04-08-2018, 09:55 AM
"no amount of money would buy electricity in the aftermath of a hurricane if HELCO is down"
You hit the nail on the head. The reason why I wanted off-grid refrigeration- it was the only reason I was spending ~$30/day on gas to keep the generator running after Iselle. Unless my panels blow off, if there is another incident like that I can probably get by on very little generator usage. The power went out for several hours about a week ago and we barely even noticed because all our primary electronics were running off the solar. As luck would have it, grid power was restored just as evening came. I'm typing this now on a computer juiced by solar.
You hit the nail on the head. The reason why I wanted off-grid refrigeration- it was the only reason I was spending ~$30/day on gas to keep the generator running after Iselle. Unless my panels blow off, if there is another incident like that I can probably get by on very little generator usage. The power went out for several hours about a week ago and we barely even noticed because all our primary electronics were running off the solar. As luck would have it, grid power was restored just as evening came. I'm typing this now on a computer juiced by solar.