Temporary accommodation, with a considerable amount of desert around it.
A mattress becomes a bed. A folding chair acquires a cushion. Before long, the temporary home has plumbing, solar panels and an electrical system capable of supporting a minor principality.
My travel trailer is supposed to provide somewhere to live while I build on the land near Terlingua. I expect to use it for three or four months each winter, when the desert is less committed to killing me, over perhaps three years of construction.
That is temporary.
Admittedly, it is temporary in the same way that some roadworks are temporary. I-35, anyone? Everyone involved begins with good intentions, but nobody should make firm plans around the completion date.
The trailer already has everything required for an occasional weekend away. It has lights, a water pump and the usual collection of appliances intended to make sleeping in a metal box feel more civilized. I have also bought a generator to help run the air conditioning when the temperature makes opening a window an act of optimism.
What it does not have is an electrical system designed for several months of off-grid living.
My original plan was to give it one.
Solving the wrong problem
I began looking at batteries, inverters, solar controllers and the various other components required to convert the trailer into a proper off-grid home.
The idea was straightforward. Install enough battery capacity to run the lights, refrigerator, water pump, fans and electronics. Add solar panels to recharge it during the day. Keep the generator for heavier loads, particularly the air conditioning, and reduce the amount of fuel needed for everything else.
It was a sensible plan.
Then I began adding up the cost.
By the time I included the batteries, inverter, solar equipment, wiring and installation, the proposed trailer system cost approximately the same as an electrical system that could eventually be used in the finished building.
This presented a problem.
The trailer is temporary accommodation. Spending that amount of money on a permanent installation would make it extremely capable during the build, but much less useful once the build was finished. I would have solved the trailer's electrical problem extremely well, then parked the solution outside the building that actually needed it.
There comes a point when improving temporary accommodation stops being preparation and becomes a reluctance to move out.
I could remove parts of the system later, although permanent electrical installations rarely embrace being dismantled. Cables would have been routed, equipment mounted and panels attached to the roof. Moving everything into the building would involve undoing work I had already paid to have done.
The alternative was to leave it all in the trailer and buy another system for the house.
Neither option felt particularly elegant.
I needed the electrical equivalent of a suitcase.
Power that can move
Instead of installing a permanent system, I have started looking at a portable power station that can move with the project.
The current favorite is the Bluetti Elite 300. Despite the name, it stores roughly 3 kWh of energy and provides 2.4 kW of continuous output. That should be enough to run the trailer's everyday electrical systems and many of the tools required during construction, although not necessarily every appliance at once. Electricity remains stubbornly resistant to enthusiasm.
The attraction is its portability.
While I am living in the trailer, the unit can power the refrigerator, lights, water pump, fans, laptop and smaller appliances. During the day, I can disconnect it and move it to the jobsite to run tools or provide lighting. If power is needed somewhere else on the land, it can go there too.
It could also come along on weekend trips, which gives it a purpose during the months when I am not building. An expensive battery permanently installed in a trailer spends most of its life waiting beside the land. A portable one can continue being useful somewhere else.
That distinction matters when both approaches cost roughly the same.
The Bluetti also appears particularly well suited to a trailer because it includes a dedicated RV connection and a 12-volt, 30-amp output. Much of a trailer already operates on 12-volt DC power, including the lights, pump and refrigerator controls. Supplying that power directly is simpler than repeatedly converting electricity between DC and AC for no reason beyond giving the electrons some exercise.
It can be charged from solar panels and, with additional equipment, from the truck while driving. That creates several ways to recover power without relying entirely on the generator. Solar can do most of the work when conditions allow, while the truck and generator provide alternatives when the weather or my electricity use becomes less cooperative.
Terlingua supplies plenty of sun.
It also supplies dust, heat and long distances between convenient solutions, so redundancy is useful. A generator can run the air conditioning and recharge the system when necessary. The battery can handle quieter everyday loads without requiring an engine to run whenever I want to turn on a light.
At least, that is the theory.
Off-grid planning involves a surprising amount of confidence in sentences ending with "...in theory."
Following the build
The longer-term plan remains deliberately flexible.
Once the building is finished, the power station could move inside and continue as its main electrical supply. If my needs outgrow it, I could add a larger system and keep the portable unit as backup. It might also continue moving between the house, truck and campsite as required.
I do not yet know how much power the finished building will consume. Its final requirements will depend on the appliances, cooling and how successfully I learn to distinguish between things I need and things that contain an attractive illuminated button.
Buying a portable system allows me to postpone that decision without buying something disposable.
It also means I have not bought the Bluetti yet.
The plan is to wait until I am closer to starting the build. This avoids having an expensive power station sitting unused and gives me time to see whether the model remains the best option.
It also gives A Brit Wild time to acquire enough subscribers for Bluetti to notice that it exists and offer to provide one.
At present, Bluetti has not sponsored this project, supplied any equipment or shown any evidence that it knows who I am.
Every commercial partnership has to begin somewhere.
In the meantime, the portable approach seems to solve the immediate problem without committing the equipment to a single stage of the project. It can power the trailer while I live there, support the construction work and eventually move into the building it helped create.
The travel trailer can then return to being a travel trailer.
Unless the build takes longer than expected.
In which case, I may have accidentally founded the principality after all.
Have fun. Go wild.
Jack
