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Solar Shed Summary: My Off Grid Office

sevarg.net

11–20 of 68 posts

Re: Solar Shed Summary: My Off Grid Office

#11
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not just rent the drywall lift? If your work stretches across a week it's not cheaper, but the goal would be to rent the lift, hang all the drywall, return it to the lumber-yard/home improvement store/hardware store by the end of the day.

1000 sq ft of drywall is probably several evenings of work for a DIY'er, and not something you want to force into one long day. I will sometimes buy tools like this (new or for craigslist) and resell on craiglist, and then I think of it as "renting from craigslist" but without a deadline to return it.

Yeah...

When I was doing house solar (big ground mount 15.9kW system), I really beat the hell out of myself trying to finish with a rental jackhammer in a day. I was drilling the holes and the auger was bouncing off the hardpan, so I rented a jackhammer... and it was an electric beast, not a light pneumatic version. Anyway, I got it done in a day of pounding, but I was not in good shape the next few days.

Having low stress of getting it done is nice.

Also, depending on the area you live and the community you're part of, that sort of thing may just go into the general rotation of "Oh, yeah, I've got one of those." I'm borrowing someone's portable cement mixer right now for deck footings, a friend up north has my auger, I've got his subsoiler... in rural areas, useful tools tend to just wander around, and as long as people have a vague sense of where they might be, it's not a big deal.

Re: Solar Shed Summary: My Off Grid Office

#13
post #3

There's been some conversation about this at the previous link, back when it was over at syonyk.blogspot.com (I moved off that because Google ruined their new Blogger interface). Five years later... still the best place I've ever worked from. Nothing to say, really. Power is reliable, I have more of it than I really need with how much solar I've got, the generator works fine in the winter, my speakers rock, and I don…

I didn't expect Starlink equipment to be very power hungry. That's unfortunate. Really damages my rural off-grid small home fantasy.

Re: Solar Shed Summary: My Off Grid Office

#14
I've spent far more while arranging for space at home, and the resulting workspace is not as great.

I wish there was such a Shed-as-a-Service in a bikable distance from my home.

Seriously, I believe there is some demand for local, tiny offices for remote workers.

Re: Solar Shed Summary: My Off Grid Office

#15
post #3

There's been some conversation about this at the previous link, back when it was over at syonyk.blogspot.com (I moved off that because Google ruined their new Blogger interface). Five years later... still the best place I've ever worked from. Nothing to say, really. Power is reliable, I have more of it than I really need with how much solar I've got, the generator works fine in the winter, my speakers rock, and I don…

Do you have any measured stats on your Dishy's power consumption? I've read it's 90-100W nominal, which seems reasonable if you switch it off at night when not in use. Like other commenters, I've been also been thinking about off-grid home requirements.

Re: Solar Shed Summary: My Off Grid Office

#16
post #14

I've spent far more while arranging for space at home, and the resulting workspace is not as great. I wish there was such a Shed-as-a-Service in a bikable distance from my home. Seriously, I believe there is some demand for local, tiny offices for remote workers.

> Seriously, I believe there is some demand for local, tiny offices for remote workers.

I'll second this. I need a real office most days due to having a ton of voice and video calls, but private office space at most co-working spaces is both overkill and around $1000/month, which is kind of silly.

Re: Solar Shed Summary: My Off Grid Office

#17
post #3

There's been some conversation about this at the previous link, back when it was over at syonyk.blogspot.com (I moved off that because Google ruined their new Blogger interface). Five years later... still the best place I've ever worked from. Nothing to say, really. Power is reliable, I have more of it than I really need with how much solar I've got, the generator works fine in the winter, my speakers rock, and I don…

Do you have any measured stats on your Dishy's power consumption? I've read it's 90-100W nominal, which seems reasonable if you switch it off at night when not in use. Like other commenters, I've been also been thinking about off-grid home requirements.

https://www.sevarg.net/2021/06/20/so-starlink/

It's around 85W continuous on the white hardware, I understand some of the newer generations are a bit more power efficient. Power use while transmitting goes up higher.

I just run it on the grid. :/ Yes, it's 2kWh/day.

Re: Solar Shed Summary: My Off Grid Office

#18
post #12

Great shed! I have question. What about noise inside from AC and inverter? Could you measure it?

I'm sorry, I no longer have an easy way to do that. The inverter is dead silent unless it's loaded up, at which point I've got enough other running loads that I don't really hear the inverter. Air conditioner makes plenty of airflow noise.

I think it's around 70dB on a typical day, quiet mornings can be down in the 50dB range? I measured it a while ago, but I no longer have the smartphones I used to do that around.

Re: Solar Shed Summary: My Off Grid Office

#19
post #14

I've spent far more while arranging for space at home, and the resulting workspace is not as great. I wish there was such a Shed-as-a-Service in a bikable distance from my home. Seriously, I believe there is some demand for local, tiny offices for remote workers.

They have this sort of stuff in cities that have enough of a population to sustain these sorts of industries. There is this in my area but its not exactly cheap compared to the price of a late at a cafe:

https://secondhome.io/location/hollywood/

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