Remember when solar power was laughing? Now Big Companies Like Google The Oil Killers:When Google Data Meets Tesla's Visions and the Brains of MIT The Oil Killers:When Google Data Meets Tesla's Visions and the Brains of MIT This Article connect the dots between three different technologies that, when brought together, will change the world. Read more, Tesla Tesla's battery could change the world, but does it actually save you money? Tesla's battery could change the world, but does it actually save you money? Innovation has a cost. One of the hopes in energy innovation is that there will eventually be a financial payoff. Tesla's battery is no different. Learn more, including BP Experience The Greatest Historical Events of Our Time via Twitter Experience The Greatest Historical Events of Our Time via Twitter With the help of the history books, these accounts tweet specific historical events in sequence exact and on the same dates as they occurred Join to experience it yourself! Read more are betting on solar energy. If You're Not Quite Ready To Replace Your Primary Power With Solar Electricity 4 Companies That Will Help You Run Your Home With Free Solar Power 4 Companies That Will Help You Run Your Home With Free Solar Power With All The Electronics Running In Your Home smart, you need some juice to fuel it all. And there's nothing better than not worrying about rising utility bills by using solar power. Read More
Do you really need a gas or diesel generator? Would a solar generator make more sense? What solar generator options are there? Those are the questions we will look at today..
Solar generators for electricity are made up of photovoltaic (PV) panels 6 Advantages of Solar Panels You Probably Haven't Considered 6 Advantages of Solar Panels You Probably Haven't Considered Solar power is becoming more common among middle class consumers, with more and more people realizing the advantages of solar panels. Read More Photovoltaic panels convert sunlight into electricity and send it to the charge controller.
The charge controller pumps the electricity into the batteries How a Battery Works and 3 Ways It Can Ruin It How a Battery Works and 3 Ways It Can Ruin It The Modern Battery Comes in Many of Our Favorite Technologies That You Could Almost Forgive Don't Lose the time learning how it works. Read More The inverter takes DC (direct current) electricity from the batteries and converts it to AC (alternating current) electricity.
That's the kind of electricity you need for your home. It is a fairly simple system with no moving parts. Due to its operation, a solar generator has certain benefits..
Here are the benefits of solar generators:
A gas generator converts the chemical energy in gasoline into mechanical energy and then into electrical energy.
It does this using an engine and an alternator. The gas burns in the engine, turning the crankshaft like in a car. However, instead of turning the wheels on a car, it turns the rotor in the alternator.
The rotor is a coil of copper wire. The copper wire spins past the stationary magnets. As the copper wire passes over the magnets, the magnets induce a slight electrical charge in the wire. Do this very quickly and you will generate a significant amount of electricity. It is quite a complex system with many moving parts.
So what are the benefits of gas generators:
There are so many different situations where you may need a generator. It is impossible to cover them all. What we can do is take a look at a couple of different scenarios.
Each scenario will be better served by the solar generator or the gas generator. Compare your situation with these two scenarios, think about how each generator works and its benefits and drawbacks.
Do that and you'll make the best choice you can for your situation.
You live in the city You are thinking about being prepared for the next big hurricane or blizzard. You want to make sure that if the power goes out, you can run the most necessary things in your house, like a heater and some lights. What do you need?
You need something that can be stored easily and set up quickly. You need something that doesn't take up a lot of space while you're doing your job. Maybe you have a small patio or just a balcony..
You need something that can put out a few thousand watts at 2 amps or more. You need it to work now and for as long as you need it. Hopefully, that's no more than a day or two. When utility power comes back on, you need to be able to pack it up and get it out of the way.
In this scenario, the gas generator is probably your best bet. A gas generator that would do the job is about the same size as a large luggage bag or maybe a padlock. If you know a storm is coming, you might have a can or two of gas to keep on hand.
All that is needed to set it up is to place it close enough to your house to run an extension cord, but close enough so that exhaust gases do not enter the house. The gas generator will instantly provide enough power to run your most necessary things, and maybe some nice ones too.
Once the storm is over and the power is back on, simply turn it off, let it cool down, drain any remaining gas, and put it back in storage. Sure, they do need a little maintenance from time to time, but nothing more than a lawnmower needs.
You have a small travel trailer, maybe even a tent. You and your family go camping for a week or two every summer. You don't really need any electrical devices, but it would be nice to have a small TV for rainy days and to have a little more light at night.
Maybe you need to keep a phone charged in case there is an emergency in the urban world. You need maybe a few hundred watts at less than 2 amps. All you want to do is enjoy this great planet and listen to yourself think, or not think. Any.
In this scenario, the solar generator makes more sense. Once you get to your campsite, you'll spend a little more time setting it up than a gas generator. But once it's set, you can forget about it. It will spend the rest of the day collecting sunlight and making electricity for you.
It will definitely give you the power you need for those twilight hours and it will do so in complete silence. Now you can hear the wacko calling, breathe in the fresh air and have enough light to have a fun time with the kids.
The next time you think about the generator is when you pack it up to put it in the SUV and go home. No fuel to drain, no jerry cans to fill, no gas smell in the car for the next 3 weeks. Sounds good doesn't it?
Now that you know what type of generator you want, you need to figure out what size generator you need. To figure that out, you'll need to understand generator ratings a bit.
Gas or solar generators are classified in different ways. You need to know the maximum Amperage it can handle. For gas generators, you need to know their wattage (W) rating. Often the watts will be in the thousands, so they are expressed in kilowatts (kW).
For solar generators, you need to know their Amp hour (Ah) rating, because electricity usually comes from a battery. That's fine, but what do those things mean?
Here's a quick overview of amps, amp-hours, and watts.
When considering Watts, be careful! Typically, the wattage rating you first see is the number of running watts the generator can handle. Some electrical devices have a starting Wattage that is much higher than their running Wattage. For example, a dishwasher may run at 1200W but requires 3000W to start. Make sure your gas generator can handle gusts like this.
There are many calculators online to help you size a gas generator. This Generator Size Calculator from Briggs and Stratton is pretty good. But back to solar generators.
We have mainly referred to the type of solar generators that you can charge in the family vehicle. But a solar generator could be as small as a solar-powered battery pack for your phone, to a couch-sized unit for your home, to a trailer model for operating industrial equipment.
Knowing that, you can see how the solar generator is going from a niche green product to a serious contender to gas generators.
Even if you think a gas generator is the right thing for your needs, take some time to see what's out there for solar generators. More companies are making newer types almost daily.
As public desire to reduce carbon fuels grows, expect to see these generators take more forms, become less expensive to buy, and become more efficient.
Let's take a look at some that are available now.
Goal Zero has put a lot of thought into designing their solar generators. The base unit is compact, intuitive to use and can be charged from your home electricity. That means you can fully charge it at home in about 5 hours.
The next time you want to use it, you should have close to a full charge. Expect it to take a bit longer to load from just the panels. But once loaded, the panels will keep you well charged.
The Yeti Solar Generator Kit will cover things like charging a phone or laptop and maybe running some LED lights pretty well. High current items like electric motors and hair dryers are probably not a good idea with this unit.
The Wagan EL2546 Solar eCube 1500 has more power than the Zero Target, but not enough to take home in an emergency.
It could be used to make camping super comfortable, or just provide you with enough to keep radios and phones well-charged through a prolonged power outage. If you need to run a single heavy item, like a small refrigerator or microwave, you can if that's the only thing attached.
The beauty of the Wagan is how compact and self-contained it is. Panels, battery, inverter and cables all store neatly in it. It looks like a great cooler.
The Wagan hits a sweet spot between capability and price. Just like the zero goal, it can be charged using house power or solar panels. Its design allows you to add it. That gives you so many more options..
The base unit could be your camping generator. Keep a few extra batteries at home and you'll be able to plug them in so you can easily get through small emergencies. Add extra panels for even faster charging when the power is off.
If you're hell-bent on having green backup power for your home, this is a great way to go. At 3500W and 225Ah, it will run any number of devices collectively using less than 3500W and 11A for up to 20 hours.
Let's shoot this. It could run your furnace blower, a radio, a sump pump, and a computer long enough to get you through most power outages.
With the VSP you can run AC and DC devices directly from it. This unit comes with the solar PV panels, but you can also charge it from your home electricity if you need it to get up and running quickly.
Perhaps the best part is that it comes with a built-in transfer switch. You can have it connected to your house, charging. It could also have critical devices connected to it. The device would draw off of house power through the VSP, but if the house power failed, it would automatically start powering the device from the VSP's batteries. Very useful.
To top it off, you could upgrade your car with it!
We have covered a lot today. Now you know the subtle differences between solar and gas generators. You also learn some solid electrical basics to help you determine which size best fits your needs. Finally, you can see some small, medium and large solid solar generators. With all of this and a little planning, you'll always be charged up and ready to go!
