I don’t trust the grid, even though energy in Brazil has been improving. The last time we had significant issues with not enough energy was around 2002.

In the city or in the neighborhood, it is normal to have issues from time to time. In this blog have wrote in the past about having a city blackout in the day of a very important meeting in 2022. Even having StarLink at that date did not save me from having a hard time to complete my working day as expected.

Not too long ago, there was a huge incident in Portugal and Spain where there was no energy.

How not to be impacted by these small or big incidents?

Off-grid energy is the solution. Like any other system, redundancy is necessary, and solar power is currently the most convenient option.

Today, it is inexpensive to purchase solar panels. In Brazil, you can buy panels for $100 that will generate approximately $1 of energy per day. You will also need a battery to store energy for use at night and when the sun is not shining.

After some research, I have learned that the best battery available today is a LifePo4 battery, which is already cost-effective to acquire.

If you do not want to make this a hobby, I advise you to buy an out-of-the-box solution like EcoFlow (my first one was an EcoFlow Delta 2 with an extra battery). These are extremely easy to set up. All you need is a solar panel (it does not need to be the expensive flexible ones they sell). Any panel in the same voltage range will work like a charm.

It was so easy to get it to work that I decided to learn more about this field. I put together a system myself using other components. Today, I have 2 MPPT charge controllers, 2 24v inverters, and 4 LifePo4 batteries on a second system connected to 2 strings of panels with 1.1K and 600w running +75% of my house. That is a conversation for a future post, by doing that you can save a lot of money and having a lot of fun to get it to work.

In conclusion, there is no magic in obtaining a secondary source of energy today. In future ports, I may bring my own setup and learn how to make it work technically. For now, if you need to search for Ecoflow or Bluetti and see how easy it is to set them up to work. I would advise buying one twice as big as the one you think you need. You will thank me later. Alternatively, take some time for a DIY project and save over $3,000 to get a project that can power 99% of your house.

I don’t think I will ever use only grid energy again. I am already planning to make my house completely off-grid in the next few years once I buy my “forever home.” It is a relief to see the whole city or neighborhood go dark and still be able to watch your favorite Netflix show with your wife before bed without worrying. That has happened twice since I start using Off-grid energy in the last 6 months. I am also paying 75% less to the grid energy company, even tho money was not the factor of this project.