Reddit mentions: The best power generators & accessories

Thank you, didn’t see it.

So honestly, super easy project that anyone could do, I called it diy but it’s 99% just connecting wires. For speakers, I’d recommend scouring craigslist for a set of bookshelf speakers. You should be able to get a good set for under $30. The most important thing to look at is the sensitivity rating and the impedance of the speakers. Sensitivity is essentially how loud the speaker gets with less power running to it. Get the speakers with highest sensitivity (preferably 88+) and a low impedance (4 or 6 ohms if you can) if you want to be lazy, these are a damn good value. You could probably find better on craigslist but if you don’t trust your speaker buying go with that pair.

Next step is the amp. There are two pretty easy options that come immediately to mind. First, the “diy” amp you can go ahead and install this in one of the speakers. Parts express has videos showing you how this could be done. The second option and the one is probably recommend is this as far as I know it’s the same amplifier just this one comes housed, there may be small differences.

The final problem is how to power it, and once again you have options. The two basic options are either off some double a batteries or off of a large lithium ion battery pack. Between these options I’d say just go with the aa batteries for cost and just come down with a whole bunch (hit up Costco or bjs and buy like two packs of them). With the first amplifier you’ll have to buy a seperate battery pack to held them, with the second it actually has a place for the batteries already. Now, the coolest option but more expensive is what I’m hoping to do this year. Your car battery is actually 12V dc, exactly what you need. Therefore you can power the amps off of your car battery, just make the connections when you’re there and leave the wires running out of the hood with some quick disconnects (not necessarily this one but something similar) so that it’s easy to take down and set up every day. If you go with the second amp you will need the correct plug. Now, to ensure you don’t kill your car battery, you’ll need a solar panel, preferably with a with a trickle charger. I believe this is probably the best option. You can go cheaper but this is a well known brand so I trust it not to screw up my cars battery. This can sit on your roof all day if you have a tall car. Still do something to make it an inconvenience to steal. If you have a short car just leave it on while your there and use quick disconnects again to make packing up easy, or run the wires inside the car when your gone and have it charging through a window.

Hopefully this all makes sense, it seems like a hassle but for about $100 you’ll have a damn good sounding festival set up that you could take home and set up in a room and love the sound just as much at home as at the festival- I’m telling you, bookshelf speakers sound soooooo much better than your average Bluetooth speaker, just ask r/audiophile, and it’s a cool conversation piece while there. Anyone has any questions I’m happy to help!

Ok. Im sorry I don't have a book or a source because I was forced into this whole situation and had no time. I had to ask on forums and look on google, and perform the results the very next day. So now I have a little knowledge that grows every day by just asking around here on Reddit and on cruisers forums because Im out living In the moment lol.

This is a diagram I made of my electrical set up. I made it to ask a question to experts so a few crucial labels are missing to make it a complete beginners diagram in my opinion.

This is my solar Kit by RENOGY

These are the best batteries to get for house/cabin use and for solar power These are the ones I and everyone hopes to afford. I have 4 (lesser known equivalent) 6v batts, all brand new from Orileys, paired and converted into 2 beefed up 12v batteries. Mine will do the job, maybe last 5-7 years but Trojan T-105s last a life time.

Next is where I got the "Know how" from some forum posts.

• Here is when I first got my boat, and asked about what kind of batteries to get. I almost made the mistake of buying a big tractor battery before the guys on this forum set me strait, and they provided lots of helpful links and explanations.
  
  
• This is a new thread I made recently asking about advanced knowledge of electricity from batteries. I can build and set up the whole system properly, but I have no idea what the numbers mean, so these guys helped me out with that, again.
  
  Finally, here is a AWESOME detailed explanation of battery power, and solar power from a redditor who actually used my own setup as an example.
  
  
  
  With the right equipment, about 400 watts of solar power, 6 to 8 6v batteries. A 250-500watt wind generator, a working engines alternator, and a back up 2000 watt honda generator you can go on with your every day life using free energy. With care you can maintain your batteries health, and your own energy consumption in conjunction with the solar panels, or have a costly back up of a gas generator or the boats engine alternator to beef up your batteries and make sure they never go down. You can also invest in a water maker that turns sea water into fresh drinking water. Our unit can turn 38gallons of sea water in one hour.
  
  With all that in mind, your only expense is food/propane gas for the boat or generator and clothing. Anchoring is free anywhere and most marinas have anchorage spots close to their docks so you can get into town quickly. also some cities have free public docking, so living on a sail boat is pretty cool once you have built a complete self sufficient system. we have USB modems that use 4G signals to provide internet, or we can use our big wifi antenna to reach open wifi signals from a mile away, so gaming and Reddit is possible anywhere we go, especially if we can afford to buy some 4g data for the month.
  
  Im interested in this because I already have one solar panel and 4 batteries. I eventually want to have 2 big 250 watt solar panels that will make up a total 500 watts, and I want to have 8 6v batteries total.
  Instead of getting a AC inverter, I can switch everything I use to DC power supply, like a laptop, Wii U, Fan, Fridge to save power, and even more so if I upgrade my computer to run more efficiently.
  Ive alredy replaced EVERY SINGLE LIGHT with little LED bulbs, even my navigation lights and mast lights. I can turn them ALL on and my volt meter doesn't drop a single volt and its freaking amazing how little they draw.
  
  Ive come to realize that I can realistically save and continue to build off my current system, instead of struggling to sustain a "normal" lifestyle with bills and rent. $200 here and there, one new solar panel this month, two more batteries that month, and before you know it, you have spent less than a years worth of bills and finances, only this time its a permanent solution that no longer requires a yearly or monthly bill.

I just did this a few months back (same issue with the well pump). Was originally planning on hiring an electrician to do it, but after a few youtube videos, realized I could do it myself. Very simple - hardest part was figuring out which circuits I wanted to include and wrestling 10-3 UF-B wire. The electrical part was easy.

First question you got to figure out is what kind of switch you are going to use. If you have some free breaker space in your panel, you can get an interlock switch. This is the cheapest way to go and you could power your whole house with this method (if you generator is up to it). Downside is you have to be careful about balancing your loads.

I didn't have any space in my panel so got one of these badboys. Super easy to set up and use. Lets you choose up to 10 circuits that you want to be run off the generator. It includes a bunch of documentation on how to calcualte and balance loads for your generator to decide which side you hook each ciruit up to. Also nice because when the pwoer comes back on, you will know. I very highly recommend this box and company. Great instructions and customer support, very easy to install. Seems like really solid hardware, too. They sell these at the Lowes near me in case you can't wait for amazon shipping.

In either case, I also highly recommend the remote L14-30 input box (its included in the kit that I linked to). Have it mounted somewhere outside you house where the generator will be running. You can run the aforementioned 10-3 UF-B cable out to it. Its a lot cheaper than buying a super long equivalent extension cord to get the generator a safe distance away from your home, and you also don't have to wrestle that same cord every time you need the generator (those things are heavy AF and the last thing you want to deal with in the cold/dark/rain/snow/wet/wind that is happening when you lose power).

Uhh. No, it so can't. It has 100Ah capacity. Rule of thumb for 12v DC to AC conversion is 1 hour @ 100w AC draw = about 10A being pulled from the DC battery. 1000w would run it flat in one hour. Likely much less since that would be a very high discharge rate for such a battery and that generally reduces capacity.


While I admit I don't have a solid answer to your original question in my response I do need to express interest in why you're set on the goal zero platform? They are laughably over priced. The Yeti 1250 is 1600 bucks in Canada, and it's not a generator at all. It's a 12v Absorbent Glass Mat battery with 100Ah capacity, with a 1200w pure sinewave inverter and a Maximum Power Point Tracking solar charge controller. It's all stuck in a box with some connections and a nice display. It doesn't come with a solar panel to charge it at all either.

That 100Ah may seem like a lot, but it's not. Especially considering you shouldn't really discharge a lead acid battery more than 50% So 50 amps a day is all you can pull. About 2 an hour. Depending on the duty cycle of your fridge that's it right there. I'm a big fan of 6 volts for dollar/Ah, and you can grab two T105 Trojan batteries most places for 300 bucks. They are good batteries and can take a lot of abuse. I also like USBattery, and have picked these up in Alberta for 100 each. http://usbattery.com/products/6-volt-batteries/us-2200-xc2-lf/ that's 230 Ah for 200 bucks. My last load test on a pair of heavily abused ones that are about 6 years old now still pull just over 100A before 50% discharge. I can't argue with that quality. That leaves us with 1400 bucks to play with, and more capacity to run things from. Since we saved money on storage, I'd spend the money on a good inverter like this. Naturepower and Go Power should be avoided, but might be available a lot cheaper so by all means take the risk if you wish. That's 1500 watts vs the 1200 from the Goal Zero package. So we now have 800 to spend on a charge controller, a box, and 12v output/input options and a box. A box could be simply constructed with plywood and scrap 2x4's and could probably be sourced in any nearby alley. Charge controllers can be had for very cheap or for a little more depending on your requirements. The charge controller in the Yeti appears to be able to handle 20A, so our 13 dollar and change controller above works. Even factoring wire, nuts, bolts, crimping supplies and the time to build it all you're going to be coming out with 600 bucks in your pocket for solar panels. The Yeti doesn't even come with solar panels. They want TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS for 30w in Canada! Unbelievable! Another 30 bucks gets you more than 3x the charging potential. It's also in a nice aluminum frame suitable for reinforcing and adding hinges for portability should you want to pair it with another with all the money you're saving. There is absolutely no way you'd get me to support their over priced gear when it can be done so simply and cheaply on your own, all with better results.


Edit: the specs on the 30w panel say 2A output max, so they're only 24w peak. That extra 30 bucks on a real panel gets you (barely) more than 4x the charging potential. To max out the 20A capabilities of the Yeti 1250 using 30w panels would cost you 2000 dollars for 10 panels. Two of those 100w panels would be 460 dollars and cover just over 80% of that capacity. But why stop there? We saved 600 bucks, lets buy another pair of batteries for 200 to increase our capacity to 460Ah.
With over 4x the reserve you STILL won't be pulling 1000w for a few hours. Just about though, you might get 4.
My favourite part about this is I hate going retail and it's STILL cheaper to piece it together doing it that way. I could find a better inverter used thanks to the used marine market out in BC, for less, I could source a few used batteries after a load test for cheap. I could DIY panels for cheap using epoxy and reclaimed aquarium glass. About 80c a watt materials included. In Canada that's amazing for a single panel.

All Goal Zero prices were from here http://www.goalzerostore.ca/


The only opinion I can give you with pellet stoves is they are VERY expensive and installation is semi permanent, your landlord might even have to get different insurance if there is a stove pipe jammed out his roof. He's probably not going to be happy with having to duct the cold air supply in either. They are also equipped with hoppers for pellet storage, how long you intend to run it and what model of stove you get depends on how often you have to fill it. They are also electronically controlled, so it will need to be constantly plugged in for the auger to feed pellets into the stove to keep the fire going or between a specific range of temperatures. You want to do this for a month and that's a lot of effort for an experiment. You could probably get away with a propane heater of some kind, along with the appropriate detectors for safety. I wouldn't advise on running that unsupervised at all, and it's not going to be appropriate for cooking like a stove would be.

Sure! For starters I spent months researching eplaya and elsewhere on the web. There are some companies that sell turn-key systems, like Goal Zero, that seem crazy over-priced. I told myself I would’t charge anything to my CC and I’m pretty good at figuring shit out, so I wanted to take a cheaper route. I wanted avoid soldering a bunch of Chinese stuff together if I could. Once I figured out what I needed, I had to look for components…

Panel - I looked at everything from 5 watt panels for fountain pumps to big ass 100 watt panels. I am flying from the East Coast so I needed something portable. I was thinking I need 20 watts to be comfortable, so I looked for 30+ watt folding panels. A cherry-on-top feature would be both AC and DC power. I committed to a DC cooler system but it would be nice to charge phones and power banks too. If I am going to spend some cash, I don't want a single purpose device. I came across SunKingdom early on but the panels were mad expensive. Almost like Goal Zero expensive. Then one day out of the blue this guy popped up on sale! https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MTAFEJ6/ref=s9_hps_bw_g107_i4

I got it for $79! Very happy with it so far. I’ve used it several times already.

Charge Controller - This was pretty simple. I found one that could handle the load, was easy to use AND had two USB outs for good measure. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018ICLC3K/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I must confess I don’t know how to “use” it. I plugged it in and it does what I need it to do for now. It has some really shitty instructions (none) so I hope I don’t need to figure out how to do something else with it.

Battery - I am going to buy a 100+ ah battery in Reno but I needed something to test with. I found this 12 v 12 ah battery on sale at Radio Shack for like $12. She told me it was for a discontinued Verizon cable box.

Bucket - I have a few Home Depot buckets around the house as a matter of course. I cut two rows the first time and decided I’d rather have one row of squared off holes instead of two rows of round holes. This way I get a lot of airflow and maximize the water holding capabilities of the bucket. I can probably fit another .75 gallons in my bucket with one row of holes.

Padding in the bucket - Went with FIGJAM’s suggestion for $22. It comes with two in case you fuck one up. Cut to FIGJAM’s spec and adjust as needed but give yourself an extra inch in all measures and fine tune from there. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001UTNFPW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Pump - I was told 60 gallons per hour (GPH) was good enough so I bought this for $10: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JWJIC0K/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

At first I didn’t think it was powerful enough but I had a dead ass battery. After I charged it up, this little guy acted like a freshman going to prom with the homecoming queen. It squirts quite well. I bought 2 more as back up.

Tubes - I bought some tubbing at Home Depot and experimented. It’s took a few rounds of $5 tubes to figure out the spacing of the holes. I heated up a nail on my stove to poke holes in the tubes. Ended up with nice, clean holes.

Fan - VERY IMPORTANT PART - IF YOU CAN’T MOVE AIR, NOTHING ELSE MATTERS My smaller 4 person tent does’t need much so I thought a 150 cubic foot per minute (CFM) fan would be fine. I wasn’t crazy about the horsepower of my first fan that was $8: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0099TTAIG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

So I ordered a 200 CFM fan for $18: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0054S92FW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Again, I charged the battery and got MUCH better performance from the 150. However the 200 makes me feel like I ate a York Peppermint Patty so I am using it and taking the 150 as back up.

Connectors

• All “raw” cables get connected via these $5.55 things that are very easy to hook up. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015OCV5XO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
  
  My pump and fan need to go to one line so I got this for $4.38: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007Q8IKRE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
  
  The “watch this” moment comes by the way of this $6 switch: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00G6GNREI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
  
  I think that is everything. Now I need to figure out how to get a big ass battery from Reno to the Playa on Saturday, pre-gate. I can probably use my camps local asset or ask someone driving in.
  

Hi, this is simple if your expectations are in line, and unworkable if not.

If you want to run devices that heat or cool with electricity, such as coffeemakers, hotplates, A/C, toasters, hair dryers, etc., you will not make your numbers or anywhere near them. Give that all up. There is a reason whole-house systems cost $30-40k, it is heating and cooling.

Now for the awesome: IT WORKS. I ran 30 feet of LEDs, a laptop, a small but nice stereo, a PoE wireless antenna, a wireless hub, iPhones and iPods, 18v DeWalt battery packs, a fan — plus whatever I am forgetting — off of 2 x 100W solar panels and 2 x 100Ah marine cells for ten weeks. I went dry twice, but with a fully charged laptop, stereo and phone.

First you must go ahead and do all the math of your usage, because we are are still at the stage where we must all do all the math, and math is good, but when you are doing all the math to the third significant digit, and looking up the model of that rechargeable flashlight you like for its charging amperage requirements, maybe say fuck it and start with half that; one beefy panel, one solid battery. You could easily add another panel and battery later.

As to wiring, your charge controller will have connections that include a legend where to hook up your batteries, panels and inverter, so easy peasy there. See the link below for an example. I recommend spending the extra on an MPPT controller, which converts some of your extra juice (the 12V panel below can run almost 19V) that normally is dumped when charging into increased amperage of the charging current. Do the math of your expected load, it's possible you will want a 20A. If it doesn't include fusing directions, go online and find a schematic of where to add inline fuses that, if that are not included, you will get at the auto parts store.

YOU WILL WANT TO DO THE MATH on wire sizes. There are calculators online. For your small setup, the important run is going to be between the battery and the charge controller. This is where the fires start. If you think you will EVER add another battery dig deep and wire for it.

For inverters, I feel better about everything by getting a well-respected pure sinewave unit. I run a Xantrex 600W in my 4Runner and a Cotec 350W for the solar, and they feel bulletproof. You could save a ton, and maybe in this case you should, by getting a cheap modified sinewave one and seeing if it meets your needs. Either way they will have outlets on them, so you don't need to wire it further.

Also, no SLA batteries inside the vehicle unless properly secured, sealed inside, and vented outside.

I also recommend the /r/vandwellers subreddit, it is excellent. This comes up there a lot, although this is the better place for the question.

Solar panel:
http://www.amazon.com/RENOGY-Monocrystalline-Photovoltaic-Battery-Charging/dp/B009Z6CW7O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417553121&sr=8-1&keywords=100W+solar+panel

Charge controller (10A likely okay, do your math, I got the 20 amp)
http://www.amazon.com/Tracer1210RN-Solar-Charge-Controller-Regulator/dp/B008KWPGS6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1417552788&sr=8-2&keywords=mppt+charge+controllers

Invertors:
http://www.amazon.com/COTEK-SK350-112-INVERTER-OUTLETS-CABLES/dp/B006W9IPA0

Not a bad price on that kit. Personally I pieced together my own, using a Renology 100W panel and a cheap Mohoo PWM controller, and what you're looking at looks pretty comparable for a comparable price.

To try and actually answer your question, though, here's a fairly quick run-down of how to roughly size your battery. I'll use my own situation as an example; I have a small popup camper my wife and I use in the boonies, nowhere near power, for days at a time. This will assume you're using decent quality, sealed AGM deep cycle batteries, not the garbage RV/Marine "deep cycle" batteries, which are not true deep cycle, just slightly tougher starting batteries.

First step is actually the hard part, the rest is easy. You need to know what you want to run, how much power it draws, and how much you want to be able to run it between charges. That sizes your battery. Finding the current draw on your items if you don't already have them can be the hard part - if possible, it's often best to have what you want to run, and measure it for actual numbers.

For example, my main loads are:

• I wanted to be able to run a pair of Fantastic Fans on low (1A each) overnight, for up to 10 hours each, which is roughly 20Ah.
  
• Alternately, on colder nights I have a propane heater with a fan that draws about 3A, but which would only run for about four hours tops in twelve hours on a really cold night, so that's only about 12Ah. Since that's less than the fans and I wouldn't be running both, I don't count it.
  
• I have a water pump that draws about 3A but that is only used for minutes a day (not worth counting)
  
• LED lights that are 3W (about 1/4A). Let's assume I want to run one of those for up to 12h per night, so that's 3Ah.
  
• I also recharge two phones overnight, which are usually roughly 2Ah batteries each, maybe 2/3 discharged. The charge circuits aren't very efficient, so you can assume at least 2Ah each to recharge those phones, for 4Ah total.
  
• I'm also recharging a pair of 2.5Ah small batteries for e-cigarettes ("mods" ) overnight. They aren't fully discharged, but assume 5Ah to charge those up.
  
  My worst case overnight loads basically work out to 20Ah (fans) + 3Ah (lights) + 4Ah (phones) + 5Ah(mods). That's about 32Ah of load per day, pretty much worst case in hot weather.
  
  Now, you can do a few different calculations to get a minimum battery size from that.
  
  Number one, you really don't want to regularly cycle your battery below 50%, unless you want to be replacing your good batteries a lot. Hence, your absolute minimum recommended battery size would be 2x your load between charges. In my case, that's about 64Ah. A deep cycle discharged to 50% will usually last about 400 charge cycles.
  
  Now, given the choice, you really don't even want to discharge that low. A deep cycle discharged only 30% (roughly 1/3) will usually last 1100-1200 cycles. I generally recommend you size for at least triple your daily load. This pays off big time in the long run. For 50% more battery, your batteries will usually last nearly 200% longer (3x as long). Enormous cost savings long term.
  
  Hence, my recommended sizing would be 32Ah x 3, or 96Ah. I'm running a 100Ah battery, UPG UB121000, part number 45981. In practice I'm not regularly discharging this battery more than about 25%.
  
  Now, you get some extra benefit from oversizing as well. By sizing to 1/3 discharge, I can run two days without charging if I have to, and not be worse than a 70% discharge. That's a good emergency backup, since if you regularly discharge anywhere near 100%, your battery usually won't last more than 100-150 cycles. That covers me in case I get a day with absolutely zero sun. In practice this isn't a big worry for me, as on days with poor sun I'm only running the fans about half as much anyway, and if I couldn't get topped off during the day, in a pinch I'd just connect jumper cables to my van and have the battery at full charge after about an hour at idle.
  
  Next, once you know your average daily usage, you can also size your solar panel. You actually need to size more by charge time than by pure wattage, since a 100W panel will not produce 100W using a PWM controller. My 100W panel produces about 5.3A at 19V under ideal conditions (that calculates to 100W), but since the PWM controller just knocks the voltage down to an appropriate battery charge voltage, I'll never actually get 100W out of this panel. The current maxes out at 5.3A, but my battery pulls the voltage down to around 13.5V at charge, so at most I'm actually getting about 72W out of it.
  
  To size your panel, look at the optimum operating current (usually listed as Imp), and use that to size in amp hours instead. Plus, you also need to include any loads you'll be running while you charge. In my case, my panel puts out about 5.3A, but if it's a hot day, I'm going to be running one of those fans on medium (2.25A) for our sheepdogs in the van, so I really only have about 3A to work with to charge. If I can get a solid 8h worth of good charging light, that's about 24Ah useable per day. As you could see, I'd really do well with a second panel. As it is, it's been just sufficient with one panel to mostly keep me topped up, since I haven't had a ton of hot weather where we've really had to run the fans a lot.
  
  If I added a second panel, I'd have roughly 8A to charge with even with that fan running, and could reliably charge my bank all the way with only about 4h of good, full sun.
  
  I know that's a bit long, but hopefully it'll be a help to get you going in the right direction!

A battery does not have to be special built just for a CPAP, any battery that provides 12-volts DC will work (which is the same type of power your car battery provides). CPAP specific batteries are a scam. You just need to get the right DC power cord for your machine and hook it up to any 12-volt battery.

Now how many days will you need, and does your battery need to power anything else? Do you need it small enough to be legal to fly with (limit is 100wh (watt-hours) or 160wh depending on your airline).

The smallest and cheapest solution is the Easyacc Portable Power Bank 38000mah rated 144wh and costs $81 $71 (it's dropped in price). It is the size of medium paperback book and about 2lb. It has a built in cigarette outlet, usb ports, and a built in white light plus flashing red emergency light. Using my Dreamstation (without humidifier) it has enough power to give me approx 4.5 8-hour nights. Best of all, it's still under the 160wh limit the FAA has so it's legal to fly. It is also about 50% more capacity of a CPAP specific battery which are typically only 99wh.

Going larger you have the Renogy 222WH Laptop Power Bank or it's bigger brother the 266wh

If you need a built in inverter so you can get normal 120-v AC power (which will drain your battery quickly) something like the Jackery Portable Power Station Explorer 240 (which was on a 1-day sale yesterday on Amazon for an amazing low price of $187 but now it's back up to $250), or Jackery Portable Power Station Explorer 500

There is also countless other chinese knockoff style power banks available. Most of them will be perfectly fine. The only thing I would stay away from is anything that looks like this because they do not actually have a cigarette outlet (you have to get a barrel to cigarette adapter) and they tend to be actual garbage systems.

The gold standard for battery systems is the Goal Zero Yeti 400 Lithium Portable Power. I happen to also own this and it provides me with enough power for over 11 nights of power on my CPAP and still wasn't completely drained. It also comes in larger sizes. It is the most expensive option but the best designed. Weighs about 11lb, and can be charged pretty much from any solar panel big or small.

Other people will say the best thing to do is buy a lithium mobility scooter battery and build it yourself. Which I feel is only a good answer if you are handy wiring electronics. Some people just want a prebuilt answer.

When the power has gone out on me, I simply wake up, plug in the battery and go back to sleep. You do not normally want to leave your CPAP plugged into the battery and charge it at the same time. If you do and the charger is not isolated from the discharge, the battery will try to draw all the power through the charger, which if it's rated for higher than your usage will be fine, if it's rated lower might overload your charger. Mind you without the humidifier my Dreamstation power draw is at most 5 watts and the smallest battery charger is like 30 watts, but with the humidifier power draw can be 40+ watts, so you want a charger rated for at three times that, which might be too large for most batteries.

I actually just finished going through all of this.

1. I would recommend going solar. Powering your house batteries from your alternator works, but it puts extra stress on your alternator which means you'll have more repair bills down the road.
   
   1b) I have 2 vent fans installed in my roof, and it does wonders on a hot night. Set one to blow in, and the other to blow out, and you'll get some great airflow. Humidity is another story though. Even with the two fans humidity can be rough, but at least its something.
   
   
2. As for battery usage for the fans, the ones I linked you to use about 60w, so you are going to want to make sure to buy enough deep cycle batteries to last you however long you sleep. Two 60w fans running for 8 hours is going to be about 960w. I have 4 35 amp-hour deep cycle solar batteries, which give me a total of 1620 watts to play with, so I can run my fans all night, and still have 660w left over to play with in the morning. BUT, seeing as you are looking to also have a fridge, that is going to mean more batteries depending on the kind of fridge you are thinking of using. A fridge like THIS would only use about as much as your vent fans, and would save you money on batteries. Here is a calculator that helped me out when I was trying to figure out my battery bank.
   
   
3. Charging your house batteries off of your alternator only takes about 15 minutes or less for a full charge. Solar might take a few hours, but its less stress on your van in general.
   
   ​
   
   If you are worried about solar being too expensive, it really isnt. You can get a full 100 watt solar panel kit for $118. That give you all the wiring, a panel, and a charge controller all at once. Then all you need are batteries, which you can get a set of 4 for $250. You don't need those specifically, but just make sure whatever batteries you get, you make sure they are DEEP CYCLE batteries, and not starter batteries.
   
   ​
   
   Hope this helps! If you have any other questions, feel free to ask, and I'll be glad to help. Anything to help another vandweller so they don't have to go through all the hell I did trying to figure it all out myself. lol
   
   ​
   
   ​

That generator is loud. Which means your gonna be kind of an asshole if you use it in a campground or festival sort of setting.

Better is an inverter generator. The Yamaha and Honda models are the gold standards. They are very quiet (58 db vs 74 db for the one you listed). They are also very light. I can easily pick my Yahama up and carry it..wherever.

However to run A/C you're likely going to need to buy two and chain them together which is pricey.

A good middle ground is this Champion inverter generator. It runs at 2800 watts which is probably enough for your A/C. It's much heavier, but has wheels so it's not too hard to get around.

I own both the Champion and the Yamaha. Since our trailer has a smaller A/C unit we generally carry just the single Yamaha with us, but that just barely can get us cold. Still for the occasional night away from shore power it's great.

When we're going boon-docking we carry the Champion which easily runs our trailer. I had the Champion first and it's been reliable, except that the pull coord became unthreaded. I didn't realize how easy that was to fix so I bought the Yamaha in a fit of desperation. To do it again I would have bought two Yamaha's up front. Way more $$, but still better in the end.

First of all, I don't agree that a generator is an important prep unless you have a specific life-or-death need, e.g. medical equipment or an electric-powered well. The average apartment-dweller should be able to get by without electrical service for a few days. Stock up on spare batteries for flashlights and such. Get some non-electronic forms of entertainment. Get a hand-crank radio — many of them can charge your phone as well. Get food that doesn't need refrigeration or cooking. Learn which food actually needs refrigeration for safety; don't throw out your whole fridge on day one of an outage.

That will cover the short term and, in a long-term disaster, fuel will be in short supply so a generator is of questionable use.

> Unfortunately, i live in an apartment in socal. Can generators even be used in an apartment? I have a small balcony.

Do not risk it. Carbon monoxide can get inside the building. Do not risk it.

As an alternative, consider a portable power pack, and remember to keep it charged up! Some can be charged from solar as well. Or DIY with a bare panel, a charge controller, a marine deep-cycle battery and an inverter. (Also, a lot of things such as LED light strips can run directly from the 12V battery and don't need an inverter.)

> How long do they last if i buy one and just throw it in storage?

All prepper equipment should be tested regularly. I'm not an expert but I would say run it for 30 minutes every month or two. Remember that gasoline goes bad after a few months. They also have starter batteries that need to be topped up like a car battery. You'll need to check the oil and air filter and replace if needed.

> Once i buy a house, what is the best generator to own?

Like any "what's best" question, it depends on your needs. How much power do you need? Look into a dual-fuel gas/propane generator as well. Propane is much safer to store and it stays good for decades assuming your tank doesn't leak.

Also for the love of god, don't jury-rig a connection to the house wiring. There are about seven ways to kill yourself or someone else by doing that. You need to use a proper transfer switch or at least a breaker interlock plate. The easier option is to rely on extension cords and not the house wiring.

If you actually want a shot at the podium, these are what I would recommend at a minimum (and you already mentioned most of these):

• Front brakes: Stainless steel brake lines, race pads, and RBF Dot4 fluid. Flush it several times throughout the season.
  
• Steering damper
  
• Suspension: Proper springs and valves for your weight, set up by a reputable tuner.
  
• Mild tune: Hindle full system (cheapest), BMC race filter, and take it to a reputable dyno tuner to unlock the ECU and tune. They might recommend other mods.
  
• Bodywork: Armour Bodies, Flexi Glass, or similar. Paint it if you want but this is basically a consumable item that will need to be replaced after some number of crashes.
  
• Controls: Adjustable rear sets and clip-ons. Vortex are highly adjustable, modular, and therefore, crashable.
  
• Tires should be obvious. You're going to spend a lot on them. Use fresh slicks for races and then finish them off during practice/track days.
  
• Find out what gearing works best for the track(s) you'll be racing at, and buy the correct sprockets and chains. I run aluminum rear sprockets but they barely last a season.
  
• Optional: A tall windscreen like Zero Gravity Corsa really helps down the straights. A quickshifter is nice but won't drop you much time, more mental energy. A gear shift indicator is nice for moments when you get forced off-pace, such as race starts or getting stuck behind traffic.
  
  I recommend SV racing's tire warmers. They're cheap and reliable and have multiple temperature settings: http://www.svracingparts.com/store/#!/SV-Racing-Parts-New-2017-Series-180-190-Series-Adjustable-Tire-Warmers/p/10237728/category=22883337
  
  I use a Honda clone generator that has been nothing but reliable: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SMNLF4M/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
  
  Also, this should be obvious: track days. Make lots of friends and they will show you the lines and point out where you can drop time. After a few months they'll be asking you for pointers.

Thanks :)

You could write sequences easily enough, and in fact it would be relatively trivial to fire them off spontaneously with simple pushbuttons as input to your microcontroller. When I put that costume together, I wore a little custom switchboard like a watch that had the arduino installed on it along with a series of pushbuttons and rocker switches to turn things on and off.


Syncing to music directly might be tough - certainly doable, but it may just be easier to have buttons which perform preprogrammed actions. There are a lot of ways things could go awry when trying to line up audio with circuits. For professional shows it's better to have an engineer or two (on further viewing, it looks like they had 3 guys manning this in the show) on the sidelines controlling all that stuff, but if it's just you a simpler and more adaptable route might be to program 8 or so actions, wire buttons from the arduino to your fingertips to fire them off, and rely on your own timing and coordination to get things really moving. Just a suggestion to avoid overcomplicating things, and using such a technique also allows you to be a bit more adaptable (say, for example, if you want to use the surrounding music like at a club as opposed to needing your own).


Also /u/Tinkrr2 is right about the voltage requirements varying by brand - make sure you look into that. Finally, if you're looking to make this into a semi-permanent hobby then it helps to have an adjustable power supply handy. A beefy battery, a sizable power supply, a few barrel jacks, some Dupont connectors, and most importantly an adjustable buck converter will take you very far. I wouldn't worry too much about any of this now, but if you decide you like tinkering with electronics (especially LEDs, which have moderate power requirements) that would be a terrific start.

Hi, I think you re betther find some other options. Batteries is just too heavy and can't power themselves when they're flat. I like those kinds of solar powerhouse (just like the product from anker), and I had bought this type of outdoors equipment. It's 200AH 60HZ [solar portable generator from suaoki] (https://www.amazon.com/Suaoki-Portable-Generator-Inverters-Charged/dp/B06ZXYVG4G).

I usually power a two 12V LED lamp, and charge a cell phone with this item. When I needed something charged up. It can be charged with solar energy or AC charge, but do not charge at the same time, AC output 110V 60Hz, can power my small TV and computer, very good. I would recommend it to anyone. I also bought a 100W solar panel from the same company to connect with the generator. It's really useful when go outdoors. Hope the thoughts can help you figure it out. Good luck!!

The best thing you can is build a bed platform and some full length drawers for storing all your stuff, then install a decent high capacity (150ah+) secondary battery set up. This is a great write up on how to charge the secondary battery from your alternator. Once you have that you can have a fridge, get a decent 12v compressor and it'll last for ages, we have this wynter one and absolutely love it. As a fridge we've had it running for 4+ days off our 225ah batteries without recharging. Once you have a fridge the food you can keep makes all the difference in the world. We lived for 3 months in our bus with this setup and it was so nice.

From there you can add some cheap solar panels and you can stay in one spot for ages, although we have one, we barely use it because we were driving every couple days.

The best thing about this setup is that it's all totally removable, so if you want to sell or upgrade later you take it all out and put it in your new rig. Plus you're not limiting your resell market (most truck owners don't want an overlanding rig).

You have yourself an awesome truck, I loved our 96 T100, with 225k miles and it still ran like a champ, never broke down on us and everything except the shocks and wheels were stock.

> Congrats on a well-executed model!

Thanks. :)

> Based on the size of the roof area for the solar panels, I'm assuming you've picked out the panels already. Have a link? I'm curious in learning more about what you've selected.

Definitely monocrystalline panels. As an example, Renogy makes a nice little 200W starter kit with charge controller and such. May or may not wind up going with that exact unit, but it'll be something similar.

As for the size, I just hacked together a couple of 24" by 48" scale blocks, since that ought to cover a majority of pairs of panels i might settle on.

The basic calculations here are based on several trips to the field with my current rig running on a 101Ah battery.

• I generally seem to use 15-20% of the capacity (so, 20Ah) for a full night's imaging. So I'm planning based on being able to deliver 20Ah to the batteries on a clear day.
  
  
• At 200W, at what is a nominal 14V or so from typical MC panels, we're looking in the range of 14A. I always cut that expectation in half, so I'm looking to get 7A out of these panels.
  
  
• At 7A, that says I need 3 hours of clear skies and good sun to refresh from a night's imaging.
  
  
• Did some poking around in some historical weather data and some solar planning sites, and found that it's pretty reasonable to expect 3 hours of sunlight within 48 hours after any given clear night.
  
  
• So...I'll double up my battery...go to 200Ah of capacity...which should let me image 6-8 nights without recharges EASILY, and that should cover any oddball runs of "clear night, cloudy day".
  
  The system is almost certainly overkill, but I like it that way. :)
  
  > Also, how do you plan on sealing out moisture at the roof seam?
  
  A little flap of shingles, basically...sort of how Harry Page did his as linked in the OP.

Thank you so much for your detailed reply!! I really appreciate it.

So I went ahead and got an electricity usage meter so that I can see how much power the devices I plan on taking with me will use. Like you said, this will allow me to better plan my setup. I should have done this first actually.

Another setup I'm considering is a power generator similar to something like this. What I'd like though is that it has 2 inputs for charging: one from the car and one from the solar panel. I don't want to be having to change inputs when I drive, and then change it again when I'm stopped. Most of the power generators/stations I've seen only have one DC input though. I tried looking for a male to female DC splitter but the ones I've found I don't think are strong enough to run the current from the two charging sources simultaneously.. the only one on Amazon I found is 22 AWG, which according to wikipedia can handle at most 6-7 amps. Did I understand that correctly? Does a DC splitter with a lower AWG even exist?

Another feature I'd like is the ability to use the generator while it's charging, but unfortunately even here most of the units I've seen cannot do this.

I'm going to wait till I have a better idea of the max amount of power I'll need before I research this again.

Thanks for the advice on how to run the fridge efficiently btw. I didn't even consider this. Those are excellent points. Also your idea on the passive water supply for the evap cooler, that's brilliant! I'm going to try fitting that into my design. And I say this bc it can't be that big, but I can perhaps have a half a gallon bottle..

Looks like bullshit to me.

1. No discussion on the technology used on the website. No specs This is a huge red flag. What temperature does the fridge maintain? How long does it maintain that temperature on battery power?
   
2. I see no compressor. This means it is likely utilizing a Peltier to do the cooling, which runs at about 10% efficiency (compared to 30% with a compressor which is 3x more efficient) and is incapable of maintaining temperatures of proper refrigeration. It may cool your drinks down to 45-50 degrees, but it will not function for safe fresh food storage.
   
3. Those solar panels are going to put out a max of maybe 50W in the heat of the day if you're lucky, probably closer to 20W. And that involves taking your refrigerator and leaving it in the sun, where you will need far more cooling capacity to maintain proper temperatures. That's not enough juice to run a portable compressor powered refrigerator by a third. You'd probably need 6 times as much power to properly cool with a peltier.
   
4. Large gaps between the parts will make for leakage and loss in cooling capacity. Combined with thin walls, this thing is not going to be a good insulator.
   
   
   You can use a compressor powered, 12VDC portable refrigerator and freezer effectively on the go, but you're going to need some dedicated solar power production. Let's run through some numbers:
   
   31 liter capacity portable fridge/freezer for $611
   They have a 10.5 liter capacity version for $316 if you need to go really cheap. Reviews say this unit draws an average of about 3.75A, or 45W. For quick math: watts = volts x amps.
   
   

• This will consume 3.75 amps for 24 hours every day, so it consumes 90 amp hours (AH) per day.
  
• Lets say for 16 hours per day you need to make sure your fridge runs of of batteries. So 2/3 of that 90AH will come from batteries, resulting in a number of 60AH for battery power
  
• I am going to add 50% right back on that 60AH for energy loss and battery efficiency, putting the requirement back at 90AH. We're then rounding this to 100AH since thats the size batteries come in. To run the above refrigerator at 45W all day long on solar/battery power, you will want a 100AH deep cycle or AGM battery
  
• Next up, we want to know how much solar power you need to keep this going. This varies by solar panel placement and latitude, but I'm going to say you get a total of 6 hours of prime sun per day. During that 6 hours, you need to be able to charge 100AH of battery. That equates to 16.6 amps per hour. 16.6 amps x 12 volts = 199.2W. To run this system you will need 200W of solar panels on the roof of your van, producing power for you
  
  As a comparison, you can just how much different an actual refrigeration system is from the portable unit linked above. Looking at the pricing and weights further shows just how far off this system is from being able to actually safely refrigerate your food.
  
  
• 100AH battery for $179 (weighs 63lbs)
  
• 31 liter capacity portable fridge/freezer for $611 (weighs 30lbs)
  
• 30A charge controller for $30 (weights maybe 1lb)
  
• 2x 100W solar panels for $277 (weights 33lb)
  
  In total, This is $1100 in hardware and 127lbs of equipment to be able to properly maintain cold food storage. The thing you linked is a backpack sized beverage cooler only.

I've been an A/V guy for 33 years and I've done lots of outdoor setups.

If you are going to be using this at all during the daytime, you need to get at LEAST a 3000 lumen projector. If the sun will be hitting the screen, probably more like 6000 to 10000 lumens.

At nighttime, it's not such a big deal... 3000 lumens will look amazing, 2000 lumens average, and 1000 or 1500 lumens weak but usable.

All those figures are for a screen that's about 120 inches wide (or less), if your screen is bigger than that, you may need more lumens, especially during the daytime.

The other thing you want to look at is your lens. The lens will have a ratio on it. 1.0 means if you have a 6 foot wide screen, then the projector will need to be 6 feet back from it. Some cheap projectors will have a 1.5 or 2.0 lens, which will still work, but you need to get it really far away from the screen, which makes it more difficult to set up, especially indoors. If you can get something that has .7 or .5 lens ratio, that's great. You can put the projector close to the screen but it will still fill the whole screen.

So now you have your screen and projector squared away, you need to get an HDMI cable to run to your laptop or game console, the longest you can get on those is about 50', so if you need longer than that, you'll need to find another way to hook them together using Baluns or HD-SDI cables. Much more expensive.

For audio, most projectors will have a small speaker built in, but if you want something more than the tinny cell phone type sound that comes out of those, then you need a powered speaker. How much you want to spend on that is up to you. More money means better sound but also a larger speaker.
I have no idea how many people you will have there, or whether you want to play music through it also when you aren't watching movies, but I'd probably get something like this as it's a decent compromise between size, power and cost.

So now that you have all your gear, you just need to add up all the wattages on the back of that gear, and you can then know how much power you'll need. Let's say 350w for the projector, and another 350 watts for the audio, and maybe 100 watts for the laptop and any miscellaneous other stuff you might want to plug in.

So you need to look for about an 800-1000 watt generator. I'd probably look for the most quiet one I could get, because there is nothing more annoying than having to listen to generator noise while you are up in the woods trying to play some games or watch a movie.

This might be good at 51.5dB (remember, lower is better)

Or maybe this at 51dB

I think you definitely want an inverter generator, they will run more quietly than regular generators, but they are more expensive.

This is basically what I have. I bought a different battery and inverter because I have an account at batteries Plus but this is a widely accepted quality battery and a decent inverter. I would recommend buying at least the battery local as shipping them is expensive.

NOTE I did not include fuses/breakers in this list but you definitely should build these into your design.

https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Watts-Volts-Polycrystalline-Starter/dp/B00DCEKKQ0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1487256044&sr=8-2&keywords=renogy+100w+starter+kit

https://www.amazon.com/Trojan-T27-AGM-Group-Purpose-Battery/dp/B00NY0RAW4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1487256242&sr=8-1&keywords=trojan+12volt

https://www.amazon.com/34-97-2-15-17-ENERGIZER-Inverter-charging/dp/B01N5LUMDF/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1487256346&sr=8-16&keywords=500w+inverter

Depending on what you really want to power this may be way more than you need. You really should start by figuring out the load you want to power and then design your system around that number. This is a great little tool for figuring out how much power the devices you want to power will use and it's certainly cheaper than buying too much system and finding out you could have done what you wanted with half as much as you bought.

https://www.amazon.com/P3-P4400-Electricity-Usage-Monitor/dp/B00009MDBU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1487256555&sr=8-1&keywords=killawatt

I'm certainly not an expert at solar but am learning so feel free to PM any other questions.

Thanks! I've always wanted to go off grid, probably the first time I remember looking at land for it I was around 14 or so. I like raising animals, growing things and working with my hands. Moving to Alaska was my husband's idea, but I love it out here.

We have a 400 watt solar system that we use pretty exclusivly in summer. In winter we run a super efficient and quiet generator.

Has a much bigger battery, has an AC inverter. Only issue is the inverter is rated up to 120w. This mean you can run a laptop and other small devices but don't expect to get to run things throughout the weekend. Much better than what op linked. However w/ the panel it's almost 4x the price.

It sucks that the solar panels cost extra but if you were to buy now, the 25w panels are on sale. I would get two and hopefully get up to 50w (under optimal conditions).

It would be nice for car camping or a camper. If it's a permanent or even semi permanent installation, It would be better to purchase a larger panel, solar controller/charger, deep cycle large capacity battery and an inverter.

100w panel ($120) - https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Watts-Volts-Monocrystalline-Solar/dp/B009Z6CW7O/

Simple Charger/Controller ($15) - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074WZB5XY/

AC inverter ($35) - https://www.amazon.com/POTEK-Inverter-Converter-Charging-Smartphones/dp/B01B3ZQG4O/

100Ah SLA Battery (Apprx $100) - Autoparts/Big Box Stores

Ends up being a $270-$300 investment. That's not bad. If you were to buy the monoprice system w/ larger solar panel, it would be close to $300 and it wouldn't anywhere as efficient as if you were to make your own system. Only thing are sacrificing is portability and weight. A 8Ah battery will be much smaller and lighter than a 100Ah+ SLAB but won't last anywhere as long. If you have a rainy/cloudy week, good luck.

Just awesome! You should look into attaching flexible solar cells to your cars hood/roof/trunk it won't provide a huge amount of power but if you leave it in the sun while you're at work it can do quite a lot.

Something like this http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017OMTAV6/ref=s9_simh_hd_bw_b2RMf7L_p86_d0_i3?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-2&pf_rd_r=021PQZ6ADKS1T9RYBRKF&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=cda561f3-60b8-4333-8d8c-095d40efbb7d&pf_rd_i=2236628011

You can probably fit about 4 on your car giving you roughly 400 watts. that's .4kWh's so if you drive to work and spend 8 hours you'll be able to charge it 3.2kWh's that's a 10% charge for free.

To do it for your system all depends on how the batteries are setup i/e voltage. You just match the voltage with the panels put in diodes to prevent flowback and bam you've got yourself a simple trickle charger. You'll have to attach the wires but that's as simple as a rubber/plastic tube. Get it small enough and it'll look great.

> fortune

It would only cost you a fortune if you have to buy them. If you are Tesla and you are making those packs IN HOUSE then the cost will be much less. Plus easier to maintain them with your own experience staff. Tesla could essentially run a fully autonomous semi company and rip in huge profits moving items of all kinds around. Another thing is that semis+their vessels are very long and wide. Long and wide is perfect for solar panels. If they are fully autonomous and run all day long the sun could help out by some degree from continously charging. The more length and width the more solar panels you can place.

• http://www.truckscales.com/trailerinfo.htm
  
  
• Looks like the trailer by itself is 53' feet long
  
  
  
• What is the average length of a tractor trailer? | Reference.com
  
• A: The interior dimensions of a 53-foot trailer are 630 inches x 102 inches x 110 inches (length x width x height).
  
  Here is a 100 watt solar panel:
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Watts-Volts-Monocrystalline-Solar/dp/B009Z6CW7O
  
• Product Dimensions 47 x 1.4 x 21.3 inches
  
  So that is 47 inches long. 630÷47=13.4 So you'd be able to fit 13 and a half 100 watt panels on top. That is 1350 watts per hour. width of the solar panel is 21 inches. 102÷21= 4.8 So that is 4.8 rows of 13 and a half solar panels. I'm not the best at math but that would give you 1350×4.8=6480 watts per hour. That is almost 6.4k watts
  
  Plus also this is just using a regular home solar panel. Tesla could make a more specialized panel that utilizes the space better with less losses. They could do so many more things to specialize the panel and therefore get more solar power out of it. So that 6.4k watts per hour figure could increase perhaps as high as 8.0k watts per hour or maybe more?
  
  This is with out even taking the trailer truck portion into consideration (Where the driver used to be. Remember Autonomous.) Plus also you have the SIDES of the trailer though those won't be as effective as the top due to angle, but can still be used. I wouldn't be surprised if you could get 12.0k watts per hour through solar power with a trailer. Perhaps even higher like 15.0k watts.
  
  Sure it won't keep the trailer moving indefinitely, BUT it should increase the range of the trailer by some degree. Again if they could reach a figure like 10.0k watts in solar power per hour it should definitely help with the range of the trailer.
  
  -edit-
  I am bad at math I did mess it up

Here's a list and example found on amazon for all the major parts. I'll also include a wiring diagram at the end.

Solar Panel $169.99 - 100W Flexible & Thin

Solar Cable $18.99 - 20ft with male and female heads (cut in half for + & -)

[Charge Controller]
(https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B019QSX0CG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) $34.99 - 30A gives you room to add more panels

Battery $160 - 100Ah AGM will provide enough power depending on fridge but requires no maintenance

Fuse Panel $35 - 6 circuits with negative and cover

12V Sockets $6 - Get some of these for plugging in appliances and phones. You can buy 12V adapters for almost any electronic besides most kitchen appliances.

Pick up some 10 gauge stranded wire from your local hardware store (home depot) to wire the battery and fuse panel to the charge controller. You shouldn't need much since you want the battery as close as possible to the controller. You can buy smaller wire (16 or 18 guage) for wiring outlets/appliances to the fuse panel. 50ft of that should be fine unless you want multiple outlets on the other side of the van.

You'll also need some ATC blade fuses for your fuse panel. You can buy these at a local auto parts store pretty cheap. 15 amps should be enough than anything you'll be pulling.

To connect the wire ends to the battery and fuse panel you will need these wire terminals for the corresponding wire guages you are using. Along with these female terminals to connect to the 12V sockets. All of these can be found at your local auto parts store for cheap sometimes all together in a kit.

You'll also want a pair of wire strippers/crimper for wiring.

This is the best wiring diagram I can find. Most are so overcomplicated. This diagram does not show the fuse panel but you can see the empty slots on the far right of the charge controller where you insert the wiring for that, it's called the "load." This diagram also shows an inverter which is something I didn't go into because you will only need that if you HAVE to run a 110V appliance. I know you mentioned a kettle but maybe you could just install a gas stove in your van and use that to heat water? That's what we use :) Installing the inverter should be pretty straight forward though if you need it but remember you will waste energy going from 12v to 110v so 12v is more efficient.

Hope this can help you (and maybe others) in some way. I plan on making a more in depth version of this guide in the near future along with a video but finding the time has been difficult! Let me know any more questions you have :D

The most recommended setup I see from other vandwellers in Renogy. They make pretty much everything you need, and it's competitively priced.
You can buy a kit and have almost everything you need but a battery or you can build from scratch. The big components are deep cycle battery, panel, charge controller. There are obviously lots of other smaller things you'll need as well such as fuses, wires, mounting brackets, etc.

This option is much more cost efficient but also requires a good working knowledge of electrical setups (or the desire to learn them) in order to do it safely.

You will be amazed how little power that powered speaker needs for your application. That's because audio can require large amounts of power but only for very short periods of time. When the music is quiet, the power demands are quite small.

The key is that most music has a "peak factor" of at least 10. That means if your loudest peak power is 600 watts, the average power at the moment is 60 watts. Plus, when you're singing/playing anything but heavy rock, there are breaks in the music, usually every beat. And there will be soft passages. This means that about 10-20 watts average power would be enough for a typical performance.

Lucky, too, the K10 uses a class D amplifier which is amazingly efficient (around 90%). As an electrical engineer, my best guess is that one of these portable backup power units will run that speaker system for hours and hours.

Amazon has a good return policy if it doesn't work, but I'd be willing to bet on it. Me: Electrical engineer and long-time audio guy.

Is your pellet stove your only source of heat? Do you turn it down at night? If your pellet stove pipe going out of the house has some rise to it, for the most part it still has some ability to get the smoke out due to chimney effect. If your pipe is just sticking straight out of your wall , you might want to extend the pipe up on the outside of the house to encourage more draft.

you can use a battery back up (like the kind for a computer) - they have an alarm on them and will beep while in battery mode, so that might be able to wake you up in the night to alert you that the power went out.

If the power does go out enough at your place; i would highly suggest adding a generator plus transfer switch. I have one. it is not automatic and i would have to hook up the generator to the house, flip the transfer switch etc. but i made sure the outlet my stove uses is also one of the covered circuits.

​

Example Transfer Switch Kit - this is the one i used. Very happy with it. They do have other options. I have a well pump that needs 240. Just about everything in my home is covered except for the AC (i have a separate boiler for heat and hot water that is covered) and i have a sub panel for an addition on my house. If i need power for the addition i can run an extension cord.

https://www.amazon.com/Reliance-Corporation-31410CRK-10-circuit-Generators/dp/B000HS2L3O

Personally, i dont run my stove when i am sleeping or not home. I have hydronic heat for the house, the stove is to help keep the uninsulated part of the house warm. But i understand your concern and needs if it is your only heat.

Let's go over a couple terms:

• An amp is a measure of current; think of it like how thick a garden hose is
  
• A volt is a measure of potential; think of it like how fast the water is flowing
  
• When you multiply the two together, you get a watt.
  
  A watt measures power, or how fast something can do work; to continue the analogy, how fast a hose can fill a pool. You can fill it faster by either increasing the hose size (ie. using a firehose, or thicker wires), or turning the water pressure up so that it moves faster (increasing the voltage).
  
  When you apply power over a period of time, you do work. We can measure work in watt-hours (Wh). Watts determine how fast your boat moves (just like HP on an engine), where watt-hours determine how far (just like how many gallons of fuel it takes).
  
  If your trolling motor draws 300W, then it consumes 300Wh every hour.
  
  Or, speaking in amps/amp-hours, 300W from a 12V battery would be 25A; in that case, it consumes 25Ah from your battery every hour.
  
  Having said all that:
  
  If you can find a place to mount it, I'd recommend this:
  
  https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Watts-Volts-Monocrystalline-Starter/dp/B00BFCNFRM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1485011099&sr=8-2&keywords=renology+100w
  
  Hook it up to your house / propulsion battery bank via the included controller.
  
  A few notes:
  
  

1. There are two types of solar controllers - PWM and MPPT. Long story short, MPPT is better, but more expensive. It makes the biggest difference on cloudy days, but even then, it's not a huge difference. On sunny days there's little difference. You can select PWM or MPPT on the link I sent.
   
   
2. To figure out how much energy you'll get out of a given solar panel, multiply the panel's wattage by 4. This gives you a reasonable estimate on the watt-hours you can produce per day, on average, in a Northern climate. This 100W panel will make somewhere around 400Wh/day, which equates to about 33Ah @ 12V. That's enough to run your trolling motor for an hour per day. If you have a 100Ah battery bank, it will take 2-3 days to fully charge it from empty.
   
   
3. Generally, you're always better off with a bigger house / propulsion bank, because batteries operate much more efficiently at low power levels. High power drain creates heat within the battery, and this heat is wasted energy.
   
   A 30A trolling motor load on 200Ah of batteries (ie. 2x100Ah deep cycles) represents a draw of 15% of its capacity per hour, and it won't create much waste heat. You might get 4-5 hours of propulsion.
   
   A 30A trolling motor load on a single 100Ah battery represents a draw of 30% of its capacity per hour, and the battery will warm up, wasting energy. You might only get 1.5-2 hours of propulsion (less than half the dual battery setup).
   
   200Ah of batteries would be ideal, but would weigh between 100-150lb, which might be a consideration.

I am also a solar panel noob but i just managed to set up a system in my bus. I went with 4 renogy panels, they're cheap, good, and seem to have a good customer service.

https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Watts-Volts-Monocrystalline-Solar/dp/B009Z6CW7O

We have 3 of them for 2 people. You will need a charge controller to regulate the energy going to the battery. If you opt for a nicer MPPT controller, you will have 30% more nergy coming to the battery. That's what we did.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G3XTWTS/ref=twister_B01HHRLB1K?_encoding=UTF8&th=1

For more of an idea on what to do for the electrical system, i used a video by a guy named campervan cory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZY4BWEZ4ig

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.

I just went out on the Houseboat (here in Aus) and used one of these during the trip:


Suaiki S270. https://www.amazon.com.au/SUAOKI-Portable-Generator-Flashlights-Emergency/dp/B076PR4TBZ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1550532203&sr=8-2&keywords=suaoki

​

It was fantastic. Much lighter than I thought it would be, and I was able to run my CPAP machine and recharge two phones and my smart watch overnight using this.


Just to be clear, I wasn't using my humidifier, and I bought the 12v DC adapter for my CPAP (cigarette style plug) because that is more efficient than AC and I figured I would get more out of the battery. Based on my experience I bet I could get two nights out of it.


I had mine recharging each day with a solar panel, and it worked great. A full week on the houseboat with my CPAP...it was wonderful.

Hey, thanks!

I'm going to go into detail on the equipment I bought with my next video (and I've got a really fascinating powerpoint presentation where I try to explain a little electrical theory without putting everyone to sleep). I'll answer your question here though:

I started with a kit that came with the wires you're asking about. The solar panels have those short (2 or 3 feet) wires that end with what's called an MC4 connector. The wires have the MC4 connector on one end, and a bare wire on the other. The MC4 is a weatherproof, snap-on connector.

For the second panel, I had to get the MC4-tipped cables separately. From browsing YouTube, it looks like you can save some money by buying the connectors alone and splicing them onto a wire. I didn't feel like messing with this.

I got all my stuff on Amazon. Here's the list:

• Here's a link to the starter kit I got. It comes with a pair of MC4 cables
  
• A second 100w solar panel, identical to the one that comes with the starter kit
  
• These are the extension cables. MC4 on one end. The other end has nothing - you just strip it and screw it into the terminal on the solar controller
  
• Had to get another set of z-brackets for the second panel too
  
• This is the in-line fuse holder. It takes any automotive fuse. The solar controller specifies a 15A fuse.
  
  The parts for my installation came out to a little over $400.
  
  Hope that helps! :)

I had the same deal with my brother, and then gave my boyfriend the same gift down the road.
A solar charger, that can charge battery packs and lights. One like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Goal-Zero-41022-Guide-Recharging/dp/B00DD6B9IK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1450199341&sr=8-1&keywords=goal+zero+solar+charger

Kind of pricy, but my brother said he used it all the time during his deployment (He was in the middle east where the sun was abundant) and he could charge his electronics on it and then have an external battery pack that could charge up and be used as a charger when it was dark out! Pretty cool, and I know he uses it all the time, even in the field when he's stateside on base. You can buy add on parts for it all, like a light that can be used as a quick flashlight and stuff.

Hope this helps!!

A generator is going to be the best bang for your buck over a battery. Then get a bunch of shop lights. You can run it for 4-8 hours on a gallon of gas.

If you do go with generator make sure it's an inverter type. I think they go to about 2000 watts but the main reason you want this type is because they're quiet. The traditional type of construction-site generator will be super loud. Legal or not you don't want to disturb anybody or attract attention.

I have this one and it's surprisingly quiet. https://www.amazon.com/WEN-56200i-2000-Watt-Generator-Compliant/dp/B00SMNLF4M/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1511825168&sr=8-16&keywords=generator

I'm not a pro on the subject but I think you should start the process with a budget in mind. Then you can look at amazon or eBay and find something like this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00BFCNFRM/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?qid=1418164194&sr=8-3&pi=AC_SY200_QL40
Preferably with good reviews within your budget and the documentation that comes with the product will usually explain pretty clearly how to connect everything together. Remember you can always add more batteries and panels in the future.

The panel output more like 5.5 amps /hour per 100 watt panel that's what my HQSTs do. PWM Is fine for a small solar setup better gain would be to get a 3rd panel than the extra expense of mppt. Something with a lcd to display input and output in amps is nice like HQST 30 Amp PWM Smart Solar Charge Controller with LCD Display https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FB3OPKM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_.XETybK31ADKN

No, that won't work. It's only got a 10W solar panel. That means sitting at the top of the highest mountain in the world at noon, clear skies, with a tracking mount that follows the sun, you might see 10W if you're lucky. In the real world, you might average 5 during the day if the Sun's out.

That's nothing. If you had LED lights that drew 5W (not much light), you can see that the Sun won't even power the lights much less a pump even when the sun's shining. You'd have nothing available to charge a battery to keep things running at night.

You have to figure out how much power your pump and lights use. "Not much" isn’t good enough.

You correctly noticed that the device in your link didn't have an outlet for the pump. If your pump has a standard plug, you need an inverter to convert the battery voltage to plug power. Better is to get a 12 Volt pump that directly runs off the battery. Same for the LED lights - there are lots of 12 volt LED lights for recreational vehicles and campers.

Search Amazon for 'aquarium pump 12v'. Here's a $12 unit that draws 5W. That's pretty good. The LED lights will be more, surprisingly. Actually, depending upon what you need, I'd buy the inexpensive solar LED lights; you'll never be able to build something cheaper.

So, you need 5W for the pump. Let's guess 4 days without sun. 4 days times 24 hours times 5W is 480 Whr. Call it 500 Whr. That's how much battery you need. Double that since 12v battery lifetime goes down if discharged less than 50%.

1000whr at 12 V is 83 AmpHr which is how 12 V batteries are rated.

For solar panel, you need a bit over 5W average output. Sun only shines enough for solar 8 hours/day. That's 15W needed during those 8 hours. Assume 4 days no sun. Now you need 60W output during that 8 hours of sun. That basically means a 100W solar panel. Amazon shows a $112 unit.
http://www.amazon.com/ACOPOWER®-Polycrystalline-Photovoltaic-Connectors-Charging/dp/B01586LFJ0/

You need a solar charge controller. Amazon, $22
http://www.amazon.com/Controller-Regulator-Intelligent-Display-12V-24V/dp/B018ICLC3K/

You'll need some wiring, fuses to be safe. Get a 'marine battery' instead of a standard car battery. Marine deep discharge batteries are designed to be discharged over a period of time rather than a normal car battery which just needs to supply a lot of current briefly to start the car. Buy a 75Ahr battery.

If you don't need to handle running through several days of rain, you can drop the solar panel size and battery.

I would hope they allow you to recharge other batteries but I bet you have to daisy chain. Goal zero has had these type of products forever. They have a ton of options and they are weather resistant and great for those on the go...which I imagine is the primary user on this since if you aren't you would just plug into an outlet. :)

Here is a link to the one I have on my wish list:http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00DD6B9IK/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1452479010&sr=8-1&pi=SX200_QL40&keywords=goal+zero&dpPl=1&dpID=41H08qRnDLL&ref=plSrch#

Edit: autocorrect garbage

GPS tracker: stored in a hidden pocket, to track if the bag is stolen. I've had a similar bag stolen before from under my nose, and I'd like to be able to track it immediately.

Air mattress AND sleeping bag: It's a bivvy really, works well with additional thermal layers inside, like a coat or towel or dry leaves. Not enough padding for comfort sleep or thermal ground insulation. A world of difference between a good sleep and not being able to fall asleep because uncomfortable. Especially in survival situation when need to be alert and focused. The ratio between value and cost/weight/size is enormous for me.

Portable Toilet: For use in a car when stuck in heavy traffic, or waiting for accident ahead to clear.

Grappling hook: It is also a gravity hook, to pick up stuff that fell far down a steep hill or into a hole that can't get into. I've had this situation before, don't want to be caught unprepared again.

StunGun/Pistol/Spray: Not everything requires lethal level escalation. Pepper spray is nice for aggressive animals, Stun Gun is a great source of high voltage for various applications beyond immediate personal self-defense (perimeter electric fense around camp). And a gun is for 2 legged animals that need to be stopped from harming me, my family or my friends.

Luxury/Comfort: Yes, I like comfort. It is important enough for me, that I'm willing to invest in it, by having things with me, that I needed before and didn't have.

Water: I have a full bottle of water when I leave home, and 2 water filters. I should also have purifying tablets with me, which I've realized in a different response.

Car or something: It is sitting mostly in the car when traveling, because everywhere I need to go from house involves driving and/or flying. So my EDC is always GHB. I do not see why to choose a duffel over backpack, because I need to carry it around as well.

Solar panel: I was carrying one before. I have 2 foldable solar panels: large 60W https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00RFCVR62 and small one https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DD6B9IK. The large one is too large and heavy for EDC bag, and small one is somewhat worthless in my experience. And it's pretty much seasonal, since I'm in PNW. I've opted to carry powerbanks with total of 120Ah, that can power my laptop and all other electronics for 2 days, or just electronics for more than a week.

Well there is no complete set on amazon.com, but you can assemble it yourself just like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Monocrystalline-Solar-Starter-Wanderer/dp/B00BCRG22A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468309528&sr=8-1&keywords=solar+panel+200w

https://www.amazon.com/SolarEpic-Inverter-Stackable-10-8-30V-90V-140V/dp/B00XJCVC44/ref=sr_1_5?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1468310171&sr=1-5&keywords=solar+inverter

https://www.amazon.com/Cycle-Battery-Solar-Energy-Storage/dp/B018R8BRCG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468309743&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=AGM+battery+100ah&psc=1

You can scale with the numbers of solar panels, but then you probably have to consider a different controller. It depends on how much wattage your desired fridge has. You probably have to consider a powerful fridge with a good insulation, if it stays in the hot sun the whole day. You maybe have to scale the batteries, depends on how much "sun downtime" you have in your region.

You really need to research this a bit further, as I dont have any experience with your 115/120v grid/appliances and not much practical experience with solar panels and its combination with fridges.

And you need to consider if its worth the 600+ Dollar for a cold beer in the middle of nowhere. Those solar panels do have more uses, but I guess you know what I mean.

So that site says it's 5.2 amp hours in size. So 5200 mAh. I have one of these that I got on a lightning deal for $99.99 and an adapter for my cpap that allows me to go from DC to DC instead of DC to AC to DC again, making the battery last much much longer.

And it's only 3.3 pounds. Sure it's a little bigger and heavier, but might be great for saving money plus 7 to 8 times the juice. I know medical suppliers LOVE to jack up the price on everything.

It's better to be safe than sorry. You don't want to bring out all that gear only to find you can't turn it on.

You'll be fine with any of these with the top one being your best candidate. Just remember to be courteous to your neighbors if people are trying to sleep!

Xantrex 806-1210 PROwatt 1000 SW Inverter

MicroSolar 1000W (Peak 2000W) Pure Sine Wave Inverter

BESTEK® Dual 110V AC Outlets 1000w/1200w Max Car DC 12V to 110V AC Inverter Power

You'll probably want to get a fuse holder and a cable kit depending on how far you expect to keep the table from your car.

You could also go the more environmental route and get some solar panels to juice up a spare solar battery each day.

Tell me about what you're trying to do. If all you want is to power some interior lighting and perhaps run a radio then a small solar system isn't terribly expensive. If you want to run the 12v DC water pumps and an inverter then you're going to need a much beefier system. If you want the AC or the microwave to work I would recommend a small generator for when you need it. (Something like a Honda EU2000i or the next one up.) All of the appliances which can run off of propane should be run that way. Stock up on propane now. It will be cold in the winter don't waste propane on heat.

Below is a slightly larger system than what I mention in the post above. As an example, to power just your DC systems you don't need an inverter.

• $90 Sunforce 30 Amp Charge Controller
  
• $70 Whistler Pro 1200W
  
• $170 RENOGY 100 Watt PV Panel
  
• $230 Optima D31T 75 Amp Hour Battery
  
• $30 30 foot 8 AWG cable - cut in half to run from panel to charge controller.
  
  Grand total: $590 plus shipping and tax. (You will also need a set of cables to go from the battery to the inverter but I am not sure what you can use with the 30 Amp Sunforce Controller. They shouldn't cost more than $20.)
  
  If you add more than one solar panel you will need a Y connector of some variety. Here are ones for two panels, three panels and four panels. If you want more than four panels you will need a better charge controller. Depending on your usage you would also want to start adding more batteries in parallel. Make sure you use 00 AWG or better cables for battery interconnects.
  
  I am building a variant of the solar system listed here. I am buying a much more expensive 60amp MPPT charge controller, a pure sine wave inverter and bigger batteries. I already have one of those 1200W Whistler inverters as a part of my backups. I plan on having 8-10 panels in my system eventually.

It'll require a little bit of custom work but you can definitely power it off of a battery.

A pre-packaged battery will give you the easiest installation / charging options. Make sure it offers 12v DC outputs like this one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M3S00H0/

Then you'll want to convert the 12v DC to 24v DC (the lightstrip plus runs on 24v) using a regulator like this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0085T97PW/

Aside from that, all you'll need are a couple of barrel plugs to connect the regulator between the battery and Hue controller. I'm not 100% sure of the barrel plug sizes, I expect the 12v side (battery output) to use a 5.5mm X 2.1mm barrel plug but I'm not sure which size the Hue controller requires as input.

This is the most popular solar set-up. Then a battery like this. You may need an inverter, too, but that depends on your needs.

Water depends entirely on you. You can get five gallon jugs that re-fill at Home Depot for $7, for example. A lot of people get water for free at gas stations or parks.

It seems like you're just getting started thinking about this. I recommend the FAQ. There's lot of good stuff in there!

I think you are over-estimating the capacity of that car battery. You might be able to run a few LED lights for a few hours a day, like 2 or 3 hours a day maybe, but a constant draw of a cheap wifi camera (often not the most efficient possible power-wise), will kill that battery very quickly.

Let's say you wanted to run 12 Watts of LED lighting for 4 hours a day, and a camera (24 hours a day) which draws ~3 Watts.

12 x 4 = 48 Wh. Not much, but definitely substantial.

3 x 24 = 72 Wh. Again, not much, but substantial. This isn't going to be a 10 Watt panel type of deal here. :P

So, 120 Wh total. Or, ~10 Ah.

You'll need to account for cloudy days, so let's multiply that by 3.

360 Wh usable storage capacity needed, and 300 Wh generation needed each day.

You'll only get ~4 hours of good sun in a day, and panels put out ~60% or there about their rated power in the real world.SO...

360 Wh / 4 = 90 Watts.

90 Watts / 0.60 = 150 Watts.

​

So, you'll need:

1 x ~150 Watt rated solar panel. ( https://www.amazon.com/Newpowa-Moncrystalline-Polycrystalline-Efficiency-Module/dp/B00ZIZ6VY6/ should do.)

1 x PWM charge controller. ( https://www.amazon.com/ALLPOWERS-Charger-Controller-Intelligent-Regulator/dp/B01MU0WMGT/ or similar.)

Wire with MC4 connectors. ( https://www.amazon.com/BougeRV-Extension-Female-Connector-Adaptor/dp/B0753ZLLQB/ )

And battery cables to go from the charge controller to the battery, but you can probably buy some ring terminals at your local hardware store and use some 10 AWG stranded copper wire, don't necessarily need to order special ones if you can make them. :)

EDIT: You'll also want to fuse the positive side of the battery, solar, and load circuits. Choose fuse sizing for the wiring you use.

​

Now, the battery will die in a few months most likely if not sooner being cycled like this since it's not a deep cycle battery, but hey, then you can replace it with a good one. :)

Hi there! Our Starter Kit might also be a good alternative for you as well because unlike our Bundle Kit, it also includes Z-brackets and a tray cable. If you have any questions relating to your system, feel free to message us. :)

All the best,

The Renogy Team

Thanks everyone for your comments and advice, I'm a little wiser and made a couple of decisions. I decided to increase my budget and purchased these two items.

https://www.amazon.com.au/SUAOKI-Portable-Generator-Flashlights-Emergency/dp/B076PR4TBZ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1550532203&sr=8-2&keywords=suaoki

https://www.mycpap.com.au/all-products/cpap-accessories/philips-respironics-dreamstation-shielded-dc-cable-copy/

I will post the results here after travelling and camping in case anyone is asking the same question. Hopefully the couple of hundred dollars is a worthwhile investment.

The dear option can be found at http://www.batterypowersolutions.net

I have taken the middle option.

Thanks again everyone.

I went to an auto parts store and bought a portable car jump starter battery, similar to this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002J8LMVC/ref=psdc_318336011_t3_B000JFHNQA

That was a couple of years ago, and now there are even more impressive things for sale. If I were to buy today, I'd probably get https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M3S00H0?psc=1

It even says "CPAP Machine" in the supported devices list. The basic premise is that I knew my CPAP machine runs on approximately 12 volts DC, and I knew that most starter batteries supply about 13.5 volts when charged up. Since most of the electronics in the machine will run on less power (not sure how much less, but there's always some give), I figured that a strong starter battery would be good.

Car batteries are large, not because they have to deliver a lot of voltage, but because they have to deliver large amperage, lots of power at one time, without dropping too low in voltage. Since I knew that the CPAP machine would use a little power for a longish time, I didn't need a huge, heavy battery.

Doing some math, 12 volts at 2 amps is 24 watts. That's nothing, really. The CPAP battery for my unit is just under 100 Wh, with an output range of 9 to 12.6 volts. So, that jumpstarted battery for half the price with 150 Wh of capacity at 12 volts is almost 3 times the value.

Thanks for all the suggestions, definitely appreciated. I've discovered this 110V battery powerpack on Amazon and will test it out next week. It weighs under 3.5lbs so no 60-70lb marine battery monster but provides 40,800mah. Also self contained so no separate converter, less to carry, less to forget. Hopefully it can recharge the 3DR battery enough to make the expense worth it.

Note to drone/quadcopter people in the industry; please make your charging more versatile and real world convenient. Thank you.

What current (or power if that's more handy) rating do you need?

Number 1 best seller on Amazon.

You did specify 30V - is that the actual voltage you need or did you round up? A 36 cell solar module is fairly common - you'll have an open circuit voltage of about 22V in that configuration, less after the panel heats up.

Second best seller on Amazon.Its becoming more common to claim "12V panel" as a way of saying "panels intended to charge 12V batteries" - it has nothing to do with the actual open circuit voltage of the panel.


To be honest, if you can't easily get replacements, I wouldn't go cheap on this component.

not sure what the recharge rate is but i would imagine unless your directly tethering to the terminals then you would be limited to the fuse amperage, typically like 15 amps on a cigarette plug i think?


back on the main topic, maybe something in this article might help? https://teslatap.com/articles/12-volt-battery-compendium/ they dont mention exact rates that i saw but it says "

>The Gen 2 DC-DC converter in the refreshed Model S accepts 220 to 430 VDC at 15 amps, and outputs 9 to 16 VDC. When outputting 12 VDC, it can deliver about 200 amps.
>
>The Model 3 integrates the charger and the DC-DC converter into a single package, the PCS (Power Conversion System)

​

IMHO i would just invest in one of those Portable power stations from the likes of Jackery, Anker or Goal Zero especially seeing as how the replacement battery is going for about $500 on Amazon.

You are cheating yourself (and imposing on others) by not learning the math. A better way to do this is "Here's the math I came up with -- can I get some feedback?"

Some observations: Renogy stuff is perfectly fine but that kit is, IMO, an unforced error on their part. Mono panels are wasted on pwm controllers: the poly version of that kit is cheaper and will deliver more power via PWM than the equivalent 100w mono.

> and I'm driving say 1h/day

When you drive makes a huge difference in this scenario. Solar + isolator charging is a great combination because they can cover each other's weaknesses. You would get the most benefit from the combo if you are driving in the mornings when the battery bank is at its most depleted. The reasons for this is given at the link above.

If you are not driving in the mornings for errands, work, etc, then a DC-DC charger (a special kind of isolator) would suit you better, as /u/211logos points out.



> how long could I run these devices per day?

When you run them matters, too. If you wait until the right time you run those loads without affecting the batteries at all.

/u/naturalorange has you on the right track.

Here is the link to the firmware update and instructions for the scanner: http://info.uniden.com/twiki/bin/view/UnidenMan4/BCD536HPFirmwareUpdate

What area of the country are you in and what type of things do you like to listen to? The type of radio systems in your area will give us a better idea of the best type of antenna to use. A discone is the best type to cover everything reasonably well, but you can think of it like a crossover car. Not very good at being a car, truck or van, but just ok. If your area only has 800MHz digital radio systems, a discone won't be your best choice.

The 536 doesn't have an internal battery, but because it runs on 12v DC you can wire it directly to a car battery. It can be permanently installed in a car, or you could power it during a power outage or emergency that way. Another option is a DC battery booster like a car jump pack. The 536 draws between a half and 3/4amp normally when on, so a small emergency battery pack like this will power the scanner for about 2 days before needing to be recharged.

https://smile.amazon.com/100-Watt-Portable-Generator-Inverter-Emergency/dp/B01M3S00H0/

This is my first ever attempt at the Orion Nebula. Seeing was great, but it was a balmy 25°F. Tracking was on, at least I thought so. Polar alignment is tough :) My focus is slightly off.

Time to get an auto-guider, I think.

Here's my equipment:

• Camera: Canon T3
  
  
• Telescope: 8" Orion Newt. Reflector OTA f/4.9 (1000mm FL)
  
  
• Mount: Orion Atlas EQ-G GoTo
  
  
• Power Supply: PaxAcess Portable
  
  Processing:
  
  
• Converted 21 lights @ 30s 1600 ISO , 11 darks, and 20 bias to .TIFF using PIPP
  
• Imported into DSS, star threshold 10%, all default settings
  
• Adjusted contrast, brightness, curves in GIMP
  
  Feel free to check out my Facebook page: Joraanstad Observatory
  
  More about my setup at my website: levijoraanstad.com/Astrophotography

I'm talking about something like this. Its sold as a "generator" but its more like a glorified battery pack. Can anyone confirm if these are okay?

Here's another option for a peltier cooler A/C.

250W peltier cooler - $30 - https://www.amazon.com/TEC1-12710-Thermoelectric-Cooler-Peltier-Pinkcoo/dp/B009T0FE7G

3 100W 12V solar panels - $415 - https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Watts-Volts-Monocrystalline-Solar/dp/B009Z6CW7O/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1469635563&sr=8-9&keywords=12v+solar+panel

2 heat sinks and fans - $26 - https://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-Aluminum-Bearing-Connector/dp/B005P1ZLAI/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1469635833&sr=8-5&keywords=heat+sink+fan

add some wire and some mounting odds and ends - $100

So for around $500 you mount this little contraption in a window with the cold heat sink on the inside and the hot heat sink on the outside. When the sun starts shining, the panels will start powering the fans and peltier and you can enjoy that sweet solar A/C.

Of course, a peltier is only about 10% efficient, so it's only going to move about 25W or 85 BTU/hr, but it's free energy right!

Hands down the best camping, long-term portable charger I've owned. I purchased this charger for LIB 3 years ago & have taken it on every road trip and camping music festival since! Fully charge it before your trip. It keeps our phones at full charge for the whole event! (4-6 days). I'm sure this is contingent on how many people you share it with and how often you need a full charge (we did about 2 a day with 3 people).

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M3S00H0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I'd love to suggest this portable generator. It is an integrated lightweight 220 Wh battery box, with a built-in pure sine wave inverter. It could be used as a CPAP battery and I get about 13 hours of use, which is about 1.5 nights. (using a Resmed S8 with a pressure settiing of 12). But this will work excellent for ANY AC load under 200 Watts. Recapping:

• 220Wh
  
  
  
• Lightweight
  
  
  
• Inverter
  
  
  
• DC Inputs (car adapter order E-KYLIN DC 5.5x2.1mm Car Charger)
  
  
  
• Optional folding solar panel
  
  
  I think you could check the specs first before you apply something to your CPAP equipment. Because these devices can be really picky, you should consult an expert if you are not sure. But if it’s not for precise instruments, I think it’ll be perfectly okay.

true looks like almost a $120 difference.. damn

PWM

vs.

MPPT

edit: any thoughts on this one? sounds pretty great for a 200W setup.

Yeah! Briefly though, I found it a bit too bulky to take on hikes/outside in general, so I pre-ordered a OP-Z for portable use and am keeping the Digitakt/tone pair in my home studio.

This is the bank I opted for since it seemed to be a reliable, cheaper option: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016BJCRUO/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&th=1 Should last around ~20 hours

Here's a really good thread on Elektronauts if you want to compare some other options for power banks: https://www.elektronauts.com/t/digitakt-external-battery-power-pack-options/39561/175

Good luck!

I've never used them, but Flycrates says they will ship to places that Amazon sellers won't. According to this page, the main problems are extra shipping costs, customs forms, and import duties that have to be paid. Flycrates will supposedly do that for you and let you know what import duties will need to be paid up front.

AllPowers makes a flexible 100w solar panel that sells on Amazon, and there are other companies that also sell flexible panels.

I purchased an AllPowers flexible+foldable 80w solar charger panel and a Suaoki 150Wh Solar Generator (lithium battery+inverter) for camping, and it's worked well. It will run a few lights and power a laptop. I did have to custom-make the connector cable between them to charge the Suaoki, however.

Hope that helps!

The generator wattage doesn't matter as much as the amperage output of the charger that you plug into your generator, unless you plan to charge the battery bank directly from the 12v output that some generators have which would take forever because they only put out about 8 amps at 12v.
In terms of how long it would take that again depends on what charger you use.

Plugging in straight to the generator would
Take about 22 hours (440ah * 0.4 = 176Ah you need to replenish, 176Ah / 8a = 22hrs, and then a bit more to account for inefficiencies in charging )

A 20A battery charger plugged into the generator would take about 9hrs (176Ah / 20a = 8.8hrs

A 50A charger would take about 3.5hrs.

1000w should be enough to power just about any charger you plug into it except those huge 100A engine start chargers.

I would recommend getting a nice little inverter generator because they are SO much quieter. If you can afford it You really can't go wrong with a Honda Eu1000i or 2000i. If you wanna go a bit cheaper I've heard good really things about the Wen generators coming out of China https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00SMNLF4M/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485290528&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=wen+inverter+generator&dpPl=1&dpID=51YwNCX6DSL&ref=plSrch

It sounds like managing to keep eight good AA batteries in the thing is the issue. If I might make a suggestion, get yourself one of these rechargeable batteries and use that instead. It has 11Ah of capacity and one of these will run my Celestron CPC 9.25 EdgeHD for almost an entire day. It will come with a cable that should fit your scope; it uses a standard 2.1mm plug. It also comes with the charger to top it off during the day when you're not using it.

I have this attached to the fork arm of my scope and the battery moves with the scope and the wire doesn't wrap around and get pinched this way. It's a very clean approach and will save you having to always worry about AA batteries or extension cords.

Well it just seems strange to have way more inverter capacity than generating capacity. So in this case you have a battery that has 900Wh of capacity, so your little 50W panel will take 18h of full sun to charge it (figure you can get 3 or 4 equivalent hours of sunshine a day, so we are talking most of a week) if you don't have any other load connected. Then if you connect your 1kW inverter and use it at full capacity, you'll discharge the thing in less than an hour. In some specific cases this may be desirable, but in general you need at least as much generating capacity as you have loads, or even more, depending on the load profile. But maybe in your case it makes sense just to have the ability to run the odd 110V appliance off your battery every once and a while, while mostly running DC loads like your light and radio

But I think your biggest problem right now is that you are pairing a panel with 18V Vmp with a 6V battery and a 12V inverter. At the least you need to switch to a 12V battery to use that inverter, but even then you will be wasting alot of solar power by forcing the panel to work at 12V (ie you'll only get around 30W out of it), so you would be better off finding a panel intended for use at 12V, like this one

Edit: you may want to look at this exchange from a few days back. /u/MrCloggy was offering some helpful advice to someone looking to set up a system similar to what you want. Actually, now that we've summoned him, perhaps he'll chime in over here.

I've read that they are having trouble with the 100 watt version, but I think the 50 watts are still being produced.

I was looking into HQST. They seem to have good reviews and they are cheaper.

Edit: Looks like Renogy sold their raw materials to HQST. I'm not sure what they did to fix the issue that Renogy had, but those who have purchased them seem happy.

Yes. Jackery has solutions for this that people have posted great results with. both 12v and 110v capable, both are commonly used for pellet grills while camping/traveling.

Jackery Explorer 240

Jackery Explorer 500

If you're going to drive a lot each day, then you can charge it using the vehicle alternator by attaching it in parallel with the vehicle battery, but you should use a switch to make sure it's only connected when the vehicle is running (charging) so you don't drain your vehicle battery running electronics in the camper. Many trailer harnesses can't provide enough power for charging like this, so you'd likely need to run your own wire from the vehicle battery.

If you don't drive a lot, you'd probably want a solar panel. Again, this is one where you want to look at how much power each of your electronics are using and estimate how many panels you'd need to keep up with your usage throughout the day and battery size to get you through the night. E.g. you could use a panel and charge controller like this: https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Monocrystalline-Negative-Controller-Connectors/dp/B00BFCNFRM/

Or if you're going to be parked somewhere with a power plug, just use an auto battery charger to keep your battery topped up.

I use this Lithium battery pack from Talent Cell, it has worked great for 3 months so far. I keep it charged up and then just grab it when I'm headed out to my patio or out of the car. I made a quick adapter cable to run from the 12V 6A out to the T-style power connector for my radio. the beauty is that you can also use the 9V out or the USB for 5V if you need a different voltage.

https://www.amazon.com/TalentCell-Rechargeable-11000mAh-20000mAh-Portable/dp/B016BJCRUO/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1540897311&sr=1-3&keywords=talentcell&th=1

My son spent about $100+ on a good portable battery charger, this one https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Station-Generator-Flashlights-Emergency/dp/B076PR4TBZ/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_sspa?crid=3LN09LXMCHT0F&keywords=suaoki+portable+power+station&qid=1550857206&s=gateway&sprefix=suaoki&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1

Works great and lasts a long time, can plug in a lot of things. Pretty compact size, too, smaller than a car battery.

Sorry for the late response... we spent some time on public land, no wi/fi!
You can get a cheap (but good) Renogy 100W kit: https://amzn.to/2JiRPh4, then shop locally for a small battery (in the 50-100 Ah).
Or you could just charge using your alternator with an isolator (cheap solution, but in this scenario you need to drive frequently).
If you don't want to worry about wiring/fuse etc, Goal Zero has good plug-and-play solutions but they're NOT CHEAP (https://amzn.to/2LFW04J).
Good luck!

I've been very happy with the Battery Tender brand. I have a friend who uses this on his boat (it's designed not to overchage).

http://www.amazon.com/Battery-Tender-021-1163-Solar-Maintainer/dp/B004Q83TGO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1416250584&sr=8-1&keywords=battery+tender+solar

We use a traditional (plug in) tender on my wife's car. A fairly common setup is to permanently connect the terminals to the battery and then run the leads somewhere more convenient, like out the grill or fender. It makes connecting/disconnecting a lot more convenient.

http://www.amazon.com/Battery-Tender-081-0069-6-Terminal-Disconnect/dp/B000NCOKZQ/ref=pd_bxgy_auto_text_z

Could look into getting something like this. But the insulated pump thermoses are pretty awesome, too.

This one exactly.

https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Generator-Lithium-Battery-Inverters/dp/B06ZXYVG4G/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=SUAOKI+222Wh+Power+Station+Power&qid=1559071095&s=gateway&sr=8-3

The S runs at 70-80w an hour, tested it myself with a watt meter. And that Power station provides 222w. So about 2 and half hours of use. You can use an inverter and plug to your car as well, but make sure it's above 200 just to be safe.

​

The 13" monitor I have uses about 5w and powered through the USB.

​

I got everything I needed on Amazon. Also note that it's only the S. The OG and the X uses a lot more power. The X uses up to 245w and the OG is above 120w.

Okay, there are a few cables missing from this but for reference:
PLEASE NOTE I AM NOT RECOMMENDING THIS AS A SYSTEM. I do run these panels though.

Good 100W Solar panel w/ 30amp non-MPPT charge controller: $185

2nd Good 100W panel: $150

Crap inverter: $66

Battery: $99

TOTAL = Exactly $500.


You can add a second battery, upgrade the charge controller to a MPPT, and get a real sine wave inverter and kick this system's butt for less than he is asking. You need to buckle down and do some research.

http://www.amazon.com/Solar-Panel-Starter-100W-Monocrystalline/dp/B00BFCNFRM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398100963&sr=8-1&keywords=100w+solar

http://www.amazon.com/Solar-Panel-Starter-100W-Monocrystalline/dp/B00BFCNFRM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398100963&sr=8-1&keywords=100w+solar

http://www.amazon.com/BESTEK-1000w-Inverter-Supply-MRI10011-1/dp/B007SLDDHQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1398101099&sr=8-2&keywords=inverter

I bought this kit many years ago to charge 12v batteries and it works great (though I got a better inverter as that one is a joke,and you need to provide your own battery).

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CIADLG/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

but looking at amazon listings now it seems this is the most popular, affordable entry level kit (note that you are again providing your own inverter and battery):

http://www.amazon.com/Renogy-100W-Mono-Starter-Kit/dp/B00BFCNFRM/ref=zg_bs_2236628011_3

These both charge batteries. Wiring into you home is a much bigger undertaking.

Looks like the maximum amperage of the panels I'd use is 5.7A each. So even if I put two 100w panels up they would only produce 11.4A.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B017OMTAV6/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1458266599&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=flexible+solar+panel&dpPl=1&dpID=41%2B3J-Kt2sL&ref=plSrch

Also, 25ft is definitely excessive (I'm in a minivan) so I'd feel fine cutting down the size to closer to 10-15ft. So, looks like 10 guage would be fine for 11.4 max amps at 10-15ft. Do you think those calculations check out?

Also, since one side of each wire (positive/negative) would have to go into the solar controller, would I be okay to just buy one wire and then cut it in half? I'd leave the sides with the male and female mc4 connectors where I expect the panels to go, and the exposed sides where I expect the controller would go. Does that make sense?

• Azule Access Plus
  
• AOC USB Monitor
  
• Paxcess 150-wh all-in-one
  
• iClever folding keyboard
  
• Uhuru mouse
  
  Nice setup. I have 2 of those AOC monitors and they are awesome. Here is a higher resolution one which I have on my wish list. I assume it would use more power. The AOCs I have came with the double USB cable, and some ports supply enough power with just 1, other times I need to plug into a second port. I have a couple ancient external USB CD drives that are the same way.
  
  

Post here
https://www.reddit.com/r/vandwellers/
Solar is the standard on vans now. Most people are skipping the engine isolator these days.
You left out the fantastic fan which you'll want if you're doing this level of project.
$700 is way easy. Probably can do for half that. Most people are using $30 MPPT charge controllers for example:
https://smile.amazon.com/ALLPOWERS-Charger-Controller-Intelligent-Regulator/dp/B01MU0WMGT/
Are you putting this on a roof box? otherwise why do you need flexible. Bolt on ridgid panels to a roof rack; cheaper.

An inverter is a type of generator. This article explains it better than I ever could.

They’re a little more expensive than a regular generator, but worth it in my opinion. I bought this one last year and it was excellent.

Car camping - get a deep cycle AGM battery (available in many sizes, depending on how long you want to go without charging) and a DC adapter for your machine. More info

Backpacking - you're going to have to get creative. There are a lot of commercial lithium cpap batteries out there that are much lighter than lead acid per watt, but you'll only get a night or two from one of them, and they're very expensive. Your best bet is a general purpose Lithium battery with a 12V output combined with a 12V cpap (or 12v DC adapter if your machine is 24V). Here's an example.

I'm not an EE, but I know a bit about batteries. Low amp is fine, better for overall battery life. But, lead acid batteries get some kind of build up on the cells that needs to be zapped off with high-amperage from time to time. Solar charge controllers and automatic battery tending devices will go through a number of different cycle types throughout a month, for the health of the battery.

Your battery is probably damaged by now if it's been depleted several times. Best thing you could do besides buying a new battery is get some kind of trickle charge setup, so that it stays topped off. Whether it be a wall plug charger, or solar charger.

Secondly, open the battery and make sure that the lead cells are fully submerged. Add distilled water if the cells are exposed to atmosphere. Some car batteries are sealed and not able to be maintained in this way.

**Edit. Check this out, Battery Tender 021-1163 5W Solar Maintainer https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004Q83TGO/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_ypxAyb2SXVHSN

This looks like a perfect affordable unit. Thanks for the tip. I think I'll go for the bigger version https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B016BJCRUO/ref=pd_aw_sim_469_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=0K6QXK18B0T1D250MEN8&dpPl=1&dpID=71ZoNiypMcL

They have ones that passthrough when they are being charged specifically for dashcams, they're expensive (Celllink B comes to mind). And the solar batteries are specifically meant for passthrough, but they are SUPER expensive. Something like this combined with some panels.


Edit: Celllink B only lasts ~20h. A big solar battery would make it a few days, would need to be charged at home I think.

I just bought, and installed an exhaust fan in the back of my pickup. It works great, and I'm stoked to have power in the back now. It wasn't very difficult to figure out.

I bought this, this, this, this, and this fan. It set me back about $350, but I went with a larger, more powerful solar panel. You'll need some 10 gage wire and crimp connections. Home depot has all those parts.

Here's what it looks like.

Hi, I was recently looking for the same thing. This is the set up I am ordering:
For the panels--http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IK19VF6/ref=ox_sc_act_title_5?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A05654602L3XUQ70M87BV
Battery bank--http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BUH0VB0/ref=ox_sc_act_title_9?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A33OOXQLQV58WQ
Charge controller--http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FB3OPKM/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A05654602L3XUQ70M87BV
Inverter--http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007SLDDHQ/ref=ox_sc_act_title_8?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=AWZ3LXPHZK09

I'm pretty new to this too, this is just what I've come up with from doing research and assessing my (basic)needs. I would like to hear other opinions as well.

It would be pretty easy to build something similar for a lot cheaper. Pick up a used suitcase at the thrift shop, mount a 50w panel on the outside (much better than the 10W panel in the case you linked to.) Inside the case, mount a charge controller with USB, this 20Ah battery (again, better than the 16Ah in the other one), and this 500W inverter (not sure how big the one in the expensive case it, but 500W should be enough.) So for less than $250 and a little bit of build work, you can have a much more functional system (500% larger solar capacity and 25% more battery capacity).

Yeah, I thought anyone interested in the thread would be! But as soon as I posted the original version with amazon links, it was auto-deleted. Weird.

Oh well, here are my products:

Solar panel: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017OMTAV6/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3NTUA0DGQ65YX&coliid=I2R53I6ASRE7TH&psc=1

Charge controller: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JMLPP12/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3NTUA0DGQ65YX&coliid=IMF9F8IHLJ6EN&psc=1

House battery: http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detail/SSBQ/3478PLT/03321.oap?year=1967&make=Ford&model=Mustang&vi=1332302&ck=Search_03321_1332302_-1&pt=03321&ppt=C0005

Battery isolator: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0058SGDFK/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3NTUA0DGQ65YX&coliid=I2UYT4LFVI14AN

Van fan: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002OWAIB8/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3NTUA0DGQ65YX&coliid=I1Q9S1UN7Z94H7&psc=1

LED lights: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007JF2A6G/ref=od_aui_detailpages02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Fuse block: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000K2MBPA/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3NTUA0DGQ65YX&coliid=IK1ERB55YT6QX&psc=1

Busbar: https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Sea-MiniBus-Grounding-Terminal/dp/B0058GA4IO/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1467345205&sr=8-11&keywords=6+terminal+bus

Main line fuses (inline): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WZHE3A4/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3NTUA0DGQ65YX&coliid=ICS8GYAQNUJV1&psc=1

Is this the kit you had in mind: http://www.amazon.com/Renogy-100W-Mono-Starter-Kit/dp/B00BFCNFRM? Thank you for the straightforwardness. Do you have a fuse box that you would suggest as well?


I never really considered solar energy before this post but I think I'm going to go for it, especially since I don't really have a need for a lot of power. Thanks again man!

Portable or roof mounted?

I used the renogy kit from Amazon, works good, very very easy. Id suggest 2-6v trojan batteries in series if you dont have any batteries yet.

Solar pannels are always getting better, just do some quick checks on the internet(amazon for me) and compare the efficiency of the panels. If the efficiency it is not directly stated divide the panels power by the panels size. Ex 100Watt panel / (47.3" X width 21.3" ) = 0.1 watts per square inch.

my example pannel

https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Watts-Monocrystalline-Solar-Panel/dp/B009Z6CW7O/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?keywords=renogy+solar+panel&qid=1567164957&s=gateway&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyOTkxVTJMUUY4VVFQJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMjA0NTQwMUlFN1BMRk4xM0JaVCZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNTA0NzM4MTNSOFFYRlY1TUJITiZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

While the Honda line of small generators are some of fhe best out there, they're quite expensive...

There's a lot of good "clone" inverter generators now. For $475, this WEN unit is essentislly a yamaha clone. Link is here

You only need at most 600 running watts, the generator linked does 1600 running 2000 peak.

Either way, you'll have plenty of power.

I have two of these on the roof of my van and love them: http://www.amazon.com/HQST-Monocrystalline-Flexible-Solar-Panel/dp/B017OMTAV6

I attached them with the strongest outdoor double stick tape I could find, and ran caulk around the edges to seal it from water getting underneath.

If I know I am going to be in a survival situation?

Phone + Battery, 50 Flares, vehicle with a full tank of gas would be my top 3.

More serious you say? Just limiting myself to ordering online, mostly amazon -

1. Warbonnet hammock and tarp
   
   
2. Sawyer water filter
   
   
3. 1,000 feet of 750 cord
   
   
4. 50 bic lighters
   
   
5. 12 Months supply of food
   
   
6. Heavy knife
   
   
7. Light cheap knife
   
   
8. Any expensive sleeping bag
   
   
9. Cell phone, including my favorite RPG games.
   
   
10. Solar recharger
    
    
    

• Assumes I am stranded in the forest of the Northwest United States.
  
  
  Given a more specific survival situation, a budget, weight limit or other constraints, I may adjust my list accordingly.
  
  

Get this battery, it's frequently on sale for like $111

You can recharge it with a solar panel. I got this one on Amazon. You'll also need the adapter and some connectors

You'll get much better performamnce if you get a DC adapter for your CPAP.

I just, on a whim, ordered this charge controller on eBay for $35 flat. https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Wanderer-30A-Charge-Controller/dp/B00BCTLIHC/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8
It was new with original everything and I figured I have the eBay protection if its not what its supposed to be. The owner says they ordered a bundle but they already had a charge controller so sold their Wanderer. we'll see how it plays out.

Thanks for your reply.

I would imagine 40 lbs of generator and gas could probably get you a lot farther. Either way, I'm sure the engineers balanced the options and made the choice that worked.

It looks like the generator is this one: it's 45 lbs and says it'll run 3.2 to 8 hours on 1 gallon of gas depending on the load, up to 2000 watts! Gas is crazy energy dense! I can't wait for batteries to get better.

I've had good luck with the Renogy Panels from amazon and the price isn't too bad at all.

Edit: and they went down by 5 bucks since I bought one last week!

I recommend moving to 12v components and then regulating the power back down to 5v for the Pi. There will be many more options and prices will be better.

Start with a solar panel:
http://www.amazon.com/HQRP-Mono-crystalline-Anodized-Aluminum-Radiation/dp/B002HSUT40

Use a charge controller to attach it to your battery(s):
http://www.amazon.com/Sunforce-7-Amp-Charge-Controller/dp/B0006JO0XI

Attach a voltage regulator to the battery and your Pi:
http://www.amazon.com/Ship-Hobbywing-Switch-mode-UBEC-Lowest/dp/B008ZNWOYY/

As far as batteries go, buying local will save you some shipping. If this is an outside battery you can use a deep cycle/RV battery. If inside then you need something sealed. You should have several days of reserve for bad weather. Maybe something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/26-SEALED-VOLT-DEEP-RECHARGEABLE/dp/B007GCDDOA

Rather easy, if you have LEDs. CFLs draw too much power to be done effectively, but LEDs are efficient enough.

I have a couple tents on lithum generators. They can get a whole day of LEDs and fans, and trickle charge on solar.

It is unlikely that you will be able to power a heater with solar power; heaters simply require too much electricity. A sleeping bag rated for the temperature you will experience is probably the most effective thing for you.

A quick look at Amazon shows the Nintendo switch has a wall outlet power adapter that outputs 5v at 1.5a. Assuming that is correct, you can charge your electrical devices from a wall outlet at McDonalds or Starbucks, or from a cigarette lighter adapter in your car. If you won't be in cities or won't be driving daily, a small solar panel and battery (I like that battery for its dual inputs, which makes it charge twice as fast) will likely be sufficient. Price for solar panel and battery about $100.

If you need more electrical power, put a roof rack on your car, then buy a battery and a 100-watt kit from Renogy (the kit includes mounting hardware, cables, a solar controller and instructions to wire everything together). Price for solar panel kit and battery about $400.

I was in a similar situation as you. We do quite a bit of camping and our family has a non-electrified cabin we use for hunting. I recently bought this "Generator". It's probably no conducive to hiking as it is pretty heavy and it's an extra item to have to carry. However, for camping it works great. I use it with my Resmed AirSense 10 and it lasts me at least 3 nights per charge. It's nice and compact and can be charged with your vehicle. I got mine for $99 and I couldn't be happier. It's a much cheaper option than having to buy an entire second CPAP or having to buy one of the "official" battery packs.

Thanks for the recommendation!

Think I'm gonna buy this one - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SMNLF4M/?coliid=IK0S0655NZ2PW&colid=11VC2POA3TTXX&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

Seems to do enough and it is allegedly pretty quiet.

I'm looking at something like this right now. Someone else told me to look at a marine battery/inverter but between those two and a charger for the battery, it's both more expensive and bulkier. If I can get away with the output on something like that I'd prefer it.

Edit: Inverters are cheaper than I realized actually, might be worth it after all, I'll look into more.

Well yes, solar is big in campers, etc. You can get many types (like the one you linked) that have a seperate solar panel, so you can wire the light inside.
You can also get a stand alone battery/batterypack, solar panel, and LED lights. it's very easy, and there are tons of places online that you can check out for simple solar systems.

ie:

Solar panel (say, 20w), small 12v lead acid battery (like 10Ah), a charge controller ( or equiv. for the UK ), and then some 12v lights

Ah, its pretty important that solar panels get direct sunlight. they get quite a big efficiency loss in the shade.

You would want a solar charge controller, something like this and a solar panel, something like this

The ones I listed are just the first hits on amazon, i dont have experience with those, so do some research :) I think that will work with a motorcycle battery but i might be wrong.

BTW, how about a really long extention cord... like 100ft+?

Amps x volts = watts. You only want to use 50% (Less if you can) for that battery life so 42amps at 12v or ~500 watt hours.

The panel will give 50watts around 4-5 hours a day. So it should generate around 200-250watt hours per day. (If you get more sun or constantly adjust the panel you can get more hours but I would be surprised if you got more than 350watt hours a day in the summer).

So lets say 200 Watt hours per day, that's around one LED light running around 20hrs.


I would suggest something more like this 200 watt system plus a few golf cart batteries. (Sams club has them for around $100 for 200ah 6v batteries). I put my cabin system together with this for around $700 total. 200 watt in panels, 230ah at 12v and lots of LED lighting and places to charge my cell phones and laptops.
http://www.amazon.com/200W-Mono-Starter-Kit-Controller/dp/B00BCRG22A/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1409684525&sr=8-4&keywords=200+watt+renogy

Yes! but that's a pretty spendy piece of kit. Wouldn't something like this work sorta the same, just replace the panel input with a 12V source?

This? This whole get up? Well the camebak and bladder is from REI. The Solar panel is from Amazon. Dogs were rescued from ARF

It's easier not to have to do the AC/DC power conversion.

They make these for fire and rescue personnel. And these for landscapers and construction guys.

If you don't want to go that route (you have to have adapter cords to work with your cordless tools) then I can personally vouch for having/using a small generator exactly like this one which is about the size of a large toolbox, weighs about as much as a five gallon bucket of water, and very portable.

For sure I will... I ordered these 2 Renogy panels and they should come in on Monday... of course I start work Monday too, so I will be working on it every evening next week. Mine will span roughly 8' x 2' across one side of the van on a hoisting ladder rack that will allow for tilt-adjusting towards the sun and easy cleaning.... I'll keep you in the loop with it

Agreed. Renogy's kit is far superior to Harbor Freight: https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Watts-Volts-Monocrystalline-Starter/dp/B00BFCNFRM?ie=UTF8&Version=1&entries=0

https://www.amazon.com/Jackery-Portable-Power-Station-Generator/dp/B07D29QNMJ/ref=asc_df_B07D29QNMJ/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=241946544904&hvpos=1o4&hvnetw=g&hvrand=4012940401562641907&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9032925&hvtargid=pla-473476596395&psc=1
Something like that? I always just suggest not spending anything to do with charging limes, thats just a cost youll need to recoup before making profit.

Did you know Amazon will donate a portion of every purchase if you shop by going to smile.amazon.com instead? Over $50,000,000 has been raised for charity - all you need to do is change the URL!

Here are your smile-ified links:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SMNLF4M/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage

---

Never forget to smile again | ^^i'm ^^a ^^friendly bot

It's just one 100W panel at the moment propped up in the field about 70' from the cabin, it came with a 20' run of the cable and i bought another 50' extension. I've found a good spot for half the year, and then have to move it to another spot for the other half to get decent charging. This is the starter kit i got: http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00BFCNFRM/

I ended up replacing the PWM charge controller with an MPPT which performs much better under lower light conditions, made a huge difference with charging.

Of the two charge controllers you've picked, the cheap one is actually a far better choice for what you want to do.

You want to get a charge controller that lets you run the load through it, and is programmable with either a timer or an adjustable low voltage disconnect. That way you can set it up to run the pump when the sun is shining or when the battery has plenty of charge. The Renogy will only control the charging, so you could find yourself with a very flat battery if you don't add in something else to control discharging.

If you want a branded version of the cheap charge controller, check out this one (but it's basically the same thing).

If you want something with similar features but better quality and functionality you could try this EPsolar controller plus this PC cable and temp sensor.

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Good catch ;-)

I'm using the Renogy 100w monocrystalline panels. They claim to be 21.3" wide by 47" long: http://amzn.com/B009Z6CW7O. My roof is 92" wide, so it will be a tight squeeze but they will fit.

Yeah, no. It wouldn't even work in an ICE car with that inverter. But we have one of those grills on the deck of our condo. It's actually a great grill! If you want to do it right, get one of these with it. Honda EU2000I 2000 Watt Inverter Generator https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005ND19AE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_TlLbzbT7M0P02

I got a reliance. I like it. Very easy to install and comes with a video.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HS2L3O/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I would probably set up some LED lights in a fairly permanent manner and then simply carry a battery pack out to power them whenever I'm entertaining. It'll probably power a bunch of LED lights and a radio all night long, but worst case, you buy two batteries to get through your longer parties.

It's not as fancy as an overkill solar set would be, but it's much, much simpler. You could have it all ready to go in time for tonight's party.

I used this pump:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003XERUTY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1#

Powered by this battery:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004DR3IIC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And this solar panel:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BCRG22A/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This simple and cheap setup basically gave me 2 garden hoses (2ea 1/2 inch pipes t'd off of the main 1" line)

I could water for like an hour in the morning, an hour at sundown and probably 3-4 hours at mid-day in full sun with the battery never running down more than a tiny ammount. I also charged phones, computers, flashlights, etc with this system at the same time. You should be able to pump your ass off with a system like this.

Things to note... The pump only has about a 20 foot lift so if the top of the water in the swamp is farther than 20 vertical feet (not linear) from where the end of the hose is you may be in trouble. Also, make some sort of coarse filter so leaves and mud and such does not clog it. A few mesh bags around a 5 gallon bucket with a ton of 2" holes and a rock to weight it down did the trick for me! Good luck.

I had a similar idea a while ago and the general consensus is that a solar generator, while it seems practical, isn't much more simple than a DIY solar set up, but it is much more expensive.

Heres a simple list I could find that'll give you the same wattage (someone correct me if I'm wrong with this, I'm no electrician):

$185 [100w panel (comes with mounts for your roof)] (http://www.amazon.com/Renogy-100W-Mono-Starter-Kit/dp/B00BFCNFRM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421722028&sr=8-1&keywords=100w+solar+panel)


$189 [Inverter] (http://www.amazon.com/Cobra-2575-2500-Power-Inverter/dp/B00126K8DA/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1421722161&sr=8-3&keywords=5000w+inverter) (the gene you linked is a bit sneaky, saying 5k watts, but thats the peak, not the continuous, so this inveter is the same wattage). Also, the generator produces a modified sine wave. This means the inveter isn't suitable for things like lighting and (so i've heard) isn't good for expensive electronics, [you can do some research on the difference between pure and modified] (http://www.civicsolar.com/resource/pure-sine-vs-modified-sine-wave-inverters). The one I've linked is pure and good for any electronics.

$183 [100 AH sealed AGM deep cycle battery] (http://www.solar-electric.com/batteries-meters-accessories/batteries/unba/unba100amagm.html)

$100 for the extra wire you'll need. You have to get wire for the charge controller to the battery, then from the battery to the inveter, so not too much. The $100 is probably much more than you need.

So in total, thats ~$660 for the same power. You could toss the components into a box and seal it up and make your own generator if you really want to.


Just to add, I thought it'd be cool to see what I could do with the $1000+ the gene costs. For just ~$150 more, you could more than double the system with [these panels] (http://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Solar-Panel-Bundle-200Watt/dp/B00B8L8MD2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421722532&sr=8-1&keywords=200w+solar+panel), [this inverter] (http://www.amazon.com/Power-Bright-PW6000-12-Inverter-6000/dp/B002EA22YQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421722161&sr=8-1&keywords=5000w+inverter), and [this battery] (http://www.solar-electric.com/batteries-meters-accessories/batteries/unba/unba200amagm.html).

http://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Watts-Volts-Monocrystalline-Starter/dp/B00BFCNFRM

Expand from there with more panels depending on how fast you want to charge the battery. I recommend spending the few extra bucks for the MPPT charge controller, those cheap chinese PWM controllers can be pretty notorious for QRM. The charge controller specs will determine how many more panels you can add to the system.

Buy a couple large deep cycle batteries and a battery tender to keep them charged

For example, this battery:
https://www.amazon.com/Universal-UB121000-45978-100AH-Cycle-Battery/dp/B00S1RT58C/ is 100ah at 12v, which is roughly 1200 watt hours. For comparison, A 3.7v 20,000 mah phone power bank is 74 watt hours.

Get something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Chanzon-Cigarette-Terminal-Accessory-Inflator/dp/B07CQMQL9L/ to allow using your car charger with a standalone battery.

Add a 100w solar kit: https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Monocrystalline-Negative-Controller-Connectors/dp/B00BFCNFRM/ if you expect sunny weather during your power outages

ok lets start off with correcting your requirements..

Phone 3.24Ah x 3.7v = 12Wh

Laptop = 42 Wh (per spec sheet)

Fan .5Ah x 12v = 6Wh/hour of run time

LEDs 0.8Ah x 4.5v = 3.6Ah (assuming 3 batteries)

With 7 hours of run time on that fan lets call that an even 100Wh/day that you will need to generate which that panel should be able to crank out in about 1 hour of direct sunlight if it was perfect with no loss anywhere so plan for 2 hours and you will be very safe if you never have a cloudy day without charging.



In theory a 20Ah 12v battery will meet your needs based on your stated design with only a 50% discharge. (less if you recharge the laptop while the sun is out)



My suggestions:

Use this panel kit instead https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BFCNFRM/ . Same rated output but the mounting kit saves some headache and gives flexibility on the charger about what kind of batteries it can feed.

For batteries I would highly recommend looking at a pair of 35Ah 6v golf cart batteries run in series.

For lighting just get some 12v LEDs and run the straight off the battery and don't mess around with AAA batteries.


Extra note - Any time you are charging something else there is a voltage change and you are going to lose some energy in the step up/down transformers or inverters that can be as horrible as 20% loss. Just keep this in mind when doing calculations.

I don't recall right now, but it was in south california, maybe 6-8 hours? I can look it up tomorrow.

Worth it.

Did it have power? I'm trying to recall. It may not have, come to think of it :|

You could certainly do something laptop based:
Renogy 100 Watts 12 Volts Monocrystalline Solar Panel

Ummm maybe the reason that nobody else wants to listen to a friggin' generator of any size at a campground described as 'deep woods'?

also for OP, even [one of these](https://www.amazon.com/100-Watt-Portable-Generator-Emergency-Inverter/dp/B01M3S00H0) will only give you an hour or two to power a fan of useful size.

The key I think is a bike trailer. I have one for the kids, and with 50lbs back there, it's not as noticeable as you'd think, even pedaling the old fashioned way. My trailer is about 24"x36"

So, for batteries, 60 mile range, at 50 watt/hour per mile means you'll need 3000 watt hours. Lithium Ion gives you about 128 watt hours per kg, so that's about 24kg, or about 60lbs. Probably close to $2500 for battery, charger, etc.

If you look for solar panels you can get a 100 watt semi-flexible panel. Semi-flexible is more for the weight, I'd mount it on some 1/4" ply. Probably enough to give you 30 miles in 3 days or so. They are 2' x 4' so, more area than you'd want on a bike, getting back to the trailer. Trailer would also be a handy place to store your gear. Make sure you get/make the appropriate charge controller. I'd guess about $800 for panels, controller, mount trailer etc.


Between a big enough battery to actually do the round trip, and some solar charging in case you want to go further, I'd say it'd be entirely feasible. You could even power the trailer, and leave only a throttle and a hitch on your bike.

You could trade off some watt hours in battery for solar, where you make that cut is up to you and how much you think you're into pedaling, how long you'll be out, whether you can find AC for a while on the way.

Personally for the bike I'd go heavy and comfortable with a big mid-drive running at 48 volts. I'd keep one battery on the bike for running around without the trailer. I'd say about $2500 for bike, motor, trailer, controller etc.

The devil is in the details though, with the bike choice, and the electronic jiggery pokery. It's feasable. It'd be real cool. You could make the trailer look real spiffy.


Solar charge controller, might work: https://www.amazon.com/Y-SOLAR-Regulator-Controller-Battery-DC12-60V/dp/B01IBGXM86/ref=sr_1_31?ie=UTF8&qid=1469222375&sr=8-31&keywords=48v+solar+charger

Solar panel: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017OMTAV6?psc=1

Battery: http://lunacycle.com/batteries/packs/48v/48v-panasonic-ncr18650b-20ah-power-density/

Trailer: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0029KBA26?psc=1


For all of this you are comfortably into the range of buying a motorcycle.

To add to my thought the more I think about it, it really should be possible. I got this a while back and have used it for my dell laptop to charge it several times before needing to recharge and it's specs are 150Wh ( 3.7V 40500mAh/11.1V 13500mAh) so it is certainly possible with the right hardware but I do agree that the hub would need to be bigger for all of this.

I won't repeat what others said for 1-3. For question 4, we actually bought this:

https://amazon.com/gp/product/B076PR4TBZ

Serves two purposes. Firstly, it has plenty to charge all of our stuff for the three days we spend there (it didn't go below half), and second, it has an outlet in it so we can power the air pump to inflate our air mattress. Out of all the stuff I bring to Oshkosh, this is one of the most useful. We brought this in addition to power bricks, but it's original purpose was air mattress inflation.

I picked: Model MB7420 motorola for an example.

power draw: 12v @ 1a. 12 watts.

12v supply is really REALLY nice for the next thing i'm going to suggest: solar and a battery.


https://www.amazon.com/MOTOROLA-MB7621-Approved-Spectrum-Downloads/dp/B077BL65HS/


26 bucks for a charge controller:
https://www.amazon.com/HQST-Regulator-Charge-Controller-Display/dp/B00FB3OPKM/

46$: a 20 amp hour battery will be more than enough to get your thru the night. if you're concerned about cloudly days then you can double it up.
https://www.amazon.com/Chrome-Battery-12V-20AH-T3/dp/B00BW3ULZI/

130 bucks for a 100watt solar panel
https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Watts-Volts-Monocrystalline-Solar/dp/B009Z6CW7O/

figure 20-30 bucks in wiring and mounts and random stuff.

total cost to power it: 200-250$.

Car like that? Try something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Battery-Tender-021-1163-Solar-Maintainer/dp/B004Q83TGO

This might be what your looking for: It is essentially a contained 3S - 3.7V - li-ion battery with a BMS. It also has a low power 2A USB output to power the 5V device. The 5V might be too weak for your application.

I will give you two scenarios, one 1s and the other 3S.

1S solution:

• Multiple cells in parallel
  
• Some undervoltage protection
  
• A 4.2V cccv charger (NO ADAPTER)
  
• A 5V boost converter
  
• a 12V boost converter
  
  3S solution (3.7V nominal li-ion):
  
  
• A 3S battery
  
• A fully functional BMS with balancing and undervoltage protection
  
• a 12.6V cccv charger (NO ADAPTER)
  
• A 5V buck converter
  
• A 12V buck/boost converter (might be optional)
  
  3S solution (3.35V nominal li-ion LFP):
  
  
• A 4S battery
  
• A fully functional BMS with balancing and undervoltage protection
  
• a 14.4V cccv charger (NO ADAPTER)
  
• A 5V buck converter
  
• A 12V buck/boost converter (might be optional)
  
  ​
  
  ​
  
  ​

I use a solar generator like this

Then I use a solar panel to recharge it. This battery will run my fridge for a few days plus other items.

They make cheaper ones though like this

That could also be hooked up to a portable solar panel for recharge.

$220.00: (2) 6 volt golf cart battery's from Costco or Sams club wired in series to equal 12 volts and approximately 220 amp hours of capacity

$349.99: Renogy kit: https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Monocrystalline-Solar-Starter-Wanderer/dp/B00BCRG22A/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1542503494&sr=8-3&keywords=Renogy+200+Watt+12+Volt+Solar+Starter+Kit

Total equipment $570 dollars

various wire $40.00 dollars

PSW inverter $170.00, might not need.



So 200 watts of solar will work. You may NOT need an inverter because LED's will work from 12 volts directly, you may be able to take the light apart and work around the 120 volt power supply. or buy 12 volt LED lights.

https://www.amazon.com/Samlex-America-PST-300-12-Pure-Inverter/dp/B00DVYWP8C/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1542504072&sr=8-3&keywords=psw+inverter+12v

​

Final advice, inverters use power whether they are being used or not unless you shut them off when you are not using one.. I strongly suggest sticking to 12 volt lighting and skip the inverter

If you absolutely need 120 volts, get a pure sign wave inverter. They cost more but you wont have limitations like you would from a modified sign wave inverter. buy something good in the 300 to 400 watt range minimum in case you need to charge battery powered tools, a radio, charge a phone or other small loads. stick with brand name equipment for reliability.

Honda EU2000I 2000 Watt Super Quiet Inverter Generator https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005ND19AE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_ygMlxbB0CTB8A

https://www.amazon.com/WEN-56200i-2000-Watt-Generator-Compliant/dp/B00SMNLF4M

WEN 56200i Super Quiet 2000-Watt Portable Inverter Generator, CARB Compliant
by WEN

alternate

In Canada it's also on sale ($390 CAD - $25 coupon), but not as nearly as good as US sale - https://www.amazon.ca/Jackery-Portable-Power-Station-Generator/dp/B07D29QNMJ/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ref_

amazon.COM doesn't ship this product to Canada, at least to my location anyways...

I got this battery pack off Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M3S00H0/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Pretty small in size and works well for an overnight camping trip with no humidifier.

The solar panel in the photo looks a lot like a Renogy 12v 100 watt solar panel. You would need a minimum of 3 of those 100 watt panels along with a decent battery bank and sizable power inverter to power that refrigerator 24/7 while maintaining a fairly cool temperature inside of the fridge.

source - assuming "average use" for the fridge

I have a solar panel and power station. In tandem they allow me to power basic electronics. Eventually I'd like to get a generator hooked up to the circuit breaker in the garage and have it automatically switch on. Being in the South, A/C is paramount.

I have just put together a system for a remote barn on my property. It may be overkill for what you are trying to accomplish, but thought it might help.

• 30W Solar Panel
  
• MC4 Cable Connectors
  
• Charge Controller
  
• 12v LED Flood Lights
  
  This is connected to a 12v deep cycle marine battery that you an find at NAPA.
  
  Depending on frequency of use, you may be able to get away with a lower wattage solar panel, or, if it is rarely used, scrap the solar components all together and just lug the battery back to your house once a month a stick it on a trickle charger.

I've worked with enough electricity that I would really rather not make my own. That being said, plans exist, and I've seen a few folks at our observatory with some -very- nice ones. These also exist, which have been recommended to me before, keep meaning to order one actually...

That model is likely overkill to charge ~50%...sounds like you really only need a small top up (20% or so) to get you back home under power:

This one would almost certainly get you what you need to get home under power:

https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Jackery-PowerBar-Universal-Compatible/dp/B07F119R6P/ref=sr_1_13?keywords=portable+laptop+ac+battery+charger&qid=1571105532&sr=8-13

I suspect this would get you 15-20% increase in charge over what you pulled in from your commute with.

if you wanted to go with one of the hefty jackery ones, this one would likely get you 60% from 0 or more charge into the battery of the rev (67k mah):

https://www.amazon.com/Jackery-Portable-Power-Station-Generator/dp/B07D29QNMJ/ref=pd_bxgy_86_img_3/136-2471141-6721145?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07D29QNMJ&pd_rd_r=5a05793c-d5db-4525-bb61-cb980e68e1a8&pd_rd_w=zT417&pd_rd_wg=jYB1X&pf_rd_p=09627863-9889-4290-b90a-5e9f86682449&pf_rd_r=3XT0KTAE3RDV0FDAV2RY&psc=1&refRID=3XT0KTAE3RDV0FDAV2RY

no need to spend 425 USD.

PS: this one is crazy cheap and would likely charge you to at least 60% from 0 (great reviews to boot) - at 64.8k mah slightly less mah than Jackery hefty one, but nearly identical spec wise, and much cheaper:

https://www.amazon.com/Rockpals-250-Watt-Generator-Rechargeable-Emergency/dp/B075SSMR6K/ref=pd_cp_86_4/136-2471141-6721145?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B075SSMR6K&pd_rd_r=44eeb9b7-24bb-43b9-8c6a-26adef14b6cb&pd_rd_w=YNe82&pd_rd_wg=nhtvD&pf_rd_p=0e5324e1-c848-4872-bbd5-5be6baedf80e&pf_rd_r=WCZPCS731EJZM70705MS&psc=1&refRID=WCZPCS731EJZM70705MS

I may even give that a go for the price!

Source: I own this one and it charges my rev from 50% to about 95% (42k mah, while the two bigger guys above are around ~65k mah):

https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Outlet-Battery-Pack-ChargeTech/dp/B06Y3NF7N2/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=chargetech+42000&qid=1571106042&s=electronics&sr=1-1

I can't recommend the one that I own...had some issues with it.

Amazon has a 100 watt kit that looks to include what I need minus the battery and inverter. Would something like this be what I am after?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00BFCNFRM/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1526590632&sr=8-3&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=solar+panel+kit&dpPl=1&dpID=51tMu4DA-EL&ref=plSrch

I mean it is a generator. With a quiet one will come more cost. If your just looking for a way to emergency charge phone and batteries look at a crank charger or sometimes called a dynamo. Most will be integrated with a radio or flashlight already or look at goalzero solar charger products. Some of there basic sets can charge a tablet and they only cost about a hundred bucks. If your looking for good lights look at the 30/60 day light, extra batteries will be easy to carry than a generator + gas.

30 day light
http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Survival-Technologies-30-Day-Lantern/dp/B00ABUSWR2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407277032&sr=8-1&keywords=30+day+light

Goalzero
http://www.amazon.com/Goal-Zero-41022-Guide-Recharging/dp/B00DD6B9IK/ref=sr_1_1?s=lawn-garden&srs=3555756011&ie=UTF8&qid=1407277085&sr=1-1&keywords=goal+zero

I hope you're joking.

One human unit of power is equivalent to 600 watt-hours. A "decent" electric car has a 60,000 watt hour battery bank (60 KWh).

The smallest decent portable solar panel is about 100W in size.

So after a full day's worth of charging (sun and no clouds) for six hours on your exercise bike in the woods, you'd be at 1.05 KWh, or 1.75% of battery charge.

According to random internet forums, that would get you about 3 miles of driving in the woods.

I have a 2018 ford transit van. We take this with us camping ( I camp about 20 times a year, 2-3 day trips ) .

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I am looking to get a small electric generator / battery and a simple solar panel to charge it. This will be used just to run a water pump for once a day quick shower, power some low energy fans at night and charge devices.

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I already own this power source - https://www.amazon.com/Aeiusny-Generator-Portable-Emergency-Solar/dp/B01IW408R0/

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I was debating getting this solar panel - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009Z6CW7O

Is it compatible and will charge the power source listed above or is there a better one? Am I missing any critical components to get this to work?

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I plan to mount it on top of the van as a permanent structure.

Thanks in advance.

Anyone have this Renogy Solar Kit and use it for amateur radio? Or, if you are a solar guru, how does that kit look features/price wise?

The title is rather innacurate, I agree. But let's look at what he has actually made.

His machine takes these solar panels, which cost $0.50 per watt (peak output), and wires the components into a series then seals them against the elements (likely costing ~$0.25 for plastic/glue/ect, wild guess there). Meaning you can get $0.75 per watt for a solar panel that you can stick anywhere.

For comparison, a medium scale solar panel costs around $1.15 per watt. This includes a charge controller, which costs about $70 on its own (and the $70 has been included in the cost-per-watt).

So instead of having a huge panel that may need repair and may have one component fail which takes the whole thing offline, you have a hundred plastic packet solar panels. That each cost less than half as much.

If it works as advertised, it has the potential to bring home solar panel costs way down by a third, and make maintenance easier (just throw it out and replace the broken ones). As well as making installation costs easier because you'd really just need a big box that has divots to place the plastic wrapped solar panels in.