What Preps are you doing this week? Part 12

[GillyBee]

We are in a rented 1st floor maisonette so the amount of change we can make is very limited and things also need to take into account Mr Gillybee's decreasing health/DIY capabilities.
We have a pair of 12v leisure batteries that charge from the solar in the shed. This runs an invertor which has a couple of 240V outlets and a couple of USB. The plan is to run some additional external grade cable to DH workshop and take as much as possible off grid. Primarily the lighting, computing and low end tools. The invertor is able to run the lawn mower as long as it is started with no physical load so should cope with smaller power tools.
The workshop was not suitable for mounting the solar panels so we used the better located shed.
The hold up is that Mr Gillbee's health is getting worse and getting a good weather day to coincide with a good health for DIY day is getting increasingly rare.
For the maisonette we have a batch of 7AH stairlift type 12V batteries and a couple of 300W invertors. These are light enough to carry up and downstairs for charging in parallel with the leisure batteries and are mainly for lighting and computing/comms. There is a USB sourced AA/AAA/C/D cell charger that can run from the invertor to go alongside this too.
Not perfect but a lot better than diddly squat.

[pseudonym]

We are in a rented 1st floor maisonette so the amount of change we can make is very limited and things also need to take into account Mr Gillybee's decreasing health/DIY capabilities.

Can you ask the landlord if you can hang a solar panel outside/between your windows?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emAul4ozc1Q

[Yorkshire Andy]

We are in a rented 1st floor maisonette so the amount of change we can make is very limited and things also need to take into account Mr Gillybee's decreasing health/DIY capabilities.
We have a pair of 12v leisure batteries that charge from the solar in the shed. This runs an invertor which has a couple of 240V outlets and a couple of USB. The plan is to run some additional external grade cable to DH workshop and take as much as possible off grid. Primarily the lighting, computing and low end tools. The invertor is able to run the lawn mower as long as it is started with no physical load so should cope with smaller power tools.
The workshop was not suitable for mounting the solar panels so we used the better located shed.
The hold up is that Mr Gillbee's health is getting worse and getting a good weather day to coincide with a good health for DIY day is getting increasingly rare.
For the maisonette we have a batch of 7AH stairlift type 12V batteries and a couple of 300W invertors. These are light enough to carry up and downstairs for charging in parallel with the leisure batteries and are mainly for lighting and computing/comms. There is a USB sourced AA/AAA/C/D cell charger that can run from the invertor to go alongside this too.
Not perfect but a lot better than diddly squat.

If budget eventually enables you to look at the smaller ecoflow / jackery units I've a river 2 (now superseded by the river 3... it's 256wh capacity 300w inverter 2xusb a one usbc and a 12v outlet and weighs bugger all 3.5kg according to Google

It'll run our tv for 5hrs

A standard Led lamp this one is 3.5w for 16 hrs

Solar charge from a 100w panel (additional mc4 to xt60 cable needed )

Can mains charge from flat in about 1 hour

Or car charge takes about 2.5 hours from memory

Got this for £166 last summer in the Argos sale