Who is not worried about what they would do should their cities power go out during a severe weather occurrence such as a winter freeze, snow storm, blizzard, hurricane or tornado. Perhaps you have solar panels on your roof and feel that you don’t need to worry. However, what would you do if those panels were damaged during a hurricane, covered by snow or if is cloudy and over overcast for days on end. If the storm causes power loss or if there are rolling blackouts from excessive heat and power usage.
Perhaps you are fortunate enough to have clean battery back up with your solar panels offered by major Solar installers like SunRun or Tesla. This however can be quite expensive which will end up costing thousands of dollars you may not have. A single Tesla Powerwall will cost in the neighborhood of $10,000. Many households will require at least two Powerwalls.
As of this writing, if your decide to go with Tesla, a Powerwall cannot be purchased as standalone item. You must also factor in the cost of an entire solar system. After it is all said and done, you could very will be over 20k into things.
Some solar companies also have lease contracts but there are a whole new set of things to consider should you decide to go that route, especially when it comes time to sell your home.
What is a Portable Solar Powered Generator?
Enter the portable Solar Generator. In the last few years various companies have been offering portable lithium battery solutions with built in inverters to the public. In most cases these batteries are being marketed to the public as Solar Generators, even though in the technical sense they are not generators unless there are solar panels plugged into them.
Difference between a Portable Solar Powered Generator vs. a Gasoline Generator:
Portable Battery Generators
- When solar panels are attached, they can generate green energy.
- Very quiet and nearly silent.
- Tend to be lighter in weight.
- They can safely be used indoors.
Gas Powered Generators
- You must use gas to power the unit.
- You must periodically add oil and change spark plug.
- They can be noisy.
- If unit does not get used often, gas will get stale and have to be drained.
For the purpose of this review, we will continue to call these solar generators because that is what most of the public knows them as. Before we go any further, lets cover some items that will add context to this article.
What is a Watt?
Quite simply a watt is a unit of power. It takes 1000 watts to equal 1 kilowatt.
What is a watt hour?
Essentially, watt-hours measure the amount of energy for a specific period of time, and watts measure rates of power at a given moment.
So how many watts does the average refrigerator use?
The average home refrigerator uses 350-780 watts.
The average of course varies based on how old your refrigerator is and the voltage and amps required to run it. If you have a model with an Energy Star rating you may be well below 350 watts.
So how do I know if a generator will have the power that I will need?
Our focus will be on a solar powered generator for home that has the capacity to easily handle a minimum 1500 watt appliance. These generators are best suited to emergency situations such as severe storms where power may be lost for a day or more, or in the case of city / county wide rolling blackout because the utilities are running low on power or want to conserve power.
All the solar powered generators in this review will easily be able to power an average refrigerator for at least a few hours.
Let’s take the Jackery 1500 as an example. It has a capacity of 1535 watt hours (not to be confused with watts). Assuming you have a 40-watt CPAP machine, take 1535wh and divide by 40 and you should arrive at 38.37; just round up to 38.4. This means we should be able to get roughly 38.4 hours of run time if we have a cpap machine that is 40 watts. If we have a 1000-watt microwave plugged in we should get approximately 1.5 hours of continuous use. Obviously, you are not going to be using a microwave for 1.5 hours straight, so you should be able to use the microwave for at least a day or two at a minimum.
We’ve included a sample list of other household items below and the approximate wattage they use:
- Microwave 1000 – 1100 watts
- Heating pad (for cooking): 1000 watts
- Deep Freezer 19- 20 watts
- CPAP – 40 watts
- Dehumidifier – 240 watts
- Coffee Maker: 800 – 1400 watts
- Central Air 1000 – 4000 watts (dependent upon ton size of unit)
- 65-inch T.V. – 120 – 130 watts
- Hair dryer: – 1000 – 3000 watts
- Refrigerator: 350 – 780 watts
As you can see from the example list of wattages provided, we could power most household items and larger appliances for short periods of time before we had to recharge the battery via separately purchased panels. All three of the solar generators we are reviewing can have solar panels attached, thus they are called solar generators.
In the case of the Jackery 1500 it has a maximum output of 1800 watts at one time. This means you can have various items plugged in at the same time via usb and AC outlets and as long as their total does not exceed 1800 watts of power.
So How Long will my solar generator last?
A solar powered generator for home with a Lithium-Ion battery tends to be lighter in weight. After approximately 500 charge cycles it will only hold about 80% charge. The good news is most users will not go through this many charge cycles and it will be approximately 2-3 years before your start to see degradation in storage capacity.
Solar powered generators that use Lithium-iron Phosphate batteries are heavier, but they offer more charge cycles. Often these charge cycles are upwards of 3500 charges and the battery will still hold roughly 80% charge.
Now let’s review some batteries.
Best All Around
Jackery Explorer 1500
Build Quality:
The Jackery Explorer 1500 has great build quality and feels very sturdy. It is light enough to easily maneuver and has a carry handle designed into the top. However, this carry handle can also become a hindrance if you wish to pack or store with other similar size items. The unit also comes with rubber pads in each corner to keep it from sliding.
Ease of Use:
The Jackery 1500 Portable Power Station like other Solar Generators does not produce any combustion or pollutants. One button operation is all that is needed and the Power Station is silent. The Jackery 1500 comes with a very easy to ready LED Smart Screen that gives you important information such as energy you are inputing from optional Solar Panels or AC/DC charging. It also displays the watts you are outputting along with the remaining discharge time. There are also other useful features that allow you to monitor the overall health of the unit.
The one key downside is the proprietary solar input connections making if difficult to use solar panels from other manufactures.
Primary features:
Being that the Jackery 1500 Portable Power station is known as a solar generator, its primary feature is that it has two inputs for an optional solar panels. If you decide to add the optional SolarSaga 100 or 100x panels you can charge the Jackery 1500 in approximately 9 hours using a two panels setup or in as little as 4 hours (from 0 – 80%) using a 4 panel setup. Charing from an AC wall outlet also takes approximately 4 hours.
There are also inputs for (1) usb-c, (1), 5v 2.4 usb-A & Qualcomm Quick Charge usb. A single 12v – 10 amp. DC input / ouput and three pure sine-wave 110v AC inputs round things out.
PROS:
- Great build quality.
- Able to run 7 appliances at one time.
- Two inputs that allow for up to 4 soloar panels for a total of 400 watts of solar energy.
- Great LED panel that is easy to read and understand.
CONS:
- Could use a few more USB inputs.
- The Explorer 1500 is a little costly once solar panels are bundled with it.
- Proprietary solar input connection.
Fastest AC Wall Outlet Charging:
EcoFlow Delta 1300
Build Quality:
The Ecoflow Delta 1300 is very a very solidly built unit that has a nice streamlined and clean look to it. I comes with a soft case should you need to protect it from other objects around it. The unit comes with easy to grip carry handles on the front and back.
Ease of Use:
As with the Jackery, the EcoFlow also has an excellent LED screen that allows you to see in input and output wattage as well as available run time and charge remaining. The flat top also allows for easy storage and the ability to stack other items on top of it if necessary.
Primary Features:
There are several features the EcoFlow has that stick out, but one of the most impressive is the AC charge time. There are also three ways to charge the Ecoflow 1300. Either by optionally purchased solar panels, via one of 6 AC inputs or by 12v DC input. The outstanding aspect of the Ecoflow 1300 is its ability to charge from 0 to 80% in under an hour and from 0 – 100% in only 1.6 hours when plugged into AC wall outlet. Car charging from DC outlet takes approximately 13.5 hours and when 4 110 watt solar panels are attached the charge time is between 4- 8 hours.
In addition the EcoFlow 1300 offers 6 AC outlets and 6 usb inputs which includes (2) standard usb, (2) Quick-charge and 2 (usb-c) inputs.
Additional Specs:
Weight – 30.9 lbs.
Dimensions – 15.7 x 18.3 x 10.6
Operating Usage Temp: 32– 113F
Battery type: Lithium-ion
Warranty: 24 months
Overall Capacity: 1260Wh
Surge Capacity: 3300
Continous Output: 1800 Watts
Life cycle: 800 + cycles to 80% capacity
Pros:
- Approximately 1.5-hour quick charge time from AC.
- Flat-top.
- Great number of AC and USB output options.
Cons:
- Lowest overall capacity in the group.
Best Features For the Money:
Bluetti AC200P
Build Quality:
The Bluetti AC200P is very well put together. Has a nice solid feeling and none of the component materials appear to be skimped on. The are rubber pads in all four corners on the bottom that give this unit secure footing. The unit is a good bit heavier than the previous two models reviewed because it uses a Lithium-ion Phosphate battery.
As stated in the beginning of this article, Lithium-iron phosphate batteries allow for more charging cycles thus your unit will last much longer. There are also AC, DC and USB rubber plug covers that help to keep dust and moisture out and protect from a pet or child accidently making contact with them.
Ease of Use:
This unit has a 2000w inverter which will allow you to run most large household appliances and electronics should your power go out.
There are carry handles on each side of the unit and the top surface allows you to wirelessly charge cell phones, freeing up other usb ports to charge other items. The Bluetti AC200P also has a LED touch screen that sets it apart from the Jackery and EcoFlow. Some will like this feature and others may not. They main drawback would be if that LED touch screen were to get damaged, the whole unit becomes unusable.
As previously noted, this unit is a heavier than other comparable portal batteries so you will want to use in for situations that are more long-term or not out in the field. Again, the unit is portable, but you won’t want to move it around as much.
Primary Features:
The primary feature of the Bluetti AC200P is its whopping 17 charging outputs for devices. The unit also has a surge capacity of 4800 watts to handle the power spike that occurs when starting large appliances and tools such as A/C units and power saws. There are 6 110v outlets that can handle plugged in appliances or tools totaling 2000watts to be run continuously. Also the ability to wirelessly charge on top of the unit to freeing up other charging ports.
There are 5 ways to charge this portable solar generator. This unit can be charged via AC wall outlet, 12 or 24 volt vehicle, a maximum 700 watts of solar (charge in under 4 hours). You can also charge directly from a 12 volt battery with the proper accessories.
Added benefits of the Bluetti AC200P solar generator its ability to be fast charged if you purchase an additional power brick. With two power bricks plugged in at the same time this unit can charge to 100 percent in approximately 2 hours. You can also simultaneously charge via AC and DC.
As of this writing, the single best thing about the Bluetti AC200P is it can be purchased as a Portable Battery + Solar bundle with 3 200 watt panels for $1898.00 before tax.
Additional Specs:
Weight – 61 lbs.
Dimensions – 16.5 x 11 x 15.2
Operating Usage Temp: 32– 104 degrees F
Battery type: Lithium-iron phosphate
Warranty: 24 months
Overall Capacity: 2000wh
Surge Capacity: 4800
Continious Output: 2000 Watts
Life cycle: 3500 + cycles to 80% capacity
Pros:
- Plenty of output ports.
- Wireless charging that frees up other output ports.
- Very good solar bundle when packaged with (3) 200 watt panels.
- Highest capacity.
Cons:
- Heavy when compared to other portable solar generators in this review.
- Does not tell you how long until battery is drained.
- LED screen can be hard to see in sunlight.
