Ben Breckenridge

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since Jun 03, 2021
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Southern California
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Recent posts by Ben Breckenridge

Motor/pumps need 6x to start up the motor. So that 1.5kW pump now requires 8kW(1.5kW x 6) just to start it up.



There are some pumps that require 1.1x the stated wattage to start, like the Grundfos SQ series.. It's important to know the actual make and model of the pump.
3 years ago
Hey CM, I'm glad to see you settled on Kern County. Me too! We're supposed to close this week on a property near Walker Basin. What part of Kern County did you end up in?
3 years ago
There's a little math you can do to figure out what you'd need. First how big are the batteries and how long do you want it to take to charge back to full?

Let's say for argument's sake that you want to charge to full in less than a day and you will sometimes want to drive during daylight hours. Your truck's battery is 115KWh. That's a lot.

I don't know where you live but let's say you get the equivalent of 5 hours of 100% sun. You'd need 23000W of solar panels to charge up every day. If you're willing to put some work in you can get the panels you need for about $0.20 per watt, or $4600.

Ok, that's a huge system and you probably aren't driving the range of the vehicle every day. Let's consider a system that's 1/4 of that. This means you can continuously drive 1/4 of the range and charge back up, or charge to full over 4 days.

Then you're looking at a 6000W system and things get a bit more reasonable. You need about $1200 in solar panels. Then you need an inverter that handles 6000W easily, Maybe $3500. Mounting and wiring will cost some more, but you can do a lot of it yourself.

This assumes you're allowed to build an off-grid system. If local rules prevent that (meaning you have to feed back into the grid), costs go way up.

If you want to charge your vehicle at night, and use your fancy system to run a toaster or something, batteries aren't so bad. A lot of DIYers are taking batteries which have finished their useful life inside a car (Nissan Leaf batteries are popular) and giving them a new life (at reduced capacity but you plan for that) in a home solar setup. If you want around 20KWh of storage it might run you $3000. Then you get a charger (another $1200) and the system works like this: panels feed the chargers, chargers feed the batteries, batteries feed the inverter and the inverter feeds your truck. That way when you aren't using the sun it's being stored so you can pull from it at night.

I'm sure I've got some details wrong, but I'd love to hear from people who have tried this at their homesteads. I'm aiming to build a 6000W off-grid solar setup with 20KWh of batteries for around $10k, and go with electric machines over gas whenever I can. I know it's going to be a challenge, and impractical in a lot of ways, but that's the fun part.

Good luck with your setup! The E-F-150 looks awesome!



3 years ago
I had limited success with the sites recently. It's a great way to get acquainted with the pricing in an area but I was unable to get the feel of any property until I was able to visit it, and often I was surprised how poorly the listing represented the land. People don't know how to take pictures of land bigger than 1/4 acre.

I would recommend finding an area you're the most excited about (I picked an area near Havilah) and find a local realtor. Describe to them what you're looking for and see what they recommend.

Good luck with your adventure!
3 years ago