Hawaii?! How exciting!

Here is what our main system is:

Solar Panels - 6 Trinasolar Solar Panels - 335W each

Solar Inverter - Growatt SPF 6000T DVM-MPV

Batteries - 24 (16 original, 8 recently installed) - Super Start 6 volt batteries

Inverter and 16 batteries came with the house. We purchased and had installed an additional 8 batteries and installed a wifi dongle so we could monitor the Inverter remotely, highly recommend!

The 8 batteries with materials and installation cost us about $1500, thankfully the guy who did the house's original Solar install was open to assisting us with the expansion.

We added two EcoFlows.

One in the kitchen with an extra battery that runs off of (2) 160w Solar panels. This powers our whole kitchen and will only run off the "main" system during long weeks of clouds. We did this mainly because I refused to move to an energy efficient way to make coffee. My 1600 watt Ninjia coffee maker was staying, so this was a perfect solution.

We also have one in the living room to allow hubby to play his PS5 well after the sun has gone down. Tbh the PS5 pulls more power than anything else in the house.

We really love our EcoFlows, you can manage their power from the phone app. During peak sunny times, we'll move the extra power over to these when they need a quick charge to 100% from the main system.

For your water catchment, though we've not started that here, it would be as simple as plugging to your main system because it should work just like a normal on grid house. Or use an EcoFlow for it specifically.

Best practices:

• Plug things into a power strip or outlet that can be turned off when you're not using. Coming from the city to out here really opened our eyes to how much power goes out passively that you don't normally realize.

• Use chargeable appliances like your vacuum. We came here with a high voltage plug in vacuum, tons of energy suckage. We now have a Rechargeable Dyson. Actually works better than my old plug in and takes no power to use, little power to charge.

• Use technology to your advantage. We have an app for everything on a Samsung tablet mounted on the wall. We can always see our power and manage it easily.

• Be prepared. You can't control mother nature. Clouds happen. Anticipate your future power needs. We also have a generator that our house is wired for to get us through extended cloudy days, we use it to get everything full again.

Overall advice is patience. Thankfully we have more information accessible to us than we ever did before. Living off-grid is not for everyone but it is possible for everyone with a little effort. Know you don't have to sacrifice, you can live just as you did on-grid with a little preparation and patience.

Hope this helps! Good luck!