The idea has already conquered the followers of the vanlife. With more frequent and severe weather crises, she is doing the same at home. Energy self-sufficiency, for a few days, makes disconnecting from the grid less painful, whether voluntary… or not.
In certain neighborhoods of Greater Montreal, affected more frequently than others by prolonged power outages, you could hear the purring of gas-powered generators on the morning of July 14. The day before, a thunderstorm of rare power had just cut down a few trees which destroyed the local electricity network. Accustomed, even resolute, more and more of these suburbanites have in their shed a generator whose noise, it should be specified, is not subtle.
Ironically, recreational vehicle (RV) owners are already very familiar with these generators. Many RVs have one. Away from an electrical outlet—in no-man’s land or, no kidding, in a Walmart parking lot—they can enjoy uninterrupted power by simply burning gasoline.
Burning fossil fuels, however, is a habit to be avoided. And the noise of generators is prohibited in most campsites, wild, urban or otherwise.
This is where solar generators come in, whose popularity has only grown over the past three years in North America. So much so that several new brands have appeared lately that are attracting VR enthusiasts: Bluetti, Jackery, Ecoflow…
Obviously, people tired of throwing the contents of their fridge every time lightning strikes their neighborhood are also in their sights.
Lots of juice
This concept of energy autonomy is embodied these days by a new generation of lithium batteries and solar collectors. For example, the Bluetti brand, founded in Las Vegas in 2019, had its first successes during the pandemic on the Kickstarter online platform. Bluetti belongs to the Chinese company PowerOak.
His concept: generators just portable enough to be carried around in the trunk of a vehicle to a campsite and powerful enough to power the equivalent of a small house. Undoubtedly, they can transform a campsite that is a little too rustic for some tastes into its more glamourTHE glamping.
The intermediate model of Bluetti generators is called AC300. It generates a continuous power of 3000 watts, with a peak at 6000 watts. Bluetti sells it in conjunction with a 3072 watt-hour battery that charges anywhere: in the car, from a wall outlet, using solar panels, and more.
The generator — which essentially acts as an AC/DC power converter — includes seven AC power outlets, four USB ports, two Qi contactless charging pads and two 5V outlets. All of them can be used at the same time to power a small fridge, a personal computer, light bulbs and even an air conditioner, why not.
Naturally, the power supply will last as long as the battery does not run out. At 3072 watt-hours, we have enough for an hour if we need a constant power of… 3072 watts. Bluetti has, however, designed its generator to be modular: those who want more can connect up to four batteries in series, for a maximum of 12.2 kilowatt hours. This is enough to guarantee more than 600 recharges of the largest iPhone currently on the market.
But we have the sun
In Quebec, where electricity is a renewable energy sold at a very sluggish price, all you have to do is plug your generator into a wall outlet while it fills up. Elsewhere in the world, we try to do it at the time of day when energy is the least expensive.
Or else we turn to the sun. Bluetti sells a set with a generator, a battery and two solar panels of 350 watts each. The whole troubleshoots as well, if not better, than a gasoline generator during a prolonged power outage. And completely silently.
Since nothing is perfect, these panels do not capture 100% of their maximum capacity at all times. During our tests, despite a few clouds, the two sensors produced an average of 500 watts of electricity. It made it possible to ensure the working day of two people on their respective PC, and even to feed a coffee machine – for another form of energy recharge. When the current returned, at the end of the afternoon, there was still 78% of energy in reserve.
No drop of gasoline was consumed during this test. Longer term, Bluetti promises 3,500 full recharge cycles before its batteries start to really wear out, or nine and a half years of daily use.
It helps cushion the price of those big gadgets. The Bluetti set normally retails for $4,500, but like many of its competitors, it’s on clearance pretty much all the time. Maybe it will help convince the neighbors to get rid of their old Honda generator…