Anyone purchase a smaller Solar Generator?

Shadowfax

Shadowfax

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May 8, 2013
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Location
Bucks County PA
Not looking to power a whole house but rather an Emergency Unit for the Fridge and a few other things. Looks like what I need runs between $1500 and $2500.

Any suggestions, comments, recommendations welcome
 
You can’t run a device off of solar only. You will need batteries and a good solar controller to get the most amount of solar energy into the batteries. Certainly look at LiFePO (lithium iron phosphate) batteries, but you will need a lot of them to powe a residential refrigerator.

I’m curious what you found for between $1500-$2500.00 to power a refrigerator and a few other things since the batteries will need to provide power for at night (10-14 hours depending on the time of year). One other thing are the batteries going to be in an environment where the temperature doesn’t drop below freezing?
 
Are you looking for a stand alone unit that requires moving plugs when the power goes out. Those can be had for a reasonable price
And easier method is to move branches you want on emergency backup and put them in a UPS. This is only a short term fix. As in extended power outage will eat up the battery.

If you have extended blackouts and want solar that is in parallel with the grid,, you have a couple choices. All are around $15k. Maybe a little less. The lithium battery is about $3k, grid/solar controller and inverter $2.5 to $5k, panels $3k, labor and othet misc part such as rack, pipe, wire $5k. .
 
Shadowfax said:
Not looking to power a whole house but rather an Emergency Unit for the Fridge and a few other things. Looks like what I need runs between $1500 and $2500.

Any suggestions, comments, recommendations welcome
Click to expand...

I think you are looking for something like a Jackery.
Solar Generator, Power Outdoors - Jackery
Lots of them out there.
I use a Honda EU-1000 generator for emergency power needs. If I didn’t already have it I’d consider a portable solar unit.
 
I have been trying to find a way to charge a car without solar and be offgrid. Its been hard finding a voltage regulator that xan sense the panel as well as car and modulate the voltage. Most all solar is designed around putting power into the grid.
 
Kingrex said:
I have been trying to find a way to charge a car without solar and be offgrid. Its been hard finding a voltage regulator that xan sense the panel as well as car and modulate the voltage. Most all solar is designed around putting power into the grid.
Click to expand...
Years ago in my last career, we made some machines for Solar Panel Car Battery Chargers. Maybe they never made it to market since the program was sponsored by an Oil Company claiming to do research into solar.
 
Shadowfax said:
Yes, similar to that. I was looking at these Nature products

Here
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That one uses a flooded lead-acid battery so it would be a no-go for me.

Here is what I’d look for in a solar unit:
LiPO4 Lithium Battery
MPPT solar controller
Monocrystalline solar panels

These are current state of the art without going to more exotic battery chemistries and solar panel designs.
 
What is the wattage of the solar generator? I have an 8 kWh generator and it is enough in sunless weather only to power small electronics.
 
I pretty much decided that the cost of lost food will be way less than purchasing one of these generators. I have 2 small ones to charge phones or power laptop so I can call for help :)
 
Solar and batteries are very expensive. And don't expect the price to go down much.
Add to that installation complexity. The US is getting very strict about any power generation onsite. Most countries are.
The last thing they would allow would be a free standing battery with a solar panel attached that feeds an outlet to a refrigerator.
The problem is a fire. How would a fireman know there was a hot electrical circuit in the house once they flipped the main disconnect.
They would not. And then someone gets electrocuted spraying water on the fire. They want to be able to turn all power off to the house with 1 switch.
 
Kingrex said:
Solar and batteries are very expensive. And don't expect the price to go down much.
Add to that installation complexity. The US is getting very strict about any power generation onsite. Most countries are.
The last thing they would allow would be a free standing battery with a solar panel attached that feeds an outlet to a refrigerator.
The problem is a fire. How would a fireman know there was a hot electrical circuit in the house once they flipped the main disconnect.
They would not. And then someone gets electrocuted spraying water on the fire. They want to be able to turn all power off to the house with 1 switch.
Click to expand...

This brings to mind an argument I had with the head electrical inspector when we did a large addition and total renovation or the existing house.
We had 2 200A panels one that was on the generator one that was not.

My argument was that he would not allow there to be a disconnect in the panel in the house. He would only allow the disconnect at the meter housing.
My contention was if someone, like Fire Fighters, shut off the main disconnect the generator would start automatically. This would obviously return power to the house if they didn't realize there was a generator to also shut off.
Many of the newer generators are not all the loud. Especially if there is chaos of a fire.

The panel was already in and wired for rough-in inspection and he made us take it out and put in a panel with no disconnect. The crazy thing was he said we should have a disconnect in the other panel that was not on the generator.

I got nowhere with the county, as there stand was he was the head inspector.
 
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