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To compare, I’m a solar powered user. All summer I work outside on a notebook writing apps, powered by several combinations of solar panels and matching batteries. On the whole it works. Excess PV panel capacity charges battery, ensuring enough backup to run during unfavorable angle, cloud cover, weather, shadows, and night. Most common issue is re-positioning panels every few hours to favorable angles & avoiding shadows. Greatest concern is prolonged cloud cover, depleting batteries after a couple days of insufficient light. The cost of preparing backup against “multiple standard deviations” is substantial, buying rarely used batteries (and extra panels to charge them in reasonable time) - hundreds of $ of gear (2-4x base cost) used maybe one day a month. Winter makes this outlier the norm, magnified by its own outliers. Also, one becomes very aware of app power consumption. Found one web page (AgileCraft logout page) pulls 30 ways for no good reason. I’m sure solar powered web server would face comparable issues. Depleted batteries are a brick wall, waiting for not just light & time to recharge, but to run the system ASAP. |