Do you worry about getting stuck in the dark the next time the power goes down? What is your plan for when the electricity goes out? These days, Australia faces a massive risk of blackouts as the energy crisis worsens.
And when the electricity goes out, it brings our entire life to a stop. Food is immediately at risk of rotting, you cannot run essential appliances such as heating or cooling systems, charge mobiles and laptops, and medical appliances become useless.
Fortunately, you can secure yourself from this danger by investing in a portable solar generator. These solar generators are fume free, silent, and completely safe to use indoors. In this article, we take a closer look at portable solar generators, their top emergency uses, and why you should use portable solar generators in emergencies.
What Is a Portable Solar Generator?
A solar generator, also sometimes called a portable power station, is essentially a battery in a box. The reason why it's called a generator or a power station is that it works exactly like a fuel generator. However, instead of using fuel, you just have to plug in a few solar panels into it, and it's going to charge your solar generator.
Moreover, you can plug your electronics, appliances, and other devices right into the front as they come with USB ports and standard outlets.
How Do You Use a Solar Generator?
The reason why solar generators are so popular for their emergency preparedness is that they are easy to use and have "plug-and-play" capabilities. All you have to do is place your solar generator close to your living quarters so that you can plug your devices along with your solar panels and place them in the sun.
Solar generators typically come with 30 to 50 feet long solar panel cables. This way, you can place the solar panels in the sun while keeping the solar generator close to where you need it or inside your house.
Top Emergency Uses for Your Portable Solar Generator
A portable solar generator can work as a power supply alternative in emergency situations, including natural disasters, power outages, etc. In this section, we'll look at the top uses of a portable solar generator for emergency situations.
1. Fridge to Keep Your Food Safe
When you experience a long power outage, the perishable food items in your fridge can start to go bad. If the power outage in your home is due to a natural disaster such as a flood, it might be difficult for you to step outside to get more food for yourself. Thus, keeping your food fresh is extremely important in emergency situations.
The good news is that you can use a portable solar generator to power your fridge. Just make sure to consider how much wattage your refrigerator consumes and choose a solar generator that's large enough to power it.
2. Cook Food
An electric cooker is an important tool that everyone needs, even during an emergency. Fortunately, it's one of those appliances you can run with a solar generator. Cookers range from a small coffee machine to a large oven in the house. Using it, you can prepare meals in your house in times when restaurants are not delivering food. As long as your cookers are of regular size, a moderately-sized solar power generator of approximately 500 watts should be able to run it without any issue.
3. Charge Mobile Phones
Mobile phones have become valuable to our lives – offering the latest weather updates, internet access, and access to our favourite social media platforms. While mobile phones can be a major convenience, they can even be a lifeline during an emergency. These devices can help you contact your loved ones to check up on them or call a hospital in case of a medical emergency.
A portable solar generator for a natural disaster can help you charge your mobile phones to stay connected with the world.
4. Keep Your Laptop Charged
Whether you are working at a job or managing a business, you need a steady power supply to keep your laptop running. A power outage or a natural disaster can shut down your laptop, making you lose hours of valuable work, potentially damaging your system, and ultimately costing you money in the long term.
Having a portable solar generator can help to protect your laptop from damage saving you from heartbreak and lowering your long-term expenses.
5. Fan to Keep You Cool
Another top emergency use of a portable solar generator is that it can power your home's fans during a power outage when your air conditioning isn't working. Many researchers have found that fans can lower a person's core body temperature, reduce the heat-related strain on the heart and improve thermal comfort.
6. Switch On Lights
There are plenty of important electric appliances you might need in your house during a power outage. One of the most important is a light source, whether it's a bulb directly connected to a source of power or a rechargeable flashlight.
Oftentimes, solar generators have lights, so you can use them to move around in your house. Moreover, many of them come with lanyards or handles that you can carry around whenever you need them.
While you can use the lights on the generator, bright lamps are the most appropriate as they're extremely bright and mobile at the same time. All in all, a portable solar generator for power outages will be useful as you will need to power or recharge your light source.
Why Should You Use Portable Solar Generator in Emergencies?
In a natural disaster situation, it's almost impossible to find a source of fuel. Thus, the ability to run your solar generator without using gas isn't just a huge advantage but could mean the difference between having electricity and now.
For instance, the catastrophic floods of 2022 cut off power for thousands of people all over Queensland and New South Wales, restricting their access to basic amenities and hindering rescue efforts. This included 54,000 houses in Brisbane alone. In situations like these, your portable solar generator is going to shine.
In the aftermath of the floods, it was not possible for individuals to get gas for their generators. Unless you keep a large amount of fuel (which is both expensive and dangerous), chances are you are going to need to work out a way to run your generator. If you have a portable solar generator kit (along with solar panels and the required wiring), you can harness the power all throughout the day when the sun is out.
You can run your essential devices and appliances and light your home until the grid electricity is restored. This means your food will stay fresh, your lights will stay on, your laptop and phone will be charged, etc.
1. Clean Energy Source
The fact that a solar generator doesn't produce toxic gases and fumes is usually neglected when it comes to disaster situations. We all know that solar power is renewable and clean; however, in situations where you have to leave your house or seek shelter in the basement for extended periods, you cannot take your fuel-powered generator with you.
A portable solar generator lets you pack up your device and go wherever you need to. If you wish to keep your generator beside your bed to run the radio, charge your device, or even just power lights, you can easily do that! A portable solar generator is entirely safe to use indoors.
2. Portable
Another benefit of solar generators is that you can take them with you wherever you go. From your basement to your car, you are free to carry them with you and run them throughout the day. In real-life situations, particularly after disasters striker, they're significantly more versatile than gas generators.
The sole thing you can depend upon after an actual disaster is the sunlight. This means that wherever you go, you will have power. There's no guarantee that you'll be able to get fuel, or the grid power is going to be restored in a reasonable amount of time.
3. Free Recharge
Another massive advantage of a solar generator that goes beyond a disaster situation is that it recharges for free. While it might seem costly at first, particularly compared to the price of diesel or gas generators, it's only the upfront cost that's high; you don't have to pay for fuel or maintenance over the lifetime of your device as sunlight is free.
Besides this, if disaster strikes again or the city goes into lockdown, the availability of fuel might not be an option. Thus, while others strive to get fuel, you will be able to rest easy knowing you can live using a solar generator.
Like other solar energy products, the initial investment is high, but it will help you benefit from long-term savings. Something like the BLUETTI AC200MAX + Solar Panels3 can last almost ten years or over 3,500 cycles which means you will have this system for a long time and won't have to buy gas to power it.
4. Silent
Building on bringing a free and clean source of energy, they are also significantly quieter compared to their gas or fuel-powered generator counterparts. The cooling fan is going to kick start once you start drawing significant amounts of energy. However, compared to dirty, messy, and loud gas generators, it's a great change. This also means that you can use your solar generator indoors while you hunker down or sleep in a disaster situation.
Last Few Words
If you'd like to truly be ready for the unexpected, consider investing in a portable solar generator for power outages. These systems use battery banks to store the energy generated by photovoltaic panels. Getting a portable solar generator means you will always have sufficient energy to meet your family's energy requirements.
In an emergency, a solid solar generator will continue to offer cooling and heating, as well as lights and hot water. And since solar energy is more affordable than ever today, you cannot afford not to be ready for whatever comes your way.
