# Commercial Portable Solar Systems = Ripoff



## Ripon (Dec 22, 2012)

On another forum there was a discussion about a portable panel, inverter and battery array 
from Costco. Online "Target" retails the product at $999 and at Costco its suppose to be a few hundred
less. I was intrigued as solar power is critical at my BOL. 

Its called the cube e power 1500 and I think if you google that it comes up all over - some favorable reviews.

Then I was looking at it and will give it props for being able to charge via a wall socket, car or solar. That is 
all good, but the charge runs a laptop for 11 hours - that's it? Not good - not for a thousand dollars.

Then I see the portability is good, but 5 - 16 watt panels - thats it? I don't know how long that would take
to charge - I haven't seen that anywhere yet but it had me thinking.

You can buy a single 100 watt panel for $150 now. You can buy a small inverter for less than $100. That
would leave you $550/600 dollars to figure out how to make it portable, provide for numerous plug ins and
and create a battery array - I think that's pretty do able - don't you think?


----------



## HuntingHawk (Dec 16, 2012)

You would also need a controller & atleast one battery.

But, no matter what, you would end up with minimum twice the power at half the price.


----------



## PaulS (Mar 11, 2013)

If you ant to run a computer with the system a full sine-wave inverter is going to be a lot more than $100.
If you can run your computer off the battery then you might get away with using a cheaper modified sine-wave inverter - depending on what you use it for.


----------



## HuntingHawk (Dec 16, 2012)

I thought most cell phones & laptops were made they could be plugged right into 12VDC.


----------



## Leon (Jan 30, 2012)

I have a solar gen by solutions from science- an 1800 watt gimmick they sold on the Glenn Beck show awhile back. Just to be frank, I have videos of it running my mainframe and powering fans ect during a blackout while all of my neighbors suffered in 80 degree muggy heat at night. I have never even tried it during daylight hours but the solar panel that came with it will power my mainframe by itself. It is definitely no joke, the body says "Energizer" on it, you know they got serious if they brought in Energizer on the project. It will power a fridge or your toys, basically it's not a whole house power-plant but it will run the living room all day long. I love mine, best 1600$ I ever spent.


----------



## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

A 100 watt solar panel $150 Deep cycle battery 114 hrs @1a $99 MPPT Inverter $150 Lights and wiring $60
You would be amazed on how long you can run stuff on one deep cycle battery. If you want to keep the cost down 
use all 12 volt lights and accessories as for an inverter,,, Just use a 12 Volt car charger on your lap top. 
Make sure when you get your panels they are for 12 volt and not the grid tie in type.
In a pinch you could use the battery out of whatever you drive there. 
This setup $459 
Having lights when the grid goes down,,,,,,,,,,,,,


----------



## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

Leon said:


> I have a solar gen by solutions from science- an 1800 watt gimmick they sold on the Glenn Beck show awhile back. Just to be frank, I have videos of it running my mainframe and powering fans ect during a blackout while all of my neighbors suffered in 80 degree muggy heat at night. I have never even tried it during daylight hours but the solar panel that came with it will power my mainframe by itself. It is definitely no joke, the body says "Energizer" on it, you know they got serious if they brought in Energizer on the project. It will power a fridge or your toys, basically it's not a whole house power-plant but it will run the living room all day long. I love mine, best 1600$ I ever spent.


How many amp hours is the battery?


----------

