Some of the guys I camp with at Oshkosh had one of the Jackery units and solar panels this year. Looking at their site, I think it was the "
Solar Generator 240" package. I was fairly impressed with it. It was able to charge several mobile devices and its own battery easily, and one day I used it while working from camp and it charged my big, power-hungry work laptop from empty to full while I was streaming a lot of video and doing other stuff that had the laptop's fans screaming. It didn't have any trouble delivering the power demand even when I didn't have it plugged into the solar panel.
I also liked the display, it clearly showed how much power was coming from the panel as well as how much was being used by loads plugged into it and the charge state of the battery.
Buy a 1000w inverter type generator. Honda and Yamaha lead the pack. Small. Light. Quiet. Sips gas. And they work in the dark.
Except at OSH where you need to turn them off at 10:30.
I will never buy anything that bills themselves as a "solar generator".
Anker is a new arrival to the market and they generally make excellent gear. So maybe look at their solutions.
While I'm not a fan of the terminology, that's where the industry has gone. And it's a nice thing to have, IMO, so the only person you hurt by being pedantic is yourself. (And there's a picture of me next to pedant in the dictionary...)
I do really like Anker in general and have been very happy with the products I've purchased from them, I'll take a look at their stuff for sure.
This combo worked perfectly at OSH. I used the generator to charge phones at night and during the day while I was working remotely the solar panel was able to charge the Jackery battery while I was charging & using my big engineering laptop. Very impressed with the set-up and I will happily be using it on future camping trips! It's pretty light too.
I had a similar experience borrowing power from my campmates. I was impressed enough that it made me want my own even though I wouldn't likely use it before OSH next year.
yeah, the LiFePO4 battery chemistry (also called LFP) is great. The capacity of Lithium (mostly) without the fire risk, more tolerant to different charging methods, etc.
I'm kinda glad that's what I have in my car. The slight downside is that the energy density is lower so the pack is bigger and heavier than the other chemistries if the power is the same, or, as is the case for my car, the pack is roughly the same size/weight for about 20% less range. However, I can charge it almost however I want, including going to 100% every night, and it's expected to still have 80% of its original capacity after 750,000 miles, at which point I will be a lot deader than my car's battery.
