Goal Zero Yeti 1400

[DrMekon]

My first post - please be gentle.

I've just bought a S/H Wildax Aurora for use with my two sons. As you can imagine there will be a need to charge phones, run laptops etc. It's my first M/H so I may well end up changing at some point (they will grow, needs will change) so I am hesitant to install a dream setup (Votronic VBCS, big lithium battery, inverter, lots of solar) when I may want to uninstall it not long after. An easy option would be a EZA powerpack, but they are $$$. I wondered if anyone had considered a Goal Zero 1400?

https://www.goalzero.com/shop/portable-power/goal-zero-yeti-1400-lithium-power-station-app/

It looks like it ticks a lot of boxes

Specs here - https://www.solarpowersupply.co.uk/goal-zero-yeti-1400-lithium-portable-power-station

That would get the 100w panel included. I'd need the MPPT module and the extension cable, but that looks like for less than £2200 I would have something useful that could be swapped out at will.

Am I missing something? Is there some glaring problem I'm overlooking?

 

[cranky]

sounds a lot to splash out on to start. decent solar and a couple of good batteries will keep phones and laptops going and of course if you are going to be on sites you will have hook up.

 

[Driventemple]

As Cranky says, on sites you will have hook up. If you are not on a site the panels are likely to get 'nicked'!

 

[Allanm]

Nice generator should come in handy if you can keep away from campsites and their power.
Lots available, one of the quietest is a Honda EU10

 

[The Wino]

I'm no electrical whizz but isn't that the same capacity as a 120AH 12v battery?. I know you can discharge to a lower level and its got the usb chargers built in etc but it must be at least £1500 more than a decent battery and solar set up. Probably quite low secondhand value and if you decide m/h are not for you a bit of a white elephant? Why lithium?

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[DrMekon]

Well...

1500w inverter
360w solar controller
132 ah Lithium battery
Battery management system
Battery display
Wifi connected

The lithium argument is well rehearsed, but in this case it adds portability - at a push I can lug it around. I can charge from the 12v whilst driving, ehu, and from solar. It's got a bunch of ports, and there are no installation costs. The solar would live under my fixed bed when unused, or I could roof mount it.

If lithium is what I want, I'm thinking it's reasonably priced when you factor in that the free panel is a 100w sunpower panel. Maybe I'm missing something.

 

[Nirvanauk]

As said earlier you need a decent solar panel and batteries should tick all the boxes.

 

[Guigsy]

I've got a 100Ah battery that gets recharged by solar. I assumed that with all my gadgets that get plugged in in the evenings, I'd burn through the battery and flatten it each day. I recently got a battery monitor (Victron BMV 712). In the past two weeks including charging a laptops, phones, headphones and several other gizmos, I've never taken the battery lower than 85% full. The laptops are ultra portables and all the gadgets are USB... basically they need very little energy to be recharged. I've overspec'd on the solar panel, 250w with MPPT... which just means the hab battery is recharged by the time we've finished breakfast.

Compressor fridges, large TVs, e-bike batteries and anything that heats needs a lot of energy. Most other modern gizmos require little juice.

 

[DrMekon]

So do you run the laptops off an inverter? It does sound like I am overestimating my needs and that a panel, a controller, an inverter, a display and a decent leisure battery might be enough.

 

[Guigsy]

So do you run the laptops off an inverter? It does sound like I am overestimating my needs and that a panel, a controller, an inverter, a display and a decent leisure battery might be enough.

I run the laptops from a small and cheap 200w inverter. I could get a DC-DC transformer which would improve efficiency a little bit, but I decided it wasn't worth it. You can spend a small fortune on true sinewave inverters, but laptops have switchmode power suppliers and generally aren't that picky. As long as the invertor can cope with the peak requirement of the laptop, you should be fine.

Note that lots of laptops have 65w PSUs. They pull that power for a couple of seconds when they are first switched on, but most of the time they use far less.

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