Has anyone built a solar generator?

[Rod]

Electrical engineering has always been one of my passions. I'm looking to build a 3kW solar generator, and curious if anyone has done this? This seems to be the best path forward for emergency power. The cost is not much more than a gas generator, and is actually much cheaper in the not so long run due to cost of gas.

Looking at the Lifepower battery and Growatt invertor. Last piece is calculating and finding the right solar panels. 3kW will be enough to power a fridge, minor appliances, radios, etc. Will also provide pass-through charging, so that during the day the sun will charge the battery while the generator is in use. If the battery is full, the solar power will pass through to the inverter as to not drain the battery.

 

[CigarStone]

I'm also an Electrical Engineer but I know nothing about building a solar generator. I helped a friend build a solar water heater for his hot-tub?

We gutted two 40 gallon water heaters down to the cast iron tank, built an OSB box, painted the tanks and the inside of the box black, plumbed the heaters to his hot-tub pump, covered the face of the box with plexiglass, and placed the unit facing south, tilted toward the sun.

Sometimes, the water was too hot and we had to add cold water with the garden hose.

 

[IngloriousBasterd]

I had a goal zero small solar generator that I would take camping so I could use my CPAP and charge devices and what not. Then the battery swelled and the thing broke. So I decided to build my own battery back up. Did a ton of research and got advice from my uncle who is an electrical engineer and built an ammo can battery back up. I still need to add a solar charger and panels but at least I have the battery back up that’s got a trickle charger in it that keeps the sealed led acid battery I put in it charged until I need it if the power goes out. I also have an inverter in it, and a panel that had USB ports, a voltage meter and a cigarette lighter plug. I’ll snap a pic of it later once the wife wakes up

 

[IngloriousBasterd]

 

[Rod]

This guy did a good job explaining how to build one.

 

[Alexewertan]

This looks interesting, thanks. I'm a very bad engineer in terms of creativity because I have no imagination. I have some understanding of the processes, but unfortunately, I have never learned to use my skills for new projects. However, I can reproduce ready-made products. So this video will be helpful for me. I was thinking about buying a solar generator because it's easier to give money to the guy in the store than to spend a week working. I've decided that I'll definitely buy one from the yenex.com list, but now I'm also ready to take a risk in creating a generator. It'll be an interesting experiment about which of the two devices will last longer, haha.

 

[LarryH]

You may not be able to make it over night with 3kW. You should not drop Lithium based batteries below 20% SoC and Gel cells bellow 50%. So at most you will have 2.4 kW. You might get a power meter to monitor the fridge overnight to see how many kW it uses.