Episode 26 – About Solar Generators
Mar 11, 2010 Economics
Electricity generators are literally life-savers. Most home generators are gas, propane or diesel powered though. These can be loud, costly to run and, in a real disaster, hard to fuel. If the electricity is down, how will the gas pump work? That’s where a solar-powered generator comes in. You can buy pre-made ones for about $2000 USD or more, but that’s just too easy. We’re survival types! We can do it! And, in building one ourselves we’ll also learn how to improve and fix it.
Today’s podcast covers some of the basics and talks about the parts I’ll be using to build mine: solar PV panels, a Pelican case, charge regulator, AGM (Absorbed Glass Matrix) batteries, DC/AC inverters and ballpark figures on what appliances draw and how that relates to your solar generator. All parts in, my solar generator will cost me about $1500 to build, but be able to power all the crucial electrical things in my house, during an outage. You can make a smaller one for less, using the same principles and a little research.
May 5th, 2010 at 10:08 pm
Did you ever build one of these boxes? It would be wonderful to get a parts list of what you list on the podcast. If you build this, a video would be great!
Thanks for your time and energy on this podcast!
May 6th, 2010 at 6:55 am
I have most of the parts now. I still need the panels and the batteries. Unfortunately, those are the most expensive parts. Once I get those, I will be doing drawings, parts list, and a video. In the meantime, I could go ahead and do the circuit drawings and specifications. I should probably do that.
May 30th, 2010 at 1:57 pm
I’ve just started listening to you and am a long time fan of Jack at TSP. This was a great show you did on solar generators. I had seen that ad too, and wondered if it was worth the money. I would really appreciate you putting together the specs and circut drawings for this project. Thanks and keep up the great work.
-Cody
June 26th, 2010 at 10:34 pm
[...] This will help you understand what I was talking about in Episode 26 – About Solar Generators. [...]