Work out your daily watt-hours first
Watt Hour Ledger explains how to add up the energy a small off-grid setup uses in a day. You'll learn what the units mean, how to list and measure your appliances, and how the total turns into rough battery and solar sizes.
- 1Watts, Amps and Watt-Hours in Plain English
What watts, amps and watt-hours mean, how they connect, and which one you add up when you plan a small off-grid power setup.
- 2How to Build a Daily Energy Budget, Step by Step
List every appliance, multiply watts by hours, add the results, and get a daily watt-hour total you can use to size a small off-grid system.
- 3Measuring What an Appliance Really Uses
How to check an appliance's true power draw with a plug-in meter, instead of trusting the label, and what to watch for.
- 4Typical Power Use of Common Cabin and Camp Loads
Rough wattages for lights, laptops, fans, TVs, fridges and heaters, and how to turn them into a first-draft watt-hour budget before you measure.
- 5Inverter Losses and Standby Draw
Why the energy your battery gives up is higher than the appliance numbers add up to, and how inverter losses and standby draw feed into that gap.
- 6From Your Budget to Battery and Panel Size
Turn a daily watt-hour total into a rough battery size and a rough solar panel size, with lead-acid and lithium compared side by side.