I was hoping someone would state what is a solar generator. Never heard of one.
I assume it is simply a set of batteries and solar panels?
If that all it is, it will have to have pretty big battery storage to supply a house load for any length of time. Even the wall storage batteries that Tesla and others are now selling, is going to have limited "run" time for the house.
Having said that, Lithium batteries, and there are many different Lithium chemistries being used for batteries, are completely different from lead acid batteries. Lithium batteries, especially LiFePo chemistry, are game changers. Lead acid batteries have very serious limitations and really are a consumable product if the battery is being used. LiFePo batteries should last decades of use but that is just a guess since they have not been in use for decades. LiFePo batteries are roughly half the size and weight of lead acid batteries for the same amount of storage. But they actually have more usable storage compared to lead acid.
Lead acid batteries should not use more than 50% of their capacity. Using more than that seriously degrades the lifetime of the battery. Furthermore, it takes quite a bit of time to fill up a lead acid battery. From 50% to roughly 80%, the battery can be filled pretty quickly. After roughly 80%, the battery takes less power so it takes more time to fill to 100%. Failing to fill the battery before drawing down the power is called Partial State of Charge(PSOC). Using a lead acid battery that has not been fully filled, ie, the battery is in a PSOC state, will degrade the capacity of the battery and its life. However, solar power is just what a lead acid battery needs to fill up. A long, slow charge from the sun. However, that means that the battery gets to roughly 80% early in the day so that the rest of the day can be used to fill up the battery.
In the boating world, since it is so hard to fill up a lead acid battery, a safe design point is to assume one would only use 30% of the capacity of a lead acid battery. LiFePo batteries can use 50-80% of it's capacity without serious degradation of the battery's life. Most/Many lead acid batteries have a cycle lifetime of 300-500. A boater using these batteries to supply the boat for it's "house hold" needs is likely to have to replace the batteries in 3-5 years of full time use. One of the LiFePo batteries I know of says that with 80% of the battery being used each cycle, the battery will last 3,500ish cycles. If the battery bank was sized to be cycled every three days, those batteries might last 30ish years. :shocked:
LiFePo batteries are very difficult to catch on fire. There is at least one video of a battery maker shooting and them tossing the battery into a fire to try to get the battery to burn. The battery does not burn. That is with LiFePo chemistry. Other Lithium batteries will burn and burn bad. It is the problem Boeing had with their plane. When I was looking at the Tesla wall battery, they only said it was a Lithium battery. No way in hades would I put a non LiFePo battery on my house. If a Lithium battery catches fire it will burn my house to the ground. It is very unlikely that the local fire department could save the house since they would have a very difficult time putting out the battery fire. In Europe, some of the fire departments have dumpsters that will hold a car. They plan on filling the dumpster with water and then somehow putting a car with burning Lithium batteries into the dumpster. :shocked:
Batteries are seemingly simple but very complex.
:laughing:
Later,
Dan
