Buying some rural property that does not have electric. Will be working on available weekends to clear brush, fallen trees, building small cabin, etc. Would like to get a solar powered generator type setup mainly just to recharge my cordless tools and phone. Nothing more. Strongly prefer to NOT go the gas route unless the solar is just too stupid crazy. Not completely opposed to a Jackery type unit. All my power tools are cordless as well as chainsaw, pole saw, string trimmer etc.
Looking for a solar powered generator/charger
- Thread starter autobon7
- Start date
woodscaper
Well-known member
Milwaukee 18v and Dewalt 20v platforms each have a charger that runs off 12v car batteries, should be able to find a solar panel to feed a car battery for either of them easily. Probably other platforms have the same?
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I have mostly Bosch 18v tools. I do have some Milwaukee 12v, a Milwaukee 18v string trimmer that came with 2 batteries but bought an adapter for it so I can use my Bosch batteries and a Kobalt 24v chainsaw a 2 of their batteries. Will have to look to see if Bosch has one of those chargers.
WhoWhatNow
Well-known member
Not cheap but they can be charged by solar:
www.jackery.com
Jackery Best Solar Generator, Portable Power Station & Solar Panels
Jackery® offers an array of portable power supply solutions, including solar generators, portable power stations & solar panels. Click to learn more!
www.jackery.com
Lucid Moments
Well-known member
Are you going to get power out there eventually or leave it off grid? If you are going to leave it off grid you might to consider a more permanent solution than a "solar generator" and build a small rack for some solar panels and a charge controller etc.
Im uncertain at the moment. I would say eventually but that could be 10 years down the road.
I have the below along with 440w panels, works great. Get bigger than you think you need. I had a few 500w units (jackery and some other brand) that worked fine but even with panels they couldn't keep up with even running a fridge.
www.bluettipower.com
BLUETTI AC200P Portable Power Station | 2,000W 2,000Wh
Meet all your needs, anywhere, anytime. BLUETTI AC200P solar generator features a massive 2,000Wh capacity to power your equipment, no more worry about power outages interrupting your work.
www.bluettipower.com
That may be overkill as Im really just wanting to recharge power tool batteries and a phone. Will not be living on the property for awhile just staying on occasional weekends.I have the below along with 440w panels, works great. Get bigger than you think you need. I had a few 500w units (jackery and some other brand) that worked fine but even with panels they couldn't keep up with even running a fridge.
BLUETTI AC200P Portable Power Station | 2,000W 2,000Wh
Meet all your needs, anywhere, anytime. BLUETTI AC200P solar generator features a massive 2,000Wh capacity to power your equipment, no more worry about power outages interrupting your work.
Yea, it's a bit excessive. You can prob figure out your needs based on the tool battery sizes, but figure in some loss for the intervers.
If you DIY a battery setup its still pricey and then also will have a bigger footprint. the 500w units are too small, and the 1000w units are close in price to what i sent.
After researching and buying a few different ones my conclusion was they are all kind of a ripoff, but the lower-tier ones were useless. I think your issue is going to be that you are using the inverter from the battery (sogen) to convert to AC for a tool batt charger, then that is converted back into DC, so you're losing a lot of efficiency, which is going to put you in the need category for 1000w min.
All good points. Just to add to my situation......I do not live close by this property and will not be leaving anything of value behind when I come home so I will need any equipment used to be as portable as possible.
try clist or fbook for people selling jackerys or similar setups. plenty of people buy them for camping and realize they don't use them.
Just make sure you get lithium ion phosphate batteries if you buy used, the original jackerys and other brands were lithium ion but after ~500 charges they start losing storage capacity
woodscaper
Well-known member
I would just get an inverter big enough to handle the chargers you have, in 10 years technology will change a lot. Keep it simple.