Drillimation Solar Panel Project: Most Important Studio Rooms are Now Backed by Battery, But Not All

This will probably be my final post relating to the Drillimation Solar Panel Project. I’m not sure about any future upgrades in 2025, but there have been a number of loose ends I want to tie up. As of now, the battery backup has been set up and running, but only to specific rooms throughout the Drillimation studio.

In an example scenario, I would be writing code for a Drillimation Danmaku Universe project late at night when suddenly a staff member comes in saying the bathroom light isn’t working despite everything else in the studio having electricity. This concern would be the light bulbs in the bathroom not functioning properly and had shown their age. I would then have to go downstairs to the basement and inspect the circuit breaker box and ensure nothing is tripped. It wouldn’t be until I look outside and realize what the heck was going on. That’s when I’d learn the grid was down.

The rest of the neighborhood would be completely dark and my neighbors would be walking down the street with their flashlights, and when they’d see my lights on, they would question why I have electricity when the rest of the neighborhood doesn’t. Ever since the installation of the battery backup, the studio has been running off-grid with the help of solar panels to keep it afloat. The only things the battery backup does not power are the restrooms and master bedroom. This is what would happen if a real power outage happened at any time of the day. It can have varying causes, usually as a result of severe weather, scheduled maintenance, or horrendous heat that overloads the grid and causes transformers to fail, etc. This can even happen if the temperature is like 30 degrees Celsius in the summer or -10 degrees Celsius in the winter.

Before the battery backup was installed, the solar panels were grid-tied. Even if the grid is down, the panels become useless because they are not designed to function during power outages. And good luck trying to survive an entire heat wave in that while temperatures are above 40 degrees Celsius. There’s a reason for this. If you install solar panels, the power is sent into the grid during the day and the electricity is pulled from the grid at night. Trying to sustain the grid through this method can be a challenge.

Being a game developer is stressful as electricity is mandatory for it all. I also have to work a lot of long hours on these projects in solitude, and production is disrupted when the grid goes down.