Real-world off-grid power and external solar options
Hey everyone, I’m trying to get a realistic sense of off-grid performance with the Pebble Flow and wanted to hear from people actually using it.
I recently watched this video where they broke down energy usage into two scenarios:
Idle/base usage: about 300W (around 7.2 kWh per day), which works out to roughly 6 to 7 days on battery.
Typical usage with heat pump, cooking, computers: about 1,350W (around 32.5 kWh per day), which looks like about 1.3 to 1.5 days.
That lines up with what I’d expect on paper, but I’m curious what people are seeing in the real world, especially with solar helping.
A few questions for anyone with experience:
- How long are you actually able to stay off-grid using just the built-in solar?
- What kind of daily usage are you running (lighter vs. heavier, like HVAC and cooking)?
- Roughly how much energy per day do you feel like solar is offsetting?
- Is anyone supplementing with portable or foldable solar panels? If so, how much wattage and how much does it help?
- Is anyone using a generator as backup, or have you been able to avoid that?
- Can the Pebble accept external solar directly, like MC4 input, or is expansion limited to the built-in system?
- If you are running external panels, how are you integrating them?
I’m planning to stay mostly at RV parks for now, but want to understand what’s realistic if I start boondocking more.
Good questions. Answer: it depends.
Solar production depends upon season, latitude, and weather. Energy usage depends upon ambient temperature, cooking style, showering, and entertainment. The Pebble is well insulated for a travel trailer.
Thus far, having our Pebble since 11/25, the highest instantaneous production I have seen has been 750W. Edit: I saw close to 900W yesterday. Spring is here!
Summer will be better. We live at high elevation in the mid-latitudes. Our travels thus far, about 2,400 miles in fall and winter, have combined stops in RV parks with interspersed boondocking. A night in an RV park fully charges both the Pebble and our EV pickup. Of course, both can be charged at a commercial DC fast charger. We’ve boondocked in 25°F, with little sun, and I wouldn’t expect being comfortable in the Pebble for more than 1–2 days in those conditions.
Staying off-grid requires conscious conservation of energy and water. My wife and I explored Alaska in the summer remaining off-grid for up to 7 days in an Airstream with only 700W of rooftop solar and 6 kW of battery storage. Black water tankage was generally our limitation. I expect similar with our Pebble, as we’ll use electricity instead of propane for cooking, heating, and hot water.
The Pebble has no connections for external solar. In appropriate situations, I could use an EcoFlow Delta 3 Max with two 220W portable panels to add energy via the Pebble charger with a 120V adapter. I can also transfer energy from my EV pickup at Level 1 rates. Neither is fast, but might be worthwhile during a multi-day stay off-grid. I do not use a gasoline generator.