It's battery powered and is charged via a solar panel?

I don’t. Looking at the website, it seems to be $3,000 and has a 1,612 watt/hour battery which means it will run 2-100 watt light bulbs for 8 hours before needing to be recharged. Assuming 100% efficiency, 2-100 watt solar panels will take 8 hours to recharge the battery and the sun has to be out.

A $1,000 Honda inverter generator and a $3 gallon of gas will run 4.5-100 watt light bulbs for 8 hours before needing to be refilled which takes a minute day or night.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
A $1,000 Honda inverter generator and a $3 gallon of gas will run 4.5-100 watt light bulbs for 8 hours before needing to be refilled which takes a minute day or night.

Thanks. I've got a Honda Inverter but the solar powered battery generator sounds intriguing. One could run it inside as opposed to a gas powered generator.

They are overpriced. I'd look at Ecoflow or Jackery if you want a solar generator.

Here’s an Ecoflow version for half the price and twice the output.

https://us.ecoflow.com/product...riant=54718705008713

You mentioned that you already have a generator. Many people are using a generator to charge the battery back up then just use that to power your appliances. This saves a lot of fuel because the power is only used to power what ever you plug in and not run at 100%.

Costco has Jackery and others.

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:
Here’s an Ecoflow version for half the price and twice the output.

https://us.ecoflow.com/product...riant=54718705008713

You mentioned that you already have a generator. Many people are using a generator to charge the battery back up then just use that to power your appliances. This saves a lot of fuel because the power is only used to power what ever you plug in and not run at 100%.

The inverter generators throttle up and down as the load increases or decreases. Non-inverter generators have to run at a multiple of 60 to produce 60Hz AC power; most run 3,600rpm. Even then, fuel use depends on the load. It’s like a car doing 2,000rpm on a flat section of road, then you hit a hill and have to give it more gas to maintain that 2,000rpm.

I’ve thought a little about adding a battery, but haven’t run the numbers beyond $1,500 for the unit you linked buys 500 gallons of gasoline which will run that Honda 24 hours/day for 166 days. Since I’ll never do that, that’s enough for me to stop right there and not bother calculating the opportunity cost on the $1,500 or figure out just how many more batteries and solar panels I’d need to equal the Honda’s ability to run when there’s no sun. Nor would I figure out the math for the fact that I wouldn’t actually run the generator for 24 hours a day.

I would consider a much smaller battery to keep your internet and networking gear going as well as charging cellphone, tablets, flashlight, lanterns, etc at night. I have a 100amp/hour LiFePo4 battery for the trolling motor, so I’d just have to add a sine wave inverter.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:
Here’s an Ecoflow version for half the price and twice the output.

https://us.ecoflow.com/product...riant=54718705008713

You mentioned that you already have a generator. Many people are using a generator to charge the battery back up then just use that to power your appliances. This saves a lot of fuel because the power is only used to power what ever you plug in and not run at 100%.

The inverter generators throttle up and down as the load increases or decreases. Non-inverter generators have to run at a multiple of 60 to produce 60Hz AC power; most run 3,600rpm. Even then, fuel use depends on the load. It’s like a car doing 2,000rpm on a flat section of road, then you hit a hill and have to give it more gas to maintain that 2,000rpm.

I’ve thought a little about adding a battery, but haven’t run the numbers beyond $1,500 for the unit you linked buys 500 gallons of gasoline which will run that Honda 24 hours/day for 166 days. Since I’ll never do that, that’s enough for me to stop right there and not bother calculating the opportunity cost on the $1,500 or figure out just how many more batteries and solar panels I’d need to equal the Honda’s ability to run when there’s no sun. Nor would I figure out the math for the fact that I wouldn’t actually run the generator for 24 hours a day.

I would consider a much smaller battery to keep your internet and networking gear going as well as charging cellphone, tablets, flashlight, lanterns, etc at night. I have a 100amp/hour LiFePo4 battery for the trolling motor, so I’d just have to add a sine wave inverter.

Everybody’s situation is different. I was just responding to the OP’s question not providing a cost benefit analysis..

Having lived on the Gulf Coast for several years and multiple hurricanes I know how difficult it is to find gas for any extended generator run time. Using a battery system that can be recharged by a gas generator will drastically decrease the amount of fuel needed over a given amount of time. Plus the added security of not having a loud generator running 24/7 and advertising it to any miscreants that happen to need one should not be discounted. Things get pretty dicey 3 or 4 days after a hurricane when supplies start running out. BTDT!

I'm running my 8X16 ice fishing house solely on batteries. OP didn't say what his application was. I'll stay out on the lake 2 nights and 3 days generally with sometimes an extra day thrown in if the fish are interested. I run a 165ah lithium lifePo4 battery and a 2000 watt inverter. I only turn the inverter on when I need to run the microwave, coffee maker tv or whatever needs 110V.
Lighting is a simple 5v USB cob led strip light that gives me more than enough light.
In addition have a 100ah lithium in a smart battery box for charging phones, fans, Bluetooth speaker etc. If my 165ah gets low I can switch it out with the 100ah. When I leave I grab them both and recharge them at home for the next trip. I made up Anderson connectors for both batteries so they are just plug and play. Now I need to solve the problem of my propane tanks not vaporizing and keeping pressure in cold temps to run my furnace. Heated tank blankets are the answer so that will be another draw on the battery but not a constant draw. Only needs to be on when it gets cold enough.

In trying to keep this as simple as possible. Didn't want to run a gas generator for a number of reasons although the house is wired for it. Didn't want to get into the whole solar panel set up to recharge the batteries either. Just more stuff to go wrong. These lithiums are coming in more powerful small packages at cheaper prices all the time. If I need to I will spend the money on another battery.

Patriot Power gets less than great reviews. Too bad, because they're local to us and I like buying local.

EcoFlow, Jackery, and Bluetti seem to be the top brands. In the power range you're looking at, all 3 look pretty equal in features and price.

We shopped EcoFlow and Bluetti in more detail, as the wife didn't like the aesthetics of Jackery. Both brands offer solar panels and a whole range of power and expansion options.

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:
Everybody’s situation is different. I was just responding to the OP’s question not providing a cost benefit analysis..

Having lived on the Gulf Coast for several years and multiple hurricanes I know how difficult it is to find gas for any extended generator run time. Using a battery system that can be recharged by a gas generator will drastically decrease the amount of fuel needed over a given amount of time. Plus the added security of not having a loud generator running 24/7 and advertising it to any miscreants that happen to need one should not be discounted. Things get pretty dicey 3 or 4 days after a hurricane when supplies start running out. BTDT!

Using a generator to charge a battery to run stuff will use more gas than just running stuff off of the generator directly especially the inverter type like the OP has. Regardless of type, the higher the electrical load, the more fuel a generator uses. A car uses more fuel to maintain 2,000rpm going uphill than it does on a flat road. A generator is no different. A basic portable generator runs 3,600rpm and uses more fuel to maintain that 3,600rpm while producing its full capability than it does at 1/2 load or 1/4 load.

This is much more obvious with an inverter generator like the OP's. This type doesn't have to run at steady speed that is a multiple of 60 to produce 60Hz alternating current. In a regular portable generator that's literally hardwired into the generator. Run it slower or faster and the current won't switch 60 times per second. An inverter generator generates direct current, running is slower or faster decreases or increases the amps it produces. The inverter takes care of creating 60Hz AC, but the engine runs slower or faster depending on the load. Obviously they faster it runs the more fuel it uses.

In a perfect world, 1 watt of generated power would equal 1 watt of power pulled from the battery. There's inefficiency converting energy from one form to another. Because of this, it takes more than 1 watt of power to put 1 watt into the battery. Then, it takes more than 1 watt from the battery to provide 1 watt to the device that needs it. These inefficiencies add up to and I'm guessing 5%‐15%. I'm guessing at the percentages only because the tech has improved since the last time I looked; it used to be a 20% loss.

Biker_dude doesn't mention which Honda inverter generator he has, but the chances are during a power outage nobody will hear it over the din of whole house generators and regular generators everyone else will be using.

What do I know though? I've only spent a couple of months powering houses off generators during multiple hurricanes and one ice storm in my 26 years on the Gulf Coast. Two whole house generators, one in the RV, two regular portables, and one small inverter one.

I'm not saying don't get a battery or don't get solar panels. They have their place.

As far as I can tell, 4 Patriots' business plan is to sell overpriced stuff to people that don't know better based on patriotism rather than product performance.

Before you pull the trigger, do your research. At best, any number of companies make products that do the same things cheaper. Beyond that, figure out exactly what you want to use it for. If you're trying to run anything major on it, you're going to go through 1612 Watt hours in no time at all (that's only an hour of runtime for a space heater, and at it's 2500 watt continuous rating that's only 36 minutes of runtime.) The recharge rate is also somewhat deceptive. Sure, it will recharge in 90 minutes from household power, but the included 100 Watt solar panel is going to take days to recharge it, especially with less than ideal sunlight.

Now, solar generators can be very useful, but make sure you know what you want to use it for in advance to prevent disappointment cause their marketing is sketchy. If you do decide it would be useful, compare what you pay for what you get for the Patriot Power and their competitors. The Patriot Power stuff seems to be really (really, really, really) overpriced.

See here for one competitor option, ~30% more capacity and 500 watts of solar panels for HALF the price. You can find better deals, that's just the first thing I found on Google.