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Built this based on a rolling equipment case - wheels on bottom, handle pulls up to tow it around, like an airport suitcase. 2000 (3k max) watt pure sine wave inverter with automatic transfer from grid power, a 100 Ah LiFePo battery, Epever MPPT controller. Cost about the same as an equivalent...

I did a comparison test with a regular electric stove burner and an induction cooktop. Starting with pan and stove cold, melt a pat of butter and cook an egg: Stovetop took 11 minutes, used .11 Kwh. Induction took 4 1/2 minutes, used .04 Kwh. Time is worth something, and saving electricity is...

Unless there's something that you haven't mentioned, that's way overkill. There are dozens of solar motion activated lights on Amazon for $25 to $50 which should work. Look for one which has a long cord between the light and the solar panel. I have half a dozen of these, different brands, and...

Have you ever considered just plugging the office equipment into an extension cord? Lots safer that way.

Inverter is mounted on rear of case. Inside would require adding vents and fans, and be a really tight fit. The display is showing 40.8 volts, which is what the solar panels are supplying, more or less open-circuit. When the battery is not fully charged, the MPPT controller pulls this voltage...

Since it's just me here, there's no need to cook big meals, I've collected several of those $10-15 cooking appliances from WalMart - egg steamer, waffle iron, sandwich press, etc. They use around 350-450 watts @ 120v., so can work from a small cheap inverter. I use these nearly every day...

10 Beginner mistakes - most of which I've made. This Will Prowse video is well worth the time:

The longest I've gone so far is 10 days without power, water, or transportation - back before solar was a thing. I managed OK. It probably helped that it was in mid winter, with knee deep snow, so refrig. wasn't much of an issue. Bears were. And I was young enough to haul water from the spring...

If country A wants to take over country B, it will be a lot easier if a large percentage of the population of country B is dead. One, or a few high-altitude EMP's could reduce that population dramatically over the course of a few months - lack of water, no food deliveries, no heat or cooling...

Definately not. I would hook the Pi to a monitor and keyboard and see what happens when you (try) to boot it. From there, try burning a new sd card, and see if that boots. Eliminate one failure point at a time.

Don't bin anything - it's all useful and good quality stuff!! (Not the usual "XZZYFOO" brands you see on Amazon.) First thing to do is to see if there are manuals for everything, if not, download some. You'll need a little test gear (like a digital volt/amp meter, and a Klll-A-Watt meter) if...

2023 Minnesota Electrical Code I think it's just a "common sense" rule - you don't want long unprotected lengths of wire, 'cause the more wire there is, the more likely that something can damage it, cause a short, etc. (Like mice or fido chewing away the insulation).

So you already know the #1 rule: don't short the battery!

Have you every wandered around outside during a power outage? It gets really quiet. I'll bet that people blocks away could hear that generator, even if if was running inside a garage.

I imagine that lead/acid batteries wouldn't be impacted, but don't LiFePo batteries also have integrated circuitry in them? I think those are what an EMP would affect. And I think you are misinformed about being in a "rural area far from targets"...

The first one (Marbero) states: "It can also be recharged under direct sun light with solar panel(DC 16.6-25V/1.5A Max " So maybe your 4 amps of panels would burn out something? Those power stations don't get so cheap by putting in any more parts than absolutely necessary.

Meter is hooked across the red and black input jack, reading the voltage on the solar panel cables coming in at the top of the box. Starts around 40 in sunshine, drops to 14.x within a few seconds if the battery needs topping off, otherwise remains at 40.x more or less, depending upon shade on...

Why not? A shunt has a resistance of about 1 ten-thousanth of an ohm - you're not losing enough energy in the shunt to make any difference. It's always good to know how much power your solar array is producing. As for sharing the 600 v negative with a wall-wart - don't. The meter uses so little...