Are there portable wind turbines and/or solar panels I can put up in my very bright dusty back yard?
You probably can’t get anything that properly powers your house because that would need to connect to the grid, but there are small solar arrays you can get for stuff like camping or boats which could probably power some devices. Might have to be via a battery as I suspect the output is variable.
So a camping set up moving to a battery that I can charge smaller things like phones off of?
Check out “solar generators”. They take input power from something variable like a solar panel, recharge their internal battery, and then provide lots of different outlets to power or recharge various devices. So, mostly “just” a battery, but very well set up for exactly this kind of thing.
I’ve been really happy with our electric Makita products. When our propane generator kicks it (and I’m pretty sure I can keep that thing running for the next thirty, but I want a solar generator sooner) I want a Makita solar generator
You can have a switch such that you use “Shore Power” / the grid when your batteries are low and your batteries when they are full.
For anyone interested: I absolutely do not recommend as a DIY project, hire an electrician. You will kill yourself by stopping your heart or burn your house down. Or both. At the same time.
I’ve heard this described as an island switch (making your home an island, cut off from the rest of the grid). I don’t think it’s appropriate for renting though, you’d surely need to make permanent alterations to the house’s electrical circuits.
You don’t want to install anything permanent since you’ll have to remove them when you move out. You can get portable solar panels + those big Anker portable batteries that can run full sized appliances. But a more meaningful way to help the environmenf is to do composting. Up to 80% of the weight of your household waste is compostable material. Simply composting them drastically reduces the amount of waste from your house to the landfill. Plus no more smelly watery garbage bags and now you can plant veges.
Am a renter. Recently got two solar panels installed, maxing out at about 600 watts. It’s called a balcony power plant and you essentially just plug it into an ordinary outlet.
Seconded, same here, though if OP lives in the US chances are that’s illegal.
However, OP, it’s still worth a try imho if you have a way of doing it semi-stealthily. I got four used 220Wp panels, a used DC to ac converter and then plugged that right into an outlet. Now when the sun shines, we generate between 2-4kWh per day, which is usually used right up by appliances and chargers. We figure we’ll break even in 3-4 years, but that’s a bit skewed because of high electricity prices here on Germany and the low upfront costs of getting everything used and then installing it on our slanted sunroom roof conveniently facing southwest
The line workers would not be aware of power coming from the load side and therefore may accidentally work on a live line and die.
Most rooftop solar that plugs into the grid is set up to switch off if power goes out for this reason.
This is mostly and educated (from a solar class years ago) guess.
Depending on where you live, yes. We have a setup of 4 panels placed in the backyard connected to an inverter and some batteries. It’s technically temporary so legal where we are, basically a large solar charged battery bank.
Check with your power company if they offer options for electricity from renewable sources
This, I have to pay a small extra fee to my utility but in return they must buy 100% of the energy I use from wind. It’s not the most impactful arraignment, but it’s a small way I can encourage my utility to invest in wind.
Some have community solar too that you can “buy” panels and in return the energy they produce is deducted from your bill, minus a fee for them to host and maintain the equipment of course.
