The storm last night

Know what's funny about those two meters referenced in the article? The "enhanced" model is less expensive than the basic model! Weird.

I am currently doing a test mid day with both the fridge and the freezer hooked up as well as the solar panels to see what the drain will be on the Jackery. Sky conditions are ideal today with no clouds.

OK. The test did not go as expected as one of the solar panels did not work, so this test only had 1 functioning solar panel putting out 75 watts in bright sun. After 2 hours, the Jackery went from 100 pct to 88 pct with both the fridge and the freezer pugged into it. This was an average of 6 pct per hour. Having the second panel working probably would have reduced the drain by 1 pct per hour.

You have to understand that the panels will only supply 70 to 80 pct of the wattage they are rated for. So my 100 watt panel delivered 75 watts today. Dust, clouds, sun angles, all affect the wattage you get.

If the power is out for less than 48 hours, the 2 panel solar setup will probably work. 72 hours or longer outage and you will need 4 - 100 watt panels or 2 - 200 watt panels. You can go up to 6+ panels on 3000 Pro and take your appliances off the grid in a small home situation.

I did check for the other brand panels. The Grecell 200 watt panel is not quite as good as the Jackery 200 watt panel quality wise but it is close. Considering the cost, Jackery $499 US vs Grecell $329 US on Amazon, the Grecell is close enough in quality. I will definitely add another 200 watts to the system I have now

This might be a dumb question, but you have to plug your appliances into the Jackery, right? So how do you power things which are in different rooms? Do you use extension cords?

Exactly. The freezer is in the garage and gets the shorter extension, the fridge is off the garage in the kitchen and gets the longer cord. If I run a VERY long cord into the house through the kitchen to the den where my internet setup is, I can have internet and at least one lamp. Since my internet comes from cable (not connected to the grid) I should have internet access and possibly TV, only I would use that sparingly.

You can charge your phones and laptop from the Jackery itself as it has USB ports and 4 electrical plug sockets.

Will the Jackery power a 220 pressure pump?

The outlets on Jackery's are for 110 volt not 220 volt. Even if your pump is 110 volt, it cannot be hardwired. i.e. it must plug into an outlet so that it can be unplugged during a power outage and plugged into a Jackery. How much electricity it will suck depends on the horse power of the pump and whether or not it has a slow impeler start up (like some Grunfos submersibles). Lots of variables to consider or you can circumvent the pump problem by having a tinaco... you won't have a lot of pressure but you will have water.

edited to add: or you can set up a 110 bypass pump (VERY noisy) for use in emergencies. They are cheap... basically use a hose to drop into the aljibe and a small 1/2 HP pump with plug then connect the other end to your water pipes... connection is like a two headed garden hose connector that diverts the water from one system to another. Tinaco is far simpler but there are developments where tinacos are not permitted. NOT for drinking since any water purification system will also not be working.

When my neighbors built their place, they put in a pressure pump. Every time the electric went out, they had to bucket water out of their pool for everything. When my friend built next door to them, and was on the same well (it's an old ranch property that was subdivided into lots and everyone there uses the same well, that had been there for decades), I suggested to her that she put in a tinako that she could switch over to from her pressure pump when electric goes out, which she did.
The neighbors who just had a pump added a tinako last year.

What is necessary in Mexico is to not set up systems that assume the infrastructure is like it was back in Canada or the US. You can't rely on steady electric, nor steady water, nor steady municipal water pressure (that's why you need a cistern and some kind of pump- municipal water pressure may not be sufficient to reach the tinako).

I have no pressure pump, just a cistern, an external pump, and a tinako. But because the roof is quite high, and the tinako is large (2500 litres), I actually get pretty good water pressure from gravity feed. I also found some shower heads that are designed to give a good shower spray with low pressure. They don't mix air with the water, they are a quite simple, plastic affair, but are somehow designed in a way that ups the pressure of the spray. I just have to remove them every couple monts and soak them in vinegar to remove the mineral deposits.

In San Miguel, we had no aljibe just a tinaco but the municipal well was up the hill from us and the downward run of the pipe water was more than enough pressure to get up to the tinaco. We were lucky. But, the shower pressure was no great hell so we removed the showhead and bought an adapter to which we hooked up a six foot length of garden hose and a Truper hose nozzle. Instant pressure! Plus, when you let go of the nozzle the water instantly shut off so you saved water too. Wet down, water off, soap up and then rinse off.

Update.

The solar panel that was not working had a disconnected plug between the cord and power jack of the Jackery. I charged it up using one panel this morning from 94 pct to full charge in about 4 hours. 2 Panels would have cut that recharge time in half. I stand by my original assessment that a minimum of 4+ panels are needed to make it effective backup for power for outages in excess of 48 hours.

@ royd  Try it on a partly cloudy day?  

Its car tags may say, Sunshine State, but I owned a home there for 5 years and found it to be cloudy much of the time in summer.  Clouds  developing early followed by afternoon downpours then clouds hanging around for another few hours.

Here for the most part, rains late night, or in the overnight hours, then usually clear days.

Here is current Tampa forecast.  Realize you live elsewhere in FL, but the mid-afternoon clouds and rain are common throughout FLA.  

I would not count on full sunshine there on most summer days in FL.

Solar never works well with cloudy skies. Wind turbines do not work well if there is no wind. Having a battery backup to keep things going until you can recharge from sun/wind is the only solution to that. It is not a perfect solution but it the best you have when power from the electric company is out.

Alternative energy technologies are rapidly advancing. There are some solar panels which are designed to work better in cloudy conditions than others and there will only be more advancements in this field.

RoyD wrote:Solar never works well with cloudy skies. Wind turbines do not work well if there is no wind. Having a battery backup to keep things going until you can recharge from sun/wind is the only solution to that. It is not a perfect solution but it the best you have when power from the electric company is out.

Some of our FL neighbors had whole house generators tied to their natural gas. Generac is a popular brand. A big one will power your a/c which can be a huge comfort factor in FL where power can go out for days.

RoyD wrote: The freezer is in the garage and gets the shorter extension, the fridge is off the garage in the kitchen and gets the longer cord.

While voltage loss is supposedly negligible as long as you are using the proper size electrical extension cord, there is some loss, and the longer the cord the more voltage diminishment.

It might be an interesting experiment, since you say the freezer has less draw, to place the Jackery in the kitchen near the fridge, and use the longer extension cord to connect to the freezer, and see if or how much of a load difference it makes.

BisbeeGal wrote:

RoyD wrote:Solar never works well with cloudy skies. Wind turbines do not work well if there is no wind. Having a battery backup to keep things going until you can recharge from sun/wind is the only solution to that. It is not a perfect solution but it the best you have when power from the electric company is out.

Some of our FL neighbors had whole house generators tied to their natural gas.  Generac is a popular brand.  A big one will power your a/c which can be a huge comfort factor in FL where power can go out for days.

Two families known to me have done whole house generators here... one in Chapala and the other in Jocotepec. In both cases one member of the family required oxygen 24/7/365. Both used Generac but the back up fuel is propane. Both systems switch over silently and seamlessly. Both systems cost ten thousand U.S. dollars installed... in 2020.

Feret....Generac quite a bit cheaper in US which is where RoyD is.
https://www.generac.com/residential-products/standby-generators/

I'm sure they are since they're made in the U.S. BUT you're going to pay a lot more for installation in the U.S. It may very well be a wash in the end. Both of my friends chose the 10 kw model for their needs.

No gas in my neighborhood. LP gas would be the only option with the expense of installing the tank, permits, other govt bs. Same for putting in a solar array on the roof top but at my age now, I would never recoup the investment.

As for cords, the farther the cord goes the more drop you have but, with cords that can reach 50 to 100 feet, the drop is not significant.

RoyD, I hope you're not anywhere near this... https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/25-inches-of-rain-slam-south-florida-desantis-declares-state-of-emergency/ar-BB1o7F7C?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=7b3d63a7dd84483c849b41ce2e64d382&ei=46

We are in North Florida and in dire need of some rain, not necessarily 24 inches. All the lawns are brown here and I am regularly watering my garden trying to keep it alive. All the rain has been from Orlando and south of there.

There are afternoon storms forecast this afternoon so we will see if we get anything. Did not get anything yesterday and only a brief shower the day before. 2 to 3 inches of steady rain would do wonders.

There are now many portable power stations to choose from than there were 8 years ago and it's best to do your own research for specifically your needs. I do agree that a Lithium phosphate battery is better than a Lithium ion battery,
Here ya go... multiple pages of reviews... https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=2024+reviews+comparing+the+top+portable+power+stations#ip=1

We have a Bluetti at a house in US. Have not had occasion to use it, knock on wood.

Here is an explanation of the positive attributes of lithium phosphate batteries and which two Jackery models have them... https://ca.jackery.com/blogs/knowledge/solar-generators-with-lifepo4-battery
Read an article over the weekend about bi-directional batteries in ELECTRIC cars. The car can be used to back up your home. The innovations are comin' at us at a fast and furious pace.