After Hurricane Helene ravaged western North Carolina we reviewed our disaster preparedness. We have a solid supply of most essentials but wanted make an improvement to our power generation capability. I wanted something that we could take with us when we move back west and that we could use for car camping so a whole house generator is not an option. I have 3X generators but wanted to add some solar. (No I have not dyed my hair blue, sold my guns and declared my pronouns
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When it comes to solar I have experience with Goal Zero and they recently had a great sale so I bought a Yeti 1500X with 2X Boulder 100 Solar Panels and a Nomad 100 Solar panel. The Yeti has ‘pass through capability’ so it will be plugged into the wall and the new Starlink system will be plugged into the Yeti. If the power goes off the Starlink will continue to be run off the Yeti. If the power is off for extended periods the solar panels will be set up to recharge the Yeti 1500X. My plan is to hard mount the Boulder panels to the Nevada house and use the Nomad panel for car camping.
Today we did some familiarization with the setup. Due to the trees encircling the yard we had to frequently move the panels around to maintain direct sunlight. The refresh rate on the digital displayed seems to resist taking a decent photo, however with two panels attached and in full direct sun we reached 154 watts of charge.
Free power. Like anything that’s ‘free’ it’s usually not as good as what you pay for.
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This is with one panel charging in non direct sunlight
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