Anker power station?

With your knowledge, skill and experience you're throwing away lots of money with these weak power stations. Simply find a great price on a DC to AC inverter and a great price on a 12v or 24v set of cells and add some electrical components and you've created exactly what you need for 25% of the cost.

Also consider watching as many videos as possible from this guy to help you figure it out:

jehugarcia - YouTube

 

From their web page: Anker SOLIX C1000 Portable Power Station - 1056Wh | 1800W - Anker US

• $500
  • 1056 Wh ~= $2.10 / Wh
  • 29 lbs ~= 27.5 lbs/ kWh

Compared to a gas emergency generator, excellent for limited duration, home use. But you really need to measure your electrical load. For example, my gas furnace:

• 750 W ~= 1.4 hrs run time (it does cycle)

Keeping the interior of the house warm is important. It would help if you'd rank:

1. lights, communications (TV)
2. heat house or small room or blankets
3. food (refrigerator), micro wave, hot plate

IMHO, I would consider this an adequate uninterruptible power supply for dedicated lights and communications (TV.) More useful for 'ratty' grid power. But it is getting a little small for heater fan unless you have an exceptionally efficient fan (i.e., wood burn box with small fan(s).)

My solar project has a 13 kWh battery charged from the ~7 kW (rated) solar panels. I'm expecting about 5 kW each 6 hour day ... 25-30 kWh per day. I'm typically using about 10 kWh per day driving around Huntsville.

My Gen 1 Prius had a 1.1 kW, modified sine wave inverter driving by the 12 V system. We 'camped out at home' four days and six hours in 2011 when tornadoes tore out the TVA transmission lines:

• lights and communications (TV)
• either gas furnace or one bedroom A/C
• one laptop

But the Prius 12 V system was powered from the traction battery and the car would cycle the engine as needed to keep the traction battery charged. We burned ~2 gal/day

IF you have a hybrid car, consider getting a Harbor Freight inverter with 1.5-2.5 kW AC output (the surge rating is fractionally less than a second.) My Prius gave an honest 1 kW power output for as long as the car had gas. I used all the lawn mower gas and still had to take the other car, a Toyota Echo, about 50 miles away to fill up the gas cans. I was amused that I was burning as much gas to get the Prius gas than I had tanks to carry back home.

BTW, if you have a regular ICE car, it would be entirely impractical to drive an inverter. The engine idle speed is too low for more than about 200 W. It is also totally inefficient burning way too much gas per kWh. Normal humans would get ~200 W from a stationary bicycle driving an alternator.

It might be useful to list what you already have (existing capital) and are thinking about buying (expending capital.) Retired engineer here, I like puzzles.

Bob Wilson

 

Is that portable?
Friend has an Ecoflow that gets used at home, and on trips.

 

I would suggest first watching this YouTube video as it addresses key technical details of a DYI system:

There are several subtle technical aspects of "do it yourself" that could be frustrating.

Bob Wilson

 

At just under 30 lbs, lugable. I would probably want it on wheels.

Bob Wilson

 

most people who build these, would build them into a tool box dolly or crate system they can carry or dolly around.
Another advantage or disadvantage is will these systems operate while charging? (ie. solar panel or car alternator input) Most of the off the shelf system will support that and other inherent risk of a shelf built system.

You don't know, what you don't know........

 

What's the budget?
A battery power station of 1kWh is going to be in the $1000 range before adding solar, and that may run a fridge for a few hours. Hard wired home batteries start in the 3kWh range of capacity.

 

I don't have emergency electric anything. I have a propane heater, one like we used during the early 90s ice storm that downed ele service for 2 weeks locally.
I have been looking at both solar and battery backup for at least a few years.
Many DIY solar installs start off small initially, but most that I've seen grow exponentially, some even moving to bigger more power hungry locations.

I'm also interested in the battery backups on the market now, but as you see the initial cost to get even 1kW unit is still around a grand.
Which first ? solar and how much in kW ? or
battery backup and how much kW rated and how long is the pack inside it supposed to last ?

because not all packs are created equal. And we all know about how useful advertising of new products provides the end users.
Those ads are one reason this site is so useful for Prii.

If, like you say, your mom and aunt only need enough energy to run 1000 watt cooking device either microwave or induction, several times while power is out, than 1kW solar generator might be enough, but if you do decide on one, of the major brands that sell, out of the box solar generators, like Anker, Jackery, Eco Flow or Bluetti

I still have a lot of questions too .... This video started showing a brand I've never seen before and sound interesting to me and 20 minutes of technical explanations of both the backup and some solar too.

and the end there is a link on the right side to another video where he's running tests on one of these

12V 200Ah LiFePO4 Deep Cycle Lithium Battery - WattCycle – WattCycle-US

and informing they are rated for connecting 8 together in 4 series and 4 parallel which he says is 41 kWh at 48 volts (ie; 4x series). interesting for a large solar project.

 

Enphase now has a portable 1.5kWh battery, to add to the options.

 

It depends on how portable you need... Most systems of significance will have large solar panels and a large bank of cells, a DC to AC inverter and a circuit board/processor to manage it all. So if you're talking about portable for elaborate camping next to your vehicle that would work. But if you're talking portable as in hiking a few miles from your car then a way more expensive self-contained and easier to carry system would be better.

 

If we're talking about rural being snowed in; I'd stick with petro generators and propane tanks. Have you looked into those new inverter generators? A 2000 watt is around 25-30 pounds too. How are you going to recharge the Anker after it runs dry, when power is down for a few days?
Most good microwaves are 1000 watts, but you can get cheaper 600 watt units - its just going to take longer to warm things up. As far as cook tops; a propane camping stove can also double as a heater by just putting a clay planter pot over the burner. Induction cook tops suck a lot of electric; IMHO - gas is more efficient at heating things directly.

 

Solar things are widely reviewed/ranked on internet and many come from China. My only suggestion would be to choose and buy quickly because prices may increase.

 

Sorry; tariff or imports are already blocked and/or on. I had a small order refunded earlier this month. Vendor stated there was going to be major delays and possible price increases and offered to cancel and refund the items ordered.

 

In that case, view reviews and current prices of suitable devices and select among those. That is really crap advice, isn't it?

 

I found a bluetti at northern tool (without a solar panel but with a solar input ) lithium ion 1800 w sustained

and a few other at the bottom of the page to compare with at a higher price. It looks like an OK price $720 + 25 shipping to my location - northeast .. Personally, I might think harder about LiFePo4 battery as less volatile than Li-ion. There are also less powerful Bluetti s at walmart I'll also put links to in case you want to start out smaller starting at $200
Generators / Battery Generator / Item# 6304460
https://www.northerntool.com/

walmart at $700 - Bluetti AC180P Power Station, 1440Wh | 1800W Portable Solar Generator

and $200 BLUETTI PS54 700W Solar Generator, 537Wh LiFePO4 Power Station

It's pretty expensive backup power, IMO.

none of above come with solar panel(s) but all have solar charging inputs.

 

As long as you have gasoline, you've got power. 1.2 gal = 12 hours. How many hours on that 100W solar panel will it take to recharge to say 80%, assuming the sky isn't overcast?
https://www.northerntool.com/products/novus-2300w-inverter-generator-with-co-sensor-surge-watts-2300-rated-watts-1800-voltage-120-model-nv2300is-6135491

 

In any case, two sources with different methods of energy production (gas + solar panels, gas + battery backup energy) are better than one.

You can also buy a bicycle drive with a generator.

Your relatives will be able to spin it to cook breakfast.

They will combine business with pleasure.

Physical exercise allows you to extend your life, and charging from the generator's electricity will allow you to fry eggs on the stove.