Off the Grid Frustrations

Hm that's weird. Do you have a stove or shower or toilet? You can turn the utilities off on those and it makes a huge difference. My sim lives off the grid too with +- the same setup + 2 dew collectors and can always watch television or play a game for a good while in the evening before the power goes out. But I need to turn off the utilities on all items that have the option to turn them off when I'm not using them (which aren't that many, the TV and console don't have this option for example). I also figured out that darts use energy (because of the little lights), so do make sure to double check such items - dunno how many your sims has :)

You can also get some bugs and harvest their fuel, then upgrade your television to run on fuel instead of electricity, so you can use that (or bits). Maybe that works for the computer too?

If none of this works it might be a bug :/

I do have a stove, but it's supposed to be one of the off the grid types, same for the toilet, shower & tub. I see the option to turn off utility usage for the plumbing items, but not for the stove. I'll turn it off for those and see if it helps. I have just one dew collector, but I have my sim gather water at least once or twice a day. I'll have her get a bug farm too, I didn't realize their fuel helps with the eco-friendly stuff, I thought it was for just the generators. Thanks!

Did it help? I have a feeling it does help, but I'm not 100% sure about the water/electricity details either yet, but like you I kept running out of my surplus while having selected off-the-grid plumbing stuff, and this seemed to make it better.

And yes, the fuel thing is really cool! You need a few upgrade parts to upgrade your electronic device to run on fuel, but then you can just collect fuel from crickets or use 2 pieces to fuel it up, and you never have to worry about running out of energy again lol. It's very neat! I'm not sure yet how often you need to refuel them, but I don't think it's very often. This also works on fridges, stoves, laptops, and I'm guessing all other fully electronic devices too! :)

https://i.imgur.com/Wimx9L3.png