I've been living off the power grid for almost 25 years and am here to walk you through this important topic. By the end of this post, you'll be able to decide for yourself whether your circumstances are best suited to a grid-tie or an off-grid solar power system.

First, let us take a quick look at some pros and cons:

Now, for a bit more detail. The first one we will look at is the Grid-tie power system and then we will look at what an off-grid power system looks like.

Grid-Tie Solar Systems

For a variety of reasons (environmental, economic, etc.) many people choose this route. Typically this starts by connecting the home to the local power company’s power lines. The home uses power and the meter spins. At the end of the month, you receive a power bill for the electricity you used.

Up to this point, everything is “normal”. Here is the difference. Grid-tie systems use the energy produced from the homeowner’s renewable sources to offset the power purchased.

Basically, it consists of installing a solar panel array (often on the roof of the house). The electricity generated by your solar panels is then directed into your home for use or on to the power grid.

During times when the solar system is producing more power than your home is currently using, the power meter essentially spins backward, selling power back to the power company. Then you get a credit on your power bill. When the power produced is less than your current usage (i.e. at night or on cloudy days), then the power company “sells” you the power you need and you receive a bill in the mail.

The Advantages of a Grid-tie system

The goal of most grid-tie systems is to greatly reduce or eliminate your power bill. You'd want to install enough solar panels to accomplish that depending on your current budget.

Conventional grid-tie systems are typically less expensive (per kWh of power produced) than off-grid systems. The reason? There is no need for equipment to store excess electricity. The power company basically becomes the storage system, selling you power whenever your system is not producing enough.

The downside of a conventional grid-tie system is that when a power outage occurs, you still lose your electricity like everyone else. The solar system automatically shuts down during a power outage so that it doesn't electrocute a poor lineman who might be trying to restore power to your area.

Having said that, it is true that many modern grid-tie systems can be set up with a small battery backup to provide power during blackouts. But this increases the cost of the system, and most on-grid homes are not set up to be off-grid and would plow through any moderately-sized battery bank in record time. So the battery backup systems basically give you a short tether to make it through quick blackouts with only a portion of your home operational. In our opinion, if you go to the expense and effort of setting up a full battery system and making your home off-grid ready, why not just go off the grid?

Off-Grid Solar Systems

An off-grid solar power system is completely independent from the power grid. It produces all of its electricity. When its power sources are generating power (solar, wind, hydro, fuel-powered generator), they are powering the home, and any unused power is stored in a battery bank for times when you aren't producing as much.

An inverter/charger works to convert the power from your batteries or solar panels into usable power in your house, just like you would if you were on the power grid. With the exception of solar panels, you wouldn't know the difference practically in your home. You'd plug in your kitchen appliances, computer, and phone charger into an electrical outlet just like you would normally.

There are some additional components we won't get into on this post, but these are the most basic components of an off-grid solar power system:

• Solar panels (and/or other power sources) - to generate electricity
• Battery bank - to store any unused power
• Inverter/charger - to transform the solar or battery power into regular household current, just like you'd get from the power company

The Advantage of an Off-Grid System

The #1 advantage of an off-grid system is the independence it provides. When your power company is experiencing a local or regional blackout, you are completely unaffected. It's awesome to find out days later about a power outage in your area that you weren't even aware of!

All other things being equal, an off-grid power system costs more than a conventional grid tie system, since there are no batteries with a conventional grid-tie system. However, there are other factors. For instance, most off-grid power system owners choose to become more energy efficient. Therefore, they don't need to produce as much power (or build as large a system), as they would have if they had gone with a grid-tie system. So I have seen a number of off-grid systems that were significantly cheaper than a typical grid-tie system. If done properly and economically, even an off-grid system should pay for itself and end up saving money in the long run. How long this takes will depend on your energy consumption, how economically your system is designed, and the price of energy in your area.

One other factor to consider is the cost of running power lines to a remote property. If you find yourself in that situation, it could cost tens of thousands of dollars for the power company to get you connected to the grid. While this cost varies depending on the distance from existing lines and installation difficulty, I have heard of an $18,000 quote for running power to a location around 1 mile from the power lines; another quote was approaching $50,000 to run the power lines several miles.

One final clarification regarding energy efficiency. We live very normally here. We didn't substantially change our lifestyle to be more power efficient for our off grid system. Instead, we focused on finding equipment that was more power efficient. That's the key to thriving in off-grid success. You don't generally have to do without. It's about choosing wisely.

Because an off-grid system enables one to become truly energy independent, that is what we highly recommend. Are you ready to take your home off the power grid?

The post Uncover the perfect solar system for you: off-grid or grid-tied? appeared first on Sustainable Preparedness.

Here we go...

The Theory

When the sun's rays arrive at your solar panels, the more perpendicular they are to the array, the more energy will be produced (all other things being equal). Because of this, some companies have produced solar trackers that essentially move your solar array through the day so it stays as perpendicular to the sun as possible. But these devices cost a lot, and with solar power being so cheap these days, they usually are not worth the expense. However, it illustrates the impact that proper vertical angle can have.

While it's not practical to manually rotate your solar array from east to west each day through the day, there are some other adjustments we can make less frequently that can have a serious impact. In fact, it only takes as few as 2 adjustments per year to get most of the benefit.

You see, not only does the sun appear to move from our eastern horizon to the west each day, but it's also making a very gradual move each season. In the summer, the sun glides more directly overhead in the middle of the day. However, during winter it can be much lower in the southern horizon. The effect becomes more exaggerated the further north (or south) you go from the equator. The only place this stays the same all year is directly on the equator. For more details, see this post.

Thankfully, if you take this into account when setting up your solar system, you can easily make some occasional adjustments to maximize the power potential of your off grid solar array.

The Easy Way

If you choose your solar mount carefully, adjusting the angle will be a breeze. Here's a look at how easy it can be with a solar mount like the one I use from MT Solar:

Other Options

Some other types of solar mounts can also be adjusted. For instance, if you build a false wall and mount solar panels using adjustable angle iron mounts like this:

With this option, holes are strategically drilled in the bottom metal runner at various locations to allow for the solar array to be tilted to different vertical angles. If you go this route, you may want to limit your number of adjustments each year since it isn't as easy.

And that brings us to the next question...

How Often Should I Adjust My Solar Panels?

You don't have to adjust them at all. And for many mounts (like roof mounts), you won't be able to adjust your array. But if you are able to adjust them, you can improve the power production from your array, especially during the winter when they struggle more.

Unless your array is super easy to adjust (like mine is in the video above), I suggest only adjust your solar array twice per year. Once in the spring and once in the fall. But if it's super easy to adjust (or you just enjoy doing it), you could do it once a month or even more (especially during Spring and Fall when the sun's arc is changing more rapidly).

Is It Really Worth It?

You might be wondering if adjusting your solar array's vertical pitch is really worth the work. And that's a good question. The answer depends on how difficult your solar array is to adjust and whether your solar array is oversized or undersized.

If your solar array is oversized--even for the winter months--then it probably isn't worth the work unless you have a mount that is super easy to adjust like mine. However, if you are undersized in the winter, then the bump you'll get could make a difference.

Here's the NREL Red Book data for our area, and you'll notice that the "Latitude + 15" row produces more solar power in the winter months than "Latitude" or "Latitude -15." What does that mean? It's a formula for the vertical pitch of your solar array, in degrees. In other words, if you are at 40 degrees of latitude, then "Latitude +15" would equal a vertical pitch of 55 degrees.

As you can see, the bump in power production isn't huge, but it can sure help--especially in those winter months that already have shorter cloudier days.

So the short answer to the question is, it depends. But for me, it's worth it.

The post How To Squeeze More Power From Solar Panels appeared first on Sustainable Preparedness.

We purchased our current home nearly 6 years ago. It had been sitting empty for quite a number of years and it has needed a lot of 'elbow grease'. One area that was desperately needing an upgrade was the power system. The solar array was very old and seriously insufficient, the batteries were half alive, and the equipment was ancient and 'Jerry-rigged'.

But a new system doesn't grow on trees, and ever since the time we purchased this homestead, we have been planning, saving, shopping, and scheming to upgrade this home to a larger, newer, and more efficient power system that will easily meet our family's needs.

Here's how we did this:

1. Started by measuring our current power usage. Then we entered all our numbers into a calculator that Nick designed so we would know how many solar panels we'd need and how large our battery bank should be.
2. We researched the different sizes and brands of equipment available and decided which route we wanted to go with.
3. Keeping a close eye on the market for the items we wanted, we saved and jumped on each item as they went on sale or as we were ready to afford them.
4. Once we had everything ordered, we installed the system and flipped the switch! Whala! Simple, right?

Well, in some ways it was that simple. In other ways... not as much!

First, the Inverter

When we moved in the first thing we did was change out the inverter (the piece of equipment that converts power from DC current (the 'storable' kind of power - think batteries) to AC current (the usable kind that your phone charger is plugged into right now). The reason was that the inverter produced 'modified sine wave' electricity. You can think of that as 'dirty electricity'. It works... well, for most things. But your more sensitive electronics, like all our office equipment (Computers, duplicators, printers, sound equipment, etc) don't work as well (or don't work at all, as with my Vitamix blender! Haha!).

So the inverter was promptly swapped out with a new inverter that produced 'pure sine wave electricity' and would fit into our long term goals. One piece of equipment was done.

Next, the Solar Panels

The next thing we got was all our solar panels. We already knew what we wanted and how much we needed, so when we saw a really great deal on our favorite solar panels, we jumped on it! AND... those lovely panels were stacked safely in our garage for a few years while we continued to save and shop.

And... Batteries!

Finally, the batteries bit the dust. Nick made a gallant effort to stretch just as much life out of those poor things as is humanly possible. And believe me, he has the patience of the saints!! I would have given up long before, but here's a little about what he did to eek every ounce of life out of them. Once we got every penny out of them that we could, we finally purchased the new, much larger forklift battery bank and installed it into our power system. That was a VERY happy day!

Pole Mount

Next was to install the solar pole mount. And yes, we did it ourselves. Pole mounts are very convenient from a number of perspectives, and for us, it was a perfect fit. But installing one can be a HUGE headache if you think about having to lift all those solar panels to the top of a pole! However, we found a pole mount that was designed to be assembled at ground level and then raised to the desired height after installation is almost entirely complete. And THAT was a game-changer for us. MT Solar has the best solar mounts and it was like putting together a puzzle with some really great instructions. More about that soon...

And the rest...

Last, we changed out all the inside equipment and wired everything together. Now, I'm no electrition (if you can't already tell)! But even I was helping Nick wire all the equipment together (scary, right?!). Honestly, if you have a basic understanding of how to wire a home properly, then taking on this task of installing your own power system won't be any problem for you. And it wasn't for us.

If we can do it, honestly, you can too!

What plans do you have for installing a system? Where are you at in your journey of setting up your power system? We would LOVE to hear them! Comment below and share with us your story.

The post The Story of our Solar System! appeared first on Sustainable Preparedness.

Your water is gone within a couple flushes, your freezer is going to start thawing out, and the food in your fridge will start spoiling shortly.

But no worries…remember that generator you bought a few years ago?  That’ll light your house up again, right?

Maybe.  Or maybe not.  There’s a good likelihood that your fuel has gone bad (if you even have any stored).

So here are some key tips to make sure your fuel is in top-notch condition when you need it.

First, The Generator Stuff

#1.  You’ll need an appropriately sized generator.  It all depends on what you are needing to do with it, but many folks find 6-8kW to be sufficient to run the basic necessities like water pump, fridge, freezer, a few lights, etc.  If you are wanting to power bigger things like an electric water heater or HVAC system, then you’ll need a much larger generator.

#2.  You’ll need an approved way to connect the generator to your home without electrocuting anyone (including the power company linemen).  That means a transfer switch that has been installed by a licensed electrician (unless it is a model that wires into your existing breaker box—in which case you could do it if you are handy with electrical wiring).

So you have both of those squared away?  That brings us to the biggie—#3.

The Big One - Fuel

Question 3A - do you have any fuel?

Question 3B - do you have enough fuel?

But Question 3C is what gets so many people—is your fuel still fresh?  In other words, has it gone bad?

You see, both gasoline and Diesel fuel can go bad in an amazingly short period of time if the conditions are right and if you have not stabilized it.

I consider fuel to be the number one issue that causes problems when people want to run their backup generator.

How To Keep Your Fuel Fresh

It all starts with where you bought the fuel.  Is there a lot of turnover at that gas station?  If not, your fuel could have been sitting there for some time before you bought it.  And if the gas station didn’t set up their tanks properly, it’s possible that there could be water or other contaminants in the fuel.

Next, I STRONGLY suggest using ONLY non-ethanol gas for any small engine.  There are numerous issues with this, but the only one I’ll mention here is that ethanol absorbs water and is going to make your fuel inherently less stable.  Many gas stations are starting to carry non-ethanol premium gas, so check around and you’ll likely find some.  Yes, it’s spendy, but most small engines don’t use a lot of fuel and it will be well worth the cost when you get reliable performance.

Next is your storage tank.  Generally, I’ve found larger tanks to store fuel better than smaller ones.  Just think of heating a pot of water on the stove.  The smaller your pot is, the quicker it heats up.  Likewise, there is more temperature fluctuation in smaller tanks.  And it’s more likely that you’ll leave a small tank out in the element.  On the other side, larger tanks are harder to deal with.

If you find that a smaller tank (such as a 5-gallon fuel can) is more convenient for your situation, then I would suggest storing it in a dry covered area.  If possible, it would be great if this location doesn’t have a lot of temperature fluctuation either, but that may be unavoidable in a place like a garage.  And I recommend plastic rather than metal containers.  There is less potential for condensation to gather on the inside of a plastic tank.

And with that in mind, KEEP THE TANK DRY!  I can’t stress that enough.  Water is an enemy of good fuel.  If your generator is a Diesel, I recommend installing a water block (water separator) on the input fuel line.  This will help to keep any condensation out and your engine on.

Finally, we come to my secret weapon for fresh fuel…

Stabilize It

Since gasoline and Diesel are so unstable, you MUST add a stabilizer to it unless you will be using it up within a week or two.  Yes, I know you may have done it for a few months without stabilizer in the past.  But that doesn't mean you can count on it happening again.  You need to be able to count on your fuel and using a good fuel stabilizer is a big step in that direction.  But be aware that all fuel stabilizers are not created equal.

By far, my favorite fuel stabilizer is PRI-G (for gasoline) or PRI-D (for Diesel).  This stuff was made for massive fuel tanks at shipping docks, where thousands of gallons of fuel are at stake.  I have been using it for almost 20 years and have experienced remarkable results—firsthand.

For instance, years ago we stored a couple drums of gasoline in a hot and humid location (not a good idea!) and 6 years later it ran just fine in a car.  That was with only the initial treatment.  Pretty amazing!  The president of the company states that those kinds of results aren’t unusual.  He says “On average, one dosage will keep fuel fresh for about five years – sometimes much longer. We have had some fuels in storage as long as 12 years – and they are still refinery fresh. “  However I do recommend that you follow their recommendation of re-treating the fuel every 18 months.

I almost always add PRI-G to any container of gas that I fill up.  The only thing I don’t use it for on a regular basis is in the car since we plow through that very quickly.  But I even run it in the car occasionally to clean things out (I can tell a noticeable difference sometimes).

Since it is so concentrated, one 32 oz container of PRI-G or PRI-D will treat over 500 gallons.  So I consider it a really good value.  I’m told that if you keep it out of the sunlight, both PRI concentrates should last 10 years or more.

The Cheap Stuff

Please save yourself time, money, and wasted fuel.  Don't get the (not so) cheap stuff like "Sta-bil" that is commonly found at hardware stores.  That stuff doesn't hold a candle to PRI.  Just try storing fuel for a couple years with Sta-bil or one of its fellows!  Even 1 year is probably pushing it.

What you and I need is industrial strength fuel stabilizer that just plain works.  And that's what I've found PRI-G and PRI-D to be after nearly two decades of use.

How To Use Fuel Stabilizer

The ideal time to stabilize fuel is when adding it to your tank.  When I fill up a 5 gallon can, I try and remember to add the appropriate amount of PRI-G to the tank before filling it up with non-ethanol gas.  In a 5 gallon container, that works out to less than 1/2 of an ounce.  There’s a handy measuring contraption built into the bottle.

If you are adding the stabilizer to a small tank that is already filled with fuel, you could roll or shake the container around to mix the stabilizer in.  But if you are adding stabilizer to a large tank that cannot be early moved around, your best bet for mixing it is by inserting a short length of clean garden hose down to the bottom of the tank and then blowing into the hose for several minutes (or use an air compressor to do it).  The action of the bubbles rising to the top will help to mix it in.

Where To Get It

We don’t carry PRI-G or PRI-D anymore, but you can find it on Amazon for a reasonable price (and it'll help support our blog without costing you a penny):

Pri-G (for gasoline)

Pri-D (for Diesel or kerosene)

Questions or Comments?
↓↓↓Fire away below↓↓↓

The post How To Keep Your Fuel Fresh & Your Lights On appeared first on Sustainable Preparedness.

And anytime you buy a new appliance, it's an excellent opportunity to become more efficient--whether you are currently off the grid or not.  It will save you money now (on your power bill) and will save you a LOT of money when you do go off the grid in the future.

Be aware that many freezers can add a lot of extra power usage and run up the cost of your off-grid power system.  But if you are careful, shop wisely, and use a little strategy, you can end up with an excellent freezer that is super efficient.

Here's how I chose mine.  Don't feel like you need to choose the same one (models are constantly changing), but I think the process and info I used will help you in making an informed decision.

Warning

I must preface this by saying that I do not consider freezing to be a reliable method of long-term food storage unless you live in the arctic circle.

It's not that freezing doesn't work--it works very well.  The problem is that for most (if not all) of the year, you are depending upon an appliance to keep your food frozen; and if that appliance ever stops working for any reason, your food will go bad within hours or days (depending on the outside temperature at the time).  And while this could happen from a power outage if you are on the grid, it could just as easily occur to an off-gridder when the appliance simply breaks.  If you doubt the likelihood of this happening, go online and read the reviews of several freezers--almost without exception, you'll read about someone who's freezer broke and all their food spoiled.

If you are on the ball and happen to catch it right when it happens, you could go into "emergency mode" and could can or use some other food preservation method before the food goes bad, but if you are depending upon that freezer for a substantial portion of your food preservation needs, you are risking a lot.

So our personal theory is that we'll treat the freezer as a convenience but not depend on it for any substantial portion of our food preservation needs.

With that out of the way, let's talk freezers…

Chest or Upright?

First of all, we decided on a chest freezer.  If you are looking for a stand-alone freezer as we were (as opposed to a combination fridge-freezer), I highly recommend going with a chest freezer.  They can be very inexpensive and are usually going to be more energy efficient.

Size

Next, since we had no intentions of using a freezer for any substantial portion of our food storage needs, we decided that even a very small unit would suit our needs well.  When looking at the energy ratings, we discovered that a larger unit uses more power than a similar smaller unit (all other things being equal).  We decided to focus our search on units that are 5 cubic feet or smaller, but you could easily go with a larger unit if needed--it is just likely to use more power.

AC or DC?

Next, we had to decide whether we wanted a conventional AC chest freezer or a high-efficiency DC model that could run directly off of our battery bank.  My preference would have been to go with a super efficient DC model (I probably would have chosen one from Sun Danzer), but even for the tiniest 1.8 cu ft unit, it would have cost almost $600.  For a 5.8 cu ft model, you'd be looking at closet to $1,000.  So we decided to go with a much less expensive conventional AC chest freezer even though it will use more power.  I typically recommend becoming as efficient as possible, so why would I do this?

Here's the rationale…I direct the bulk of my attention to the impact on my power system during winter months.  During the summer, we have an abundance of long sunshiny days, so I really am not concerned about how much power it uses then, but during the winter, our solar resources are very limited and we have to be more careful with our power usage.  This impacts our freezer because it will be located in our garage which stays very cold all winter long.  This means that it will be running very little during the time of year that we must be careful.  So I'm not willing to spend 5 times the money for a super efficient model when neither one will be running very much during our critical winter season.  If we were going to be keeping the freezer inside where it would be exposed to warm temperatures all winter, that would be a different story and I would have looked at a DC model more seriously.

Brand & Model Specifics

NOTE:  Appliance models are constantly changing, so this section is more to show the method I used for choosing a freezer than it is for recommending a specific model.  Chances are that by the time you read this, that specific model might not be available anymore, but the method for choosing it will still work.  So the info in this section is what I used to choose my freezer one year ago.

Finally, we came to the most difficult part of our search--choosing the brand and model.  In doing this, we have to rely on the energy guide specifics provided on the little yellow tag on the appliance.  The only useful figure it gives is the estimated annual power usage.  Divide this by 365 (days in a year) to get a daily power usage.  Bear in mind that these numbers are done under laboratory conditions and don't always mimic real-life conditions but it is the best we can do unless you have the ability to put a meter on the freezer ahead of time.

A quick look at the EnergyStar website told me that that one of the most efficient chest freezers in our desired size was made by Igloo (this was a year ago--things have changed since then).  I looked up the Igloo FRF452 and it was amazingly affordable and amazingly efficient--approaching the efficiency of a comparable DC freezer at 20% of the cost!  The annual energy usage is estimated at 172 kWh per year which works out to roughly 470 watt hours per day and the cost is less than $200.  So that would be a no-brainer, right?

However, a quick look at the Igloo manual revealed that it must be operated at room temperatures of 50°F or higher (this is referring to the temperature of the room where the freezer is located, not the inside freezer temperature).  That was going to mess up our plans of running the freezer in our garage.  I wanted to take advantage of the energy savings that cold temperatures can bring.  Also, our home is small and bursting at the seams, so putting in another bulky appliance just was not a good option for us.  So what to do?

I kept digging until I found some chest freezers that are capable of running in cold temperatures.

First, I found that most (if not all) Amana chest freezers are able to safely operate down to 32°F, and they have a 5.3 cu ft model that is rated at 215 kWh per year (590 watt hours per day) and costs around $200.  But I kept looking.

Then I came upon the GE FCM5SHWW which is 5 cu ft and is rated at 218 kWh per year (597 watt hours per day).  The manual for this model states that it can operate in temperatures down to 0°F.  Since our shop seldom if ever gets down to 0°F, I figured that would be the way to go.  But the only way I could find to purchase this model was to pay $50 to have it shipped.

Then I found the Kenmore 12502 which is 5.1 cu ft and is rated at 220 kWh per year (around 600 watt hours per day).  The cost is around $200.  This model (and perhaps all Kenmore chest freezers?) is equipped to work in all temperatures.  Obviously, if the surrounding temperature is close to or below the temperature that your freezer's thermostat is set at, the freezer isn't going to run at all.

I decided to go with the Kenmore for three reasons.  One, I'm making a calculated guess that the energy savings I experience from having the freezer outside in the garage during winter months will more than offset the greater energy efficiency of the Igloo operating at indoor room temperatures.  Second, many Sears stores stock or can receive this unit for you with no shipping cost.  And third, I like the fact that Kenmore says this freezer can handle operating in even the coldest temperatures rather than being concerned whenever my garage temperatures approach 0° or 32°.

As mentioned earlier, if we were going to be using this freezer inside during the winter months, I would have likely gone with the Igloo model due to it's amazing energy efficiency and economical cost.  If I needed a larger model, the stakes are higher (more power usage) and there may not be the Igloo options, so then I would start leaning toward the DC models.  Also, if my budget allowed and I wanted to invest in a quality appliance that will last for many years of good service, then I might also lean toward one of the quality DC models (Sun Danzer or Sun Frost).

Conclusion

I suggest that for most folks, a conventional chest freezer is the best balance of cost and efficiency (as opposed to an expensive DC model or an upright freezer).  Don't focus on the specific models I mentioned as manufacturers are constantly changing their models, but use the same method for finding the best model for you.

After having used our freezer for a year, my only regret is that we didn't get one that is a little larger and that we didn't get it sooner!  It has placed very little additional burden on our power system, and it's SO nice to have the convenience of a freezer.  And in the winter months (when solar power is at a premium in our area), the freezer uses very little power.

So all in all, we are very happy with our purchase!

↓↓Any Questions or Comment About This Post?↓↓

The post How To Choose The Best Off Grid Freezer appeared first on Sustainable Preparedness.

1,800 Pounds???

Forklift batteries (aka industrial batteries) are hands-down the most cost-effective options for an off-grid solar system.  But the biggest question I get from clients is “How can you possibly unload and move a huge battery like that?”

You see, forklift batteries can range from several hundred pounds to several thousand pounds.  I’d say that a battery weighing 750-1,500 pounds is the most common size of individual forklift battery found in an off-grid solar system.  Smaller systems might only have one battery, while larger ones could have several.

Moving that much weight at one time can be intimidating, to say the least.  So in this post, I’ll be sharing a bunch of tips I’ve picked up after moving and installing a number of forklift style batteries.

Receiving Your New Forklift Battery

Forklift batteries are shipped via freight truck.  There are a number of options for getting it to your home.

1. Liftgate service -  For an extra charge, you may be able to have a truck with a lift gate deliver the battery to your home.  This will at least get the battery off the truck an onto the ground, but that’s it.  You still have to take it from there.
2. Delivery to a local business - There may be a local business near you that has a forklift on site.  If so, they may be willing to accept delivery of the battery for a charge and then load it on your truck.  The downside to this is that you really need to be present to inspect the battery for damage before signing off.  If the battery happens to arrive at a time when you are not available, the local business will be signing off and they may not inspect the battery carefully.
3. Pick up at the nearest freight terminal - This is what we do.  Have the battery shipped to the nearest freight terminal.  When it arrives, you’ll receive a phone call and should have a few days to pick it up.  The freight company will load the battery on your truck and then you bring it home.

That takes care of receiving the battery and getting it home.  But how do you get an 1,800-pound monster off your truck???

Unloading A Forklift Battery

This is where it gets interesting.  But no worries…there are a number of options.  It all depends on where the battery is going and what equipment you have at your disposal.

• Tractor/Forklift - If you have (or can borrow) a tractor of some sort, that’s the easiest option for unloading your forklift battery.  And no, it doesn’t have to be a huge tractor.  We’ve used a medium farm tractor (Ford 2910) to unload an 1,100-pound battery with no issues.  The front buck of a forklift is also an option.  Either way, a tractor provides an easy way to pick up the battery from your truck and move it to where it needs to go, or at least as close as possible.
• Cherry picker - If your battery is going to end up in a garage or shop with a concrete floor, you have an interesting option. You could use an engine cherry picker to lift it off of the truck.  Then you would drive the truck out from under it, and the cherry picker would set the battery down.  Just make sure the cherry picker has enough range of motion to lift the battery from your truck and set it all the way down.  And also make sure the working weight rating is plenty sufficient for your battery.
• Come-Along - Yes, even a good old Come-Along is an option for some batteries that aren’t too huge.  I have a Come-Along with a weight rating of 2,000 pounds.  Just make sure yours is in excellent condition and is rated well above your battery’s weight.  And just as critical, make sure that you have a very well supported anchor above the battery to attach the Come-Along to.  For instance, you WOULD NOT want to attach the Come-Along to the bottom string of a truss in your garage ceiling!  Trusses are made to hold weight collectively and from above.  The bottom string is not to be used for bearing weight.  But one option could be to run a steel I-beam across 2 walls and use that as your anchor.  Even a sturdy tree branch could work if the attachment point is close to the trunk.  But remember, once you get the battery down, you have to be able to move it somewhere.
• Truck/trailer with dump - One time we used a flatbed truck with a dump on it to deliver a 1,300-pound battery.  We were able to back up to the door of the room where the battery was to be installed.  Then we slowly activated the dump and raised the front of the bed.  Once the bed was at a steep enough incline, we attached a Come-Along to slowly let the battery slide off the bed in a controlled manner.  Then we set up a makeshift ramp made from lumber (supported in the middle with concrete blocks) to let the battery slide off the bed and in through the door.  It worked well but is only an option in certain specific situations.
• People power with removable cells - This is my favorite option.  The typical forklift battery comes with all cells permanently attached as one big unit.  But GB Industrial Batteries and Hawker Batteries can custom make a forklift battery for solar systems that has removable cells which may be pulled out one at a time.  This makes unloading and moving FAR easier by breaking the overall battery weight into much smaller pieces that could weigh 100-150 pounds per cell (it varies depending on model).  The downside is that a removable cell forklift battery costs more than a conventional model.  But for many folks, it’s well worth it.

Moving The Battery Into Place

Now we have our forklift battery off the truck and on the ground in a strategic location.  How do you move it to the power room?

First, it all depends on where your battery is going.  The location of your power room can make your installation a breeze or a nightmare.  We’ll discuss that in the next section, but I just had to say it here as well.

There are 4 main options I can think of for moving a battery through a house or across a floor.

1. Short steel pipes - You would be amazed how easily a heavy battery can be rolled.  All it takes is short sections of heavy steel piping!  I like sections that are 18” long.  If the diameter is too small, the pipes are liable to get stuck on small debris on the floor.  If the diameter is too large, it could be hard to get the pipes under the battery and then out from under it.  I think the “sweet spot” is 1” to 1.5” pipe.  But remember, it needs to be a very sturdy pipe (i.e. don’t use metal conduit!).  You’ll need 4 to 6 sections of pipe.  Once you get the first section under the battery (by prying it up, etc), roll it along and insert the next section.  Try to keep at least 3-4 sections under the battery at all times.  When the battery rolls off of one section of pipe, place that section in front of the battery to get rolled on again.
2. Drag it - Some friends of ours used this brute force method.  They enlisted the help of numerous strong young men, placed the battery on a piece of carpet, and dragged the carpet through the house, with battery in tow.  Their description of the event sounded pretty intense, so this probably isn’t for the faint of heart, but if you have the manpower, then it could be an option.
3. A dolly - It would have to be a really really super heavy duty flat dolly with 4 strong wheels.  But if you can find one or two of them, a dolly could be your answer for transporting a heavy battery across the floor or down hallways.
4. Removable cells - Once again, this is the easiest option if your battery is going into a hard-to-get-to location.  It breaks the overall weight of the battery into numerous lighter pieces, making it possible for even a couple of people to transport very large battery systems almost anywhere.  This is how Lisa and I recently moved 1,800 pounds of batteries inside by ourselves—with no heavy equipment!

Choosing Your Battery’s Location

Perhaps the single biggest factor affecting the ease of installation is where you choose to place your battery.  If your power room is located deep in the bowels of your home, moving the battery into place could prove to be a challenge.  If your power system is going in the garage or shop, it will likely be a breeze to unload and move the battery into place.

But ease of installation is only one factor you should consider.  In the big scheme of things, unloading and moving your battery should only take one day.  Then you should have 15+ years of service before having to deal with it again.  That’s a long time!  So while garages and shops may seem like an obvious “no-brainer” choice, there is a drawback.

Garages or shops are typically unheated.  And unfortunately, the temperature has an effect on battery capacity.  The colder a lead acid battery gets, the smaller it’s capacity.  For instance, one manufacturer says their battery can only output 81% of it’s rated capacity when the temperature is 30°F.  This is only a temporary effect while the battery is cold.  As soon as it warms up again, the capacity will be back to normal.  But it reduces your battery capacity during the very time of year when you need it most—winter.  That means you’ll need to oversize any batteries that get cold.

If you are on a budget and are trying to reduce your battery costs, then here's your tip...Place your battery inside a climate controlled environment (such as your home).  This will make for a smaller (and less expensive) battery.

Questions or Comments on Moving Batteries?
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The post How To Move An Off Grid Forklift Battery appeared first on Sustainable Preparedness.

When it comes to extending the life of batteries, there is no exception to this rule. Lots and lots of gadgets out there! Some good, and some a waste of money (or worse).

In this post, you'll see one of the very few “gadgets” I use with my off-grid solar batteries.  It’s called the Battery Life Saver, but generically most folks refer to these devices as a battery desulfator.

What Is a Battery Desulfator?

This section is a little bit technical, so skip to the next section if you get bogged down.

Here’s the short version…When charging or discharging lead acid batteries, a chemical reaction is happening. While using power from your battery (discharging), lead from the plates inside your battery is being converted into lead sulfate. And when your battery is being recharged, that lead sulfate is converted back into lead.

That is how it’s supposed to work. But unfortunately, this reaction doesn’t always happen properly (especially if you are not treating your batteries nicely). Sometimes, bits of lead sulfate may form into lead sulfate crystals. These crystals cannot transform back into ordinary lead and they collect on the surface of the plates (kind of like corrosion).  When this happens, the crystals combine with any impurities in the acid—which is why you only want to use distilled water in batteries.

This sulfation happens gradually, but with enough time these lead sulfate crystals can interfere with the chemical reaction and negatively affect your battery’s capacity and lifespan.

So what’s the solution? First, if you properly maintain your batteries, they will be less likely to suffer from sulfation.  One key tactic is to fully charge your battery at least once every 7-10 days. Also, periodic equalizing (overcharging) can help also, but equalizing is not the answer for reversing sulfation.

While equalizing your battery will stir the acid (which is good), it cannot dissolve much if any of the lead sulfate crystals. And that is where the Battery Life Saver comes in.

From what I understand, many of the cheap “desulfators” use small pulses of power that knock the lead sulfate crystals off the lead plates. That may seem good, but it really isn’t. First, the lead sulfate crystals are still unusable by the battery even once they are knocked off the plates. So your battery capacity and lifespan is decreasing even with the “desulfator”. Second, once enough lead sulfate crystals collect in the bottom of your battery, it can eventually (after years) pile up to the point of touching the lead plates and shorting them out.

But the Battery Life Saver is different. It acts as a microscopic radio transmitter that sends out a frequency that resonates with the lead sulfate crystals and dissolves them. Remember the old radio crystal receivers? The crystal would resonate with the frequencies that the radio station was transmitting on. But now, instead of playing audio from a radio station, the crystal is dissolved so the battery can use that material again.

Battery Desulfator In Action

That's the theory.  In reality, we bought a home with an old bank of Trojan L-16 batteries in it. I expected them to bite the dust right away, but they kept going and kept going. We managed to squeak 10 years out of them, which is impressive—especially considering the circumstances they were used under. What do I attribute that to? The main factor I attribute this longevity to is the Battery Life Saver that kept the battery plates cleaned up continuously.

Another friend shared with me about an old bank of badly sulfated deep cycle batteries that he inherited. They were to the point of being unusable, but he hooked up a Battery Life Saver to do some battery reconditioning and within weeks saw an improvement.  Within a few months, he experienced a fairly dramatic restoration to usable condition.

And I have heard of so many similar stories.  So much so that I'm convinced.

Am I saying the Battery Life Saver is capable of working miracles?  That it will resurrect your dead batteries? Certainly not!

Is it a great preventative maintenance tool? Absolutely!

And is it worth trying on a sulfated bank of batteries? I definitely think so. You have nothing to lose at that point!

Battery Desulfator Brands

Please be aware that not all desulfators are created equal!

If you do much searching online, you’ll find reviews from dissatisfied customers complaining about their worthless desulfator. I’ve found that 9 times out of 10, they are referring to one of the many cheapo “desulfators”.

So I stick with the tried and true desulfators that we have used for many years and many other off-grid folks use as well. And that’s the Battery Life Saver (and here's the link to actually purchase*).

I know this may sound like a paid commercial, but it’s not! I have no connection to the company and could just as easily refer you to one of the many cheaper options out there on Amazon or elsewhere. But I’m referring you to the desulfator that I personally use and have used for many years.

The BLS-12/24C* is what you want for a 12 or 24 volt battery bank that is 1,000 amp hours or less. The BLS-24/36 Multi-F* is ideal for 24 volt battery banks that are larger than 1,000 amp hours.

The BLS-48A* is the way to go for 48 volt battery banks smaller than 1,000 amp hours. And the BLS-36/48 Multi-F* is what you want if your 48 volt battery bank is larger than 1,000 amp hours.  (a couple of those links will help support our site without costing you a penny extra)

I prefer the ring terminal options (as opposed to alligator clips), but stock is limited so if you need something different, you could try reaching out to the company directly on the company’s site, on the order form you can put a request in the comments section for ring terminals to be used. At least as of this time, the owner will do that for you at no extra charge.

One Word Of Caution

My personal experience is that a quality desulfator (like Battery Life Saver) is not only harmless to a flooded lead-acid battery but is absolutely helpful.

But I want you to be aware that some battery manufacturers see it otherwise. For instance, Trojan states “We don’t recommend the use of desulfators or any other external device, as they tend to do more harm than good.”

I totally do not understand this, but it may be that some of the other desulfators out there have caused issues. I don’t know. Some people will say that they don’t like desulfators because they want you to have to buy new batteries more frequently. I can’t comment on theories like that, but just be aware that using a desulfator could potentially void the warranty on your batteries.

Because of the warranty issue, I often advise folks that they might want to avoid using a desulfator on Trojan (or other anti-desulfator company) batteries until after the warranty period has expired. As I see it, that is a real shame, as desulfators are best used for preventative maintenance rather than fixing a problem. But that is a call you will have to make.

On the bright side, some battery manufacturers actually encourage the use of desulfators. For instance, the owner of GB Industrial Batteries (my favorite forklift battery maker) personally recommended the use of a desulfator on any brand new batteries purchased from him.  Not only that but he said they are great for preventing sulfation and should be used from the beginning of the battery’s life.

*This link is an affiliate link where we make a small commission if you purchase, at no additional cost to you. This helps our blog continue and we appreciate your support!

Any questions or comments about battery desulfators?
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The post Battery Desulfator for Battery Reconditioning or Maintenance appeared first on Sustainable Preparedness.

It didn’t take much expertise to see the writing on the wall—this power system was a relic from the past and was on its last leg. We would need to replace it soon...

But purchasing a homestead can tend to stretch one’s finances, so we decided to try and make the old power system “stretch” for a year or two while we saved for a “real” solar power system. We’ve been slowly whittling away at replacing one component after the next. But still, the batteries kept cruising. One year…two years…three years. Finally, they are officially biting the dust.

My initial assessment was that the batteries wouldn’t even last one year, but with some careful management and a few tricks up my sleeve, we managed to squeak another 3 years of life out of an almost dead bank of batteries.

Our "Dying Battery Extender" Strategy

So, how did we do it? What are those tips for stretching more life out of a dying battery bank?

Our strategy wasn’t all that revolutionary, but I think you’ll find it really helpful to see what we did—in case you find yourself in this position.

Here’s a quick video I just shot that walks you through it all…

No Actually 5 Options For Extending Dying Batteries

There are 5 things we did to squeak extra life out of our dying battery bank.  Be sure to check out #5 especially as I forgot to mention it in the video.  PLEASE NOTE:  This list is NOT for maintenance of a healthy battery bank.  It is for dying batteries that would otherwise be unusable.

1. Triage - Don’t assume that a battery bank is entirely dead just because it is misbehaving.  Investigate whenever strange things happen.  How?  Your primary tool is a hydrometer (which measures the specific gravity of each cell).  Check each cell, looking for particular cells that are reading dramatically lower than the rest.  Remove each battery that has even one dead cell.
   How many do you have left?  Based on that, reconfigure your battery layout.  Remember that it takes four 6-volt batteries to equal 24 volts (or eight of them to equal 48 volts).  If you are dealing with industrial type 2 volt batteries, it will be strings of 12 (for a 24 volt system) or 24 (for a 48 volt system). Removing the dead cells will save the good ones from being killed by it, and will dramatically improve the overall performance of the battery bank.
   We whittled our old battery bank from 12 down to 8 and then to 4 batteries.  Now that the last 4 batteries are spent, we have reached the end of our rope :-).
2. Use a desulfator - This is a little device that helps to dissolve the sulfate crystals that can form on the plates of a battery and greatly impair the performance and capacity of it.  But not all desolators are created equal.  My favorite brand is Battery Life Saver.  We’ve been using it for many years as preventative maintenance.  I think it is one of the factors that caused this old battery bank to last as long as it did.  I have heard of some folks having success with rejuvenating old sulfated batteries with it also, but there is some debate about this.  It’s best used for preventative maintenance.
   Battery Life Saver makes a number of models, but I’d suggest this one for 12/24 volts systems (with an overall capacity of less than 1,000 amp hours), this one for 48 volt systems (less than 1,000 amp hours), this one for large 24 volt systems (larger than 1,000 amp hours), and this one for large 48 volt systems (larger than 1,000 amp hours) [those are affiliate links to reasonably priced options].  I don't suggest going with a different brand for your desulfator as I have heard mostly poor feedback about the others I've heard of.  Battery Life Saver is what we have used personally for years.
3. Equalize more frequently? - When trying to stretch another year out of a dying battery bank, most of the rules are out the window.  So you might find that the only way to get a decent charge into the old batteries is to equalize them more frequently than typical.  Equalizing is a controlled overcharge.  You definitely don’t want to do this too frequently with a functional battery bank, but you may have to do it a lot more frequently when batteries are dying.
   You'll notice that I put a question mark at the end of this subheading.  That's because equalizing an old battery does not come without risks.  If you have used the batteries hard and worn the lead plates thin, then equalizing a lot could finish them off.  Also, equalizing knocks sulfate crystals off the leads plates, adding to the sediment piling up in the bottom of an old battery.  When the sediment gets high enough, it can short out the cells.  So there are risks to this, but if you are unable to get a decent charge with the typical settings, then you really have nothing to lose, right?
4. Keep them watered - You’ll likely find that worn out batteries use more water than new ones.  This is especially true if you are equalizing more frequently.
5. Kill any corrosion - Corrosion is the enemy of free-flowing electrons.  In the highly corrosive air present in a battery bank, almost any piece of metal is at risk, especially any electrical connection (where wires or cables connect together).  This is especially true with old batteries.  You will often find that old batteries are dealing with serious corrosion issues.  Since the symptoms of corrosion issues and dying batteries are sometimes similar, it can be difficult to tell one from the other.  But here's how to do it...
   Use a wrench to take apart EVERY cable and wire connection in the battery box (specifically, the battery interconnect cables and the main cable that connects the battery bank to your inverter or power center).  Then you'll want to use a wire brush to clean all of those connections and battery terminals.  Then put it all back together and tighten them down.  You probably don't have to worry about wire brushing connectors that are outside of the battery box, but it never hurts to snug up those connections with a wrench.  Anytime you have heating and cooling occurring frequently, it's possible for the nut to work its way loose.
   After you have cleaned and tightened everything, apply a liberal dose of battery terminal protectant.  My favorites are generally a gel or grease type consistency and have additives that neutralize battery acid.  I have used this one with great results, and this is another great option.

That's about it.  As you can see, this is not some revolutionary new method.  It's pretty common sense if you understand how batteries work.  It worked well for us and bought us a significant amount of extra time.  Hopefully, you won't be in that position, but if you are, I hope this helps!

Any questions or comments about stretching the life of dying batteries?  Let me know below:

The post Dying Battery Extender appeared first on Sustainable Preparedness.

It doesn't get much worse than our location during the winter (at least from a solar power perspective).  But in spite of that, we and many others use solar power as our primary charging source.

There are 3 main strategies for making solar power work during cloudy winters.

1. Size your solar system large enough for the darkest time of year
2. Size your solar system as large as you can afford (hopefully large enough for spring, summer, and fall).  Then cut back on power usage during the winter.
3. Size your solar system as large as you can afford (hopefully large enough for spring, summer, and fall).  Then as needed you can supplement with an alternate source of power to charge batteries in the winter.

Here's a quick snippet from my full training course Off Grid Boot Camp that explains these in detail:

#1 - Size solar system for winter

This is the ideal option.  It's also the most expensive--especially in very cloudy northern areas.  What you end up with is a solar system that is grossly oversized for 3/4 of the year in order to handle the winter.  Be aware that there may be a few times when you might need to supplement with an alternate power source.  An example would be when you are socked in with heavy snow clouds for a week or more.  But for the most part, your solar array should produce everything you need to live comfortably.  This is true as long as you designed your power system properly (as we teach in Off Grid Boot Camp).

So, if you can afford this option, then go for it!  But just be careful to do your system design carefully and use good weather data, or you might end up a bit disappointed.  And it never hurts to install more solar power than you need.

#2 - Size solar system for spring, summer & fall and cut power usage in winter

Off these 3 options, this is the least desirable.  Why?  Because it is based on cutting your power usage enough in the winter to offset the reduced solar power production.  While this might work in a sunny climate, it is doomed to failure in an area like ours.  You will be hard pressed to cut your power usage enough to offset the cloudy weather and short days.

On top of all that, while you may find some appliances to use less power in the winter (freezer in the garage, etc), some will use more power during the winter.  During the short winter days, you'll be using more lights for more hours every day.  And depending on your source of heat, it might be using some power for a fan (even many wood stoves have a fan for additional heat production).

As you can see, it could be challenging to make much of a dent in your power usage, so I don't recommend relying on this option entirely.

#3 - Size solar system for spring, summer & fall and supplement with an alternate power source in winter

This is the route that we and others have chosen to go due to finances.  It would be expensive to set up a solar array large enough to entirely power our daily living in the dead of winter.  So our array is large enough for powering our home 8-10 months out of the year.  During those really dark 2-3 months, we supplement with a fuel-powered generator.

The biggest question most people have is, "how much will I be running the generator"?  If you size your system properly, it should never require the generator more than once every 5-10 times in the middle of winter.  That's a worst case scenario.  In reality, most of the winter you'll probably only be running the generator once every 2-3 weeks.  It all depends on the weather.  But the amount of fuel you will be using is really quite minuscule.

Removing Snow From Panels

How do you get all that snow off the solar panels?  Is it a lot of work?  Actually, it's pretty easy.

Many times our solar array shed the snow itself.  You see, in the winter you want your solar panels to be tilted in a more vertical pitch.  This places it perpendicular to the rays of the sun's winter position--low in the southern horizon.  An added benefit is that your solar array can now shed much of its own snow.

There are times when snow freezes to the array and it's not coming off until the next sunny day.  In that case, I may choose to clear the snow off manually.  This way, I don't miss out on the passive solar radiation coming through the clouds.

For clearing the snow, I've found a push broom with soft bristles to work quite well.  Mine even has a rubber blade on the back that is useful for bumping stubborn ice off the array without scratching the glass.  Be sure to install an extra long handle that may be extended for reaching the highest panels in the array.  I've also heard of folks using a squeegee attached to a long handle.  Just don't get too carried away with the snow removal.  If you remove most of it, the sun will generally finish the job before too long.

You might be wondering how to do all this if your solar array is on your roof.  Good question.  That's one of several reasons why I don't recommend putting your solar array on your roof.  Your only options are to risk your life brushing snow off the panels, or else you could wait for a warm sunny day to melt the snow off.  Also, roof-mounted solar panels are more likely to trap snow at the bottom--preventing it from sliding off, even if it is warm and sunny enough to do so otherwise.

Bottom Line?

Yes, it is very feasible to use solar power even in cloudy climates.  But here's a bit of advice from years of experience.  Don't be a "purist" about solar power.  It is not a sin to supplement with another power source when it's exceptionally cloudy.  Roll with the punches and do what works.  But I think you'll find the low maintenance advantages of solar panels to more than outweigh their disadvantages--especially with the costs as low as they are.

Do you have any solar power tips or questions - especially for cloudy climates?

The post Solar Power in Northern Winters appeared first on Sustainable Preparedness.

In this article I’ll help you determine if a solar generator is for you and make sure you are getting your money’s worth.

What Do You Need Solar Power For Anyway?

The first step is to determine what your goals are for this power system. Are you needing it to power your entire home indefinitely while maintaining a normal lifestyle?  Or are you just wanting to charge your cell phone and power a light or two during camping trips or short emergency blackouts?

If the first option describes you, then you are MUCH better off sticking with a conventional solar system (as the numbers below prove).  And if the second option sounds like you, then a portable “solar generator” is definitely the way to go.  But the folks who are most likely to get confused are those who find themselves in the gray area in between these two extremes.  You are who I am really writing this article for.  You’ll need to ask some questions in order to find the best fit for you:

• Do you need the unit to be readily portable?
• What appliances are you needing to run?  And for how long?  In other words, how much power do you need to produce and store?
• These are the most important questions that will help you know.

Let’s take a look at your power needs and I think you’ll be shocked at what we find…

Do The Math!

How much power will you need?  First off, don’t go by a “solar generator” company’s description of what you can power with their system.  You really should do the simple calculations yourself so you know what can be powered with the unit.

Here’s how…

Let’s say you want to charge your laptop and power 2 lights for a few hours each day.  Many latops use 25 watts and take 2-3 hours to charge.  So 25 watts X 3 hours = 75 watt hours.  A 14 watt CFL light bulb running for 2 hours requires 28 watt hours.  So 75 + 28 = 103 watt hours.  This would be your daily power need.

Battery preliminaries

One would think that you could just look for a system with a battery that holds at least 103 watt hours, but it isn’t that simple.  Depending on the type of battery, you may not want to discharge it all the way.  This is especially true with lead acid batteries, but holds true with many other types to a lesser extent.  For deep cycle lead acid batteries being used continuously, discharging no more than 50% is a good idea.  If this will only be used during short emergencies, then discharging all the way down to 30% could be acceptable.

So if you decided to discharge to 50%, that means you will only be able to access half of the battery’s capacity, which means your battery would need to be twice as large.  So now we are up to 206 watt hours.  If the battery type is such that complete discharge is acceptable, then you can skip this step.

Battery Sizing

Having enough battery capacity to last one day is great, but what happens after that?  The theory is that your solar panel(s) charge the battery each day, but this is only going to happen if the solar system is appropriately sized and the weather cooperates (i.e. the sun shines).  Ideally, you would like to have enough battery capacity to get you through cloudy days, but with a portable micro system such as what we are discussing here, this is probably not going to be so feasible.

But it is important to have at least a couple days worth of power stored in your batteries, and more like 3-5 days would be recommended if you want to have a fairly reliable power system for longer periods of time.  For our example, we’ll go with 3 days of battery power which would be at least 618 watt hours (206 watt hours X 3 days).

Solar

The final step involves solar.  I mentioned earlier having enough solar power to charge your batteries.  Determining how much solar power it will take is a more involved process than I’m able to teach in this short article, but since we are discussing very small portable systems and brevity is important, I’ll give you a greatly simplified version.  It is for the sake of giving you a way to compare two systems ONLY!

Check out this map and determine how many peak sun hours you can expect each day on average.  Bear in mind that during the summer, you may get more and during the winter you will likely get less.  So play it conservative if you want a more reliable system (the lower the number of peak sun hours you figure on, the more conservative you are, since you are planning on receiving less sun).  For our example, we’ll say 4.2 hours.

Now we’ll take our daily power usage (103 watt hours) and divide that by the number of peak sun hours (4.2) which equals 25 watts of solar required.  But please realize that there are numerous inefficiencies at play here (for instance, the solar panels seldom put out their full rated power output), so I would tack on an extra 25% or more to this number.  In the current example, since we are dealing with a very small system, I would bump it up to 50 watts of solar, but when dealing with larger systems, such a large increase may not be warranted.

Once again, please don’t use this rough method of sizing for any larger or home-sized off grid system.  It is just a quick and dirty way to get you in the ballpark for a small backup system.

Reality Check – Cost & Quality Comparison

So now you know what it would take to power a few lite loads for a few hours.  What if you are needing something more substantial that you could actually live with for a period of time.  Well, I think it’s important to do a reality check before you get sucked into a rather unpromising “deal”.  You see, while “solar generators” do have a place, especially for someone needing portability or needing only a tiny amount of power, they are often a really bad investment when your needs are larger.  You’ll likely need to step up to something more sizable (and expensive) and will end up flushing all the money you spent on a “solar generator” down the drain.

Recently a friend contacted me asking my opinion of a portable solar system she was considering.  So I did a simple comparison of the specs for her prospective portable system versus what it would cost to replace my stationary off grid power system.  Here we go:

Comparison:

PORTABLE SYSTEM (example linked to here)
12 volt system (very limiting for future expansion but appropriate for a tiny system like this)
300 watts of solar
2,160 watt hours of battery capacity (super expensive lithium ion batteries)
1,800 watt inverter (mediocre quality)
Excellent charge controller

OUR POWER SYSTEM (capable of powering our entire home and office 24/7):
24 volt system (good choice for powering a home)
1,800 watts of solar (excellent quality)
19,296 watt hours of battery capacity (with 15+ year lifespan in continuous use)
4,000 watt inverter (excellent quality)
Excellent charge controller

So you may be wondering much much extra it would cost to go with my far superior stationary system over the portable one, right?  Would it surprise you to know that the cost of the core components for my system listed above is actually LESS than the cost of the portable system?  The portable system costs over $9,000 dollars with shipping.  Last time I checked, the core components of my system listed above come up to around $7,000 plus misc. items like wiring, breakers, solar panel mounts, DC disconnect, etc.  So even if we tack on another $1,000 or $1,500 for all that, the cost is still less.

Did you notice the huge disparity in solar system size, inverter, and battery bank?  Our power system is WAY larger and better quality in almost every way, but it costs less than the portable system!  The two advantages of the portable system are that it is already assembled and it is portable.  But the size would be very inadequate for doing much beyond running a few things like a computer and some lights.

Conclusion

So really, it depends on your specific requirements.  If you need something that can easily be moved or you just need emergency backup power for a few small loads, then you may be better off with a small “solar generator”.  But if you are looking for something substantial that will actually power a home, do yourself a big favor and set up a REAL power system.  You are almost always going to pay way more and receive way less when you go with a power system that is pre-assembled and portable.

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