Solar Panels — What Actually Powers What

Two hundred watts of solar. Marketing says off-grid ready. Reality says — you can charge a phone and maybe your battery. Here's what solar actually does.

Two hundred watts in full sun, perfect angle, no clouds — gives you about a hundred amp-hours per day. Sounds like a lot. Until you do the math.

Residential fridge — sixty to eighty amp-hours per day. Furnace fan — twenty. Lights — ten. Water pump — five. Pumps and electronics — twenty. Total — roughly a hundred-twenty amp-hours per day, conservative. Solar puts in a hundred.

Net — you're still going negative in heavy use. Solar slows down battery drain, doesn't eliminate it. To actually go off-grid without a generator, you need four hundred to six hundred watts of solar minimum. Maybe eight hundred. With a 200-amp-hour lithium bank.

OR — keep your generator. Run it two hours a day. Costs less to install. Less to maintain. Less to break.