At last weekend's Santos Fat Tire Festival (blogged about on Sunday), one of the guys brought along a Jackery 300 power bank. Pretty neat stuff. It can put out up to 300 watts of AC power, has a couple of USB outlets, and a cigar-lighter plug in for 10 amp 12v DC. Full bank of easy-to-read meters, including (tah-dah!) a % charge remaining "gas gauge." The battery is a 20 amp-hour (at 12v) lithium wonder. This is plenty, almost overkill, for a handful of people to recharge their phones, bike lights, laptops, etc. over a long weekend. It also has an internal charge controller, which can take output from a solar panel.
So, naturally, knowing that I've dabbled in solar on numerous occasions, questions arose. Being me, I had to dig into this once back home at this computer, and here are the results. It all came down to three good options, two of them pre-packaged and one more hands-on DIY. They're all about the same size and scale as the above-mentioned Jackerey 300, but there are many other sizes and options at the linked sites. Here we go.
Option #1: Jackery 300 + their 100 watt panel, about $600.
Pro: Plug-and-play. All the outputs most people need. The engineering is done for you, go enjoy.
Con: $300 for a 100 watt panel?!? That's 3x the usual price. Can't get more than 10 amps 12v DC.
Comments: Yeah, but it's a really nice 100w panel. It folds, it's tough-skinned, it's plug-and play. The 10 amp DC limit is a bummer, that's not enough to run a 100w ham radio. With that massive battery, there really should be a higher DC amperage output option.
Option #2: Goal Zero Yeti 200X + Nomad 50 solar panel, about $600.
All of the Jackery unit's pros & cons apply here, except that for the same money you get half the panel wattage and 60% the battery capacity. Um... maybe it's a nicer unit? I doubt it. But go look around at Goal Zero's site anyway, you may find something more to your liking and needs.
Pro: ~20% lower total cost. Fully customizable. 20 amps continuous / 30 amps burst of clean 12v DC for full-power ham radio fun. Modular. The joy of DIY.
Con: Not plug-and-play, nor weather-resistant. The joy of DIY.
Comments: The components listed above are (respectively) $193 + $70 + ~$100 = $363. Then you've got to add in the costs of an AC inverter, USB ports, and any other options you might want. Then you've got the cost of wiring and connectors (MC4 & PowerPole recommended), which is not trivial. On top of that, you may end up shelling out for $40 connector crimp tools, etc. This is not for the faint of heart. OTOH, you get to build exactly what you want. Trust me, what you end up with will work damn well, but it will also be a science fair project. Examples of my "small" system: here and here show how this can get out of hand.
To summarize, look at the available options at all three sites. 20 A-H is a damned big battery just for charging phones over a weekend (way too big for backpacking), and something smaller may do you fine. Overall, the Jackery seems to have the best bang-for-buck, even with the pricey panel. If you need more than 10 amps DC (it's a ham thing) and have the skills and crimp tools, maybe go for the Bioenno-based system.
Too damn many options in the marketplace, which is great to a point, but then analysis paralysis takes over. Hope this post helps you whittle down things to where you're not overwhelmed and can make some decisions.
Soon(-ish): More on the Santos Fat Tire Festival. I've got taxes to do.
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