Itinerant1 wrote:



If your going to quote and use it like the gospel try staying in the same chemistry. Li-Colbate is not LiFePO4 which is used in these battery/ inverter devices and what most are using in the rvs.

Next will be Lifepo4 isn't safe because Li starts fire on planes.

time2roll wrote:

How many solar generators would it take to match 675w solar and 1000 Ah?

valhalla360 wrote:



And if we are referring to them as "generators", how big will the system have to be to match a small 2000w suitcase generator putting out 1500w continuous for 23hr of a 24hr day?

time2roll wrote:

Depends on how much noise is allowed.

valhalla360 wrote:

Nope, if the "solar generator" is putting out 1500w continuous, it's putting out 1500w continuous regardless of the hum it makes doing so.

jaycocreek wrote:

Everyone saying how over priced they are should chime in with there actual cost for there system that they use....There not cheap to do it right..

Lol

naturist wrote:



While I didn't chime in, I do say they are overpriced.

So I have built myself two such. The first cost me about $1600, the second cost me about $2500. Both have 2200 watt continuous/4400 watt surge pure sine wave inverters. The first uses 2-125 Ah AGM batteries fed by 400 watts of solar panels thru a 40 amp charge controller. I can draw approximately 1500 watt hours from those batteries to take them from 100% charge to the 50% level beyond which battery life begins to degrade. The solar panels produce around 1600 watt hours on a good day.

The second one uses 1-300 Ah LiFePO4 battery fed by 500 watts of solar panels. I can draw about 3000 watt hours from the battery before affecting battery life. The solar panels will produce about 2,000 watt hours on a good day.

I looked into the manufactured units, and what I saw was that matching the capacity of the more expensive of my two units was going to run me between $3800 and $4500 depending on which brand I chose. YMMV.

It should be noted that I chose to not include a shore power charger for the battery to either of them, which commercial units have standard. If you want that capacity, add another $100 to $200 to the cost. And therein lies one of the advantages of building one: customization. Skip the solar panels, you don't need a charge controller either (that would save about $600, counting the added shore power charger).

The standard "marine deep cycle" battery most small trailers come from the dealer sporting is an 80 Ah flooded cell battery weighing around 60 lbs, and costing around $200 give or take. The 300 Ah LiFePO4 battery I used cost $1079, and weighs 70 lbs. If you have a converter capable of dealing with a lithium battery, you could just swap in such a battery to get the capacity of about 6 of the batteries that came with your rig, add a mere 10 lbs to your tongue weight, and never have to replace batteries again, as the life of such a battery should be around 10 times as long as the flooded cell battery.

Those "solar generators" are, however, aimed at people who are not handy enough to build one, and for such a person, they will do the job, provided they are sized correctly for your needs.