Solar Powered Generators?

[scott h]

Here in the Metro we very rarely have brown outs. When we do they are usually less than an hour. But just in case 12 years ago we bought a gas generator. Yesterday there was a fire one street over and power went out for about 12 hours. Hauled out the ole gen but despite periodic maintenance the old guy rolled over dead.

So, the wife mentioned maybe getting a solar power generator for emergencies. Are there such things? Anyone have any experience with them if they do?

[Dave Hounddriver]

A solar powered generator is simply a battery charged by a solar panel.  When I was in the Philippines I skipped the "solar" step and had a battery pack charged by the main power.  When there was a brown-out the inverter switched over to the battery pack seamlessly for up to 12 hours of continued power.  This did use some electricity as there was a trickle charge effect to keep the batteries topped up, but I stopped that by unplugging the battery pack for a week at a time when there were not brown outs and plugging it back to top it up once a week or so.

[scott h]

40 minutes ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

When there was a brown-out the inverter switched over to the battery pack seamlessly for up to 12 hours of continued power.

What type of outfit do you get this from Dave? I would not begin to know where to look. Original luddite here