Off-grid, RV & cabin
Enter your equipment, watts, and daily hours. See your communication setup's real daily load, and how it compares to lighter alternatives.
How it works A second sizing method is worth the check. The solar panel calculator in our System Sizing section can help you confirm the panel count from your daily load.
Step 1
Five common setups are pre-loaded, or enter your specific equipment's actual draw.
Step 2
Always-on equipment uses 24 hours, but powering down overnight cuts the daily total meaningfully.
Step 3
Compare your setup against Starlink and a basic cell booster combo to see where you land.
A Starlink dish and router running continuously at roughly 100 watts adds about 2,400Wh a day, more than triple the load of a basic cell signal booster and router setup at around 720Wh a day. This makes Starlink one of the single heaviest continuous loads in many off-grid systems, often rivaling or exceeding a refrigerator's daily contribution. You can check the knock-on effects with the federal ITC calculator.
Running Starlink 12 hours a day instead of 24 roughly halves its daily contribution, a meaningful reduction for anyone whose internet needs are mostly during waking hours. Some off-grid users schedule the dish to power down overnight through a smart plug or built-in scheduling feature, trading always-on connectivity for a significantly smaller daily energy footprint.
A cell signal booster combined with a standard router draws roughly 30 watts continuously, a fraction of Starlink's draw, but it only works where a usable cell signal already reaches the property to boost in the first place. For properties with weak but present cell coverage, this combination delivers meaningfully lower power draw than satellite internet for a comparable connectivity outcome. The FCC's consumer guide to broadband options is a useful reference for weighing satellite against other connectivity types available in your area.
Communication equipment, especially satellite internet, can represent a fifth or more of a modest off-grid system's total daily load, a share large enough to change sizing decisions elsewhere in the system. Isolating this figure rather than burying it inside a general electronics estimate helps decide whether to oversize the solar array, schedule downtime, or choose a lighter-draw alternative from the start. the Department of Energy's Energy Saver guide covers the general method behind isolating individual loads like this one.
Treat this as one more line in the total load list you keep for the whole setup, and use the satellite internet power load tool for a deeper look at Starlink-specific sizing. The quick inverter size estimator in our inverters and equipment tools is a fast way to check whether your existing inverter can absorb this extra continuous load, and the federal ITC calculator in our rebates and incentives tools is worth checking if this load pushes your system size, and therefore cost, meaningfully higher.
Questions
A Starlink dish and router running continuously at roughly 100 watts adds about 2,400Wh a day, more than triple the load of a basic cell signal booster and router setup at around 720Wh a day. This makes Starlink one of the single heaviest continuous loads in many off-grid systems.
Yes, and it's one of the most effective ways to cut this load. Running Starlink 12 hours a day instead of 24 roughly halves its daily contribution, though this means no internet access during the hours it's powered down.
Yes, where cell coverage reaches the property at all. A cell booster combined with a standard router draws roughly 30 watts continuously, a fraction of Starlink's draw, but it only works if there's a usable cell signal nearby to boost in the first place.
If reliable internet or communication is a priority, yes, since equipment like Starlink can represent a fifth or more of a modest off-grid system's total daily load. Isolating this figure helps decide whether to oversize the system, schedule downtime, or choose a lighter-draw alternative.