There is nothing better than checking the Trimetric monitor on my system and seeing a nice 100% reading, today at 6am i stumbled into the power room and sighed as i saw the 50% (24.0VDC) reading on the monitor. i knew it would be another two hours before the sun would be up high enough to give me the 300 watts of power that usually matches my usage. What to do?
I ended up annoying the family by switching off lights as soon as anyone left the room even for a second. Switched off all power strips connected to entertainment centers, declared in observance of Presidents Day there would be no resistive load toast for breakfast and no microwaving instant oatmeal, we had our cereal listened to music Ghost Bikes and actually enjoyed the quiet: no clicking toaster, no binging microwave and no Today show ( didn’t miss much there!)
It makes me think of the Thoreau quote: “Men have become the tools of their tools”. It’s good to stop and appreciate how lucky we are to live off grid and really appreciate when we do have power and to appreciate when we don’t.