Solar Power
Over the last few decades or so there has been a buzz around the entire solar energy market. From homes to business’s, people have been adopting solar panels into their power grid to try and reduce the costs in power usage and also to a smaller degree lessen their planets carbon foot print. The biggest problem up until recently has been the capacity to store the power that is harvested during the day and making it available to draw down on at night time when the sun goes down. This problem has been some what solved in the last few years with new battery technologies being produced to match the solar capacity that already exists. The solar energy market is an extremely large industry and covers a broad use base. The use we are going to discuss today is in regards to portable solar for camping and outdoor use. The kits combine a solar panel to harvest during the day and a battery to store the power generated during the day for using at night.
Solar Kits For Small Devices
Solar kits come in several sizes but in this section we are just going to discuss small solar kits for charging phones, tablets and any other small device that can be powered from a 5v usb port. The advantages of a small solar kit is weight and size. If you are hiking or on foot the weight you carry is going to be an important factor in what you put in your backpack. If you are just trying to power a phone or tablet a 7 watt solar panel or 15 watt solar panel combined with a 10000mah to 20000mah powerbank will do the job. A 10000mah powerbank will charge a new standard size smart phone 2-3 times from empty and will recharge fully in 6-8 hours in full sunlight. If you want to recharge faster look at a larger panel like the 15 watt solar panel which should charge in roughly half the time of a 7 watt panel. Same goes if you increase the size of your power bank the full charge time will take longer as the battery size is larger so matching with a larger solar panel is advisable.
Mid size Solar Kits
Mid size solar kits are the same as small just higher capacity batteries to give you more runtime with your devices and a larger solar panel to cope with the extra battery size. A good kit in this category is a 21 watt solar panel matched with a 28000mah power bank or alternatively a goal zero venture 30 matched with a Goal Zero nomad 28 solar panel. these kits still give usb output for devices just with more runtime and quicker recharging times when off grid.
Large Solar Kits
Large solar kits or base camp units are designed to run camp power requirements from small fridges, laptops, tv screens and all other devices like lighting that you would need to run off grid. Some of these kits that can be made up are the Goal Zero yeti 150 matched with a nomad 28 plus solar panel or the yeti 400 matched with the nomad 28 plus or standard 30 watt solar panel. Both the yeti 150 and yeti 400 are capable of running small fridges and laptops and lighting systems and have 12 volt and 240v outputs which make them handy for running small 240v devices. Large solar kits are also ideal for family trips where power requirements are a little higher than just a few phones for example phones, a few laptops, tablets and also some lighting.
Super Large Solar Kits
In the super large kits we have included the Goal zero Yeti 1250 which is a 1250 watt silent generator and also the yeti 1400 lithium and Yeti 3000 lithium silent generator. These power banks are some of the largest silent generators on the market at the moment and are ideal for temporary power requirements for example weekend cabins without power military camps or emergency services setting up base camps. The units can all be matched with the Nomad 100 solar panels and several of the Nomad 100 panels can be daisy chained together to speed up the recharge time of the yeti units. All these large units come with multiple 240v outputs, usb outputs and also 12v outputs. They also come with wall chargers included for recharging and are great for families with high power requirements on camping trips or get aways.
