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nunobrito06/16/20252 repliesview on HN

Maybe for professional communications. For cases where the grid is gone, you will quickly see how quickly you stop using electricity for luxuries such as that one.

At most you will be able to charge smartphones and small devices with solar panels. Keeping a larger Wi-Fi router running only on solar? Very seldom.


Replies

stevenhuang06/16/2025

A mid range router uses about 10W or about a dollar a month.

It will not be a problem at all to power it completely on a small 100W panel.

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nicolaslem06/16/2025

The price of solar panels and batteries keeps falling. You can go an Amazon today and get a setup that can power a switch/router/AP 24/7 in winter for a few hundred dollars.

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