am sure I will never reach the nominal power, so I am save.
The unit basically feeds the refrigerator and on sunny days I get enough power from the panels to keep it running.
On cloudy days, as the panels are giving me so low yield, I may need to run the gas generator for a while to charge the powerbank. I also use the gas generator to run the pump from the well and water the trees.
I have a solar light with a sensor for the living area. It has been working perfectly all days even when it has been cloudy.
For the cellphone and computer I use the small bluetti which I charge with the portable 100Watt panel. I have also used the small unit for working tools when needed.
So far so good.
I know winter may be a complete different story but building the portable structure for the panels should provide way more energy. I can also add up to two additional batteries to increase toral.power from 2 KWatt to 8.
Once I have the house finished I plan to keep the bluetti on the external utility closet and feed the house with it. Will post about it when I set it up in a few months.