Solar Generators

When you are thinking about a solar generator, it is actually helpful to imagine a traditional gasoline-powered generator. Where a gasoline generator burns fuel to create electricity, a solar power generator uses solar panels to collect and store solar electricity. This allows you charge and run your electronics off of electricity that was created from sunlight.

The solar panels plug directly into the solar generator and the power they are able to generator is stored within the solar generator’s internal battery. When you need electricity, you simply plug your devices and appliances directly into the solar generator’s output ports.

Once the solar generator’s internal battery has been drained, you will need to top it up with more solar electricity. Most solar generators also give the user the ability to charge the internal battery using AC power by plugging the unit into a standard wall outlet, but we will explain that in more detail later.

When solar generators first hit the market, they were primarily designed for overlanding, tent and van camping, and other situations where you would need access to limited amounts of electricity in an off-grid location. However, solar generators are now more powerful than ever before and they have grown the capabilities to fulfill a wide range of needs.

Now that they are bigger and more powerful than ever before, they are used for emergency preparedness, whole home backup, off-grid hunting and recreational cabins, grid-tied applications, RV power, and more. Essentially, anything in your home or RV that runs on electricity can be powered by a solar generator.

People will often use their solar generator to charge phones and laptops during blackouts, as well as power CPAP machines, lights, refrigerators, and more during emergencies. Even air conditioning units and space heaters can be powered using a solar generator, which is helpful for those living off-grid. Basically, if your solar generator is powerful enough to meet your power needs, you can have access to power without needing to pull electricity from the grid!

Given that solar generators were designed to offer an alternative to a gas-powered generator, it makes sense that they have a similar name. They do many of the same things as a gas generator, but they do not burn fuel and create noxious emissions.

Since the electricity they operate on comes from solar energy, it also makes sense that these “emissions-free generators” have been dubbed solar generators by manufacturers and the solar industry as a whole.

These two questions are amongst the most common that we are asked. Typically, we are asked if a solar generator can run a specific appliance, such as a refrigerator, television, or air conditioner. In simple terms, the answer is yes, a solar generator can power these electronic appliances; however, it depends on the size and power rating of the solar generator you are talking about.

You have to make sure that the solar generator’s power inverter is capable of meeting the watt requirements of the electronic device or appliance you are connecting it to. When determining how long that appliance will be able to run off of your solar generator, you need to know how much power is being used and how large your solar generator’s internal battery is.

In simple terms, as long as the inverter inside your solar generator is large enough to run the appliance, yes, your solar generator will be able to power it!

Yes! Solar generators are designed to allow charging and discharging of their internal battery at the same time. This means that you can have your solar generator storing electricity from the connected solar panels as you pull power from it to charge or power your electronics!

In other words, if you have a large enough solar generator, you could be running your refrigerator and charging your phone, all while your solar generator was replenishing its battery via the connected solar panels.

The length of time it will take your solar generator to fully recharge its internal battery actually involves a similar equation to understanding how long the battery will be able to charge your devices for.

You need to know how large the battery is and divide it by the total power input. For example, if you had a solar generator that had a 1,300Wh battery and you were running four 100W solar panels, you would divide 1,300 by 400, which would give you a total of 3.25. In other words, your solar generator would take roughly 3.25 hours to full charge if it was pulling in 400W worth of solar electricity.

It is important to note that solar panels do not always generate their full power rating, as there are a number of factors that will impact their performance. The intensity of the sunlight and the positioning of the panels will influence the performance of your solar panels. However, the equation described above is incredibly simple and can give you a rough idea of how quickly your solar generator’s battery will charge!

In an ideal situation, you would monitor how much power you are drawing from your solar generator while simultaneously monitoring the amount of power it was storing from your solar panels. This would help you avoid fully draining your battery before the sun goes down for the day.

Luckily, most of the latest solar generator models have built-in display screens, which allow you to quickly access input and output information, as well as get a read on the remaining power within the solar generator’s battery.

For the best results, we often recommend charging your devices during the peak sun hours, which are between noon and 3pm. This gives your solar generator the opportunity to top up its battery with the most powerful hours of sunlight, so you will have access to power throughout the night. Naturally, you would be more careful about monitoring your power usage at night, or during cloudy days.

The battery tends to be the most expensive component within a solar generator. They are made to last, but they often represent nearly 90% of the total cost of a new generator, which is why most people will just invest in a new solar generator, rather than replace a worn-out or degraded battery.

With that being said, solar generators are designed for durability and these batteries last for many years and thousands of life cycles. If you are taking care of your solar generator, you should not have to worry about the condition of the battery for many years!

In simple terms, you can replace the battery, but it is not the most cost-effective decision.

While it may sound complicated, this is actually incredibly straightforward. On the back of your solar panels, you will find cables connected to a control box. They have a positive and negative end; you simply plug them into an adaptor, which plugs directly into the back of the solar generator.

Solar generators are designed to be as user-friendly as possible, so connecting them to solar panels is really easy. In fact, most solar generators will also come with extension cables, so you can position your solar panels far away from the solar generator itself. This allows you to use your solar generator indoors, while the solar panels collect sunlight outside!

If you are wondering how many solar panels you need, the answer depends on how much power you need. The more panels you have connected to your solar generator, the faster your recharge rate will be.

The larger and more powerful solar generators require more solar panels than the smaller units. While you could charge a powerful solar generator with a large battery with one solar panel, it could take you days. On the other hand, an array of multiple solar panels with high power ratings could charge you large solar generator relatively quickly.

Think about how large your solar generator’s internal battery is, what you plan on running off of your solar generator, and what reason you have for owning a solar generator. If you are using your solar generator as a primary power source in an off-grid cabin or RV, you will need plenty of solar panels; however, if you are just buying a solar generator as backup, emergency power for blackouts and grid failures, one or two solar panels should be enough.

We briefly touched on the fact that the lithium-ion batteries within solar generators are designed to last, but how long they will actually last is actually a fairly complicated question.

This largely depends on the quality of the solar generator you have purchased. Some of the entry-level generators from brands like Jackery Power and GoalZero contain lower quality batteries that offer relatively few life cycles. These batteries tend to last 3 to 5 years with regular use; however, the high-end batteries we find in units made by more specialized solar generator brands, like EcoFlow and Bluetti, tend to last anywhere from 5 to 10 years with regular use.

The lifespan of the battery in your solar generator will also depend on how often you use your solar generator. If it spends most of the time safely tucked away in storage for emergencies, it can last far longer than 10 years; however, if you are draining and replenishing the battery daily, you might get closer to 5 years out of it.

Batteries also degrade, rather than expire, so even when your battery cannot hold the same charge it once could, you can still continue to use it, but don’t expect it to last for nearly as long. Think about the battery like you would think about a battery in a laptop or smartphone – just because the battery doesn’t work as well as the day you took the device out of the box does not mean that it is now useless.

Essentially, a Life Cycle is when a battery goes from 100% fully charged to 100% fully drained. A life cycle rating refers to the number of full charge and discharge cycles that a battery can complete before the battery begins to degrade and lose some of its storage capacity.

This explains why you will see a life cycle rating listed on most solar generators. It is a rating that gives you an idea of how durable the internal battery actually is.

Where things can get a little bit complicated is when you start to consider that most batteries are not fully drained before they are charged again. This is referred to as the depth of discharge. While partially discharging a battery and then recharging it will wear away at the battery’s storage capabilities over time, the wear is less impactful than a full life cycle.

As long as you have purchased a solar generator from a reputable manufacturer and retailer, it will almost certainly come with a warranty. While the lifespan of that warranty will be different depending on the brand and model, we find that the average manufacturer’s warranty for the solar generators we sell is two years.

The only way to know what the warranty will be on a particular solar generator is to read the product description. At ShopSolarKits.com, we always aim to provide this information in the most visible way possible.

While it is technically possible to build your own solar generator, it is incredibly complicated and the results are rarely as good as a you would get with a professionally manufactured solar generator.

If you did choose to build your own solar generator, it would be almost possible to create a unit that would be more cost-effective than a pre-built unit. The internal components you would have to purchase would end up costing you significantly more than a high-quality solar generator and the finished product would look far less solid.

Then you have to consider the safety factor. When you are dealing with the voltages you would need to build your own solar generator, things can get dangerous very quickly, especially if you do not fully understand what you are doing.

In short, yes, you could technically build your own solar generator, but the cons outweigh the pros so heavily that it is difficult to think of reasons why you would do so.

Wh stands for Watt Hours, which is a measurement of stored power inside of a battery. The higher the Wh, the more power your battery can hold. So, if you choose a solar generator with a high Wh rating, it will contain a battery that is capable of storing a significant amount of power.

W refers to the amount of power something needs to run. So, an electronic device that has a low W rating will not use very much electricity, which means it will drain your solar generator’s battery at a slow rate. Oppositely, a solar panel with a high W rating would be able to feed more power into your solar generator.

Think of your solar generator as a bathtub. Wh refers to the amount of water your bathtub can hold. Where W refers to the amount of water that is either leaving or being poured into your bathtub. A big bathtub with a tiny drain would take a long time to empty, just like a solar generator with a high Wh rating plugged into a device with a low W rating would take a long time to drain.

When researching solar generators, you will notice they tend to have a Wh rating and a W rating. Wh refers to the size of the battery, while W refers to the Watts the generators inverter is capable of supporting.

If you purchase multiple solar generators and they support chaining, you would be able to link them together to double the battery capacity; however, it would not double the inverter capabilities.

For example, if you owned two of the EcoFlow DELTA 1,800W 1,300Wh Solar Generators, chaining them would allow you to double the total battery capacity to 2,600Wh, but the combined inverter capabilities would still be just 1,800W.

So, why chain two solar generators together? As it turns out, there are many advantages of increasing your battery capacity through chaining. Imagine you are running your refrigerator off of solar power. By having multiple chained generators connected to the fridge, you would know that the power would not go out if the first generator’s battery drained. This would mean your food would not spoil.

There are many other instances where you would want reliable and lasting power, but most people find it is really helpful for off-grid and emergency situations.

With most solar generators, the outer case is made from a highly durable ABS plastic, which protects the internal components. This material offers many advantages over metal, like keeping the total weight down and preventing the generator from overheating.

Essentially, a solar generator is an entire solar power system that is contained within a durable case. The main components are a battery, a charge controller, and a power inverter. The charge controller regulates the flow of power, so you can use solar electricity, while the power inverter allows you safely and efficiently use that solar power to charge your devices. Solar generators also have exterior input and output ports, as well as cooling fans, a display screen, carrying handles, and more.

As you would expect, solar generators also contain all of the wires, connectors, and fuses you would need if you were building a traditional solar power system. This is why you can describe a solar generator as a simple, miniature, off-grid solar power system that is contained in a highly portable box.

The number of solar panels you can hook up to your solar generator will depend on which particular solar generator you are using. Each solar generator will have its own input rating in watts (W). This rating refers to the charge controller’s ability to regular power.

To determine how many panels your generator can take, look at the input rating. Using this number, you will know how much solar power your solar generator can handle.

For example, if you had a solar generator with an input rating of 400W, you would be able to connect it to 400W worth of solar panels. This could mean using four 100W solar panels, or it could mean using two 200W panels. Any combination of solar panels would work, as long as you didn’t exceed that 400W input rating. Anything beyond that would be a waste, as the generator would not be able to handle that amount of power.

The easiest thing to do is purchase one of our Ready-Made Solar Generator Kits, as we have already done the wattage, voltage, and amperage calculations required. This means your kit will come with the ideal number and style of solar panels for the specific solar generator in that kit!

If you are referring to the style of solar panel you can connect to your solar generator, you have plenty of flexibility. Rigid, flexible, curved, and folding solar panels will all work with a solar generator.

In terms of power rating, you need to make sure that the solar panels you are using do not exceed the input voltage and amperage rating for your solar generator.

The ideal solar panels for your solar generator will depend on your personal preferences and needs. If you are someone that values mobility, several of the lightweight and highly portable folding solar panels are going to be a better choice than one massive and rigid solar panels with a higher power rating.

Again, our solar generator kits are designed to fulfil specific needs. Where our NOMAD Solar Generator Kits are designed for portability and feature folding solar panels, our EMERG Solar Generator Kits contain eight or more rigid solar panels that let you generate significant amounts of power for off-grid and emergency situations.

Remember, any solar panel with a power rating of over 200W is likely going to be very heavy and extremely bulky, so they can ruin the portability you get with using a solar generator over a traditional residential solar power system. This is why you might notice that we tend to package our generator kits with multiple 100W and 200W panels, rather than the larger 300W and 400W panels.

When it comes to mounting solar panels, simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Start by finding a location that gets a significant amount of direct sunlight and connect them to your generator. The solar generator will tell you exactly how much power the solar panels are producing. You can then move them around your property until you find the location that is offering the best results.

Once you have found the perfect location and angle, you can use the hardware that comes with your solar panels to connect them to a pre-built Z bracket, or you can build your own stand out of wood. The solar panels we sell and include with our kits feature pre-drilled holes, so mounting them is incredibly straightforward. Simply screw them into your preferred mount.

For those wanting to mount their panels directly on a roof, we recommend looking into a material called Unistrut, which can be found in just about any hardware store.

Yes, you will just want to make sure that your solar generator’s inverter is capable of matching the output of your gas-powered generator. With that being said, you will want to avoid charging a solar generator with a gas-powered generator that has a modified sine wave inverter. This is typically bad for most electronics, but solar generators are particularly vulnerable to the damages this can cause.

On the other hand, hooking your solar generator to a gas-powered generator with a pure sine wave inverter should be fine!

EcoFlow even released a smart gas generator, which can be connected to the EcoFlow Delta MAX and EcoFlow Delta PRO solar generators. If the batteries in these solar generators completely drain while they are connected to the smart generator, it will automatically begin burning fuel to recharge the batteries. It will even shut off once the batteries reach your desired level of charge!

While solar generators were originally limited in terms of charging options, the latest models can now be charged in 5 different ways. Typically, this includes:

• Solar Power (Connecting the generator to solar panels)
• AC Power (Plugging the solar generator into a standard wall outlet)
• DC Power (Using the 12V cigarette plug in a vehicle)
• Gas generator (Connecting a gas-powered generator to your solar generator through the AC charging port)
• Wind Power (Connecting your solar generator to a compatible wind turbine)

Many of the latest models even feature dual charging, which allows the user to charge their solar generator using solar panels and an AC wall outlet at the same time! This increases the charge rate, so your solar generator can charge its battery at remarkable speeds!

Yes, you can keep your Solar Generator Plugged in at all times. Whether you have your solar generator plugged into a wall outlet, or an array of solar panels, you should not encounter any issues that would damage your solar generator, or the power source it is connected to.

This is because the high-quality solar generators we carry are designed with effective charge controllers and battery management systems, which limit the amount of power that can flow to the battery and prevent overcharging issues.

With that being said, any high-end solar generator is going to have a significant shelf life, which means they can retain a charge for months to a full year, without the battery losing a significant amount of its charge. So, while you can keep your solar generator plugged in at all times, it is rarely necessary.

Shelf life is a term that is used to describe the amount of time a rechargeable battery can hold a charge. Even when batteries are not being used, they lose power over time. This draining process happens to all rechargeable batteries, but some lose power at a faster rate than others.

Given that solar generators rely on lithium-ion batteries to store solar power, shelf life is a relevant consideration. The best solar generators have a lengthy shelf life and they can even hold a charge for as long as a year!

This is a really important consideration if you plan on using your solar generator for emergency situations, as a lengthy shelf life allows you to put the charged generator into storage and pull it out with a full charge when blackouts, grid failures, or emergencies happen.

While some generators can create a little bit of noise, this is almost entirely down to their internal cooling fans. These fans prevent the solar generator from overheating, so they usually only kick in when you are putting a significant amount of strain on the unit. Even with the fans running, the noise is barely noticeable unless you are standing beside the solar generator.

In comparison to the deafening amount of noise you get while running a gas-powered generator, a solar generator is practically silent!

Yes, solar generators are completely safe and practical to use indoors! They are completely emissions-free, which means they will not emit anything more than a little bit of heat.

In fact, solar generators are so safe to use that many people will use them beside their bed as they sleep to run CPAP machines, bedside lamps, and to charge their phones.

Asking if a solar generator can be used indoors is like asking if you can use your laptop indoors! They are completely safe and will not impact air quality or generate any sort of fumes!

Yes, you can use different types of solar panels, but it may impact the efficiency and performance of those panels. We often recommend solar panels with the same power rating, as it helps you get the most from each panel. By having the same voltage, amperage, and wattage, your solar panel array will be more streamlined and more of the solar electricity they are able to generate will actually end up getting stored within your solar generator’s internal battery.

This is why all of our solar kits come with matching solar panels!

You can absolutely use a solar generator when you are in the cold; however, extreme temperatures can impact the performance of the battery. If you are talking about temperatures that are below freezing, charging your lithium battery can result in permanent damage to the battery’s storage capacity. You can use them as a power source, but recharging the unit while it is frozen is not a good idea.

Think about how other rechargeable batteries function in extreme temperatures. For example, you have probably noticed that your smartphone’s battery will drain much faster when the phone is cold. With that being said, as long as it is not freezing where your solar generator is actually located, it should be fine. So, if it was freezing outside, but warm inside your home, you could definitely use your solar generator inside!

To determine how low long a solar generate will last, you will need to perform a quick calculation: The total Watt hours (Wh) of the battery divided by your electrical load in Watts (W)

For example, if you were using a Bluetti 2,400Wh solar generator to supply power to a set of 200W LED lights, you would divide 2,400/200, which would give you a total of 12. This means the generator could power those LED lights continuously for 12 hours.

Of course, this is an overly simplified example, as most people will be running multiple electrical devices and appliances off of their solar generator at the same time. The wide variety of output ports allows users to charge numerous devices at the same time, which will obviously drain the generator’s battery faster. If you would like to calculate how much power your electronics will use, we recommend using our Ultimate Solar Watt Hour Calculator.

It is also worth noting that you can use your solar generator as it is being charged. This means your generator’s internal battery will be replenished as power is being pulled from it by your devices.

The short answer is yes, but it is worth noting that this is a relatively new development for solar generators. In the past, you would have needed to hire a licensed electrician to integrate your solar generator into your home’s electrical system using a manual transfer switch.

Today, solar generator manufacturers are releasing convenient devices that allow you to easily and seamlessly connect one or more solar generators into a home’s electrical system.

For example, EcoFlow has released their EcoFlow Smart Home Panel, which allows you to easily integrate up to two EcoFlow Delta PROs with 10 home circuits! The Delta PROs can then be connected to expansion batteries, solar panels, and even a smart generator, so you and your family will have uninterrupted power during blackouts!

The Smart Home Panel will also help you manage your power usage, so you can lower your utility bills by using free and renewable solar power during peak hours, rather than grid electricity.

Yes, just about every solar generator will use a pure sine wave power inverter. In fact, every solar generator we sell at < ahref="https://shopsolarkits.com/" target="_blank">ShopSolarKits.com uses a pure sine wave inverter. Modified wine wave inverters are not as good for your electronics and we would not consider selling a solar generator that used one.

This means that the power coming from our solar generators will be as clean as any electricity you pulled from your home’s wall outlets!

While a solar generator can use a MPPT charge controller, or a PWM charge controller, all of the solar generators that we sell at ShopSolarKits.com contain a built-in MPPT charge controller.

MPPT charge controllers are far superior to PWM charge controllers. They are more efficient and do a better job of protecting the battery from damage caused by overcharging. MPPT charge controllers also help prevent phantom battery draining, which can occur when the power stored within the battery flows backwards to the solar panels when they are not producing power, like at night or on cloudy days. You will only really see PWM charge controllers in some of the less specialized solar brands, like GoalZero.

In other words, if you purchased your solar generator from us, or you plan to, you will not have to worry about your generator containing a lower quality PWM charge controller, as it will come with at least one MPPT charge controller!

The main component that drives the price up for a solar generator is the massive lithium-ion battery. Unfortunately, these batteries have high material and manufacturing costs. While the battery is the main expense, modern solar generators also contain other complicated and expensive pieces of solar equipment, such as MPPT charge controllers, power inverters, and more.

You also have to remember that solar generators offer serious value when you consider how much it would cost to purchase each individual component separately.

If you are comparing the cost of a solar generator to a gas-powered generator, it is worth noting that gas generators can be very expensive to run. Fuel is expensive and gas-powered generators also need to be oiled and maintained, otherwise they will break down. Once you have a solar generator, the cost to keep it running is absolutely nothing. Solar energy is completely free, renewable, and it can be accessed from anywhere that the sun is shining.

Think of a solar generator as an investment. While the upfront cost may seem relatively high, they will end up saving you money over time, as they are free to operate!

In simple terms, AC power, or alternating current, is the same type of electricity you would pull from any standard outlet in your home. DC power, or direct current, is electricity that is only flowing in one direction and provides a constant voltage. Many of the appliances you will find in a RV use DC power.

Solar panels turn sunlight into DC power and it is actually the power inverter within the solar generator that converts that power into AC power when it is required.

Luckily, most solar generators, including all of the models we sell, allow users to access both AC and DC power! This means the solar generator can support just about any type of electronic device or appliance you could throw at it. Typically, most will have DC outlets on one side of the solar generator and AC outlets on the front. You can even use both types of power at the same time.

Whether or not you purchase an EMP bag for your solar generator is largely down to your own personal preferences. While some people are concerned about an EMP blast, either as a result of a solar flare, or an intentional attack, others feel it is unlikely.

Unfortunately, solar generators do contain sensitive circuitry that would be damaged by an EMP blast, so it is a valid concern, it just depends on whether or not you believe your solar generator will be exposed to one.

An EMP bag can offer you peace of mind at an affordable price, so if it is something that you are concerned about, it could be a worthwhile investment for you. We sell a variety of EMP Bags and Cases at affordable prices, so if you would feel more comfortable with one, you could easily find one that would be able to fit your solar generator.

240V is the same type of voltage that the larger appliances in your home run off of, like your dryer and stove. Currently, there are no solar generators that can support this voltage; however, there are several solar generator manufacturers that have plans to release models that will be able to.

If you need to be able to support 240V appliances, like an air conditioner, well pump, or oven, you do have off-grid options. Some people will run the majority of their electronics off of solar power, but keep a gas-powered generator for situations where they require something that can support 240V.

Others will satisfy most of their electrical needs with solar, but use propane to supply power to their stove, dryer, and other demanding electrical appliances.

If you are looking for a strictly solar-powered solution, we also offer Whole Home Solar Kits, which can support 240V. While these systems are more expensive than any solar generator, they allow you to convert your entire home over to solar power!

The solar generator you need will depend on your specific power requirements. We have a Load Calculator that is a really useful tool when determining your exact needs. Once you have a rough idea on how much power you will need each day, you can choose an appropriate solar generator, as well as the right number of solar panels that will help you generate that much power.

We sell a wide range of solar generator kits that can fulfill just about any need. Whether you just need a small setup for charging phones and plugging in lights during blackouts, or you are looking for a highly capable system that can support you off-grid, you will find exactly what you need by browsing our Solar Generator Kit Collection.

Budget is also another important consideration. Solar equipment is incredibly versatile and you can build just about any system you can imagine; however, you will have to take your own personal budget into consideration. Luckily, we offer some of the best prices you will find anywhere and all of our solar generator kits offer convenience and outstanding value!

If you are really unsure about what you need, our customer service representatives would also be happy to discuss your options and help you narrow down your search! Once you find a specific solar generator that meets your needs and preferences, there is also nothing wrong with buying more than one of the same generator. This gives you the flexibility to keep one generator in one room and a second unit in another.

Measuring the lifespan of a new generator depends on several factors. For starters, the life cycle rating of your particular solar generator is a really important piece of information.

Take, for example, the EcoFlow DELTA PRO, which has a rating of 6,500 life cycles. You would be able to fully charge and discharge that particular solar generator 6,500 times before the battery began to show significant signs of degradation. Even if you fully charged and discharged the battery every single day, you would be talking about a lifespan of well over 10 years!

So, life cycle rating + expected use are really critical pieces of information. It is also important to note that the working environment for your generator will impact its lifespan. If you are using your generator in extreme temperatures and leaving it outdoors on a regular basis, the battery and other internal components can degrade at a faster rate. On the other hand, if you store your solar generator indoors in a temperature-controlled environment, you can expect it to last for significantly longer.

If you are buying a solar generator from a reputable brand, like the units we sell, and you take good care of it, you can easily get 10+ years of regular use out of it!

Depending on the particular model you purchased, you should be able to charge your solar generator using the 12V DC power outlet inside your vehicle! Just about every solar generator we carry supports this type of charging, which is great news for campers, van lifers, and RV enthusiasts. Having the ability to top up your solar generator’s internal battery on your way to your destination is just another layer of flexibility.

Yes! Our solar generator kits are designed to be as user-friendly and convenient as possible. Not only do they feature at least one high-quality solar generator, they will come packaged with solar panels, solar cables, connectors, and even useful wiring and setup guides.

While we also offer customers the option to purchase a solar generator as a standalone unit, our solar generator kits offer outstanding value and always combine the best solar generators with efficient and durable monocrystalline solar panels.

Feel free to browse our Solar Generator Kit Collection to find the exact kit to meet your needs

This answer depends on the particular type of solar generator you have purchased. While some of the older models do not support expansion batteries, the latest models are designed with expandability in mind.

For example, the Bluetti AC200 MAX and the EcoFlow DELTA PRO both support expansion batteries. You simply purchase an expansion battery and connect it to your solar generator using a single cable. This lets you easily and affordably expand your total battery capacity to levels that were previously unheard of in a solar generator. In fact, when connected to DELTA Expansion Batteries, the DELTA PRO can increase its capacity to 25kWh! This means it can compete with whole home battery systems, like the Tesla Powerwall2.

Yes and no. While the latest solar generators are Wi-Fi-enabled and can connect to smart apps, some of the older models cannot. EcoFlow and Bluetti are both beginning to outfit their solar generator with smartphone integration, so you should be able to control and monitor your solar generator from your phone. However, if you purchased a lower quality solar generator, or an older model, you might have to stick to using the built-in display screen.

The best thing to do is simply read the product description for the solar generator you are interested in and look for the phrases “Wi-Fi-enabled” or “Supports Smart App Integration”.

The weight of your solar generator will depend on which model you chose. Unfortunately, lithium-ion batteries are relatively heavy. This dense battery will make up the bulk of your solar generator’s weight, so, the larger the battery, the heavier the solar generator will be.

With that being said, solar generators are designed for portability, especially when compared to a traditional solar power system. Even the largest and most powerful solar generators will not really exceed 100 lbs. While this may sound really heavy, solar generator manufacturers do what they can to make the units less burdensome.

For example, the EcoFlow DELTA PRO features built-in wheels and an extendable, suitcase-style carrying handle. Just about every model we sell will feature integrated carrying handles that are durable enough to support the solar generator’s weight.

If you are just looking for a less powerful unit, like the EcoFlow DELTA 1800, which is still a very capable solar generator, you can expect it to weigh closer to 30 lbs.

While they are designed to be fairly rugged and durable units, solar generators still contain some fairly sensitive electronic components. It would not be advised to leave your solar generator out in the rain, or let it get wet any other way. With that being said, some of the cases are fairly sealed, so you should not have to worry about your solar generator short-circuiting if the air is a little humid, or you accidentally spill a bit of water on its surface.

If your solar generator does get wet, we advise shutting it down immediately. Allow it to completely dry before you attempt to power it up again. While the solar panels are waterproof, solar generators should be kept indoors while it rains. If you are out on a camping trip with your solar generator and some storm clouds start to appear, it would be a good idea to move your solar generator inside your tent or RV; however, you can still continue to use it once it is out of the rain!