Off grid with no mobile / wifi (cell service)

[Twiggy]

With festival season coming to an end - for off-grid food and drink truck vendors with limited budgets, what alternative strategies can be used to manage power consumption, food spoilage, and customer service when operating in remote locations without access to internet or cell (mobile) service?  I recently went to a festival and the generators used by 2 vendors were massive and probably out of reach budget wise for smaller traders.  Long life UHT milk is not an option. What procedures / practices do you offer that might help others? Ice? Perishables? 

We use battery powered lights and solar and have access to a generator - but this is noisy. Luckily flowers can be ambient in Northern Europe but in countries. What are your work around? 

[tranguyen]

LOVE this question and thanks for sharing your experience, @Twiggy! 

Tapping in the fountain of knowledge when it comes to food truck @Sam_400º. Also I saw you mention operating food trucks so would love to know how you deal with managing power consumption and food spoilage @CColotti @Ribeye74.

@VanKalkerFarms maybe you have observe good practices at markets you attened 👀?

[Candlestore]

@Twiggy ;

It all depends on how much power I need and also for how long.  I use a Square Stand version 1 so I do not usually need alot of power.  I have looked into portable candle wax melters for Wax Hands etc and they use a water heater elementand draw upto 1500w.  The biggest issue I have even at home is my lack of a cell signal.  There I got a HiBoost Cell signal booster for my house.  Now I did not some signal to be able to boost the signal.  The good thing is now my phone does not continually search for a cell tower and my dropped calls has stopped for the most part.  Now since this is at home I can still use Wifi calling and have the internet.  For me most of the areas I goto I do have cell signal and have not had to bring the Cell booster.

For power, I make sure my Ipad and cell phone is fully charged, get a few of my longer lasting batteries and an adapter for my dewalt batteries.  No generator noise to bother anyone.  I also have a 12v to 4000 watt inverter that can connect to a car battery if needed.

I have seen Ultra Quiet generators but have not purchased one since I never got the Hands of Wax making equipment that might require me getting an actual generator.  56 decibals for a 3500 watt 6 horsepower gas generator,  $600 Harbour Freight.

I use one of the adapters below that fit a 20v Battery for Dewalt.  I have one similar to the $43 one that has one outlet and 2 usb ports.  This works for the Version 1 White Square stands but heard it does not work for the Gen 2 stands with the Readers built in.  Needs more power I guess.  But these dewalt inverters can take 1 to 4 batteries depending how much power or length of time you need.  Since I also have these batteries for power equipment and for power tools I just take extras along to change if needed for now.  The USB ports are great as I have USB powered String Led lights to attrack attention or if it is getting late in the day.   The other thing I had for my trailer was an Inverter like the $119.99 one on the far right in the image.  That one connects to a 12v automotive battery and has a 4000 watt inverter that I have used in my cargo trailer for different things that need electricity.  The thing I did not realize is that when a buddy helped wire it up, he connected it to the trailer wiring, which connects to the tow vehicles battery also.  

These should give you ideas for what you can do when your on location selling off the grid. 

[Sam_400º]

I run fully 'off grid' in my pizza truck. 

I've got 450ah of batteries under the front seat that are charged when I drive and also via solar on the roof. 

Everything in there is designed to be power efficient - so the fridge is a Dometic one that can run in 45ºc temps, but at 12v and consumption (more importantly no spike when the compressor kicks in). The water and ventilation systems and lighting is all 12v and low power. 

The only thing that's more power hungry is a salad type toppings fringe but that's only on for a short amount of time. For this I've got an inverter, meaning I can also use an induction ring if needed or have also powered a 2kw hot chocolate machine! Although do need to plug the van in before we go out to make sure it's topped up - that's the only time it's ever charged off the mains. 

When it comes to needing to keep dough cool (not temperature controlled, just the 30º+ we've been seeing is too hot) I've used a camping air conditioning unit piped into the dough storage area. That keeps it all cool enough without paying for refrigeration systems for a huge area where they're only needed for a small part of the year. 

My internet connectivity comes from a 5g industrial modem that I can mast mount. I've never not got service with this - even when the phone systems can't get it. I did look at starlink but didn't want to give Musk any money and the clear line of sight to the sky can be an issue with a lot of locations I trade. 

[Bronze_Palms]

Love this. I have heard a lot about Starlink lately - curious if other off the grid business see success using this new method of connection.

[Bobbin]

we are off-grid but our location has no 4/5g and the wired internet is pretty bad. Also power outages are one of the regular occurrences in our semi remote location.

We have a few things we do when it comes to power and internet problems. 

Starlink is one of our big problem solvers. We have access to the new mini starlink that can run via 12V and has relatively low power consumption, under half of the bigger one (70W). 

Fridges/Freezers, we have a few campaign freezers and fridges running off 12V. Make sure you get Dometic compressors, they run on DC 12V no additional power conversion. And yes, we use 230V if we have power. 

For backup power we use a few Ecoflow Delta 2's. They provide 12V DC but also if needed 230V AC. The beauty is that you can plug in solar panels and if you outside on a sunny day, you can reduce your battery load. 

On our other normal fridges/freezer we use smart thermometer, liked to the internet via starlink.  I get a notification when the power is off, but internet it still running and I can monitor the temperature in my fridges. If it's a warm day, I can get in and fire up the generator if needed. 

[Sam_400º]

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@Bobbin wrote:

Make sure you get Dometic compressors, they run on DC 12V no additional power conversion.

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Dometic are the brand of the fridges, but all there stuff uses Danfoss (think I've spelt that right) compressors. 

They also make boat kits that are fantastic as I made a 'fridge' using one of the kits by insulating a cupboard.