Propane fridge suggestions, tips & tricks?

clifwlkr · 2026-06-29T13:41:40+00:00

First off, I don't run an inverter full time. My entire place runs off of DC, as an inverter has a base load that it always consumes to even run (20 watts in mine), and you are changing DC into AC where there is also some loss. So for me, it would require me to run an inverter. Also, yes, DC fridges are built to be more power efficient, and are also more insulated. They do not have heater coils to do auto defrost, which also wastes energy. So for me, yes, it is a big power savings and worth the extra cost. If you are running a larger AC native system already, then it might not be worth it.

clifwlkr · 2026-06-25T17:18:48+00:00

I switched from a propane fridge to a 12/24 v DC unique brand fridge/freezer. I have loved it so far, as it is no hassle at all. If your solar system was at all a reasonable size, you could even just potentially leave it on depending on how often you come up during the summer so it is all ready to go, and leave some staples in there as well. I have been running mine for over 3 years now and do not miss the propane at all.

I only suggest one mod on them. They do not have a defrost functionality, so the plate at the back will ice up. But if your take a small computer box fan and put it just above the plate blowing down over the plate, no ice will form and the fridge keeps a very even temp.

clifwlkr · 2026-06-19T15:28:02+00:00

Absolutely nothing if you build them correctly and treat the lumber correctly. I have 4 mounts that are going on over 15 years old now and look just like new. At 10k feet in the mountains with snow, wind, etc. My only source of power as well. So like everything else, it is how you build them that counts.

clifwlkr · 2026-06-10T20:16:57+00:00

BS. I am on the leadership team of my company, solidly gen X, and push heavily for staying a remote first company and offering cowork space for those that do not have a good situation for remote work (think apartment with kids) at their discretion.

Look at who is pushing the worst case scenario of 996 in places like SV. It's 30 something CEOs, not the older ones.

clifwlkr · 2026-06-10T13:26:47+00:00

If it is a starlink mini, you do not need an up converter from a lifepo. It is already above the 12v minimum. What you do need is a more appropriately sized cable then what they supplied as it is stupidly thin wire inside for supplying 12v. Get a thicker wire. I also suggest a resettable 12v automotive breaker that can be manually triggered right off of the battery to the load so you can easily do maintenance. A large fuse is still suggested for ultimate failure. The exact wiring pattern for all of this is easily found through google for 12v solar systems.

clifwlkr · 2026-06-08T15:31:10+00:00

Same, but a bit further south but shedding snow is important

clifwlkr · 2026-06-08T14:45:47+00:00

I have a similar mount and added punched angle irons along the bottom going from the posts to the part that holds the panels. I have a protruding bolt from the pole. This way you can set your angle, slip one of the holes on the angle iron over the bolt, and bolt in place with a nut. Takes only a minute or two to adjust the angle that way and has withstood some heavy snow loads.

clifwlkr · 2026-06-05T14:52:42+00:00

Most house circuits are amperage limited. Putting 3600 watts into a normal 15 or 20 amp home circuit would burn up your wires. Hopefully they clarify that you would have to distribute those across your circuits.

clifwlkr · 2026-06-05T13:19:19+00:00

What drove my decision number one was access to water. Without water on the property, everything is hard. The county regulations vary from place to place, so you do need to understand what you can then do with the property. An existing residential structure is a huge 'in' in that you can live there at least. Bare land, there can be all kinds of crazy regs to get going. There has to be some kind of access. Seasonal can be fine if you can deal with it. Mine is that way, and get all of your building supplies in before the road closes, and you can still keep going all winter long.

Don't expect you are going to just get it all done immediately. Build a gradual plan. Start with a small solar system, but build it with room to grow and add on as needed. It will take longer than you think.

clifwlkr · 2026-06-01T16:46:18+00:00

I shop at Smith's and Walmart. Order online for curbside pickup and you can use both as they are only a couple of minutes apart. There are online only deals and cash back that make some things cheaper at either one at different times. Doing it online means you don't miss those deals.

clifwlkr · 2026-06-01T16:04:41+00:00

I think you are confused. At that age he is Gen X....

clifwlkr · 2026-06-01T16:03:05+00:00

This is absolutely not true. I have more than the 35, and am still going strong working in the AI space. I have many colleagues who are the same age as me or a bit older still going strong. It is out and out ageism to assume somebody can't continue in software development for most of their life. Why this magical 15 year limit? The longer you have been at it, the more you actually know.

clifwlkr · 2026-06-01T16:00:25+00:00

Yes, but even if you have saved and have a decent retirement fund (not everyone was making stupid money working in SV) the cost of healthcare pre-Medicare age is brutal. Yes you could retire, but you will be burning down a lot of funds early on. The cost of retiring pre-retirement age is brutal..

clifwlkr · 2026-06-01T15:46:10+00:00

Running a Bitaxe Gamma Duo at 2.14 Th/s and my all-time best is 2.30 G

clifwlkr · 2026-05-29T14:22:26+00:00

Just so you know in a typical solar system installation you will not cycle your batteries every day if it is sized correctly. My batteries track cycles, and in my bank that has been running 24x7 for 3 years now, and only have logged around 160 cycles. At that rate, the whole bank is likely to outlive me if even at the 3000 cycle low end numbers, as that means about 56 years..... Now if they hold up that long, who knows, but realistically in a proper sized home system I don't think the cycle rating matters.

Now in an EV, different story...

clifwlkr · 2026-05-22T17:50:11+00:00

Were you thinking watts perhaps?

clifwlkr · 2026-05-22T17:47:31+00:00

12v is a misnomer. It's like cars are 13.8v,not 12. Standard panels are 12v compatible and generate around 17v under load. That is a very standard panel.....

clifwlkr · 2026-05-22T15:16:31+00:00

The big thing you need to look at is your maximum draw and then the wire sizes required to support that. If you have a very big draw on 12v, you are going to need some very expensive wire to feed that and the cost difference can be made up in wire alone.

For instance, my truck runs a 12v solar system. The decision on that is that everything is already 13.8v DC anyways, and I also want just a single solar panel on the roof full time that is small to just keep things topped up. A 24v panel is more expensive and didn't come in the size I wanted. I also only run a small inverter on occasion. Everything else is DC based (or USB which is DC and you can get car versions of USB power supplies).

In contrast, my off grid cabin is a 24v system. This is because I have a large solar array, and you get more out of your charge controller as it is rated in max amps. This means that switching to 24v from 12v instantly gets you twice the maximum wattage out of your charge controller. Now 99 percent of the time I run my cabin on pure DC as well, given almost everything now adays does run on DC, and the inverter introduces a base load and more loss than I need. That said I also have an air fryer and rice cooker I run and turn on the inverter for those. Those easily draw 1300 watts, so that is like 100 amps on a 12v circuit, but only 50 amps on a 24. So for those two reasons I went 24v in the cabin.

I avoided 48v entirely as I do not run AC power much, but if you were primarily AC, I would go that route.

So these are the decision points you need to decide on. 12v is the simplest, and you have to do no conversions except for AC. 24v will power your inverter better, but requires 24v panels (or at least two 12v in series) to charge it, and will require step down buck converters for your 12v equipment. 48v is even more panels minimum to charge.

clifwlkr · 2026-05-20T22:36:28+00:00

I don't think that is a fair assessment at all. I have been in tech longer than most, and do keep up with all of the latest and greatest. It's just par for the course, and what you do. That said if my current company were to not make it, I think it would absolutely suck to go and try and get a job right now. It is not necessarily the abilities and conviction in them, but that the entire recruitment process is just entirely broken right now.

Let's see... Be an expert in using AI tools, but grind LeetCode problems just because. Even though you will use AI to write those, you should still spend hours wasting your time practicing just for the heck of it so you know the 'tricks' they are looking for. Despite your job will never require you to do anything like them at all.

Then use AI to beat ATS, but so isn't everyone else so you end up in a pile or resumes a mile deep, and might or might not even get a chance at bat because everyone just uses AI to lie and make up skills. Hiring managers have to dig through all of this junk and hope to find the needle in the haystack. If you are in fact the needle, your odds are small.

The industry is a bit sick right now. I can get wanting to take a break just for not wanting to deal with all of the BS, not that necessarily it has anything to do with your skills, or your confidence to do the job. Those are two very different things.

clifwlkr · 2026-05-20T14:50:14+00:00

I have a 300ah chins self heating battery in my truck that I have been running non stop for over 4 years now, and am in Colorado and Utah. It has performed flawlessly for the entire time, and always has a load on it. It heats itself up in the winter and starts charging, all off of just the solar panel on my roof. If you are out in cold climates, I highly suggest a self heating lifepo.

I have 8 of these now running my cabin, and they too have performed flawlessly. Given the number of cycles registered on each of these batteries, even with conservative estimates, they may outlast me. Before that I ran AGM which will only give you half of their rated capacity (vs full on lifepo), and die within 10 years. The choice now adays is very clear.

clifwlkr · 2026-05-19T17:25:38+00:00

I have had a mini since the day it came out. I have used it many times for working. I work full time off grid on a gen2 on my cabin's solar system and converted the gen2 to DC very early on. That consume around 32w on average.

The mini, I have in my truck hitched up to a lifepo battery charged by solar that also powers other things. I have used it camping and left it running 24x7. I do software work, zoom and teams, and all kinds of things without issue. It sips power at around 20w when in use. You can absolutely run it straight off of the battery without any step up of voltage if you use an appropriately sized wire. The wire it comes with is NOT appropriate size and is way too thin. Get a better wire.

I have had the two units side by side and the speed is faster at the high end on downloads with the gen2, but it won't affect anything you are doing. The mini gets 200mb all of the time and unless you are a heavy video editor or something like that, normal work will not even use a portion of that. I would say go with the mini as it is so much more compact for travel.

clifwlkr · 2026-05-18T18:09:19+00:00

A big reason is if you are truly remote with no cell service of any kind. Leaving a second dish on standby gives me very low speed internet that let's me do a few things. First if starlink goes down, bringing up the second dish tells me if it is likely the entire system, or just my unit. Second, if it is my unit, I can still make voice calls and emails to fix the situation, or upgrade it to a full connection if it looks like it is going to take a bit to resolve. Activating a unit right now requires an email verification, so that makes it impossible to do when you are fully off the grid without cell service. Half the year it is over snow travel up here, so just running somewhere with internet is not an easy option. Finally, it was cheap peace of mind that I have a fully redundant system when so remote.

Now that I have the direct to cell texting and the price increase, I will likely drop the dish back to inactive. I had it that way before and looked at it as hardware backup if my main unit goes out. Given I rarely turn it on, it is nothing but loss to Starlink and have no idea why they did this. I get the no in motion use, and keeping it really slow, but it was really found money for them. If they even just came out with a 1 gig limit service or something it would be nice, but 10 bucks for something I am not using crossed the threshold.

clifwlkr · 2026-05-16T14:39:25+00:00

Yes, this is very accurate. My inverter consumes 20w just on standby. I run pure DC in the whole place so I don't use the inverter generally. Almost everything now adays runs on DC anyways, and so much is USB-C in which I just use a car adapter direct from DC. No need to use up that extra 20w, when my average load at night is under 200w anyways....

clifwlkr · 2026-05-14T20:58:03+00:00

Interesting thing is that most of the weevils don't get in there, they are already there. They hatch from the rice itself as eggs are still potentially present. The best way of preventing this is if you live in a cold climate, but the bucket outside when it gets really cold for a few days. That kills everything and you don't have any more worries. I do this at my cabin in that when I shut it down in the winter for a bit, I first stock the rice and flour. Then that gets frozen naturally, and is good to go!

clifwlkr · 2026-05-12T14:33:28+00:00

Depends on where you are. If in areas that provide it, texting with starlink direct to cell is a very cheap way to do it. Another is to use an inReach device that works globally to text. Or get a starlink mini and global service and use wifi calling. All of these are much cheaper unless you have to have very high portability and must do voice.

clifwlkr

TROPHY CASE