Solarprod

Directive (off-grid)

A single plain-English sentence per day, summarising what you should do. Written so it can be pasted straight into a calendar reminder, sent in a message, or read from across the room. The directive’s tone follows the day’s severity: matter-of-fact for surplus / neutral days, concrete fallback advice for shortfall days.

The three flavours

Every day’s directive falls into one of three buckets:

  • Shortfall day — “On date, expected shortfall of X kWh (~Y% of normal use)…” followed by a fallback recommendation appropriate to your system type.
  • Headroom day — “On date, headroom of X kWh available above normal use…” followed by suggestions for opportunistic loads.
  • Neutral day — “On date, normal use covered with no surplus or shortfall.” No further action needed.

How the recommendation is picked

The simulator picks the recommendation based on the system type you selected in the form (off-grid home vs caravan / rv). The advice text differs to match the realistic fallbacks each setup has access to:

  • Off-grid home shortfall — fire the backup generator long enough to close the gap, or shift heavy appliances (oven, washing machine, water pump) to a surplus day.
  • Off-grid home surplus — good day for opportunistic loads — water heating, pumping, workshop tools, or charging spare battery banks.
  • Caravan / RV shortfall — reduce non-essential loads, charge battery with generator or move to a powered site.
  • Caravan / RV surplus — good day to top up devices and tools, run the air-con or fridge on its peak setting, or charge any portable batteries before moving on.

Using directives in your trip plan

The directives are designed to drop into a calendar app or shared trip-planning doc. A practical workflow:

  • Run the Week ahead forecast at the start of the week.
  • Copy each shortfall directive into your calendar on its date — that’s your reminder to either book a powered site, fuel the generator, or skip a non-essential load.
  • Copy headroom directives in too — those are opportunities to time-shift deferred chores (laundry, charging, tools) to days when the electricity is effectively free.
  • Re-run partway through the week as the forecast updates; the directives will flip to match new weather.

Closes this tab and returns to the calculator.