[Rainger99]

Does anyone have any experience with a small solar generator? In case we have a power outage, I am looking for something to run the refrigerator, some portable fans, and a few lights. I don't need a whole house generator - just enough to get by for a few days. Thanks.

[Keefelane66]

There is nothing I am aware of that will run a household refrigerator. Without a substantial investment and being portable running 120volts.

[MrFlorida]

Won't have much sunlight during a storm.

[Papa_lecki]

Originally Posted by MrFlorida

Won't have much sunlight during a storm.

I think he is talking for the 3 or 4days after, before power is restored.

[Blueblaze]

You need about 3500 watts minimum to do what you want to do. That's a roof full of solar cells. A 60-cell array puts out about 300 watts and is about 5 by 3 ft. So you need a dozen of those.

Then (assuming the sun shines during the hurricane and the hurricane doesn't remove your roof full of solar cells), you need somewhere to store the energy, to get you through the night. A 100 amp-hour lead-acid deep-cycle battery costs about $300. You'll need 35 of them to run your stuff for an hour, or 280 to get you through the night. I guess you can park your car in the driveway.

It might be simpler to just buy a gas generator. You can get a 10,500 watt generator that runs on gas, propane, or natural gas for about $2500.

By the way, scale up the math to discover why you can't run a country on solar power, either. You'd need a solar array bigger than the entire state of Texas.

[villagetinker]

I tend to agree with above comments; however, you can go with a smaller generator. Get the EXACT power requirements for the equipment that you need to operate then look at the available generators. If you can go with inverter based these are very quiet. You will need to make arrangements ahead of time for getting the power into the house. I would suggest a suitable outdoor power receptacle with suitable wiring to a location where you could use temporary extension cords.
Now having stated this, if you are in SECO territory, they have been excellent over the last 9 years with outages that I could count on one hand and most only a few minutes. There were extended outages (during IRMA) in the historic area (lots of overhead lines), and I have heard of some possible problems in the Leesburg area.
Bottom line have not seen the need for a generator in our area of The Villages (just south of 466A) SECO territory.

[tophcfa]

They are going to sell those solar generators at the new Costco being built in the Villages.

[Bill14564]

Try googling, there were a couple sites that discussed this and gave ideas. Not going to be as cheap as a gas generator but solar might be in the neighborhood of $1,000.

If it were me I would look into a nice, quiet Honda generator.

[Decadeofdave]

I think what rainger99 is asking about is Generac power storage system, electric storage - powered by solar, I do not knowing anything about this storage system, have seen ads for it.

[keepsake]

Done alot of this. Here are some numbers.
I have the LiFeP04 batteries. 17 will give you 14 kw of storage. That'll run 200 watt fridge for days. That battery bank is $2500. A hybrid inverter to charge and make electric 240v from those batteries is $3500. It'll charge from ac mains for that total of about $6000. No solar yet. So you go into storm with batteries fully charged and run minimal fridge, lights. 1000 watts for 14 hours is the math.

[M78BC]

As usual it's disappointing reading all the inaccurate responses.

You can meet all your needs, which you described as a fridge and a few lights, with a 1,000 watt generator.

How do I know? I did it for five days.

Your fridge draws about 140 watts (yes it is that efficient) with a peak draw of nearly 500 at start up (it runs 50 -60% of the time), a fan draws 30 -120, your router 30, the TV is around 100 or less. As you can see gasoline 1,000 watt generator will serve you well. You will be comfortable and if you have a tankless water heater you'll be able to have hot showers as those only use 60 watts for the electronics.

Now, can you do it with solar? Yes but you won't like it. Let's say your average draw is 300 watts per hour. 300 watts x 24 hours x 3 days = 21,600 watt hours.

At retail on Amazon with solar panels, a solar generator is $1.00 per watt hour.

Back to the small generator, will you be able to have enough gas on hand? Yes, easily. The Honda eu1000 uses .6 gallons every 6.8 hours. If you know a storm is coming top off your cart and fill a five gallon gas can. If there is no power outage use the gas in your car. Simple.

[MrChip72]

You're honestly better off getting a portable generator like the Honda EU2200 (around $1200) or even a cheaper competitor's model. You can run your fridge and most of your appliances/TV for days on a very small amount of gas. I had a power outage way up north and ran everything I needed like TV, lights and fridge for several days including a 1500w heater with mine (outage was in the middle of winter with below freezing temps).

[MartinSE]

I would go a different way, I would invest in the battery pack with enough storage to do what you want and then double it.

Then how you fill the battery pack is up to you, purchase power from SECO, use a small solar panel to charge it over a period of months? A bigger panel to change it over weeks, whatever make the most cost sense to you.

If your real concern is the food in the fridge, then I would suggest a chest freezer instead. Keep it cold, and if power goes out and is going to stay out a while, move everything to the freezer and don't open it any more than absolutely required. A new good chest freezer will last 48 hours if it isn't opened. The fridge will last 4 to 6 hours if it isn't opened.

[Topspinmo]

Originally Posted by Rainger99

Does anyone have any experience with a small solar generator? In case we have a power outage, I am looking for something to run the refrigerator, some portable fans, and a few lights. I don't need a whole house generator - just enough to get by for a few days. Thanks.

Just buy ford lightning……

[PJ_Smiley]

Take a look here:
Go Anywhere with Portable Power - Lion Energy