With the increase in power outages and rising electricity costs, solar generators are becoming more popular by the minute.
For example, in 2020, 1.33 billion hours of power outages affected the United States, which was 73% higher than in 2019.
This trend is set to continue on for 2021 and 2022.
In this article, we talk about home solar generators and how you can go about sizing them correctly.
What Size Solar Generator Do I Need For My Home?
Sizing a solar generator for your home as opposed to a short camping trip is vastly different and more complex.
The main reason for this is simple, your home has much more appliances that need to be powered when compared to the appliances you take with you on a camping trip.
For example, on a camping trip you may only need to charge your phone, laptop and camera, whereas in your home you need 3x as much appliances powered.
The first step in establishing what size solar generator you need, is in figuring out what appliances you aim to run with your home solar generator.
To do this, you need to make a list of your household appliances, their power ratings and the amount of time you aim to power them for.
See an example below:
| Appliances | Wattage | Usage Time | Watt Hours |
| Smart TV | 100 | 4 | 400 |
| Fridge | 300 | 5 | 1500 |
| AC | 1200 | 4 | 4800 |
| Kettle | 1200 | 1 | 1200 |
| Microwave | 800 | 1 | 800 |
| Total | 3600W | N/A | 8700 Wh |
To figure out the watt hours, all you have to do is multiply your appliances wattage, by the usage time.
Once you have made a list like the above you can easily see what size (in terms of capacity) solar generator will meet your needs.
From the get go, we know if we want to run all these appliances for the said amount of time, we will need a generator that has a capacity of at least 8700 Wh.
Anything less, and we wont be able to power the set appliances for the amount of time we desire.
The next important thing to pay attention to is the wattage. Solar generators come in both watt hours and wattage, watt hours is your battery capacity and watts is what your solar generators inverter is able to handle.
If you are wanting to power all said appliances at the exact same time, you are going to need a solar generator with an inverter that is rated much above 3600 watts, anything equal to or less will likely result in your solar generator switching off automatically to protect the circuitry.
In reality though, it is unlikely you will run each one of those appliances at the exact same time, so make sure to take this into account.
With that being said, household appliances do tend to be used in unison when compared to appliances used on a camping trip.
Run Times Of Various Appliances
500Wh/300W Solar Generator
(Please note this assumes you run each appliance independently of each other)
| Appliance | Run Time |
| Laptop (60 Watts) | 7 Hours |
| Drone (50 Watts) | 8.5 Hours |
| Phone (20 Watts) | 21 Hours |
| LED Lamp (30 Watts) | 14 Hours |
| Cordless Drill (1200 Watts) | N/A |
1500Wh/1000W Solar Generator
(Please note this assumes you run each appliance independently of each other)
| Appliance | Run Time |
| Laptop (60 Watts) | 21 Hours |
| Drone (50 Watts) | 25,5 Hours |
| Phone (20 Watts) | 63 Hours |
|
LED Lamp (30 Watts)
|
42 Hours |
| Cordless Drill (1200 Watts) | N/A |
2000Wh/2000W Solar Generator
(Please note this assumes you run each appliance independently of each other)
| Appliance | Run Time |
| Laptop (60 Watts) | 28 hours |
| Drone (50 Watts) | 34 Hours |
| Phone (20 Watts) | 85 Hours |
|
LED Lamp (30 Watts)
|
56 Hours |
| Cordless Drill (1200 Watts) | 1.4 Hours |
We recommend taking a look at the following solar generators if you are looking for the largest capacity when it comes to powering your entire home:
How Many Solar Panels Do I Need?
This really all depends on how fast you want to recharge your solar generator. The more panels you get involved means the more sun your are able to transform into electricity, which ultimately leads to quicker charging times.
Do keep in mind though that the model of solar generator you go for will actually dictate the maximum amount of panels you are able to connect.
In summary, the quicker you want to charge your solar generator, the more solar panels you should connect!
Final Thoughts
It is important to remember that solar generators are sized based on the amount of appliances you aim to run, and for how long.
Because of this, there is no one size fits all approach and each situation is unique to you.
generally, the more capacity you require, the more expensive the product will likely be. In order to reduce your overall costs, we recommend focusing on reducing your energy consumption as much as possible, focusing only on really important appliances.
This will not only reduce your initial investment in a solar generator, but will also allow for less CO2 production - a win win.
