<![CDATA[What's the deal with portable solar panels?]]>What's the deal with portable solar panels?

Context: I'm looking to move further into the Mexican countryside (I'd be renting a house) where I'm told power outages are more frequent. I'm debating between no-break/UPS battery vs a proper setup vs a setup.

An off-grid setup seems formidably expensive, especially for a rented house, but does it make sense to get a portable battery + panel from, say, (I see they have options in Mexico)? Their portable panels are priced significantly higher than fixed solar panels though.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/topic/4a59a897-2061-4541-b76a-c605dbdc7840/what-s-the-deal-with-portable-solar-panelsRSS for NodeFri, 01 May 2026 11:34:49 GMTThu, 23 Apr 2026 18:37:58 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to What's the deal with portable solar panels? on Thu, 23 Apr 2026 20:25:04 GMT]]>@vinay Probably because they are flexible.

Just be glad it's not 2003 any more - I bought a 30W flexible foldable panel for £800 back then 😭

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Uni-Solar UNI-PAC 30 30 Watt 12V Foldable Portable Solar Panel for Backpacking

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]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mammut.gogreenit.net/users/chewie/statuses/116455892854656786https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mammut.gogreenit.net/users/chewie/statuses/116455892854656786Thu, 23 Apr 2026 20:25:04 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to What's the deal with portable solar panels? on Thu, 23 Apr 2026 19:16:18 GMT]]>@vinay For camping holidays, I bought a powerbank with AC some years ago. (see https://goalzero.eu/en/product/goal-zero-sherpa-100ac/) For off-grid living, this is tiny, but for a camping it will charge a mobile and a razor.

Off course if you have such a thing, it must be used, if only to keep the battery in shape. So it still powers my razor and mobile, and even the vacuum cleaner. The main problems (apart from the availability of sunshine) is finding out how much power machines use before you buy them so you know your system can power them.

It does not hurt to just start with a system that is not too expensive and see what you can do with it. You can always add capacity later, both in batteries and in solar panels. If there is a device you really want to use when the main power goes down, you might take its power consumption into account.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://hsnl.social/users/molenaar/statuses/116455622446069669https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://hsnl.social/users/molenaar/statuses/116455622446069669Thu, 23 Apr 2026 19:16:18 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to What's the deal with portable solar panels? on Thu, 23 Apr 2026 18:52:11 GMT]]>@vinay I got my grandmother here in the rural us states a 400w solar setup and large solar batter station.they've been having power cuts for partial days and outages for over 3 in the last year.

Scope out your average power usage, or look up the rating of the appliances to want to plugin when there's no power and you can figure out how much they use and how long you'll go until the grid comes back.

High up front to the tune of 5k, but priceless when there's no power for days

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://pagan.plus/users/Crazypedia/statuses/116455527657858749https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://pagan.plus/users/Crazypedia/statuses/116455527657858749Thu, 23 Apr 2026 18:52:11 GMT