Making the most of my batteries and the load off grid

[velaguay]

Working an off grid system and I really need to know how to get around the batteries, lighting, and the little everyday power needs without overbuilding the whole thing. The lighting side is fairly straightforward because LEDs sip power and can run for hours but I feel like once I start adding small loads like charging tools, running a fan, or keeping a router alive, the demand will rise. Now, I'm running a modest battery bank paired with solar, and it does fine for lights and phone charging but the challenge is figuring out how to scale smartly without ending up with a pile of batteries that will end up sitting half full most of the time lol. I'm also trying to understand where it makes sense to keep things DC (direct wiring lights to 12/24V) or just accepting the losses of an inverter and going AC for convenience
Do you size your system around the peaks like when you need to run a small appliance or around the average daily draw and just work around the limits?

 

[BigGrizzly]

Most folks size for the daily average and then figure out how to handle the occasional peaks with either a small generator backup or by timing tool use when the sun's out. If you size only for peaks, you'll just have a fat battery bank sitting half full most of the year.