Real Agent Cases

Size a portable solar battery for an outdoor kitchen and pizza night with Grok

Posted
by Roman (@GillelandKristi)
Last checked
Method:
How we verify

Evidence: Screenshots or logsThe source shows screenshots, a transcript or the agent's output.

Outcome

An X user asked Grok to help work out their power needs for an outdoor kitchen running off a Jackery Explorer 2000 solar battery. On the night they ran lights and hosted a pizza party with a wood-fired pizza oven, cooking six pizzas, and posted screenshots of the charge left with several lights and an Alexa still running. Their verdict: 'Grok told me right!'

Agent

Grok

Prompt Recreated prompt

The source didn't share its exact prompt, so we wrote this from what it describes.

Before you start, ask me 1–3 short questions about anything important that's missing below. Keep them quick. Then do the task, checking in with me at the key points.

Goal: Work out whether my portable battery can run everything I want at an outdoor party, and for how long.

What I can give you (ask for whatever's missing):
- The battery or power station model and its capacity
- Each device I want to run (lights, speakers, oven, fridge) with wattage if I have it
- How many hours the event will last
- Starting charge and whether solar panels will be charging

Safety first: keep the power station dry and ventilated, don't run fuel-burning or high-heat appliances indoors, and follow the maker's limits for output and extension leads.

Rules:
- List each device's running watts and any start-up surge, and say which numbers are estimates.
- Total the energy use over the event and compare it with usable capacity, not the label figure.
- Flag any device that exceeds the battery's output limit.
- Suggest what to switch off first if the charge runs low.
- Check facts that can change (prices, opening hours, dates, availability, rules) against the official source, and tell me anything you couldn't verify.

Output: A simple table of devices, watts and hours, the expected charge left at the end, and a go/no-go.

You'll know it worked when: everything runs for the whole event with charge to spare.

Try this in:

Sends the Recreated prompt shown above. ChatGPT and Grok open with it filled in, and ChatGPT may send it straight away. Gemini opens empty, so we copy the prompt for you to paste. Every button also copies it.

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Optional stronger version

Our rewrite with extra checks. The poster didn't test it.

Before you start, ask me 1–3 short questions about anything important that's missing below. Keep them quick. Then do the task, checking in with me at the key points.

Goal: Work out whether my portable battery can run everything I want at an outdoor party, and for how long.

What I can give you (ask for whatever's missing):
- The battery or power station model and its capacity
- Each device I want to run (lights, speakers, oven, fridge) with wattage if I have it
- How many hours the event will last
- Starting charge and whether solar panels will be charging

Safety first: keep the power station dry and ventilated, don't run fuel-burning or high-heat appliances indoors, and follow the maker's limits for output and extension leads.

Rules:
- List each device's running watts and any start-up surge, and say which numbers are estimates.
- Total the energy use over the event and compare it with usable capacity, not the label figure.
- Flag any device that exceeds the battery's output limit.
- Suggest what to switch off first if the charge runs low.
- Check facts that can change (prices, opening hours, dates, availability, rules) against the official source, and tell me anything you couldn't verify.
- Ask me to check the device labels for exact wattage before you finalise the numbers.

Output: A simple table of devices, watts and hours, the expected charge left at the end, and a go/no-go.

You'll know it worked when: everything runs for the whole event with charge to spare.

Before you finish: re-read my goal and constraints, check your answer against each one, and list anything you assumed or couldn't confirm.

Source

https://x.com/GillelandKristi/status/2072867221924192577

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