Found a decent video explaining these portable power stations and solar generators

Yeah, some people are funny that way. Even on the solar forums and FB pages, there are some people who have to correct everyone and insist they aren't "generators". I think their argument is the solar panels are basically the generators and the station is the converter/storage unit. Who cares what is technically correct (and I don't know enough to side one way or the other) - after all, I don't care that people around here call good dirt "loom" instead of "loam". As long as people know what you are talking about (and it doesn't cause a safety hazard or harm in some other way), just go with it.

 

Hopefully it is okay. Best be checking and reading up on the directions.

 

I'm one of them tools who frown on the word generator when describing a battery pack.
Do we call jump packs generators? Do we call the little battery banks that charge our phones generators?
Why would we call a bigger battery pack a generator because it can output AC?

 

Eh, Blueitti AC180 is $579 on Amazon and was lower a couple of weeks ago. I do hear that Anker is a good brand though. The C1000 can take in 100w more by solar but the AC180 holds more total. It all depends on what features you value.

 

Oh yeah, running the air compressor, you definitely need the power. Just went and looked at that Pecron and that is a weird size at 1536w - right in the middle of the most popular sizes (1024 & 2048). Nice find.

I assume by "reflective" you mean "bifacial"? I have a couple of 220w bifacial foldables that I got on a package deal with my EF D2M. They perform great with snow cover, but without snow they are nothing special (I even tried putting reflectix and white materials behind during the fall). It may be that I was just too impatient to find the sweet spot, and setting them up frustrated me too as they had a funky brace system (which they have since changed). I guess my real point is that if you are going to put the panels on the roof of your shed - then bifacials are probably not going to perform as you may expect. Also, since bifacials let light thru, they may heat up the roof (whereas mono do not let light thru so would actually keep the roof a bit cooler). Trapped heat will also affect performance of the panels. BUT, if you are putting the panels on a separate stand, so there is plenty of air flow, most of those issues go away.

Over the spring I got a couple of 320w mono panels that I just have laid on yard wagons (I have rotating shade so have to move them regularly thru the day) and I've used them all summer to keep my stations charged. I would think two 540w would definitely be able to keep that Pecron charged and provide power for lights and things.

 

I would like one of these solar generators but have zero interest in solar panels. I would just charge the dang things with utility power or generator power and then use the solar generator overnight or for smaller loads. Saves gas and runtime on the genset, no running at night but keeps the refrigerators and lights on, and allows some amount of time of backup power before even getting the genset out as most outages are pretty short.

It drives me nuts to hear a 5000 watt loud generator banging away all night to keep a refrigerator cool. That refer only uses 100 running watts. Now, my gas genesets are far more efficient and quiet but not as quiet as a solar generator.

 

Lots of people do that. Some people have Time of Use changes in their power costs so charge up their power stations at rediculously low prices (some are even free late at night) and then use the power station to run stuff during the day when prices are 3-5x the night time rates..

When I got my first power station (an Oscal 700 that take ridiculously long to charge because of input limitations and being non-LifPo), my intent was jut to use house power to charge and let it just sit. I knew I would need more than one station, but it was only a couple hundred $, so was a way for me to dip my toes in without doing the solar stuff.

Frankly, in the deep of winter, I don't get enough sun to bother trying to charge any of my stations with solar, so they just sit ready for back up.

 

the panels generate electric and pass it to a controller.
So panels should be called generators or should the controller connected to the storage device be called a generator? batteries store the pixies.

 

Enjoy!

 

That wildfire smoke/haze does not help production at all so you are getting pretty good numbers. It looks like that stuff will be around for a couple more days (up here anyway) then hopefully some clear days to follow - as long as that hurricane out at sea doesn't throw cloud cover at us.