what is the best portable solar unit on the market
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Samsonite801
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The latest gen Bluetti's are supposed to be really good, I personally don't have any experience with them, but if I were in the market for one of these types of units, I would be watching You Tube reviews, and reading Amazon reviews (and on other sites) on these. Also asking questions in forums too (you're on the right track)...
I would likely prefer to build my own unit though (I am more into DIY, where many others are more into turn-key blackbox solutions).
If into turn-key solutions, I'd be focused on warranty durations, since this shows how long they're willing to stand behind their products in the long run.
I would likely prefer to build my own unit though (I am more into DIY, where many others are more into turn-key blackbox solutions).
If into turn-key solutions, I'd be focused on warranty durations, since this shows how long they're willing to stand behind their products in the long run.
sunshine_eggo
Happy Breffast!
- How many kWh/day does the fridge use?
- How many kWh/day does the freezer use?
- How many kWh/day do the lights use?
- How many kWh/day do the computers use?
good suggestions, I will do more homework. thanks
as I said, I'm not familiar with amps/watts etc. I will have my cousin take a look to help me. thanks
sunshine_eggo
Happy Breffast!
These are questions you need to answer. Since you have a stated goal, you need to know what it takes to meet that goal. The last thing you want to do is spend a bunch of money and be pissed off when it doesn't work.
If the fridge and freezer have a yellow sticker on them showing energy usage, you could divide that amount by 365 to compute the daily kWh needed.
If you know the wattage of the lights, you simply multiply by the number of lights you have and by the number of hours you want to run them daily.
If the computers are laptops, they likely consume 60W or less. If they are powered by a "brick" transformer, they likely have a DC output rating, e.g., 3A * 18V. This would be 3 * 18 = 54W. Multiply 54W by the number of hours you want to run them for Wh.
If they are desktop computers, they may burn way more than that.
Samsonite801
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It may also not hurt to go to Home Depot and buy a 'Kill-A-Watt' handheld meter.
They cost around $20. You can plug it into appliances like refrigerators, microwave ovens, lamps, fans, etc. Just for temporary use to determine how much amps/volts/watts draw, just to figure out and tally up how much things use in your house that you would like to be able to run on the portable power station.
Say you add up 1000w on all the stuff you want to run. Well 1 KiloWatt / hour, means the ability to run 1000 watts for 1 hour. So to run 1000w continuous load for 10 hours would be 10kW/h.
Note things like refrigerators don't run all the time but cycle on/off/on/off so when sizing equipment it is good to understand the difference between what the system needs to be able to supply 'right now' or for a brief time, and/or for how long the system can or needs to be able to supply that amount for (battery power) over the course of extended durations.
you must be a math teacher,
thanks again. bobI'm gettin'an education here!!!!! thanks so much
Samsonite801
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Sure no prob at all...
I just checked now, since I haven't bought a Kill-A-Watt in a long time (I have two I purchased many years ago)... Seems they cost a bit more than they used to. I had paid around $20 each back then.
They have a few different models out there, like a more expensive one that has a little internal battery in it to save data for more long term testing (for ongoing testing, unplugging and moving around to other outlets without losing statistical data when it shuts off and such.
In my opinion, you don't really need the fancier one, the basic one is fine. I think it is good anyways to have one of these around (kind of like a stud-finder or something, handy to have in the toolbox), I've used it so many times.
It's even good for fine tuning the governor RPM correctly on generators (with the Hz reading)... I'd say just get the cheapest one, it still reads all the stuff like volts, amps, Hz, watts, kW/h, etc...
With inflation, they look like around $30 now on Amazon, and $38 at Home Depot...
P3 International P4400-VP Monitor, Electricity Usage, Kill-A-Watt, 8 Measures, 2.4" W x 1.7" D x 5.1" H: Amazon.com: Tools & Home Improvement
P3 International P4400-VP Monitor, Electricity Usage, Kill-A-Watt, 8 Measures, 2.4" W x 1.7" D x 5.1" H: Amazon.com: Tools & Home Improvement
www.amazon.com
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