# What about a 'Solar Generator' ??



## survivaltime

I've seen a solar generator for a couple grand that can run a regular household fridge not to mention many other things. The supreme advantage of this unit is it needs NO GAS ever!

I've also been researching solar kits, inverters and battery banks to see if I can build this same thing cheaper. Anyone here have knowledge of building solar power units? I'd like to hear from you.


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## JeepHammer

survivaltime said:


> I've seen a solar generator for a couple grand that can run a regular household fridge not to mention many other things. The supreme advantage of this unit is it needs NO GAS ever!
> 
> I've also been researching solar kits, inverters and battery banks to see if I can build this same thing cheaper. Anyone here have knowledge of building solar power units? I'd like to hear from you.


I have an 'Off Grid' home, and it's just what I said,
The solar panels keep the fridge, freezer, fans and lights on when needed.

Solar panels keep the lights on 24/7 when you have batteries tied to them for storage,

Or you can use a 'Grid Intertie' system that will make power to offset your bill with the power company,
And in an emergency, will power up the essentials in the home WITHOUT BATTERIES in the day time.
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You need some basics....
First off, you need a 'Generator' of some kind.

When people talk 'Solar', they are talking about one of two things,
Solar Photo Voltaic panels, which produce electricity any time the sun is shinning,

OR,
They are talking solar THERMAL panels which create hot water for home consumption, which cuts down on the need for you to suck more energy from the electric lines...
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The generators (Solar PV Panels) will only produce when the sun is up and shinning.

So, if you have things you want to run at night,
Lights, fans, the microwave, refrigerator, freezer, ect.
Then you will some kind of 'Back Up' power source...

This can be batteries that store the excess power in the daytime when the sun shines,
Or you can grid intertie and use 'Grid' (local utility) power at night.

Your meter will turn BACKWARDS during the day if you aren't running a big honking air conditioner 24/7 or running a welder or something like that...

Then the meter will turn forwards again,
Using up the credit you made in the daytime,
At night when you run things in the house.
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I have a home in town, so it's grid intertie with NO batteries, I use the grid at night or when it's overcast for electricity,
But I bank 'Credit' by turning the meter backwards in the days with lots of sun.
I use up most of that credit in the winter or at night, so my electric bill is often 'Net Zero' at the end of the year with just a few panels and a grid intertie inverter... (no batteries)

My home out in the 'Sticks' doesn't have electricity run back to it, so it's completely self sufficient for power.
It has solar panels for the day time that charge batteries,
It has a small wind generator for the windy days and nights,
And it has batteries for supplying electricity to the home when it's dark and the wind isn't blowing...

If you are interested in this stuff,
I suggest you have a look at 'Home Power Magazine'.








I'm sure their articles can show you graphically what I lack explaining.


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## GetPreparedStuff

survivaltime said:


> I've seen a solar generator for a couple grand that can run a regular household fridge not to mention many other things. The supreme advantage of this unit is it needs NO GAS ever!


When I hear people mention that they've seen a "solar generator" for sale I think most are referring to the site Solar Generator - Amazing Solar Generator Is Like Having A Secret Power Plant Hidden In Your Home

Just to clarify some things that aren't spelled out to well on the mysolarbackup.com site.

For $2100 they advertise an 1800 watt Solar Backup Generator and a 90 watt Solar Panel with the components and cables to tie it all together.

What isn't said, is that the 1800 watt "generator" is nothing more than a UPS backup battery power source made by Xantrex which includes a 1440 watt inverter and a 51 amp hour battery pack. 1800 watts doesn't mean in this case that it can output that much wattage for as long as needed, and in fact the battery inside the unit would only give you 1800 watts for about 1 minute. To put it's capability in more understood terms, by itself the data sheet for the unit says it would run a 120 watt 18 cubic foot fridge for all of 2.75 hours before the battery would need to be recharged.

To recharge the battery the system comes with a 90 watt solar panel which produces about 5 amps in full sun which is the same output as the internal AC battery charger built into the system. The data sheet says the internal 5A charger would take 15 hours to recharge a 100% discharged level battery. The 90 watt 5A solar panel however, would take around 3 days to recharge the same 100% discharged battery.

Why 3 days? On a spring day like today (Apr 1) you might have 12 hours of sun from sunrise to sunset however, for those 12 hours a 90 watt solar panel might average about 450 watt hours of total power production for the whole day. The reason being is that a 90 watt solar solar panel may only approach producing 90 watts for maybe an hour a day during peak sun because the rest of the day the sun is lower in the sky and doesn't offer the panel as much sun intensity as it does around noon time. (See attached image) Solar Insolation is a solar measurement used to help represent the amount of peek or full sun hours per day a geographic area might receive. Where I live, 12 hours of sunlight during the course of a spring day translates into the equivalent average of ~5 hours of peak sun per day. This is an average so summer is higher and winter can be much lower and the days in between can very with rain, clouds or weather. If you take your 90 watt solar panel and multiply it times the average sun hours per day of 5 you get 450 watt hours of power production. A 100 watt panel would produce about 500 watt hours per day a 60 watt panel 300 watt hours etc. etc.

I mention that in order to understand to recharge a 51 amp hour battery in 15 hours with a 90 watt solar panel you need to factor in that 4.2-5 hours is the average number of full sun hours much of the USA gets, meaning it will take typically take 3-4 full days of sun to recharge the battery in a "Solar Generator" system if the battery is fully discharged.

I've talked with many people that were enamored with the idea of a "no gas" generator but after I sit down and explain exactly what you get, the love affair quickly dies. It's not because I "want to" talk them out of it, because for a living I put together and sell small portable solar backup power systems among other things, but part of the process I go through with people in servicing their needs is to match the alternate power system with the actual need they have and to match a customers expectation to whats actually produced.

I could sell solar generators until the cows came home but it would do little good for the customer who when in need, pulls it out and plugs in a fridge, only to have the unit start beeping under three hours later because the battery is depleted. (it would actually beep much earlier because most people will fail to keep the battery charged while it's sitting in the garage or closet.)

My personal recommendation is to get a good propane generator for short term power needs. Propane, because you can store more of it more safely than gasoline and I say short term because you likely won't be able to store enough fuel for other than short term needs. A small propane generator will however, produce 300-3000 watts of power for as long as you have fuel to run it, and it is much cheaper than an equivalent wattage solar powered generator.

A solar generator like mentioned above would give you approx 16 watts of power continuous for 24 hours a day as long as the sun shined enough to recharge the batteries each day. 16 watts of power 24 hours a day and no gas forever for $2100!

A Honda EU2000i with a tri-fuel kit installed (which will let you run it off of 3 fuels; gasoline, propane or natural gas) will provide 1/4 load or 300-400 watts of power for about 60 hours running off of a 20# BBQ sized propane tank. A 100# tank would give you 300 watts for 375 hours or 15 days of continuous electricity.

300-400 Watts of power from a propane generator isn't very much compared to what we are used to living with each day but it will power a fridge and/or freezer and provide light with reserve power capacity if needed to run appliances up to 1600 watts. A similar capacity solar power system would cost in the $10's of thousands of dollars vs about $2500 for a propane generator and a few 100# propane tanks of fuel.

Solar is a great option for some needs but a good understanding is necessary so you don't get into a system that won't fill it's need.


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## JeepHammer

I'd say that is pretty accurate without knowing the exact details...

I also agree with a generator for 'Back Up' power if the power is out frequently where you live.
If it's out very infrequently, then go with the Propane generator.
Propane is efficient and much easier to store long term than gasoline.
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If you have power outages or are current using a generator for ALL your power needs (Off Grid), then solar is the way to go, but it's a large investment...
The only good part is you don't have to buy the entire thing at once.
You can start off with a few panels, inverter and build up from there to battery reserve/storage,
Then build on up with more panels and second inverter (Back up to the back up!)
And your second battery bank.
It won't be long until you have enough power production/storage to run completely off grid for most anything.

Personally, my 'Back Up' generator is my gas powered welder.
I fire it up to do welding, but it works equally well to power the house, charge batteries at the same time,
And in about 5 years I've only had to fire it up two or three times,
Usually the batteries do the job...

And remember, you batteries don't have to just sit and take up space.
You can use the batteries in a golf cart for reserve, and transportation at the same time.
There are also ATV's that are battery powered if you are a '4-wheel' type,
And the average conversion car uses common batteries, so you can actually commute about 25 miles a day on solar power with a conversion vehicle...
ZERO fuel costs involved once the solar panels are in.
You simply need a separate charge controller for each set of batteries,
One for the Golf Cart and one for the ATV if you want to charge them both at once.
Reasonable charge controllers are $75 to $150 so they aren't prohibitively expensive, and the gas money you save will QUICKLY pay you back...
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The solar panel in the link sells on the open market for about $200,
And common battery back-ups can go for any were from $50 to $250 depending on wattage and duration (Amp Hour Rating)...

I started out with one 15 watt panel for keeping a deep cycle battery charged,
Then 100 watt panels and golf cart batteries with inverter attached to make 110 power...

I'm up to 12 panels now, charge controllers, much larger battery bank, dual inverters, ect.

Personally, I think this system shown is just this side of worthless for anything but running a radio, electric razor or laptop...
You REALLY need more production to do much with it, and shelling out $1,000 for a $200 panel isn't the best way to get started...
But everyone has to start somewhere!


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## LastOutlaw

arpitkakkar1 said:


> Solar generator is used to provide solar power to equipments like refrigerator and other equipments, it is used for commercial places and for house equipments also. its best to save electricity. ​


I smell rotten spam. This can must have set out in the sun too long.


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## LincTex

LastOutlaw said:


> I smell rotten spam. This can must have set out in the sun too long.


Dude, This is from 7 years ago.

We've pretty much discredited most "solar generators" pretty thoroughly since then... and have offered "realistic" designs in their place.


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## LastOutlaw

LincTex said:


> Dude, This is from 7 years ago.
> 
> We've pretty much discredited most "solar generators" pretty thoroughly since then... and have offered "realistic" designs in their place.


Someone dragged this old post up so they could spam it. Admin deleted their post after I tagged it as spam.


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## LincTex

LastOutlaw said:


> Someone dragged this old post up so they could spam it..


Hahahaha! Joke's on me - - I totally missed it. Must have been when the first cup of coffee wore off.....


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