.----------------------------------------------------------------------------. |::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::| |:- -:| |:- OFFGRID COMPUTING: -:| |:- -:| |:- -:| |:- --------- -:| |:- Hardware: -:| |:- --------- -:| |:- __________ ______________ -:| |:- |:""""""""i: | ............ : -:| |:- |: |: | : | : -:| |:- |: |: | : | : -:| |:- |:________!: | : | : -:| |:- | ..... :---_____---| :__________! : -:| |:- | '-----" : |..............: -:| |:- | @ :"-__-_ |"""""""""""""": -:| |:- |..........: _-" |..............: -:| |:- /.::::::::.\ /\ /.::::::::.:::.\ -:| |:- /____________\ (__) /________________\ -:| |:- -:| |:- When you generate your own power, you become much more aware of how -:| |:- much energy things use. When designing our off grid living systems, it -:| |:- became pretty clear to me that we would need to make some changes to -:| |:- our computing habits. For people who live on grid, a laptop that uses -:| |:- "only" 60 watts seems trivial. But when you are off grid, that laptop -:| |:- uses 60 watts PER HOUR. Meaning, that over a 24 hour period, that -:| |:- laptop would require 1440 watt hours. To put that into perspective, -:| |:- the largest battery "generators" (which arent generators at all, this -:| |:- is a made up marketing term) have around 1000 watt hours of storage, -:| |:- or 1kilowatt hour. Meaning, that to run a Macbook Pro for 24 hours, -:| |:- you would need one and a half of these just to power it. As most of -:| |:- these battery units run over $1000, you are looking at $2K just to -:| |:- power your laptop. And then you have to figure out how you are going -:| |:- to charge those batteries every day. -:| |:- -:| |:- Before we took the plunge and moved off grid, I went through an "old -:| |:- thinkpad" phase, as all self respecting nerds do. The pre 2012 -:| |:- Thinkpads were some of the most durable, repairable, and otherwise -:| |:- perfect laptops ever made. But the race for profit through cheaper -:| |:- manufacturing won out, and the quality degraded over time. I purchased -:| |:- a Thinkpad x200t off of Ebay for $70. This was before they became -:| |:- popular again and more expensive for a variety of reasons. Through -:| |:- experimentation, I noticed the x200t used less power than any other -:| |:- computer I owned. In fact, The x200t uses less power than a Raspberry -:| |:- Pi 4 when its coupled with the external monitor and keyboard required -:| |:- to use it. The x200 and the x200t use an average of 16-20 watts during -:| |:- normal use. This means for a 24 hour period of constant use, the -:| |:- thinkpad needs about 400 watt hours. Or less than 1/3 the power a -:| |:- Macbook Pro requires. This is doable in an offgrid situation. -:| |:- -:| |:- After all of the testing and experimentation I did, my personal -:| |:- conclusion is that the best single unit computers (meaning keyboard, -:| |:- screen, and hardware in one unit) for offgrid use are the Thinkpad -:| |:- x200 models, and the Pinebook Pro from Pine64. The Pinebook Pro is -:| |:- even better power wise, but it can be much more difficult to get ahold -:| |:- of these days than an older Thinkpad. -:| |:- -:| |:- --------- -:| |:- Software: -:| |:- --------- -:| |:- -:| |:- _________________ -:| |:- |# : : #| -:| |:- | : : | -:| |:- | : OpenBSD : | -:| |:- | : : | -:| |:- | :___________: | -:| |:- | _________ | -:| |:- | | __ | | -:| |:- | || | | | -:| |:- \____||__|_____|__| -:| |:- -:| |:- -:| |:- Why bring up software choices in a post about living off grid? Because -:| |:- I've never encountered someone who does the work to live off grid, who -:| |:- does not have at least some inherent resistance to being controled by -:| |:- governments and corporations. Most of the people Ive met who live this -:| |:- way have a string desire to make their own decisions, and take charge -:| |:- of their own lives. And with this increased autonomy comes increased -:| |:- responsibility. There is no power company to call, or plumber to -:| |:- hire. You are responsible for all of it. And those who do well in an -:| |:- offgrid lifestyle, thrive in this kind of environment. You have to be -:| |:- a jack (or jill) of all trades. -:| |:- -:| |:- This being the case, having a computer that you can repair and control -:| |:- is important and inline with this lifestyle. For this reason I choose -:| |:- Libre or open source operating systems. -:| |:- -:| |:- Before moving offgrid, I used Void Linux as my primary operating -:| |:- system. Void is a rolling release operating system, meaning updates -:| |:- happen in chunks continually so that there is never a "version -:| |:- upgrade" event. Once its installed, especially if you keep it minimal, -:| |:- you are set for years. But now that we are living offgrid, our -:| |:- internet is not the wide open unlimited pipe that ongrid people -:| |:- enjoy. We have to pay for gigabites of mobile data. So I needed a -:| |:- different solution to downloading software every day. So I switched to -:| |:- OpenBSD. As this is not a post about OpenBSD, I wont go on and on -:| |:- about how great it is. (It is). Ill just say that OpenBSD is very -:| |:- stable, reliable, and secure. Updates occur every 6 months, and are -:| |:- trivial to install. And interesting sidenote... every major operating -:| |:- system in the world uses code from the OpenBSD project. Windows, -:| |:- MacOS, GNU/Linux, Android, and iOS, all use as least some code from -:| |:- solutions created by OpenBSD. -:| |:- -:| |:- In addition to this primary laptop, I also like to experiment with -:| |:- 9Front, which is a fork of the Plan 9 operating system from Bell -:| |:- Labs. I have a spare hard drive with 9Front installed, which I swap -:| |:- out in the Thinkpad from time to time, as well as a Rasberry Pi which -:| |:- runs 9Front. Between these two operating systems, there isnt much I -:| |:- cant do. -:| |:- -:| |:- ------- -:| |:- Server: -:| |:- ------- -:| |:- ________________________ ________________________ -:| |:- |\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ | |\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ | -:| |:- |''''''''''''''''''''''''| |''''''''''''''''''''''''| -:| |:- | HOLLY IQ 6000 - o | | HOLLY IQ 6000 - o | -:| |:- !________________________!\_/!________________________! -:| |:- -:| |:- Because I want to be able to run my own web services, I run two -:| |:- external servers. One is a standard Linux server which runs my -:| |:- Fediverse instance, my email server, my xmpp server, my Searx -:| |:- instance, and other various services. The other is an OpenBSD server -:| |:- through OpenBSD Amsterdam. I love the simplified logic of serving web -:| |:- content through OpenBSD. As well as the security first ethos. OpenBSD -:| |:- currently runs my gemini capsule and my gopher server. I am working on -:| |:- moving everything over to OpenBSD, one service at a time. Though -:| |:- lately, the garden is taking top priority. -:| |:- -:| |:- I have a dream of eventually running everything off of a single board -:| |:- computer on site, with its own solar input and backup battery. This is -:| |:- not terribly difficult to do. The one difficulty is having an open -:| |:- port to serve the content when you are using mobile data. I have not -:| |:- found a way to do this yet. I am researching whether or not this is -:| |:- possible with Starlink. If it is, I many go that route. Not to mention -:| |:- enjoy the added benefit of still having internet access in the event -:| |:- of a complete grid outage with Starlink. -:| |:- -:| |:- -:| |:- . . . . . . . -:| |:- . . . . . ______ -:| |:- . . . //////// -:| |:- . . ________ . . ///////// . . -:| |:- . |.____. /\ .///////// . -:| |:- . .// \/ |\ ///////// -:| |:- . . .// \ | \ ///////// . . . -:| |:- ||. . .| | ///////// . . -:| |:- . . || | |//`,///// . -:| |:- . \\ ./ // / \/ . -:| |:- . \\.___./ //\` ' ,_\ . . -:| |:- . . \ //////\ , / \ . . -:| |:- . ///////// \| ' | . -:| |:- . . ///////// . \ _ / . -:| |:- ///////// . -:| |:- . .///////// . . -:| |:- . -------- . .. . -:| |:- . . . . . -:| |:- ________________________ -:| |:- ____________------------ -------------_________ -:| |:- -:| |::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::| '----------------------------------------------------------------------------'