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I'm planning to cut my grid connection and go full off-grid. Which raises the question of how much capacity I really need. And what you see here is me trying to answer that question based on ~51,000 5-minute data points of usage data my power company provided to me, complete with custom-made python script to parse all that data and pretty charts! (Yes, I have 6 monitors. And this kind of shows why.)

And what I'm really torn about now is how much battery capacity I need. Should I get enough to cover the absolute worst case scenario (~66kwh) or is something closer to my average overnight usage (~20kwh) acceptable?

Not the absolute end of the world if the batteries run dry and I need to temporarily supplement with generator backup, I suppose. Nobody is life-or-death depending on any electrical appliances here, and even on the coldest days, waiting a few minutes to go start a generator isn't a huge deal.

But definitely would like a word from the wise about how much battery capacity I really need. And also how much solar panel wattage I need, I suppose.

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[-] Lojcs@piefed.social 1 points 1 month ago

You can change your fan curve so it doesn't zig zag so much

[-] OwOarchist@pawb.social 2 points 1 month ago

Heh, perhaps. I tried once, but it didn't make any difference. And at this point, I'm not inclined to put much effort into fixing something that isn't broken (or at least currently works).

Only does this when at practically zero load. Goes much steadier if I'm actually using any significant CPU.

this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2026
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