+1
Too many egghead facts being batted about in this discussion. Plug your whatever into some 110 and pass me a beer!
Kind of like the Goal Zero products, love the design and concept but poor execution (under powered internals).
We spend $10K a year on APC UPS batteries and few of them ever see even one discharge cycle before going bad. It’s the 2-3 year lifetime that gets us there. And I’ve not had much luck with AA NiMH batteries, they just don’t last all that long. Batteries should be avoided if at all possible. But if you need one, pay the price and live with it.
This setup seems like a huge waste of money if you’re just looking to do lighting… there are solar charging lights at the dollar store.
Just guessing … but I’ll bet this wasn’t designed to support you moving off the grid.
Well the manufacturer made a very poor chose for the Solar Panel DC input connector. It is an IEC 60320-1 C8 AC socket. Hmm, lets bypass the power brick and plug it direct into AC with this common household cord:
People…“YOU HAVE TO BUY IT FIRST TO KNOW WHAT’S IN IT!!!”
Haven’t you learned by now?
LMAO
THIS - 1000 times this - THIS is a problem, there are plenty of kids and stupid people that think if it fits, it should work, uh… no.
Almost all rechargeable battery chemistries prefer partial cycles. The Prius battery has a 10 year warrantee. They achieve that by shutting off the charger when the battery is only 70% charged, and by refusing to discharge the battery below 40%. Sure the initial capacity is only 30% of the maximum, but it means the battery can last for tens of thousands of cycle.
Yea but, if we keep protecting the dummies we’ll NEVER get rid of them!! We have GOT to thin the herd somehow!
Been building a 200 watt system over the summer with 2 x 100 W (2’ x 4’ 100w, monocrystalline) panels, 2 x 12v cheap flooded-cell (like a car) 115 amp-hour deep-cycle marine batteries bridged to 24v, an MPPT charge controller that turns extra panel voltage into usable charging amps, and a sine-wave 24v/120v converter. Haven’t done the math but I think I am in about $7-800 with careful shopping and some overseas sourcing.
The above system should be sufficient to charge eGoodies and run a couple ropes of LEDs, a small but decent radio, a laptop and a radiowave internet receiver freely during winter months in a lotsa-sun area.
This is for boondocking in my trailer for some months and has taken hours and hours of reading and research. To be frank, the solar community is still mostly wonks and engineers, and it’s impossible to get good 'ole rule-of-thumb advice. It’s just not out there. So here’s mine:
This is not a screaming deal but not a bad choice at all IF:
• You don’t want to spend hours researching your own system from scratch
• You realize this is strictly a charger and LED light rope/small radio for the night system. If you are not getting a lot of sun, change ‘for the night’ to ‘for a few hours in the evening’
• You know that most of US gets more like 4,5,or 6 hours of sun a day annualized (I get over 7 where I will be, VERY VERY rare) as it relates to solar charging hours
BTW, with this portability and case it is probably a gel cel (where the acid is gelled) which is okay but can develop gaps that hurt its performance) or an Absorbed Glass Mat (AGM) cell (think acid-soaked stacks of paper towels) which is best for solar. Most batteries for UPS units (those boxes you plug in your computer for power shortages) are AGM, easy to source. The 7-14 amp-hour ones can cost $50 but can be found cheaper.
Holy cow, good point.
Giveb the location and labeling of the ext battery port looks to a charge source for the internal battery, not something the panel would charge
thanks. i do get out every couple years. I want low voltage lighting but don’t want to install an outlet