this post was submitted on 24 May 2026
24 points (100.0% liked)

Offgrid living

1069 readers
1 users here now

Everything off grid; power, water, self-sufficiency; whether you're doing it or aspiring.

For mobile forms of off-grid living, consider taking a look at:

c/houseless@lemmy.sdf.org

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
24
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by oeuf@slrpnk.net to c/offgrid@slrpnk.net
 

I'm trying to get an idea of whether it would be viable for us to upgrade our PV and switch from propane to electric for cooking.

Is anyone else cooking on PV-powered electric, and do you have a rough estimate of the kWh used for it?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 1 week ago

Cooking is really high draw for a relatively short time. Fry some eggs - 600-800w for about 5-7 min. Bake a cake - 3500w for 10 min to preheat, then the oven cycles on and off for 30 min or so.

It’s possible, but you’ll need a good sized solar array, and a battery bank and inverter that can provide the juice. Another challenge is having enough power for everything else and cooking off season - unless you’re close to the equator. It’s not hard to get an appropriately sized inverter, and lithium handles the draw pretty easily especially in a decently sized bank. 25 years ago I had friends who were fully off grid using electric, but it was supported by a proper windmill; 5kw if I remember. Even in mild breeze the 500watts all day and night helps; when it got windy there was a real concern about boiling the batteries.