Small Solar Powered Comfort

     I went camping in New York to do some kayak fishing this past week. I have access to a property where I can camp for free and it is near to a great river for fishing. But, it was forecast to hit 93 degrees during the days and go down to the mid-70s at night. That is warm when you are in a tent. A great time to test out my Ecoflow Delta 1300 Solar Generator and the 200 watt portable solar panel array.

    I took along a small fan and a small light to make the evenings a bit more pleasant. I like to read at night after a long day; it relaxes my mind and helps me sleep better. So, a small reading light would be better than trying to hold a flashlight while reading and turning pages. 

    The fan was awesome. It moved just enough air to make it comfortable (on its LOW setting) and the white noise masks my tinnitus quite nicely. 

    The portable solar generator I brought along for this trip is small, its battery capacity is only 1,300 watt/hours. That is more than a car battery and you can run it down to zero charge without damaging it. Lead acid car batteries should not be discharged below 50% . 

    I had both the light and fan on for about two hours and it only dropped the charge to 89%. I didn't really need to recharge it for the second night but I wanted to test out the solar panels. 

     I bought a refurbished 200 watt folding array a couple months ago from Ecoflow. There are four actual panels and each has a primary side and a secondary side. The secondary side will generate a little bit of extra charge from reflected light while the primary side is oriented to the sun. In perfect conditions it will generate 200 watts of power. I had far less than perfect conditions and was generating 135-155 watts of power, depending on the clouds. I was able to fully recharge the batteries in one hour and 45 minutes. It would take several hours to recharge the system if the battery was drained though.

    I just used some broken off branches to prop up the panel, trying to get it facing the sun as directly as possible. But you can tell by the extended shadow that it was not propped up high enough. I will make adjustable legs from dowel rods or old tent pole sections to do this better.

    These generators are very temperature sensitive so I used the panels to shade it. The generator also has an internal cooling fan to protect the circuitry.

    I also brought along an inexpensive solar charged, motion-activated light. I think I paid less than $20 for this. I charged it during the first day and then used it as a security light at night. Any person or large critter that would walk in front of it would activate the light. It is a nice bit of security. You can also just switch it on and use it as an area light.

    

    I fished in the early morning and late evenings when it was cooler and then hung out on a shaded porch during the hot hours, reading. These Amish men were not so fortunate; they were bringing in hay during the heat of the day, out in the full sun. God bless them.