Solar panels, batteries, offgrid living and my brain

 OK this is a post to help me consolidate my thoughts.  I have many different competing priorities and guidelines and many different directions to go.

Goals

• Spend least amount of money possible
• acquire hardware that is reliable and won't cause issues or need replacing
• Provide power while camping off grid to charge phones, batteries for lights, and run CPAP at night
• Provide power to the house without the need for a generator in the occurrence of power outage at my house.
• This includes necessities like
• Freezer
• Fridge
• Network Equipment
• CPAP
• Lights
• heating or cooling
• And nice to haves like
• Computer
• TV
• Cable Box

The pieces of the puzzle I'm currently evaluating

• Battery for power storage
• Solar panels for power generation
• Charge controller to optimize power genration and power storage
• Inverter to turn DC power into AC power so things that can't run on DC can function
• Primarily appliances like 
• stove
• fridge
• freezer

Things already in place

• A solar array consisting of 17 panels combined with an inverter to power my house, it is configured with a grid interconnect allowing me to supplement my household usage with solar power meaning most of my "electricity bill" is in the form of a lease fee to Sunnova
• A 2nd solar array consisting of 13 panels each with a micro-inverter to supplement the first system
• A slightly damaged Group 27 lead-acid deep cycle RV battery bought at Costco a few years ago
• A super cheap (but still over $100) pure sine wave inverter purchased from amazon a few years ago       
• A roadside emergency jumper/inflate pump with some sized battery in it that is several years old
• A lithium ion 18650 array of batteries with battery balance board that provides in the ballpark of 14AH at 12V
• 3 Separate UPS units providing short term power for my computer, my sons' computers and one of the printers that complains the most about losing power.
• A UPS unit in the networking cabinet that provides power to the core switch and router as well as a couple of switches in the house powered via POE, it provides about 15 minutes of power.
• A plug in hybrid car that has a 17KWH battery pack in it accessible at 12V through the engine battery
• A very loud generator that will run for around 9 hours on a gallon-ish of unleaded fuel, but needs to be outside because of noise and pollution and is not wired into the house at all.

The PV system on the house does not include any sort of batteries so it is of no help in this scenario. The car only helps if I get a good enough inverter.  The current inverter won't run the fridge, but will run my computer, or a fan as long as the battery has power in it of course.

Other considerations

• CPAP uses about 1 amp hour ever hour so I need an amp hour of battery for every hour of sleep I want, and since most batteries can't actually be drained to empty I really need 2 amp hours so as to only ever use 50%.
• other things that aren't coming to the right now

We are scheduled to go camping this weekend so I need a solution by Wed. night.

If I change nothing what will happen is likely this

    I'll take all the existing batteries and the group 27 battery will last a night, hopefully and the Lithium Ion battery will last a night, perhaps 2.  I will have no way to charge those batteries without solar, and the generator would be noisy and stinky.  We will also use the battery to inflate our air mattress which shouldn't be a lot of power but is at least 1 more thing to be aware of.  If I end up working on a project up there I will need power for power tools like saw, drill and maybe vacuum cleaner?

But projects done during the day could be adequately provided for by the generator and any cordless tools could be charged on that.

I could potentially buy a bigger battery but it is still a finite resource.  I really like the idea of a solar panel set keeping it topped off day by day, but that gets super complicated, with multiple choices around wattage, company, portability, how much do you allow for future expansion and I'm done struggling with it, I'm ready to just say "the heck with it, it'll be what it'll be and we'll deal"

*heavy sigh*

Cleanliness and laziness

 So the house is empty of people except myself.  This is the new norm, M,W,F my boys go to the YMCA summer camp and my wife works from the office.  There is still no word on when I need to start working in the office again.  To be fully transparent, this doesn't bother me.

So I walk through the house devoid of any human life but my own and I see all the things that are "out of place".  This gets me thinking.  Well actually I'm always thinking, this starts me down a particular path of thought.

What's /your/ threshold?  At what point do you pick up the roll of tape on the garage floor that fell there a week ago? At what point do you wipe all the stuff off your desk top and try and find a home for all the things that have collected there over the last few months?  Is it when you have time? Is it when your mother-in-law is coming over?  Is it when the carpet cleaner is coming over?

In the last year I've studied (meaning I've read some articles or blog posts and watched some TedX talks) ADHD and procrastination.  I see some of those traits in myself and I'm striving for balance.  The part of me that wants everything to have a place and everything to be in that place, the part of me that wants complete and total order, struggles with the part of me that doesn't wish to devote every waking minute to the task of creating and maintaining that order. My father once admitted to me that he wished my mother was a more aggressive (my words not his) house keeper. At whatever stage of my life this was, it caught me off-guard I had always assumed, based on nothing at all, that it was my mother who defined the level of cleanliness at which the house was kept. Maybe because my mother was tasked with caring for my brother and me during the day. ("Brother and me" feels wrong but it wouldn't' make sense for mom to be raising I)

I was talking with a friend about a camping trip my family recently enjoyed.  We discussed how it was so much better than a stay-cation because we didn't have the constant reminders of things that needed doing, or might be a good idea to do, or would be nice if it got done.

So back to walking thought my house.  On my desk, the desk at which I work, Play, Research, and otherwise use my computer, there are toys, wires, battery chargers, Amiibos, papers, tools, speakers, parts of projects, stuffed animals and plushies, some cleaners, and a whole variety of writing implements. On the floor of my Den/Office there are various children's toys, papers, boxes, some more tools, and some clothes I swear I've asked my children to pick up at least 10 times.  In the Hallway there is almost nothing amazingly enough, but the living room floor has Legos, Nerf blasters, packaging from birthday presents, and a cat or 2.  

When I was a boy I struggled with the task of putting away left over food into storage containers. I had great anxiety over choosing the wrong sized container and having it be either too big and thus take up too much space in the fridge, or too small and thus create more dishes. I look back on that time of my life with longing, a time when the biggest problem I had was taking up too much space in the fridge or making more dishes, seriously that would be so nice right now.

My sons both HATE putting away dishes, but for different reasons.  One son doesn't wont to do it because it takes time away from whatever impulse he wants to follow at that moment.  The other is anxious about in which drawer to put the various utensils.

Does this mean I need to define more clear structure for at least one of them?  Does he not do what he's told because he is unsure the best way to do it and therefore is afraid to do it at all? I can certainly identify with that problem.

I have, for a few years now, identified myself as someone who has a low threshold for discomfort. I spent a significant amount of time and money trying to solve problems that aren't problems, that most people would just keep on handling in their current state. But then I get stuck in analysis-paralysis where I try and figure out the very best way to do something and I can't ever abort and accept "good-enough" so I end up making things worse, at least for a little while.

I have a nearly permanent sense that there is something else I should be doing, some way I should be doing things better, some activity that would be a better use of my time, that something I'm forgetting will come back to haunt me. This has happened, not nearly as much as I'm afraid it would but enough to reinforce this state.  One year I didn't pay for the car registration until I got the 2nd notification that I had failed to pay it and I would be charged a late fee. I have this belief that I used to be better than this, I have vivid memories of paying bills immediately and filing them in a filing cabinet in hanging folders. I haven't done that for a few years now. And I'm not sleeping enough, so where is all my time going? Obviously I'm doing /something/ so what?

Why is the den a mess? Why doesn't the Teensy Grove breakout board not have a completed case? Why is the hot water line still flopping around on the wall in the garage? Why can't I use my workbench to work on? Why is the Softtub sitting empty in the back-yard with an unidentified leak? Why does the Winter Soldier, Wandavision, Season 3 of Castlevania, and Every other show I've been told I /must/ watch remain unwatched? Why does Final Fantasy XV and Final Fantasy XII remain un played? Why do the Molex pint remain uncrimped to test the function of the DC power supply I received? (this list goes on quite a ways but I think you get the point)

Why indeed. I know that an amazing amount of my time lately has been sunk into playing Minecraft.  Also there's the whole working 9 hours a day thing. Plus helping the church do its livestream on Sunday and Practice on Wed.  But that does not account for everything does it? Well, no, there's also parenting the children, spending time with my wife, cleaning up some, if not all, of the messes, laundry, dishes, shopping, swimming with the boys in the backyard, spending time with friends. Do I have too much to do in the time I have? Do I not balance my time properly?(well obviously not 100% or else there would be much less Minecraft) So who out there has this figured out? Who can tell me the way to live my life? God that's who, but I'm selfish, I still WANT to do the Minecraft and the TV watching, and the video game playing, I don't want to give up, apparently not even a little bit.

So am I being lazy leaving my house as it is? The house isn't dirty, it's just cluttered, I can find most of the things I need when I need them, and it's not MUCH of an obstacle course.

Time to take a step back and re-evaluate priorities.  Make a plan and stick with it. Isn't that what they say is the key to success?

That and prayer, lots and lots of prayer, would you pray for me? I'm feeling that I'm out of my depth here.