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Alternatives to solar panels

 
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I live within city limits, but I can survive on the many pots with plants growing all over my room including Oranges and avocado trees.  I do not have much room left for solar panels and I am a IPF (Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis).   I live in Puerto Rico and we get hurricanes often and when Maria came, the whole island was dark, and some places took over a year to get power. I depend on concentrators for Oxygen, air purifiers, nebulizer , etc. I saw an advertising of a Solar Innovation System for $39. I don't mind the price and I am a DIY person. My question is, does this really works or is it a scam.
Thank you all for your help.
 
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It is most likely a scam.
Assuming you need around 1kW of power on total, it will require a fairly large solar installation and batteries to keep that running all the time. Even as a DIY verison, this is not cheap.
 
steward
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When we are without electricity we have flashlights and LED lanterns.

We have found this one works best for us:

https://www.harborfreight.com/250-lumen-pop-up-lantern-64110.html

Of course, folks can always rely on candles though dear hubby hates those due to fire hazards so I get the ones in glass jars with lids.
 
master steward
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Location: southern Illinois, USA
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There are designs here on the Permie site for portable solar plans.   The have a relatively small footprint, and I suspect they will produce enough electricity to meet your needs.
 
Anne Miller
steward
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Maybe something like this would work if you are handy at DIY:



Don't you hate it when the power goes out and you need to charge batteries and run some lights?  Let's make a system to help out!



https://permies.com/wiki/140479/pep-electricity/Set-emergency-battery-system-charged

Here is a thread that might have some ideas.  I was looking for something simple:

https://permies.com/t/174546/simple-device-give-min-power
 
Sebastian Köln
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Jose, how much power does your oxygen concentrator use? And all the other things you need?
Figuring out how much energy you need would be the first step.
 
pollinator
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Your first step would be to get yourself a kill a watt meter to measure how much power your equipment uses over a 24 hour period. From there you could model a system to keep you going in case of outage.
 
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