Went from hurricane prep to earthquake prep. Our house sits on top of the San Andres Fault. Putting together a solar generator to give us enough power to run refrigerator, some led lights , a pellet grill, charge system for my golf cart 48v lithium battery and maybe a small A/C.
Trying to keep the costs below $6,000.
I am on the HOA Safety Committee and have been bringing up the need for an earthquake response plan but they said they don't want to plan anything everyone is on their own in the event of any type of disaster. 650+ homes in an over 55 gated community I need to add more ammo to my collection.
We have one highway that runs East and West getting out in a car right after an event will most likely be impossible but I do keep the gas tank in our car above 3/4 a tank just in case. Got rid of a Honda Fit and got a Subaru Outback, AWD and higher ground clearance will increase our chances of making it out.
Anyone done a portable Solar system?
Hello from CA
Ger!
WTH! (what the heck). Kali? Ur killin' me
L
WTH! (what the heck). Kali? Ur killin' me
L
Glad to hear your doing good!
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NorincoKid
- Posts: 786
- Joined: Wed Jul 18, 2018 4:40 pm
- Location: Spring Hill, Hernando County
I have a very small system for emergencies. I've been working on getting the stuff together for a larger system but haven't quite gotten it all planned out yet. Trying to find the balance of small enough to be easily deployed if needed and big enough to actually meet electrical demands has been interesting to say the least.
You mention running AC and a refrigerator, those will be quite taxing on a "solar generator", even a pretty big one, for any extended amount of time.
Something that might be worth looking into is a DC compressor fridge, think marine/RV setup. Amazon has some smaller ones, that look like your average large cooler but they have the compressor built in, are true fridge/freezers and don't have that tremendous "spike" when starting up. When running, they only pull around 50 watts. Enough to keep some basic necessities cold, and make ice but thats about it.
Even a window unit AC will be tricky though. Thats quite a bit of power, with decent amp surges when the compressor kicks on. You'd need a pretty good sized array and battery bank to handle that.
You mention running AC and a refrigerator, those will be quite taxing on a "solar generator", even a pretty big one, for any extended amount of time.
Something that might be worth looking into is a DC compressor fridge, think marine/RV setup. Amazon has some smaller ones, that look like your average large cooler but they have the compressor built in, are true fridge/freezers and don't have that tremendous "spike" when starting up. When running, they only pull around 50 watts. Enough to keep some basic necessities cold, and make ice but thats about it.
Even a window unit AC will be tricky though. Thats quite a bit of power, with decent amp surges when the compressor kicks on. You'd need a pretty good sized array and battery bank to handle that.
My preps aren't nearly enough. As Norinco said, it's a tough list you have there. A model I am trying to get into is a day/night setup with generator and with batteries. The options seem to be: Buy a large, all in one solar setup with a battery storage (Tesla wall unit), or try to piece meal a solution. A large unit gives the most normalcy, but keeps you locked in place. Piecemeal won't be as efficient sand will require more work, but depending on what you do, they can be mobile.
At night when you're not fighting the heat as much, use your generator for a few hours to run a small freezer and to help recharge batteries. As long as you're not opening it, it will stay cold for days, so you may be able to skip a night or two allowing you to conserve fuel. A quality ice chest (Yeti or clone) is your "Fridge". With your freezer, you can make ice and add as needed. A quality ice chest will keep things cool for up to week. That will take care of food.
For A/C, you may need to run across the border into AZ or NV. Get a small 5k BTU unit from Walmart, Sam's, Lowes, or other China-Marts. Find a small room you can black out and seal off for it. This is where you'll retreat to when it get's too hot in the day. You'll either need at to have enough power with your solar or generator to handle 110v at 1500ish watts at startup, and 600ish to run. It is possible to use a generator for start-up and then switch to solar for running, but that requires switches that I cannot offer advice on.
Don't forget about the other things... you'll need to charge phones, tablets, Sugar monitors, etc. One or two lithium battery banks for cell phones will go a long way. I have a couple with built in solar charges. Your car can be a good source to charge things from as well. The risk is running the car battery down. A solar trickle charger will help a lot. Most are about 13 watts/12v, so the longer they stay in the sun, the better.
At night when you're not fighting the heat as much, use your generator for a few hours to run a small freezer and to help recharge batteries. As long as you're not opening it, it will stay cold for days, so you may be able to skip a night or two allowing you to conserve fuel. A quality ice chest (Yeti or clone) is your "Fridge". With your freezer, you can make ice and add as needed. A quality ice chest will keep things cool for up to week. That will take care of food.
For A/C, you may need to run across the border into AZ or NV. Get a small 5k BTU unit from Walmart, Sam's, Lowes, or other China-Marts. Find a small room you can black out and seal off for it. This is where you'll retreat to when it get's too hot in the day. You'll either need at to have enough power with your solar or generator to handle 110v at 1500ish watts at startup, and 600ish to run. It is possible to use a generator for start-up and then switch to solar for running, but that requires switches that I cannot offer advice on.
Don't forget about the other things... you'll need to charge phones, tablets, Sugar monitors, etc. One or two lithium battery banks for cell phones will go a long way. I have a couple with built in solar charges. Your car can be a good source to charge things from as well. The risk is running the car battery down. A solar trickle charger will help a lot. Most are about 13 watts/12v, so the longer they stay in the sun, the better.
My preps aren't nearly enough. As Norinco said, it's a tough list you have there. A model I am trying to get into is a day/night setup with generator and with batteries. The options seem to be: Buy a large, all in one solar setup with a battery storage (Tesla wall unit), or try to piece meal a solution. A large unit gives the most normalcy, but keeps you locked in place. Piecemeal won't be as efficient sand will require more work, but depending on what you do, they can be mobile.
At night when you're not fighting the heat as much, use your generator for a few hours to run a small freezer and to help recharge batteries. As long as you're not opening it, it will stay cold for days, so you may be able to skip a night or two allowing you to conserve fuel. A quality ice chest (Yeti or clone) is your "Fridge". With your freezer, you can make ice and add as needed. A quality ice chest will keep things cool for up to week. That will take care of food.
For A/C, you may need to run across the border into AZ or NV. Get a small 5k BTU unit from Walmart, Sam's, Lowes, or other China-Marts. Find a small room you can black out and seal off for it. This is where you'll retreat to when it get's too hot in the day. You'll either need at to have enough power with your solar or generator to handle 110v at 1500ish watts at startup, and 600ish to run. It is possible to use a generator for start-up and then switch to solar for running, but that requires switches that I cannot offer advice on.
Don't forget about the other things... you'll need to charge phones, tablets, Sugar monitors, etc. One or two lithium battery banks for cell phones will go a long way. I have a couple with built in solar charges. Your car can be a good source to charge things from as well. The risk is running the car battery down. A solar trickle charger will help a lot. Most are about 13 watts/12v, so the longer they stay in the sun, the better.
Lastly, don't forget about entertainment and information... boredom sucks when coupled with stress. In addition to cards, games, puzzles, get an RV type TV. They drawn very little power, and are usually 12 VDC and 110VAC, so you have options. If you have satellite internet, figure out how to keep it powered up because you're chances of having service will be much higher than fiber optic, cable, or cell based systems.
At night when you're not fighting the heat as much, use your generator for a few hours to run a small freezer and to help recharge batteries. As long as you're not opening it, it will stay cold for days, so you may be able to skip a night or two allowing you to conserve fuel. A quality ice chest (Yeti or clone) is your "Fridge". With your freezer, you can make ice and add as needed. A quality ice chest will keep things cool for up to week. That will take care of food.
For A/C, you may need to run across the border into AZ or NV. Get a small 5k BTU unit from Walmart, Sam's, Lowes, or other China-Marts. Find a small room you can black out and seal off for it. This is where you'll retreat to when it get's too hot in the day. You'll either need at to have enough power with your solar or generator to handle 110v at 1500ish watts at startup, and 600ish to run. It is possible to use a generator for start-up and then switch to solar for running, but that requires switches that I cannot offer advice on.
Don't forget about the other things... you'll need to charge phones, tablets, Sugar monitors, etc. One or two lithium battery banks for cell phones will go a long way. I have a couple with built in solar charges. Your car can be a good source to charge things from as well. The risk is running the car battery down. A solar trickle charger will help a lot. Most are about 13 watts/12v, so the longer they stay in the sun, the better.
Lastly, don't forget about entertainment and information... boredom sucks when coupled with stress. In addition to cards, games, puzzles, get an RV type TV. They drawn very little power, and are usually 12 VDC and 110VAC, so you have options. If you have satellite internet, figure out how to keep it powered up because you're chances of having service will be much higher than fiber optic, cable, or cell based systems.
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NorincoKid
- Posts: 786
- Joined: Wed Jul 18, 2018 4:40 pm
- Location: Spring Hill, Hernando County
I had to dig out some pics, but this was the "small" emergency setup I had for just running little basic things, like lighting, fans, phones/small electronics, my TV and antenna pre-amp etc.
This would absolutely fail trying to run a window AC unit, or a AC mini-fridge, but would probably barely suffice running of those DC cooler/fridge units.
I only had it running on a single, 100 watt panel. It was meant to be small, easy enough to store and then deploy if needed. The wiring for the panels was long enough (and thick enough...DC doesn't like long runs) to have the panels outside and have the "box" just inside through a window.
There are small DC ceiling fans, USB lighting, LED HDTV's that will run on 12V with a car adapter, all that take very little wattage to run.
The Amazon coolers are worth looking into IMO, they are relatively inexpensive. I'd probably want something a little bigger than the small setup I pictured for running that, but in a pinch it would probably run it.
Also, hit up your local truck stop. There are some really neat things they sell for truckers that run on 12v.....electric skillets, kettles, cooking equipment etc. Those are usually meant to run a cigarette lighter plug so most of them will pull under 180 watts.
This would absolutely fail trying to run a window AC unit, or a AC mini-fridge, but would probably barely suffice running of those DC cooler/fridge units.
I only had it running on a single, 100 watt panel. It was meant to be small, easy enough to store and then deploy if needed. The wiring for the panels was long enough (and thick enough...DC doesn't like long runs) to have the panels outside and have the "box" just inside through a window.
There are small DC ceiling fans, USB lighting, LED HDTV's that will run on 12V with a car adapter, all that take very little wattage to run.
The Amazon coolers are worth looking into IMO, they are relatively inexpensive. I'd probably want something a little bigger than the small setup I pictured for running that, but in a pinch it would probably run it.
Also, hit up your local truck stop. There are some really neat things they sell for truckers that run on 12v.....electric skillets, kettles, cooking equipment etc. Those are usually meant to run a cigarette lighter plug so most of them will pull under 180 watts.
The power drain for a fridge is the defroster. An cheap fridge that does not defrost will use much less energy than the same size with a defroster.
Anyone know a simple way to disconnect the defroster in the fridge without ruining it and be able to re attach it later?
Short term disaster is very different than a post nuke world. There your solar panels cry out to everyone you are the place to take over
Anyone know a simple way to disconnect the defroster in the fridge without ruining it and be able to re attach it later?
Short term disaster is very different than a post nuke world. There your solar panels cry out to everyone you are the place to take over
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NorincoKid
- Posts: 786
- Joined: Wed Jul 18, 2018 4:40 pm
- Location: Spring Hill, Hernando County
They don't cry out nearly as loudly as a generator would (literally).
A modest setup (few hundred watts) could be easily kept out of view, and stored/deployed as needed.
Agree I have a 500 watt and 2 100 watt panels that will do stuff charging, a light, and very small things and I intend on getting a small 27-32" TV that takes HDMI and USB and have converted many DVD series to MP4 Video cuz any day now any day it's happening. We will need some distraction in a blacked out room
I want to get a bigger solar inverter and a couple more panels but no panels on the roof IMO a magnet for trouble.
Keep your head down, be invisible
I want to get a bigger solar inverter and a couple more panels but no panels on the roof IMO a magnet for trouble.
Keep your head down, be invisible