Yeah, I hear you—solar’s great for the little stuff, but when you’re trying to run power tools, it’s just not there yet unless you want to drop a small fortune. I’ve had a few projects stall out mid-demo because of outages, and honestly, it’s a pain. I usually keep a couple of those big portable battery packs around (the kind that’ll at least run a drill or charge up your phone), but even then, you’re not getting much runtime.
I do the same thing—shift gears and knock out whatever doesn’t need juice. Sometimes I’ll walk the property and make notes on things I’d otherwise overlook. It’s funny how those forced pauses can actually save you from missing details that cost more down the line. Still, nothing beats having backup power if you’re flipping or renovating on a tight schedule. Generators are noisy and not always practical in every neighborhood, but they’ve saved my butt more than once.
Solar’s getting better, but yeah... we’re not quite at “off-grid jobsite” levels yet unless you’re willing to go all-in. Maybe in another five years?
