August 26, 2025 • 20 mins
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Fear itself might be our greatest enemy, but a lack of power during emergencies runs a close second. In this practical exploration of solar generator technology, we break down everything you need to know about these increasingly popular portable power stations that are revolutionizing how preppers approach energy independence.
Solar generators represent the perfect marriage of sustainability and practicality – capturing free energy from the sun through panels, converting DC to AC power, and storing it in increasingly efficient batteries. Unlike traditional gas generators with their noise, fumes, and constant fuel requirements, these silent workhorses require minimal maintenance while providing clean, reliable power for everything from smartphone charging to running small appliances. We examine how these systems function, comparing industry leaders EcoFlow and BluEddy, while addressing common concerns about customer service and reliability.
Understanding capacity is crucial when selecting a solar generator, so we demystify watt-hours and explain how to properly size a system for your specific needs. Whether you're powering a chicken coop (as our host does), creating a home backup system, or seeking off-grid capabilities for a tiny home, today's solar generators offer remarkable versatility with expanding capabilities as technology improves. While weather dependency remains their primary limitation, we discuss practical workarounds and how lithium iron phosphate batteries now offer thousands of cycles with minimal capacity loss. As battery technology continues its rapid evolution and prices steadily decrease, solar generators are becoming an increasingly attractive option for those seeking energy resilience without the hassles of traditional generators.
Ready to harness the power of the sun for your emergency preparations? Subscribe to the Common Sense Practical Prepper podcast for more practical solutions for a self-reliant life, and visit our website where you'll find resources, links to recommended products, and our complete archive of practical prepping advice.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
The National Weather Servicehas issued a severe thunderstorm
warning.
Welcome to the Common SensePractical Prepper Podcast, where
(00:21):
prepping doesn't have to becomplicated or expensive.
Coming to you from awell-defended, off-grid compound
high in the mountains, comingto you from his Florida room in
Richmond Virginia Neitheroff-grid nor well-defended,
unless you count as chickens andcats, here is your host, keith.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Hey, all this is Keith and welcome back to the
Common Sense Practical Prepperpodcast, august the 26th 2025.
The podcast where we explorepractical solutions for a
self-reliant life.
A couple of administrativethings to get out of the way.
I am taking a well-deservedvacation here.
In the next couple of days I,for the most part, will be
(01:04):
completely offline.
I did consider posting a couplepodcasts, but I will be out of
the country and one of thecountries I'll be visiting is
very strict.
They have a lot of guidelineson what you can post, how you
post it, all sorts ofdisclaimers.
So, in the interest of notgetting myself in trouble with a
(01:25):
foreign government and theirlaw enforcement agencies, I will
probably forego bringing mylaptop and my microphone.
However, that does not precludeus from maybe a one minute
survival tip here and there.
Take plenty of photos and maybeshare a few once I get back.
Okay, let's talk about solargenerators.
(01:45):
I've spoken about solargenerators versus gas powered
generators.
Gosh, it was probably a yearand a half ago and that I think
I called it Generator 101 orGenerators 101.
That, by far, of all thepodcasts I have put out, has
been the most popular, the mostdownloaded podcast out of all of
(02:07):
them.
So it appears that at leastprovided some useful information
to some folks.
But today let's go ahead andconcentrate on solar generators.
All right, so a solar generator?
Unlike a traditional gas ordiesel generator, it's a
portable system that harnessessun through solar panels,
(02:28):
converts it to electricity.
So you've got the DC coming in.
It's DC power that it takesfrom the solar panels.
It goes into the solargenerator itself.
It does its little magic solarmagic and it spits it out as AC.
So it takes DC sun, turns itinto AC, so we can go ahead and
(02:49):
run our appliances.
That is stored in a battery.
We'll talk about batterybattery sizes and the size
system that you might need.
The setup is quiet,emission-free and perfect for
emergencies or daily use.
You can think of it as a minipower plant.
You can take it anywhere.
Most of these units are very,very portable.
(03:10):
That's one of the draws tothese the fact that you can pick
it up and take it with you.
You can power lights, chargeyour devices, even run small
appliances.
As a quick sidebar, my chickencoops are run completely off
solar generators that areobviously connected to solar
panels.
Solar generators are veryversatile and it can be home
(03:34):
backup.
It can be camping.
It can be everyday use.
Now, how do they compare withour traditional generators?
Gas powered units are loud,require fuel, produce fumes,
which can be a hassle,especially if it's indoors which
you never use a generator, agas powered generator indoors If
(03:55):
it's inside your garage, please, please, have plenty of
ventilation and they areconsidered.
It's considered sustainableenergy or renewable energy.
Now, I am not a founding memberof the Sierra Club, nor do I
donate to Greenpeace.
However, I really think thatsolar power generators and solar
(04:17):
power in general, I think solarpower certainly has a place as
an energy source.
Solar panels are getting moreand more efficient every week.
Batteries are becoming evenmore efficient and we'll talk
about that in a few minutes.
So I think eventually, solarpower is going to be much more
(04:39):
acceptable than it is now.
So when we talk about thebenefits, all right.
So, like I mentioned before,why should we consider having a
solar generator setup?
All right, sustainable energy.
It's free energy from the sun,no ongoing fuel costs or
environmental impact.
Once you make the initialinvestment, there's really not
much more you're going to haveto add on to it.
(05:00):
You could always grab largersolar panels, upgrade cables,
but maintenance is very, verylow.
There's no engine to tune up.
Maybe you need to clean yourpanels every once in a while,
hit it with a hose or hit itwith the leaf blower, but for
the most part there's not a lotof maintenance.
Now the two standout companiesin this space in my opinion are
(05:20):
EcoFlow and BlueEddy.
Now a quick notation aboutEcoFlow.
I've I have several of theirproducts.
I've had several of theirproducts over the last few years
, and the EcoFlow Delta Pro ayear ago was their top of the
line.
They've since gone to muchlarger systems.
(05:41):
Now some folks will tell youEcoFlow customer service is
terrible.
But I think these are kind ofone-offs and individual mileage
may vary.
I can tell you that I have hadissues lately with one of my
EcoFlow Delta Pros.
I emailed back and forth withcustomer service.
We rolled back some patches,some software updates, some
(06:02):
firmware updates, and it did notfix the issue.
I was able to send the unitback under warranty.
They sent it back a week latersaying it was fixed.
It was not.
Now the emails took a bit of aturn and I explained how
disappointed I was in thembecause I've been a customer of
theirs for years and spentprobably way too much money on
(06:24):
their product.
Where this issue stands now is,once I get back from vacation,
I'm sending my old unit back andthey're going to replace it
with a brand new EcoFlow DeltaPro.
So with all the bad pressthey've been getting out there
about customer service notliving up to expectations, for
me personally they've done verywell, all right.
(06:44):
So we have EcoFlow and then wehave BlueEddy.
There's also Jackery.
There are several differentcompanies out there, but for the
most part, blue Eddy, ecoflowand Jackery are the ones that
you're going to hear about.
So when we're talking about asolar generator and the system
(07:05):
that you're going to tie to it,when we talk about the Delta
series with EcoFlow, one oftheir big claims to fame is that
they'll recharge up to 80% inone hour.
All sorts of different caveatsto that what size solar panels,
what kind of angle, what kind ofshade so there's all sorts of
(07:26):
variables, but that's kind oftheir big claim to fame.
Blue Eddy, on the other hand,exceeds with high capacity
options like the AC200, designedfor long-term use with lithium
ion phosphate batteries.
Some of these lithium ionphosphate batteries will last
several thousand cycles, and acycle in a lithium ion battery
(07:47):
is you charge it to a hundredpercent and then you discharge
it all the way down to near zero, and that is what's considered
a complete cycle.
So both of the systems, both ofBlueEddy and EcoFlow, are
expandable.
You attach additional batteries, you can scale it to pretty
much whatever you need.
But, as with all solargenerators and all solar systems
(08:09):
, it depends on sunlight.
All solar generators and allsolar systems, it depends on
sunlight.
So even on cloudy days, you'restill going to get some solar
input.
At night, obviously not so muchClouds, heavy cloud rain again,
depending on your panels,you're going to get very little
solar input to charge yoursystem.
Keep that in mind.
(08:29):
Solar input to charge yoursystem.
Keep that in mind.
And it is not uncommon for folksto use a small gas power
generator to charge their solargenerator system.
On days when you have anextended period of rain or
cloudy skies for several days,certainly an option to have a
small gas generator on standby.
(08:51):
Now the cost, the upfront cost,can be a bit prohibitive,
prohibitive.
The cost can be too much forsome people and they're not
going to be able to purchasethem.
So it's like anything else youhave the convenience.
Now you can do DIY you can get.
So a solar generator has thebattery, the solar charge
(09:16):
controller, that's the thingthat does all the magic that
turns DC into AC, and it's allcompact, so everything's in one
big case.
You can certainly go DIY andspend gosh sometimes half as
much, sometimes a third as much,depending on what is on sale
and DIY solar generators are notthat complicated if it's
(09:40):
something that you want to puttogether Million different
YouTube videos on that.
So I'm not going to waste yourtime going through those.
But just look up like DIY solargenerator, diy solar power
generator system, and you'll getmore, more than enough hits.
So we talk about the size.
The size is super important.
When you want to purchase asolar generator.
(10:01):
You want to make sure that thebattery let's just talk about
the battery the battery is goingto suit your needs.
So the batteries that they'reusing now are lithium ion
phosphate batteries.
The batteries come in what theycall amp hours, so it could be
a 100 amp hour battery or a 200amp hour battery.
(10:23):
Now, when you look at the solarpowered generators, we want to
talk in watt hours.
So, for the sake ofconversation, if you have a
solar generator, that is, thecapacity is 300 watt hours.
That means a device that uses300 watts can be powered by your
(10:48):
system for one hour, 300 watthours.
Or three 100 watt devices forthe 300 watt hours.
The EcoFlow Delta Pro, just theDelta Pro itself 3,500, so 3.5
kilowatts.
You add the extra battery andthen basically you have 7,000
(11:09):
watt hours.
So again, do the math, just say, oh, it's 700 watts.
And then you just do the mathand you can figure out how long
that device will run.
On that system, with solarpanels connected, you're going
to get a constant influx or aconstant input of solar power.
And then you know hopefullythat balances out, hopefully
(11:31):
your solar panels are bringingin more Watts than the solar
generator is kicking out to yourdifferent devices.
All these different deviceshave apps.
You can look on the screen, youcan look on the app in real
time.
You can make all sorts ofadjustments.
So there's a lot to these andthe convenience, I think, is
what really drives people topurchase these as opposed to the
(11:54):
DIY systems.
But they both certainly havetheir pluses and their minuses.
Pairing your battery as a backup, as a UPS, uninterrupted power
supply, is what a lot of thenicer systems if you have your
laptop plugged into the grid andyou have your solar generator
(12:16):
also plugged into your mainpanel in your home.
There are transfer switches andsome of these are so quick to
move over and start working,pulling from the battery backup
from your solar generator.
In the event you do have itconnected to the grid that
you're not going to loseconnectivity.
Laptop will not blink, you willnot lose your internet, it'll
(12:37):
just keep going on and you won'teven notice.
The lights may flicker for asecond, but you really won't
know that the solar generatorhas kicked in.
Now, when it comes to tying yoursolar generator system to the
grid, depending on where youlive, there are all sorts of
permits, different things youmight have to get from the
county or the city that you livein.
So just be very careful.
(12:57):
Don't just call Joe Electricianand say hey, here's a transfer
switch, connect this to my mainpanel in my laundry room,
because there's a lot of stuffyou have to consider not to get
too, too deep into weeds, butsome of the smaller systems are
only 120.
Your HVAC and a lot of yourother larger appliances will run
on 240.
So, depending on the legs,they're called legs in your in
(13:19):
your main breaker box.
There's also sorts of differentconsiderations, but for the
sake of conversation, let's goahead and keep this as a it's a
very simple type of explanationand a system that you want to
set up.
So no technology is perfect.
So here's some of the challenges.
The biggest hurdle we talkedabout is weather.
If it's a rainy week, you'renot going to have a lot of input
(13:40):
.
You're going to have to rely ongrid power, shore power,
whatever you want to call it.
Battery life is another factor,However.
The lithium ion phosphatebatteries will last for years
and years go through thousandsof cycles.
Now some of these will tell youoh, it's good for 6,000 cycles,
up to 80% of the capacity.
(14:01):
So basically what it's sayingis kind of like your iPhone,
after two or three years, youhave to have it on the charger
constantly.
A lot of these larger systemsthey'll give you, for example,
6,000 cycles up to 80% capacity.
So as the battery gets older,as your system gets older, as it
goes through more cycleswhether it's charged all the way
up and depleted all the waynear the bottom at roughly 6,000
(14:23):
cycles, you're going to get 80%of that capacity that it was
before.
But again, a lot of thesesystems will go for an awfully
long time, unless you're reallylike super hardcore.
When my battery generator or mysolar generators get down to the
80%, I probably won't evennotice.
I might.
(14:44):
Hey, you know, this is, it'sbeen kind of sunny.
What's going on?
It seems to be depleting alittle bit quicker.
You can always look at thecycles.
You can see how much poweryou've been bringing in, how
much power it's been going outAgain.
The apps have all sorts ofinformation and EcoFlow has
recently come out with thesewhole house backup systems that
to me are kind of pricey.
(15:06):
I do not have the money and nordo I have the money to do like a
whole home gas power generatoror one of the Generac I think
they're called.
That's the largest company.
They run on propane or naturalgas.
Those things run about 12 grand.
The EcoFlow system that willback up your entire home,
(15:27):
assuming you want to run yourHVAC, your washer, your dryer,
your microwave and basicallyjust run your home like you
still have grid power.
That is going to be veryexpensive as well.
But the great thing about thesesystems are scalable.
You can keep adding batteriesand every single week batteries
become less expensive.
(15:47):
The technology for batteriesare getting better.
There's a new battery out.
I'm not even going to give youthe name of it in case they
change it tomorrow, but it'svery similar to.
It's like a lithium ion andsome of them are called just
like ion batteries.
So different companies havedifferent names, but trust me,
the technology is there.
It's being improved upon adaily basis.
(16:10):
It's a very good source.
Solar energy, like I've saidbefore, I think has its place in
your entire power structure orgrid structure, whatever you
happen to have for emergenciesor everyday use.
So EcoFlow, blueeddy, jackery,jackery recently came out with
some of these monster systems totry to compete with BlueEddy
(16:32):
and EcoFlow.
I don't have any.
I have a really small Jackerybut it's several years old and
it seems to be doing okay.
It's literally something justto charge a cell phone.
I may get like three fullcharges out of a cell phone.
It's a very small system.
First little system I got gosh,maybe 10 years ago and
something I just messed aroundwith, and that's what I kind of
(16:53):
got started into just messingaround with solar.
What can it do, what it can'tdo, how efficient or how
inefficient solar panels are,but how far the efficiency has
come in the last several years.
Signature Solar and othercompanies have those little mini
split air conditioners orthey're kind of a air
conditioner, a little mini HVACsystem.
(17:14):
It will heat and cool.
They have some of those thattie directly to the grid also
can tie to your solar powergenerator or whatever system you
have.
There are times when you cantell it hey, go ahead and run
off solar power until thebatteries hit 15%.
Then I want you to switch togrid power and then, while it
(17:36):
does that, the solar generatorand the solar panels and charge
it back up.
And mini splits are veryefficient.
I was really surprised when Iactually did some research on
these mini splits and if youhave a shed or even a small home
, a tiny home, mini splits areabsolutely the way to go.
They will heat and they willcool.
In the summer you got cool, inthe winter you got heat, and a
(17:57):
lot of them are.
They're very efficient.
Again, I was surprised on howefficient they are and how small
they are and a lot of them havethe little MC4 connectors,
which is the, I guess, the mostrecognized connector that will
connect your solar chargingpanel.
So you take the MC4 connectorto the cable, you connect it to
a panel and then you run that toyour system.
(18:18):
So an MC4 connector is probablythe most widely recognized type
of connector and your minisplits actually have some of the
mini splits actually have theMC4 connectors already ready to
go.
The system is charged, you unboxit and make sure you don't kink
you know, kink the copper lines, but so much.
You get everything set and youget it.
You get it locked in, geteverything screwed in and then
(18:40):
you literally just connect yoursolar panels with the MC4s and
you're good to go.
You're then able to run themini split, have it, charge up
your system and then switch togrid power if you need it.
All right, folks.
Thank you so much.
If you want to get in touch withme, I'm on the Twitter common
sense practical prepper podcast.
You can search that or prepunderscore.
(19:00):
Podcast is the handle.
You could also email me atpractical prep podcast at
gmailcom.
And a podcast would not becomplete if I gave you my
shameless commercial plug In theshow notes.
There'll be an affiliate linkfor Augustin Farms.
Click on the affiliate link.
There is a chance that I willget a small commission from your
(19:23):
order if placed through theaffiliate link.
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additional 10%.
All right, folks, if you don'thear from me during my vacation,
you'll hear from me after myvacation.
Everybody had a good coupleweeks.
In the event, I don't talk toyou until then and, as always,
(19:46):
be safe out there, take care ofone another and until next time.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Thanks for listening to the Common Sense Practical
Prepper Podcast.
Be sure to subscribe so youdon't miss an episode While
you're at it.
Help spread the word by leavinga rating and review.
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
The National Weather Servicehas issued a severe thunderstorm
warning.
Welcome to the Common SensePractical Prepper Podcast, where
(00:21):
prepping doesn't have to becomplicated or expensive.
Coming to you from awell-defended, off-grid compound
high in the mountains, comingto you from his Florida room in
Richmond Virginia Neitheroff-grid nor well-defended,
unless you count as chickens andcats, here is your host, keith.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Hey, all this is Keith and welcome back to the
Common Sense Practical Prepperpodcast, august the 26th 2025.
The podcast where we explorepractical solutions for a
self-reliant life.
A couple of administrativethings to get out of the way.
I am taking a well-deservedvacation here.
In the next couple of days I,for the most part, will be
(01:04):
completely offline.
I did consider posting a couplepodcasts, but I will be out of
the country and one of thecountries I'll be visiting is
very strict.
They have a lot of guidelineson what you can post, how you
post it, all sorts ofdisclaimers.
So, in the interest of notgetting myself in trouble with a
(01:25):
foreign government and theirlaw enforcement agencies, I will
probably forego bringing mylaptop and my microphone.
However, that does not precludeus from maybe a one minute
survival tip here and there.
Take plenty of photos and maybeshare a few once I get back.
Okay, let's talk about solargenerators.
(01:45):
I've spoken about solargenerators versus gas powered
generators.
Gosh, it was probably a yearand a half ago and that I think
I called it Generator 101 orGenerators 101.
That, by far, of all thepodcasts I have put out, has
been the most popular, the mostdownloaded podcast out of all of
(02:07):
them.
So it appears that at leastprovided some useful information
to some folks.
But today let's go ahead andconcentrate on solar generators.
All right, so a solar generator?
Unlike a traditional gas ordiesel generator, it's a
portable system that harnessessun through solar panels,
(02:28):
converts it to electricity.
So you've got the DC coming in.
It's DC power that it takesfrom the solar panels.
It goes into the solargenerator itself.
It does its little magic solarmagic and it spits it out as AC.
So it takes DC sun, turns itinto AC, so we can go ahead and
(02:49):
run our appliances.
That is stored in a battery.
We'll talk about batterybattery sizes and the size
system that you might need.
The setup is quiet,emission-free and perfect for
emergencies or daily use.
You can think of it as a minipower plant.
You can take it anywhere.
Most of these units are very,very portable.
(03:10):
That's one of the draws tothese the fact that you can pick
it up and take it with you.
You can power lights, chargeyour devices, even run small
appliances.
As a quick sidebar, my chickencoops are run completely off
solar generators that areobviously connected to solar
panels.
Solar generators are veryversatile and it can be home
(03:34):
backup.
It can be camping.
It can be everyday use.
Now, how do they compare withour traditional generators?
Gas powered units are loud,require fuel, produce fumes,
which can be a hassle,especially if it's indoors which
you never use a generator, agas powered generator indoors If
(03:55):
it's inside your garage, please, please, have plenty of
ventilation and they areconsidered.
It's considered sustainableenergy or renewable energy.
Now, I am not a founding memberof the Sierra Club, nor do I
donate to Greenpeace.
However, I really think thatsolar power generators and solar
(04:17):
power in general, I think solarpower certainly has a place as
an energy source.
Solar panels are getting moreand more efficient every week.
Batteries are becoming evenmore efficient and we'll talk
about that in a few minutes.
So I think eventually, solarpower is going to be much more
(04:39):
acceptable than it is now.
So when we talk about thebenefits, all right.
So, like I mentioned before,why should we consider having a
solar generator setup?
All right, sustainable energy.
It's free energy from the sun,no ongoing fuel costs or
environmental impact.
Once you make the initialinvestment, there's really not
much more you're going to haveto add on to it.
(05:00):
You could always grab largersolar panels, upgrade cables,
but maintenance is very, verylow.
There's no engine to tune up.
Maybe you need to clean yourpanels every once in a while,
hit it with a hose or hit itwith the leaf blower, but for
the most part there's not a lotof maintenance.
Now the two standout companiesin this space in my opinion are
(05:20):
EcoFlow and BlueEddy.
Now a quick notation aboutEcoFlow.
I've I have several of theirproducts.
I've had several of theirproducts over the last few years
, and the EcoFlow Delta Pro ayear ago was their top of the
line.
They've since gone to muchlarger systems.
(05:41):
Now some folks will tell youEcoFlow customer service is
terrible.
But I think these are kind ofone-offs and individual mileage
may vary.
I can tell you that I have hadissues lately with one of my
EcoFlow Delta Pros.
I emailed back and forth withcustomer service.
We rolled back some patches,some software updates, some
(06:02):
firmware updates, and it did notfix the issue.
I was able to send the unitback under warranty.
They sent it back a week latersaying it was fixed.
It was not.
Now the emails took a bit of aturn and I explained how
disappointed I was in thembecause I've been a customer of
theirs for years and spentprobably way too much money on
(06:24):
their product.
Where this issue stands now is,once I get back from vacation,
I'm sending my old unit back andthey're going to replace it
with a brand new EcoFlow DeltaPro.
So with all the bad pressthey've been getting out there
about customer service notliving up to expectations, for
me personally they've done verywell, all right.
(06:44):
So we have EcoFlow and then wehave BlueEddy.
There's also Jackery.
There are several differentcompanies out there, but for the
most part, blue Eddy, ecoflowand Jackery are the ones that
you're going to hear about.
So when we're talking about asolar generator and the system
(07:05):
that you're going to tie to it,when we talk about the Delta
series with EcoFlow, one oftheir big claims to fame is that
they'll recharge up to 80% inone hour.
All sorts of different caveatsto that what size solar panels,
what kind of angle, what kind ofshade so there's all sorts of
(07:26):
variables, but that's kind oftheir big claim to fame.
Blue Eddy, on the other hand,exceeds with high capacity
options like the AC200, designedfor long-term use with lithium
ion phosphate batteries.
Some of these lithium ionphosphate batteries will last
several thousand cycles, and acycle in a lithium ion battery
(07:47):
is you charge it to a hundredpercent and then you discharge
it all the way down to near zero, and that is what's considered
a complete cycle.
So both of the systems, both ofBlueEddy and EcoFlow, are
expandable.
You attach additional batteries, you can scale it to pretty
much whatever you need.
But, as with all solargenerators and all solar systems
(08:09):
, it depends on sunlight.
All solar generators and allsolar systems, it depends on
sunlight.
So even on cloudy days, you'restill going to get some solar
input.
At night, obviously not so muchClouds, heavy cloud rain again,
depending on your panels,you're going to get very little
solar input to charge yoursystem.
Keep that in mind.
(08:29):
Solar input to charge yoursystem.
Keep that in mind.
And it is not uncommon for folksto use a small gas power
generator to charge their solargenerator system.
On days when you have anextended period of rain or
cloudy skies for several days,certainly an option to have a
small gas generator on standby.
(08:51):
Now the cost, the upfront cost,can be a bit prohibitive,
prohibitive.
The cost can be too much forsome people and they're not
going to be able to purchasethem.
So it's like anything else youhave the convenience.
Now you can do DIY you can get.
So a solar generator has thebattery, the solar charge
(09:16):
controller, that's the thingthat does all the magic that
turns DC into AC, and it's allcompact, so everything's in one
big case.
You can certainly go DIY andspend gosh sometimes half as
much, sometimes a third as much,depending on what is on sale
and DIY solar generators are notthat complicated if it's
(09:40):
something that you want to puttogether Million different
YouTube videos on that.
So I'm not going to waste yourtime going through those.
But just look up like DIY solargenerator, diy solar power
generator system, and you'll getmore, more than enough hits.
So we talk about the size.
The size is super important.
When you want to purchase asolar generator.
(10:01):
You want to make sure that thebattery let's just talk about
the battery the battery is goingto suit your needs.
So the batteries that they'reusing now are lithium ion
phosphate batteries.
The batteries come in what theycall amp hours, so it could be
a 100 amp hour battery or a 200amp hour battery.
(10:23):
Now, when you look at the solarpowered generators, we want to
talk in watt hours.
So, for the sake ofconversation, if you have a
solar generator, that is, thecapacity is 300 watt hours.
That means a device that uses300 watts can be powered by your
(10:48):
system for one hour, 300 watthours.
Or three 100 watt devices forthe 300 watt hours.
The EcoFlow Delta Pro, just theDelta Pro itself 3,500, so 3.5
kilowatts.
You add the extra battery andthen basically you have 7,000
(11:09):
watt hours.
So again, do the math, just say, oh, it's 700 watts.
And then you just do the mathand you can figure out how long
that device will run.
On that system, with solarpanels connected, you're going
to get a constant influx or aconstant input of solar power.
And then you know hopefullythat balances out, hopefully
(11:31):
your solar panels are bringingin more Watts than the solar
generator is kicking out to yourdifferent devices.
All these different deviceshave apps.
You can look on the screen, youcan look on the app in real
time.
You can make all sorts ofadjustments.
So there's a lot to these andthe convenience, I think, is
what really drives people topurchase these as opposed to the
(11:54):
DIY systems.
But they both certainly havetheir pluses and their minuses.
Pairing your battery as a backup, as a UPS, uninterrupted power
supply, is what a lot of thenicer systems if you have your
laptop plugged into the grid andyou have your solar generator
(12:16):
also plugged into your mainpanel in your home.
There are transfer switches andsome of these are so quick to
move over and start working,pulling from the battery backup
from your solar generator.
In the event you do have itconnected to the grid that
you're not going to loseconnectivity.
Laptop will not blink, you willnot lose your internet, it'll
(12:37):
just keep going on and you won'teven notice.
The lights may flicker for asecond, but you really won't
know that the solar generatorhas kicked in.
Now, when it comes to tying yoursolar generator system to the
grid, depending on where youlive, there are all sorts of
permits, different things youmight have to get from the
county or the city that you livein.
So just be very careful.
(12:57):
Don't just call Joe Electricianand say hey, here's a transfer
switch, connect this to my mainpanel in my laundry room,
because there's a lot of stuffyou have to consider not to get
too, too deep into weeds, butsome of the smaller systems are
only 120.
Your HVAC and a lot of yourother larger appliances will run
on 240.
So, depending on the legs,they're called legs in your in
(13:19):
your main breaker box.
There's also sorts of differentconsiderations, but for the
sake of conversation, let's goahead and keep this as a it's a
very simple type of explanationand a system that you want to
set up.
So no technology is perfect.
So here's some of the challenges.
The biggest hurdle we talkedabout is weather.
If it's a rainy week, you'renot going to have a lot of input
(13:40):
.
You're going to have to rely ongrid power, shore power,
whatever you want to call it.
Battery life is another factor,However.
The lithium ion phosphatebatteries will last for years
and years go through thousandsof cycles.
Now some of these will tell youoh, it's good for 6,000 cycles,
up to 80% of the capacity.
(14:01):
So basically what it's sayingis kind of like your iPhone,
after two or three years, youhave to have it on the charger
constantly.
A lot of these larger systemsthey'll give you, for example,
6,000 cycles up to 80% capacity.
So as the battery gets older,as your system gets older, as it
goes through more cycleswhether it's charged all the way
up and depleted all the waynear the bottom at roughly 6,000
(14:23):
cycles, you're going to get 80%of that capacity that it was
before.
But again, a lot of thesesystems will go for an awfully
long time, unless you're reallylike super hardcore.
When my battery generator or mysolar generators get down to the
80%, I probably won't evennotice.
I might.
(14:44):
Hey, you know, this is, it'sbeen kind of sunny.
What's going on?
It seems to be depleting alittle bit quicker.
You can always look at thecycles.
You can see how much poweryou've been bringing in, how
much power it's been going outAgain.
The apps have all sorts ofinformation and EcoFlow has
recently come out with thesewhole house backup systems that
to me are kind of pricey.
(15:06):
I do not have the money and nordo I have the money to do like a
whole home gas power generatoror one of the Generac I think
they're called.
That's the largest company.
They run on propane or naturalgas.
Those things run about 12 grand.
The EcoFlow system that willback up your entire home,
(15:27):
assuming you want to run yourHVAC, your washer, your dryer,
your microwave and basicallyjust run your home like you
still have grid power.
That is going to be veryexpensive as well.
But the great thing about thesesystems are scalable.
You can keep adding batteriesand every single week batteries
become less expensive.
(15:47):
The technology for batteriesare getting better.
There's a new battery out.
I'm not even going to give youthe name of it in case they
change it tomorrow, but it'svery similar to.
It's like a lithium ion andsome of them are called just
like ion batteries.
So different companies havedifferent names, but trust me,
the technology is there.
It's being improved upon adaily basis.
(16:10):
It's a very good source.
Solar energy, like I've saidbefore, I think has its place in
your entire power structure orgrid structure, whatever you
happen to have for emergenciesor everyday use.
So EcoFlow, blueeddy, jackery,jackery recently came out with
some of these monster systems totry to compete with BlueEddy
(16:32):
and EcoFlow.
I don't have any.
I have a really small Jackerybut it's several years old and
it seems to be doing okay.
It's literally something justto charge a cell phone.
I may get like three fullcharges out of a cell phone.
It's a very small system.
First little system I got gosh,maybe 10 years ago and
something I just messed aroundwith, and that's what I kind of
(16:53):
got started into just messingaround with solar.
What can it do, what it can'tdo, how efficient or how
inefficient solar panels are,but how far the efficiency has
come in the last several years.
Signature Solar and othercompanies have those little mini
split air conditioners orthey're kind of a air
conditioner, a little mini HVACsystem.
(17:14):
It will heat and cool.
They have some of those thattie directly to the grid also
can tie to your solar powergenerator or whatever system you
have.
There are times when you cantell it hey, go ahead and run
off solar power until thebatteries hit 15%.
Then I want you to switch togrid power and then, while it
(17:36):
does that, the solar generatorand the solar panels and charge
it back up.
And mini splits are veryefficient.
I was really surprised when Iactually did some research on
these mini splits and if youhave a shed or even a small home
, a tiny home, mini splits areabsolutely the way to go.
They will heat and they willcool.
In the summer you got cool, inthe winter you got heat, and a
(17:57):
lot of them are.
They're very efficient.
Again, I was surprised on howefficient they are and how small
they are and a lot of them havethe little MC4 connectors,
which is the, I guess, the mostrecognized connector that will
connect your solar chargingpanel.
So you take the MC4 connectorto the cable, you connect it to
a panel and then you run that toyour system.
(18:18):
So an MC4 connector is probablythe most widely recognized type
of connector and your minisplits actually have some of the
mini splits actually have theMC4 connectors already ready to
go.
The system is charged, you unboxit and make sure you don't kink
you know, kink the copper lines, but so much.
You get everything set and youget it.
You get it locked in, geteverything screwed in and then
(18:40):
you literally just connect yoursolar panels with the MC4s and
you're good to go.
You're then able to run themini split, have it, charge up
your system and then switch togrid power if you need it.
All right, folks.
Thank you so much.
If you want to get in touch withme, I'm on the Twitter common
sense practical prepper podcast.
You can search that or prepunderscore.
(19:00):
Podcast is the handle.
You could also email me atpractical prep podcast at
gmailcom.
And a podcast would not becomplete if I gave you my
shameless commercial plug In theshow notes.
There'll be an affiliate linkfor Augustin Farms.
Click on the affiliate link.
There is a chance that I willget a small commission from your
(19:23):
order if placed through theaffiliate link.
In addition at checkout, addpodcast prep.
All one word podcast prep atcheckout and getting an
additional 10%.
All right, folks, if you don'thear from me during my vacation,
you'll hear from me after myvacation.
Everybody had a good coupleweeks.
In the event, I don't talk toyou until then and, as always,
(19:46):
be safe out there, take care ofone another and until next time.
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