On our off-grid modern homestead, a bright and sunny day is the best opportunity to bake and break bread. Our wood burning stove has no oven, we would not want to run it during the hot summer as well. The propane oven is not tall enough to bake a loaf of bread and the long cooking time would use too much propane. Enter the 3-Pound Loaf - Electronic Bread Machine.
On a full-sun day, the 960 watts of Solar Panels will fully top off the 800 amp hour battery bank of our cabin in about a hour and a half. When the battery bank is full, it's free electricity for the rest of the day - use it or lose it. During this time, we do laundry, pump water, charge USB and tool battery packs and devices, the little one likes to play minecraft on xbox, run the skim filter pump in the hot tub, run fans, and of course Bake Bread!
Bread Machines tend to bake very dense loafs. I like the dense loafs, I appreciate the extra energy in them.
With a clean towel over the loaf, we like the bread to cool and let moisture out for half a day or more. In the summer we found that if we didn't let it cool long enough, the bread in the bread container would be quick to start mold. Now we let it cool thoroughly and put half in the fridge.
My breakfast staple, I always have Toast or a bagel. Oatmeal if I have neither of the above :)
Have a great day!
Relevant Links to Previous Posts:
https://steemit.com/homesteading/@jackdub/my-solar-powered-cabin-setup
Its always good to read about what devices one can run on a solar setup. We're learning on the way with an 120W 12V panel and 220AH of battery storage, so your posts are of great intetest. Keep em coming!
Thanks, I'll do a post soon about minimizing power usage. That's a good size battery storage to work with. Does your solar panel have good sun exposure the whole year?
Yes, Ive positioned for the best averages and made it adjustable to some degree
This looks like a good process. I may have to try this :)
Rydhi
xox
The bread machine is straight forward to use.. You just put the wet and dry ingredients into the machine, close the lid and press start. It mixes, let's the loaf rise, then bakes. It makes a great pizza dough too. Thanks!
When we were living off grid in our barn I never thought of using our solar power with our bread machine. I'm sure it would have worked. we tried using an rv style refrigerator once but didn't have enough power to keep it going all night.
For the bread machine you would probably need atleast a 2000 watt inverter .. when the bake cycle kicks in, i'm guessing it's close to a 1800 watt draw for a short time while the heating elements all on .. I would recommend atleast 600 watts of solar panels and 400 amp hours of battery backup to support that .. that setup could work for a fridge too, but it would be harder if the fridge had to fight with a hot fireplace :) Thanks!
Thanks. Seems like we had the juice for the bread machine. Just not enough storage to keep a refridgerator going in the summer. Good to know!
Great ideas you have about how and when to maximize your use of solar power. I read about your tiny laundry appliances, just a minute ago. Totally perfect for a small place. Just run grey water onto plants. I would never have thought to get a bread making machine instead of using the oven. Very smart ideas. Thanks. 🐓🐓
That's one of the things I like most about living off-grid - firguring out ways to make daily tasks easier :) Thanks!
Yes, i believe all of pur efforts should make our life easier
Nice one! its great what you can do off grid and still get yer comforts! Cooking Pizza over rocket stove was a highlight of those times for me ;-) Nice to meet you! x
Good food is a huge creature comfort. Rocket Stoves are awesome, when I lit my first one I was amazed by how the draft drew the flames up .. Nice to meet you too :D