Solar Generator - first test

[MountainGirl]

Bought the solar generator last fall, and a set of 2 extra 100w panels; it all sat in a cabinet until yesterday when I finally got up the gumption to make sure it would do what I needed. The big thing for me - is to have a fan blowing ALL NIGHT for sleeping - and if that's all this enabled, good enough. :)

Yesterday morning - I plugged in a cheapo floor box fan, it pulled 65w on hi, and let it run for 10 hours. It drew the gen down to 60%. YAY ! Next thing to know, then, was how fast would it recharge using the panels - so this morning I set everything up outside, and just finished the test. Results below:

Four 100w panels, 15' of plug&play wiring on each
22766


Very happy with this Gen; LiFePo4 batt, 2 solar charging intakes, pass-through
capability. Don't recall exactly the cost...$1400 comes to mind. Worth every penny.
22767


The 400w of panels are prob 80-85% efficiency - so I was really happy to see the
322w coming in. The sky was mostly sunny, with the usual east TX clouds now and then.
22768

Ok - here are the readings:
Time - percent charge.
10:30 - 60%
11:30 - 73%
12:00 - 80%
1:15 - 94% (see pic above)
1:55 - 100%

If you wanna know any other specs on it, ask away - and I'll dig out the booklet.
Ordered it direct from the company - I don't do Scamazon.

[Denton]

Thanks for the review!
I’m thinking that’s a great addition to my pile of stuff.

[Slippy]

Very neat! Totally quiet correct? Over the years I've looked at them and knew technology was getting better and better. Thanks for the review and sharing!


Bought the solar generator last fall, and a set of 2 extra 100w panels; it all sat in a cabinet until yesterday when I finally got up the gumption to make sure it would do what I needed. The big thing for me - is to have a fan blowing ALL NIGHT for sleeping - and if that's all this enabled, good enough. :)

Yesterday morning - I plugged in a cheapo floor box fan, it pulled 65w on hi, and let it run for 10 hours. It drew the gen down to 60%. YAY ! Next thing to know, then, was how fast would it recharge using the panels - so this morning I set everything up outside, and just finished the test. Results below:

Four 100w panels, 15' of plug&play wiring on each
22766


Very happy with this Gen; LiFePo4 batt, 2 solar charging intakes, pass-through
capability. Don't recall exactly the cost...$1400 comes to mind. Worth every penny.
22767


The 400w of panels are prob 80-85% efficiency - so I was really happy to see the
322w coming in. The sky was mostly sunny, with the usual east TX clouds now and then.
22768

Ok - here are the readings:
Time - percent charge.
10:30 - 60%
11:30 - 73%
12:00 - 80%
1:15 - 94% (see pic above)
1:55 - 100%

If you wanna know any other specs on it, ask away - and I'll dig out the booklet.
Ordered it direct from the company - I don't do Scamazon.

[MountainGirl]

Very neat! Totally quiet correct? Over the years I've looked at them and knew technology was getting better and better. Thanks for the review and sharing!

Dead silent while running the floor fan.
When I first plugged the panels into the two intake ports, the gen's internal fan came on for a brief second - and then stopped. It ran silent the whole time - but it was outside on the bench in a breeze...so unknown if the fan would come on say, while in the house charging on the wall. If it did it probably wouldn't be a bother...very quiet. Not as loud as those old PC internal fans used to be, lol.

[Mad Trapper]

MG, if you make a support to angle them up towards the sun you'll get more watts.

Not sure how far overhead/angle sun is at your location?

[MountainGirl]

MG, if you make a support to angle them up towards the sun you'll get more watts.

Not sure how far overhead/angle sun is at your location?

This far south, they'd be angled at ten degrees.
On the mountain, it was sixty.

We (mostly me) are still talking about some fixed panels and more solar backup... but damn. The storms down here have a lot of hail, so I dont have this all figured out yet... cause it would take running out and covering the panels with a tarp every time a storm blew up just in case and at least I wouldn't have to climb a mountain first but yeah... gotta think hard on this one.

[Mad Trapper]

How about tempered glass/plexi covers? I got a whole bunch of stainless framed fume hood sashes for free, when they redid some labs years back. They were the size of a sheet of plywood. I just missed a whole bunch of free plexiglass advertised on CL this spring.

22769

Or for the stands, make a hinge/pivot so you could stand them vertical in seconds.

[Piratesailor]

Yes, thanks for the review. Can you tell us more about the charger itself? Like overall capacity, weight, etc.

I’ve been considering one for our place. It wold run at night and my goal is that it would have enough capacity to run a fridge/freezer overnight. I don’t want to run the house genset during the evenings; only during the day. So it’s something that we can recharge in the daylight. In a SHTF senecio over time we’d run out of propane and I’d like to be able to use the solar genset for one small fridge and a few household things like a fan, lights, etc.

[Piratesailor]

Oh.. an some hail won’t damage the panels until it’s golf ball or larger. We’ve been through that on the boat in a storm with hail. No damage to the 400w of solar

[Inor]

What is the chemistry of the battery? (Lithium-iron, lead acid, etc.). Does it allow you to daisy-chain several batteries together in series or parallel?

[Mad Trapper]

What is the chemistry of the battery? (Lithium-iron, lead acid, etc.). Does it allow you to daisy-chain several batteries together in series or parallel?

More capacity is good. They only be charging with the sun shining.

[MountainGirl]

Yes, thanks for the review. Can you tell us more about the charger itself? Like overall capacity, weight, etc.

I’ve been considering one for our place. It would run at night and my goal is that it would have enough capacity to run a fridge/freezer overnight. I don’t want to run the house genset during the evenings; only during the day. So it’s something that we can recharge in the daylight. In a SHTF senecio over time we’d run out of propane and I’d like to be able to use the solar genset for one small fridge and a few household things like a fan, lights, etc.

This one might - and I say might because it would depend on how often your existing fridge/freezer cycles, etc... and if it 'runs' only once or twice overnight it might handle it.

Our freezer 'plan' (for anticipated short term outages) is to do nothing overnight, and cycle them during the day with gens. If things are obviously a long term outage - we'll run them with the big gens while we still have gen fuel - while emptying them and processing the meats to shelf-stable status: canning/drying/etc.

It's a really great little unit, and it charged back up via solar faster than I thought it would. With the pass-through ability, you can charge/run things with it while it itself is charging. Mostly, though, I wanted something that would give us some options when everything goes sideways; no grid no fuel etc.

I'll post pics of all the specs ~

[MountainGirl]

What is the chemistry of the battery? (Lithium-iron, lead acid, etc.). Does it allow you to daisy-chain several batteries together in series or parallel?

LiFePO4 - Lithium Iron Phosphate <- which is why we went with this one.
Negative on the daisy-chain; there are better units for that.

[MountainGirl]

22783

22784

22785

22786

[MountainGirl]

And I just saw this -

I always wonder about 'claims' made - but their 30w Fan test squares up with my results...
The thing to note is the Wattage of the device - and the run time.
Are there 50watt 'mini coolers'? I've not seen one, but there's a lot out there I haven't seen LOL

22789

[Prepared One]

This is a great little unit. Since MG has the solar experience she took the lead in doing the research and getting the best bang for the buck. They make bigger units that are much more costly and have to be wheeled around as opposed to this one that one person can carry. This unit was a good entry level price but there are other more expensive brands that can be daisy-chained and have more capabilities, at least as I understand it from the YouTube videos.

This gen is perfect for short term outages. It's quiet and portable. We can run lights, make coffee, run computers or charge phones. Long term it can supplement. I am seriously considering getting a second unit or maybe upgrading to one of the larger units so we can run maybe a window AC unit (We have one as a back up out in the utility shed.) or refrigerator.

[Chiefster23]

I’ve spent a lot of time and $ experimenting with my solar system and find the weak link is the battery storage. I have over 700 amp-hr of deep cycle lead acid batts. That’s plenty for lights and such, but not so great for refrigerators and freezers. Plus winter time snow, ice, and short days really hampers solar panels here.

MG. A window ac unit really sucks up the power. Get a “kill-a-watt” meter (Amazon) and measure the power consumption of the ac unit over 24 hours and compare that to your battery capacity and solar panel output. You will probably be very disappointed.

[MountainGirl]

I’ve spent a lot of time and $ experimenting with my solar system and find the weak link is the battery storage. I have over 700 amp-hr of deep cycle lead acid batts. That’s plenty for lights and such, but not so great for refrigerators and freezers. Plus winter time snow, ice, and short days really hampers solar panels here.

Yep. I was lucky on the mountain; the winters are mostly bright sun. My system up there was intentionally over-built (as to need)


MG. A window ac unit really sucks up the power. Get a “kill-a-watt” meter (Amazon) and measure the power consumption of the ac unit over 24 hours and compare that to your battery capacity and solar panel output. You will probably be very disappointed.

I know that. There will be no A/C or Heaters that will run on solar down here...unless we put in a system, which I'd love to do. LOL

That's why I got the portable gen and fan ready for our nights, if needed. :)

That said - I DID have two floor model A/C units on the mountain - that I ran during the rare hot summer days with full sun. BUT my system had over 2K amp-hrs of batts, and 3K of panels... and more juice than we ever used. My design, my build.

[Piratesailor]

22783

22784

22785

22786

Good information! At 1,800w it should run our fridge overnight without much of an issue. But only the fridge. If the fridge ran 100% of the time the generator would last 4.2 hours. Since ours actually doesn’t cycle often (at least what I’ve noticed) I suspect 8 hours or more would work.

With that said, I’d probably either get 2 of these or a larger unit. Still looking.

[Chiefster23]

MG. I forgot about your monster set you had on the mountain. My memory is gone. You certainly don’t need solar advice from me!LOL

[MountainGirl]

MG. I forgot about your monster set you had on the mountain. My memory is gone. You certainly don’t need solar advice from me!LOL

Oh yes I do. My memory is shot as well and all the advice/reminders I can get the better, and I very much appreciate yours!!

[MountainGirl]

Good information! At 1,800w it should run our fridge overnight without much of an issue. But only the fridge. If the fridge ran 100% of the time the generator would last 4.2 hours. Since ours actually doesn’t cycle often (at least what I’ve noticed) I suspect 8 hours or more would work.

With that said, I’d probably either get 2 of these or a larger unit. Still looking.

I'm curious...what wattage does your fridge pull?
(PO & I are now talking about a 'system' :) )

[Slippy]

Excellent info MG and PO

Any and all back up power sources are great topics, appreciate y'all sharing.

Having multiple ways to make power is always a plus! :party:

[Inor]

I'm curious...what wattage does your fridge pull?
(PO & I are now talking about a 'system' :) )

In our case, our freezers pull 200W and our fridge is listed at pulling 250W. (Those are the listed wattages, not the actual. I will check the actuals and get back to you as I am tracking those pretty closely for my project that is trying to optimize our power usage for the whole house. I just turned the system "on" for real about 2 weeks ago, so I do not yet have enough real data to make that call yet.)

[Piratesailor]

I'm curious...what wattage does your fridge pull?
(PO & I are now talking about a 'system' :) )

3.1amp or 356w constant power at 115v I’ll have to look at our freezers.

Just looked at our large standup freezer and it’s 1.8amps. My wife bought it as it was also advertised to stay frozen with the power is off for 8 hours if you don’t open the door. Not sure that’s true but I must admit the door is sealed solid. You have to really pull to open it.

[MountainGirl]

3.1amp or 356w constant power at 115v I’ll have to look at our freezers.

Just looked at our large standup freezer and it’s 1.8amps. My wife bought it as it was also advertised to stay frozen with the power is off for 8 hours if you don’t open the door. Not sure that’s true but I must admit the door is sealed solid. You have to really pull to open it.

Ours does, and it's packed full and a hard pull to open as well.
Hell - when I moved the meats up here in a big packed full Igloo cooler - they were in it for 10 hrs (waiting for the movers to bring the freezer) and they were all still rock hard. Overnights don't concern me at all. My only hope is to be able to process everything (if it comes to that) while the gens are still running.

[Mad Trapper]

3.1amp or 356w constant power at 115v I’ll have to look at our freezers.

Just looked at our large standup freezer and it’s 1.8amps. My wife bought it as it was also advertised to stay frozen with the power is off for 8 hours if you don’t open the door. Not sure that’s true but I must admit the door is sealed solid. You have to really pull to open it.

If you have extra space in freezer, I always put 1-gal or 1/2-gal milk jugs of water in freezer. Uses less electric full, and if power goes out you have lots of ice to keep food cold.

[Prepared One]

Oh yes I do. My memory is shot as well and all the advice/reminders I can get the better, and I very much appreciate yours!!

As long as you remember where the hell I am, you good baby.:maninlove:

[MountainGirl]

As long as you remember where the hell I am, you good baby.:maninlove:

Always. :blow:

[Piratesailor]

Get a room…

[MountainGirl]

:mocking:

[TJC44]

22864