Solar generator

Vimtola

Can I have  thoughts on buying a 500 w or 1000w solar generator to save a bit money? Ie just to run a small heater in one room. Other uses too

Idea is use  via battery atm till we get sun next year.

Other option is a petrol one .

Thanks.

Krakkkers

What is a solar generator? Do you mean panels?

ABrass

Short answer: No, it won't work and will cost a fortune.

Longer answer: During the winter you won't get much sunshine and so it won't provide anything like the power you might expect. Perhaps a fifth to a tenth of what you might expect. Which means your radiator will only get very gently warmed.

You could use a battery to store up power and use it when needed but those are pretty expensive and need more than 500/1000W of solar panels to make sense.

Solar power can cut your bills a bit, if you install a much larger solar system, but it won't make that much difference over Winter. Yesterday my 8kW of panels generated enough to power an electric fire for 2 and a bit hours. 1kW would have managed about 20 minutes.

paul991

you could  use a power pack to feed your usb  sockets  but heat would be useless

Exiled_Tyke

ABrass said:

Short answer: No, it won't work and will cost a fortune.

Longer answer: During the winter you won't get much sunshine and so it won't provide anything like the power you might expect. Perhaps a fifth to a tenth of what you might expect. Which means your radiator will only get very gently warmed.

You could use a battery to store up power and use it when needed but those are pretty expensive and need more than 500/1000W of solar panels to make sense.

Solar power can cut your bills a bit, if you install a much larger solar system, but it won't make that much difference over Winter. Yesterday my 8kW of panels generated enough to power an electric fire for 2 and a bit hours. 1kW would have managed about 20 minutes.

Yep.  Agree with this all the way.  My 3.6kW system does very well to produce 1kWh in a day  (i.e. enough for an old one-bar fire for one hour) in the depths of Dec and Jan.

JKenH

Vimtola said:

Can I have  thoughts on buying a 500 w or 1000w solar generator to save a bit money? Ie just to run a small heater in one room. Other uses too

Idea is use  via battery atm till we get sun next year.

Other option is a petrol one .

Thanks.

Judging by the intended use I am assuming by solar generator you are considering a device which converts solar generation into a useable 230v supply. I bought something similar and posted about it on this thread:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6360585/portable-power-stations

I bought mine as a back up in the event of power cuts and was never expecting to get a return of my investment. As you will see from the thread I have a stand alone solar panel to charge it but I can also plug it in to the mains to capture excess solar from my on roof solar array. I do find I use the battery to power my plasma TV, ASHPs, a 750w radiator and air fryer but obviously not all at the same time. After all, having made the investment I might as well use it. 

Mine cost around £1200 and has a 2.4 kWh capacity and 1kW output. I believe the battery is guaranteed to 70% after 2500 cycles.  At 2500 cycles each cycle will have cost me around 50p so to get my money back I would have to be saving around 30p/kWh of grid usage after allowance for losses. If you can charge it on a night time tariff of around 10p and daytime rates of 40p/kWh you might just about break even eventually. As yet other than a trial charge using a timer I haven’t charged mine overnight but when my current cheap tariff expires in March this year I might. If the promises of our being paid not to use power at certain times of day materialise then it might be very useful to have some independent source of power.

I have found mine quite useful for running my motorhome electrics when off grid and for keeping an urn topped up all day for hot drinks at motor racing circuits when we don’t have mains power. The latter application has probably saved £20 a day in hot drinks for 3 of us.

If you are thinking of buying one just to save money there are better investments (eg Ripple Wind farm) but if, like me, you treat it as a potential emergency power supply/gadget to enjoy then you will probably find the purchase just as worthwhile as any other non essential purchase you might make. Always remember however that any purchase you make can breakdown and make you wish you’d kept your hands in your pocket.