Portable Solar Power Generator Kit for Home And Camping

This generator is a pretty solid piece of equipment. It's heavy, as one would expect, but it works as advertised. Being able to run my CPAP while recharging a couple of phones overnight is handy - it lasts three nights without recharging. Hooking up a goal zero solar panel is easy, but you really need a lot of draw to keep up with that kind of demand. Nevertheless, I am quite satisfied with this and would recommend it to anyone who won't have a lot of access to recharging for the short term.

I took it to Pennsic and disability services will give you time on an outlet to recharge it if you need to. Of course, some encampments have power and I was lucky to have nearby power I could use to recharge. However, I used a 30W solar panel to delay having to lug it up a hill to recharge at an outlet.

If you really want to make sure you don't need to recharge it off the grid or a gas generator, I suspect you need about 90W of panels on sunny days. I was getting about 20W of peak draw on a panel I just left on the roof of my tent without adjusting it for the sun, more like 15W most of the time. It was never enough to seriously add to its charge but it certainly made a difference.

I purchased my unit straight from UFO ENERGY. I used it for camping because sometimes I need to plug in something and didn't want to crank up the generator. For that, it's fine, but there are better options that are more powerful. If your thought is to charge this from solar and to be super green, think again. You'll have to leave this unit out on the solar charger for 2-3 days in full sun to charge it.

First, let me comment on this unit. I had absolutely no problems with it and used it for two years. I always charged it overnight before going camping, and it did fine charging up simple things like phones and computers. For that, it's a bit overpriced but fine.

But, then I came across the Duracell 600 watt inverter that cost less than this unit. Not only does it have more power (I can actually run a one-cup coffee maker!), but it has two AC plugs, plus a light, compressor, and battery jumper. The compressor saved me once when a truck tire went flat way in the middle of nowhere. It didn't max out the tire, but it put in enough air so that I could avert a blowout until I could reach a little general store. The Duracell unit has a smaller footprint but is slightly taller and was a better fit for me.