Kind_Karma wrote:The Strietman seems it should use the least amount of power compared to other electrical machines, correct?
Also, the Strietman should also use significantly less power than Quickmill Andreja?.

The Strietman has an instantaneous power rating of 750 watts. If you load the boiler with pre-heated water, the thermostat will start cycling within 5 minutes. Assuming you pull a shot within 10 minutes, you won't use more than 0.1 kWh of energy for an espresso.

A small closed boiler machine will definitely need more time to come to temperature than the Strietman. So you would use more energy but gain steaming capabilities and higher brew temperatures. A vintage Cremina or Pavoni would be an improvement (in terms of energy use) over the Quickmill. But a Strietman or a vintage Caravel or Peppina are probably the least energy intensive electrical espresso machines, in part because you can pre-heat the water and in part because the total mass is low.

You might be able to pair a small closed boiler machine (for waffle mornings) with some sort of stovetop Espresso simulator (for pancake mornings). If I lived off grid, I might find a use for something like this:

https://www.thelittleguy.info

For a stovetop device, you can get small, inexpensive propane burners.

The other day I prepared a moka pot of Lavazza Caffe Espresso (all Arabica) using Lucio Del Piccolo's wet bed technique and an AeroPress filter. I stopped the brew before coffee was steaming out of the central pipe by dipping the bottom in a bowl of water. The result was a sweet, clean cup.

Why dont just separate the process of making espresso from electricity?

Get a Cafflano Kompresso with a hand grinder and you are set. All you need is gas to heat up the water using a thermometer.

Another posibility is to use Mypressi.

You just have to consider water/electricity usage close to zero.

I am aware that you are not going to have the same quality from Kompresso as from Strietman, but you cannot have everything.

Closed boiler would be best to try and raise the temp above boiling, but check out these threads for some non-electric ideas that our creative members have tried (open and closed boiler):

Caravel 1.1 gas version

Gas Fired La Pavoni Professional

Gas-Fired Faema Faemina eBay auction

A pre-heated Robot should do OK in your situation with darker roasts.

In terms of power consumption, the La Pavoni early versions have dual heating elements. The brew one is typically 300W and it will heat the machine, just slower. Also if you're just pulling a shot or two you don't need to fill it all the way. This confers the advantage of a closed boiler with the ability to reach any desired brew temperature.

That's a lot of work, but it would reduce your energy inputs with a closed boiler. Most off-grid systems aren't really going to care whether you run a 900 W load for 5 minutes or a 300 watt load for 15 minutes. So I wouldn't get slavish about finding a machine with dual heating elements. But if you don't mind juggling your closed boiler machine on low battery days, a small closed boiler might fit the off-grid lifestyle. (Personally, I'd fall back to a stovetop device for those low-battery mornings; use a small closed-boiler machine normally when you know you have the energy, as suggested at the top of this page.)

Eastsideloco wrote:It takes the same amount of work to bring an espresso machine to temperature, regardless of whether you do it with a 300 W heating element or a 1,000 W element; doing the job with fewer watts just requires proportionally more time. The batteries store energy (kilowatt-hours), not power (watts). So to preserve the battery bank, you want to get the job done (making the espresso shot) with the least amount of energy (kWh). The closed-boiler machines in general are all relatively more massive than a Strietman in particular. Since you have to bring all that mass up to temperature, the Strietman will need the least electrical energy input to come to temperature. It's a simple physics problem. (FWIW: I've worked in solar for 15 years and lived off grid at elevation before.)

That's helpful, thanks.

Eastsideloco wrote:The Strietman has an instantaneous power rating of 750 watts. If you load the boiler with pre-heated water, the thermostat will start cycling within 5 minutes. Assuming you pull a shot within 10 minutes, you won't use more than 0.1 kWh of energy for an espresso.

A small closed boiler machine will definitely need more time to come to temperature than the Strietman. So you would use more energy but gain steaming capabilities and higher brew temperatures. A vintage Cremina or Pavoni would be an improvement (in terms of energy use) over the Quickmill. But a Strietman or a vintage Caravel or Peppina are probably the least energy intensive electrical espresso machines, in part because you can pre-heat the water and in part because the total mass is low.

You might be able to pair a small closed boiler machine (for waffle mornings) with some sort of stovetop Espresso simulator (for pancake mornings). If I lived off grid, I might find a use for something like this:

https://www.thelittleguy.info

Thank you for the measurement for kWh energy use of Strietman, that is very helpful.

I looked up the Little Guy and it looks very nice, very similar to the Atomic machines. I read feedback that the replacement gaskets can be costly and complicated for the Little Guy, although the Atomic gasket replacement set is pretty inexpensive.

It looks like I have a couple of options to try, but am back to the belief that I may not be able to achieve the same espresso quality that I had with the Astoria lever, at least on a daily basis. After many years of having to use non-espresso brewing methods, it looks like there may still be some possibilities to bringing daily espresso back, so will keep trying!

Thanks for your input.