The OPs original idea was to get a solar generator and recharge it with solar panels. But it doesn't look like there's enough solar to recharge per day with her setup. From the earlier analysis she needs less than 500 Watts inverter.
Two days is probably the average maximum power outage, the earlier table showed about 2280 Wh/d needed per day, so around 4.5 kWh?
Let's start assuming no solar recharging. You could add solar later as discussed
here. Any solar power would extend the duration of the system.
For example, from the previous post, assuming we can get 500 Wh/day, then over two days we'd only need 3.5 kWh of battery storage. But, for the numbers below we'll assume no solar for a worse case scenario.
Off the Shelf
The simplest way is to have two days worth of power all wrapped up and ready to go. I don't have enough knowledge to recommend any of these, it's just a paper analysis to get some rough numbers (but I bet Will has videos on these).
Bluetti EB240
2400 Wh, need two
Cost: $3800 | Lion Safari LT
450 Wh, $585
Need 10, so cost is $5850. |
With multiple solar generators I believe you can either swap them out when one runs out of power, or plug the input AC of the second into the output AC of the first unit.
Solar Generator with External Batteries?
Will just reviewed the
Bluetti AC200, the cool thing about it was that you could hook up external batteries. So it provides a nice hybrid between a compact package with everything you need plus the lower cost of an add-on battery. Not sure if the AC200 will
recharge the external battery.
The
Kodiak Inergy (due out in October) is $1350 for 1000 watt hours, three additional batteries would be + $2700 for ~$4000.
Point Zero Energy Titan is overkill in terms of the inverter,
4 kWh $4,390.
The Goal Zero Yeti Tank Expansion Battery looked promising ($1200
Yeti 1000 Li Power Station, $400
Goal Zero Yeti Link Expansion Module), but the manual says it requires ventilation ... so bad for a condo.
Both the
Jackery 500 and
Rockpals 500W solar generator ($450 - 500W/540Wh) say they can be recharged from a 12/24V DC input and include a cigarette adapter. Could it be connected to a couple of
battleborn's in parallel to extend the watt hour capacity? Then you'd just need a charger for the external batteries?
Anyone know for sure?
Update 2: The
jackery FAQ says all but the explorer 160 support pass-through charging. The
Rockpals FAQ seems to indicate the 500W does support pass-thru charging, although it's worded as:
all Rockpals portable power stations, except Rockpals 300W/500W, don't support pass-through charging.
Update 1: The Ecoflow Delta 1300 has 1260 Wh for $
1400, so would need another 3240 watt hours of external batteries. Will has a
video that confirms it can charge and discharge at the same time, see the video for pros & cons.
DIY Options?
Based on comments from the OP, she's probably not interested in this, but thought I'd include for the more adventurous.
A DIY option is like Will's latest
video (he has a lot of these showing how to build a DIY solar generator). The main components are:
- Battery
- BMS if using lithium
- Inverter
- Charger
There's a number of other sub-components for which there's a lot of leeway: e.g., mounting panel, fuses, wire, gauge, etc. Didn't consider any of those additional prices. There are a number of systems members have build that list costs if you want to get a better idea; but figure you'll add 10 to 20%.
For the numbers below I'll use the first inverter/charge I came across, the $400
MAGNUM pure sine wave 600W, 12V INVERTER/CHARGER. It's a bit more expensive, but has a built in automatic transfer switch so devices like the CPAP machine could switch to battery automatically in the event of a power outage.
DIY LiFePO4
Fortune 120Ah Cells @ $135 each.
Using a 90% Depth of Discharge (DoD) you'd need:
2280 x 2 / .8 /.9 = 6334 Wh, 6334 / 12V = 528 Ah
528 Ah / 120 Ah batteries (round up) = 5 batteries
You need 4 cells to make 12V, so 5 x 4 = 20 cells, so $2,700
You'll also nee a BMS and charger, so ~ $3,300 | DIY Sealed Lead Acid AGM
Trojan 31-AGM 12V, 100AH (20HR) AGM Sealed Battery @ $313
80% DoD gives 500 cycles (will only use a few cycles per year)
2280 x 2 /.8 /.8 = 7125 Wh, or 593 Ah
Cost = 6 x $313 = $1878
Each battery is 70 lbs, and it will need a charger with a trickle function.
So ~$2278 |