New solar panel

[iveofione]

Today I tried out my new Elecaenta 120w folding panel. It comes highly rated with most reviewers stating that if produces more wattage than most other panels of the same size. It was a perfect day for solar panels with 30 degree temps and cloudless skies. The unit folds to 14'' x 20.5'' and weighs but 10 pounds so it stores easily. I sat it out in the snow, aimed it for the sun with an alignment pin and turned on the Jackery to see the results. It was fairly impressive as it immediately registered 114w on the readout. It is nice to see the steady improvement of solar products at descending price points while features increase. At <$150 I'm calling it a bargain.

Another product that caught my eye was the new model Bestek 300w pure sine wave inverter. There is a ton of 300w inverters out there but very few are PSW and few will illuminate a 200w light bulb, much less a 300w. This will live in the Subaru and perform charging duties in the sub 300w arena. This includes things such a phones, flashlights, fans, laptops and pads as well as electric pumps for inflatables. It is very small and compact and will fit in many glove compartments or center consoles. The new model is USB-C compatible, good stuff for around 50 bucks.

 

[Smokey Bear]

We have a piece of property on the Little Klickitat River that’s off grid and have been looking at Jackery for a while. A few weeks ago I was able to find an amazing deal on Craigslist! An Explorer 1000, two solar saga 100W panels, a carrying bag, and two 16ft extension cables for $800 on Craigslist! The best part is that they didn’t register the product, and gave me the receipt. They paid over $1800 for everything. It doesn’t even look like it was used. I registered and got a two year extension. I’m glad I was patient and waited!

 

[clarkman]

Nice, I love my little Jackery 240 Explorer for my weekend warrior camping needs.

 

[iveofione]

More on the Elecaenta 120w panel. I continue to be impressed by the truth in advertising of this product. Today while running some test the Elecaenta produced 117w in the morning sunlight. My Renogy 100w panel running right beside it at the same angle showed 68w. I wanted to see if I could run both panels in parallel to up my wattage but with dissimilar voltages it wasn't possible as using both defaults both to the lower number. In this case adding the 100w panel to the 120w panel only resulted in 10 more watts, not worth the effort to set it up. I'll add another matching 120w panel and have almost 240w, more than enough to power my Jackery 1000.

 

[Fourbtgait]

More on the Elecaenta 120w panel. I continue to be impressed by the truth in advertising of this product. Today while running some test the Elecaenta produced 117w in the morning sunlight. My Renogy 100w panel running right beside it at the same angle showed 68w. I wanted to see if I could run both panels in parallel to up my wattage but with dissimilar voltages it wasn't possible as using both defaults both to the lower number. In this case adding the 100w panel to the 120w panel only resulted in 10 more watts, not worth the effort to set it up. I'll add another matching 120w panel and have almost 240w, more than enough to power my Jackery 1000.

Makes me think about trading in our Renology 100 watt suitcase. But it can stll give me 25-30 amps on average day

 

[iveofione]

Makes me think about trading in our Renology 100 watt suitcase. But it can stll give me 25-30 amps on average day

If it meets your needs there is little use to move up. In my case I have ordered an induction plate for cooking that has 3 wattage settings-700w, 900w and 1300w. I am adding a little more solar to cover the expected higher energy drain and will see how it does. My suspicion is that I will eventually need an 1800w power unit but before I put out the big bucks it makes sense to get more solar first and see what happens as I will need more solar anyway if I get a bigger unit.

 

[Smokey Bear]

If it meets your needs there is little use to move up. In my case I have ordered an induction plate for cooking that has 3 wattage settings-700w, 900w and 1300w. I am adding a little more solar to cover the expected higher energy drain and will see how it does. My suspicion is that I will eventually need an 1800w power unit but before I put out the big bucks it makes sense to get more solar first and see what happens as I will need more solar anyway if I get a bigger unit.

What all have you used your Jackery for? Will the induction plate be the biggest draw so far? I’m going to test mine here at home with a Whynter portable freezer, in hopes I can take it with me antelope hunting this August.

 

[iveofione]

I run a 52 qt compressor freezer on it for days at a time, have made ham hocks and beans in an Instapot, have an electric 2 qt saucepan that has 2 heat ranges and boils water quickly on high or steams veges on low, make coffee with it of course and use an electric blanket on those cool evenings. It is light enough to carry outside and plug the blanket into, something the ladies appreciate in the evening. The induction plate will be it's biggest test yet. Many uses including fans and low wattage electric heaters, some power tools, etc. Today the power was off and I used it to recline my electric recliner so I could take a nap.

 

[mark wlker]

For sale here locally. Wonder if I should buy it?

Solar Portable 1000 watt Power - electronics - by owner - sale - craigslist

NEW this was over $ 1000.00 Sold as used very low hours "1000 watt pure sine wave portable" power supply by Jackery 4 available all have less then 20 - 30 hours of use . Display models in perfect...

prescott.craigslist.org

 

[iveofione]

Mark, if I was in the neighborhood I would certainly snatch one of those up at that price!!! The 1000 is the older model like I have and is still highly regarded and damned useful. It uses the older battery technology and Jackery claims 1000 full charge cycles for it's life span. Newer models of power units claim charge cycles in the thousands and for many of the more-is-better crowd the appeal is too great to resist. Those numbers are for full charge cycles and mean that after around 1000 cycles the battery will degrade to about 80% capacity and then continue to fade slowly after that. That life can be extended by never charging the battery to 100% and never letting it drop below 20%, expect about 10 years of use. I run mine primarily between 30% and 90% but occasionally go above or below those numbers, the unit is built for it and in my experience works well even at 5% capacity.

With Jackery now building more advanced models they have lowered the price of a new 1000 to $649, still a popular and highly regarded model and certainly a steal at $500.