When living off the grid and therefore having to be responsible with the way you use the stored power means you need to think about some of the appliances that you use. For example, when we first moved to this lifestyle, we had a very big plasma TV. Whoops, bad bad choice. The power consumption was through the roof and was unusable because it would drain the batteries quicker than anything. We needed to buy TVs that we could use without having to start up the generator.

We did our research and found that Kogan TV's, were not only excellent power savers, but they were made in Australia and best of all they are so resonably priced. So we bought one. This was about 7 years ago and we still have that TV. But when we moved to our new property we decided we needed a couple of new TV's for the house. The original Kogan TV is in the Little House and now we have a larger 49" one in the lounge of the house and a 43" one in the ouside kitchen. Both the new ones fitted into our budget (which wasn't large);and are Smart TV's so we are keeping up with technology. We are loving them. And we totally recommend them.

The refrigerator is another appliance you need to think about when living off the grid. Obviously the fridge runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so it has to be as efficient, as enery wise as you can get. We opted for a large bar fridge in the Little House and the outside kitchen and 120 litre Fridge/freezer in the house. The house fridge isn't massive, but fits our needs perfectly. Remember when you live off the grid, you need to check the wattage of any appliance you buy. It needs to fit with your solar system because otherwise you will be running out of power.

Another appliance that you need to think about is the vacuum. The vacuum we brought with us when we first moved into our new life, was over 2000 watts and was unusable with the inverter. That means I couldn't use it and had to revert to sweeping the floor which was a drag. Moving down to the new property we bought a new vacuum which is only about 1800 watts. It's perfect. It certainly makes my life easier and doesn't affect the inverter or the batteries especially if you choose a sunny day to vacuum which means the batteries won't even be touched.

So remember if you want to live off the grid, with solar power, you need to think about how you use your available power. The fridge, TV and vacuum can be power hungry so check them out so that your life is easy.

Kerri
Visit Kogan Did you know that Kogan offers $10 for every referral that buys a product? If you open an account with them and buy a product then you could receive that $10 off your next purchase or save it up to buy something you want. What a great idea. But hey I would recommend the Kogan TV's anyway, whether or not I received the $10, lol..