Portable Solar Generators

[grendel]

As some may have gleaned, I bought one of these as a trial of an alternative way to power my tech while aboard.

The model I bought was an energizer branded one, complete with 100w solar panel, and at the outset I should point out these things are not that cheap.

They contain in essence a large lithium battery, a solar charge controller and an inverter in the case of mine it was rated overall at 650wh, which means that it can supply up to 600w for about an hour, if you pay more (and these things command boat style prices) you can get up to about 3 KW versions ( maybe even bigger, but the trade off here is portability).

They can be charged from solar, from a 12v lighter socket, or from a mains adaptor.

On the front there is a display showing the current state of the battery, mine has a single socket on the front, this looks like it could accept plugs from all around the world, a 12v lighter style socket, 2 additional 12v sockets, and a selection of usb ports, even a USB c which can also be used to charge the unit.

I have only been testing this aboard for 2 days now, and so far I have not had to use the onboard power for anything, I have used it to charge a laptop, my tablet, my phone, and run a portable dvd player, in other words it runs all my tech flawlessly.

I imagine one of these would be even more useful on a sailing boat, a few hours on the solar panel tops it back up nicely, I mean at just gone 7 am, it's already pulling about 30w from the panels to recharge the unit, at this early hour I do have them angled up toward the sun on the supports built in, the solar panels fold down for storage and transport. I did also purchase a 5m extension for the charging wires, which saves having to move the unit to the panels.

 

 

[MauriceMynah]

I am reminded of the young Australian lady who was obsessed with the prices of things.

Emma Chisset.

[grendel]

The setup I got was £850, you can get slightly cheaper, but the 3kw ones are £4000+

[Bikertov]

1 hour ago, MauriceMynah said:

I am reminded of the young Australian lady who was obsessed with the prices of things.

Emma Chisset.

I have an Indian friend called Ammuch, who is the same about things 

[Ray]

9 hours ago, grendel said:

it was rated overall at 650wh, which means that it can supply up to 600w for about an hour,

I've been thinking about getting one of these but never being one for quite grasping the technicalities of watts, amps, volts etc. I've hesitated in case I waste money on something that doesn't do what I need.

From the bit I've qouted does this mean I could boil a kettle, use a 2 slice toaster and run a low power microwave oven for a few minutes (not as the same time) Of so, would the device top up enough from solar to do this 2 or 3 times a day.

My boat has not got an inverter, so this could be a good alternative as we don't need heating and we don't have an immersion heater in the calorifier.

Do you have a link to the setup you bought please Peter?

[FlyingFortress]

9 hours ago, grendel said:

The setup I got was £850, you can get slightly cheaper, but the 3kw ones are £4000+

What sort of boat are you going to get for£4000

[grendel]

You could probably use a travel kettle up to about 500w, the toaster, depends on the wattage, and a toaster would need to be under 600w, the microwave would be iffy as they need a higher wattage for startup, and it would need to be less than about 600w, for what you want you would need a 1000w version

[Ray]

Many thanks 👍

[grendel]

Lesson learned, if you are using the solar panels underway, figure some method to strap them down, if they blow off the roof and end up in the water, they float just long enough to give a hope of rescue, I had just enough time to turn and try to come alongside, and just as I reached out to grab it, it gracefully sank to the bottom.

[Bikertov]

1 hour ago, grendel said:

Lesson learned, if you are using the solar panels underway, figure some method to strap them down, if they blow off the roof and end up in the water, they float just long enough to give a hope of rescue, I had just enough time to turn and try to come alongside, and just as I reached out to grab it, it gracefully sank to the bottom.

Noooooo - sorry to hear that Grendel

Could you not dive in like you did to clear your prop the other day ?

[grendel]

Not a great location to dive at, it's right where the ferry from WRC goes across, I did consider it, but the current probably moved it a fair ways too.

[ZimbiIV]

So from solar power to tidal power in one easy move!

paul

[grendel]

via wind power

[Cal]

A lot of the van lifers have these. Never really understood what the benefit is over a domestic battery and a solar panel installed on the van/boat.

Probably cheaper to install equipment on the van as well with the price of these units!!

[grendel]

The benefits are that they are a lot lighter than lead acid, and you can use 100%of the battery capacity., Of course if you can fit a permanent system you will be better off.

[Cal]

6 minutes ago, grendel said:

The benefits are that they are a lot lighter than lead acid, and you can use 100%of the battery capacity., Of course if you can fit a permanent system you will be better off.

We bought a lithium battery for the van (Sterling Amps 100ah). It was £500 and you can use 100% of the capacity of that.

A solar panel and charge controller would be a lot less that the £350 extra  you have paid for the "power pack"

The lithium battery has bluetooth monitoring inbuilt so you can keep an eye on cell voltages, discharge rates, charge rates cell temperatures etc. 

[grendel]

granted, thats the beauty of doing a fixed install, the main advantage of these is their portability, for example, to charge up tool batteries on a remote site away from vehicles or other infrastructure, I dont say they are the only solution, but under a specific set of circumstances I can see this coming in useful.