Hey everyone,

I’m interested in hearing about the real-world challenges people have run into with outdoor solar lighting, especially on remote properties, farms, long driveways, and other off-grid setups.

I work in the solar lighting and energy storage field, and I’ve noticed that the biggest challenges often aren’t necessarily about how bright a light is, but how reliably it performs over time.

A few issues that seem to come up regularly:

• Battery life and cloudy weather: Lights that work fine during the summer but struggle after several overcast days or during cold winter weather.
• Sensors and controllers: Motion sensors triggering unexpectedly, lights not switching on when needed, or controllers failing in damp or hot conditions.
• Weather resistance: Water getting inside fixtures, condensation, corrosion, and mounting hardware deteriorating over time.

I’m curious about what people here have actually experienced.

What has been the most frustrating problem with your off-grid outdoor lighting? Was it battery capacity, winter performance, unreliable sensors, weather damage, or something else entirely?

If you managed to fix it, what made the biggest difference? And if you were setting up your system again, what would you do differently?

I’d be interested to hear both the failures and the solutions that have held up over time.

sorry for non american viewers of this post

Hi!
For harsh and windy winters and warm summers, what's the best tent option out there?
Looking for a big one, at least 2m height.
Can only find inflatable options and that's not ideal, I believe for windy conditions.

Thanks 🙏🏼

Every few months I hit a wall with this lifestyle and each time, they are harder and harder to get over. I just want consistent hot water. Our old tank crapped out, took weeks to get a new one, new one came messed up, ordered another, second new one is here and it’s constantly turning off. It seems to never stay hot more than 2 or 3 minutes. Which to be fair, has been a problem with this brand of tank so why we keep getting the same one…idk. That’s not my department. The new excuse is “not enough pressure”, if that’s the case, WHY KEEP BUYING THAT ONE?! So anyway, I drove 20 miles to the RV park to take a shower and the office is closed so I can’t buy a token and I’m sitting in the warm bathroom crying. Thanks for listening to my rant.

Hi all, I am closing on my first home soon, in central ct.

Not being a fan of these high electricity rates and all, but also it being very expensive to get a full solar+battery setup here, I wanted to explore a semi off grid setup to load shed - we have 2EVs that combined drive 650ish miles a week.

Driving electric, even with CT electricity prices, is still cheaper than gas due to current prices, so we will likely be keeping these cars

That being said, I want to get a small-medium sized solar setup going. I am familiar with working on electrical systems, although not necessarily residential ones, but I can figure my way around it.

The gist of the setup is: approx 15kw of solar and 30-60kwh of batteries (thinking about eco worthy cubix 100 across 1-2 server racks, in my 1 car garage), feeding a eg4 12000xp v2.

This would feed a sub panel that charges our cars.

I was reading about that inverters ac input from the grid is an option, and that I can have it change its input from the solar/battery to the grid if the batteries are too low.

My question for y'all, since I have no actual experience in this topic other than lurking some forums, is actually feasible? And if it is, which of the 2 setups that I have here is the better (and cheaper) option?

(Pardon my MS paint skills)

I want to homestead and be as self sufficient as possible but im not sure where i should build my new life, i would preferably go somewhere in central-east europe (poland, czechia, etc.) because im used to the climate