Is there ever a situation in which a
solar generator could replace a gas
generator? That's what we're gonna be
talking about today. Hey guys welcome
back to our off-grid homestead. We've
been sent a few of these units to test
out and while we have been testing them
out I keep coming to this question of
could this actually replace this I think
it could in the right situation but
before we start talking about that
let me first say this is not a review
video we're not reviewing this
necessarily we're not testing it today
and we're not reviewing this or testing
it today this is a philosophy of use
video that's what we're going to be
talking about and so as a as we think
about philosophy of use one thing we
need to understand is neither one of
these units is going to generate any
electricity by itself right both of
these have to be part of a system for
example the sawaki needs a solar panel
if it doesn't have a solar panel you're
not gonna generate any electricity
whatsoever
similarly this gas generator right here
needs a gas can and it also needs an
unlimited supply of gasoline otherwise
it's not going to generate any
electricity and this particular model
right here is also going to take
two-stroke oil to mix with the gas or
you're gonna burn up the engine so both
of these are part of a system and we
need to understand that but could this
actually replace this guy let me tell
you a quick story we've got a couple of
friends that live in a 16 by 16 cabin
here in our local area you might call it
a tiny house well it's 16 by 16 and then
it has a loft upstairs which is where
the bedroom is but anyway besides the
point they run their cabin off of one of
these not this exact model it's a
different brand and an older model but
the specs are just about the same and I
was thinking how can they do that right
how can you run a whole cabin off of
this well it all depends on what your
electrical needs are right and theirs
are very small
they're run a couple of lights they
charge up their cell phones they use
their laptop to watch YouTube and
Netflix and that's about it they do that
for a few hours in the evening after
they get home from work they're gone all
day at work while this bad boy is
charging back up come home in the
evening and they use it right so it's
just a rinse and repeat cycle every day
they're using up some of the battery in
the evening it's charging back up there
in the day so yeah you could use it but
one of the things that people will often
bring up and is a legitimate concern is
the cost right a solar generator and the
system that goes with it seems to be
fairly expensive when you compare it to
one of these guys right here so let's
just jump on the Amazon here right we're
looking at the sawaki G 500 and the
price on Amazon is four hundred eighty
nine dollars and ninety nine cents I
look that's kind of expensive it seems
like right but there is a hundred dollar
coupon right here so well we'll take
that into consideration let's go ahead
and add that to the cart we're just
gonna play around with this and see what
a total system is gonna cost okay so we
have that to the cart the next thing
we're going to need is a solar panel so
I'm choosing the 150 watt solar panel
because that is the maximum amount of
power that you can put into one of these
swatches so 150 watt solar panel you're
looking at 134 bucks we'll go ahead and
add that to the cart then depending on
your setup you may need some additional
cable this guy comes with cable but it's
not that long right so if you're wanting
to put your solar panel say outside 15
25 30 feet away from where you're
actually going to put this in your house
you're gonna need some additional solar
cables I'm choosing these right here
from windy nation they're 50 feet long
so let's go ahead and add those to the
cart not absolute necessary but
definitely safe and wise to have would
be a fuse on that solar wire so here we
go 1349 for a fuse we'll go ahead and
add that to the cart as well so what's
the grand total right six hundred and
twenty six dollars and ninety-five cents
whoa
with the hundred dollar discount now
there is an additional discount that you
could get sawaki gave me a discount code
for you guys
it's them in the description of the
video if you want to check it out but
without that additional discount we're
looking at six hundred and twenty six
dollars and ninety-five cents for this
bad boy right here that seems kind of
expensive how much is one of these well
Amazon has one that is very similar to
it probably made in the same Factory in
China that's just my guess it's a
hundred and ten dollars a hundred and
ten dollars versus six hundred and
twenty-six remember this is part of a
system right so we're gonna have to add
a gas can to it which is twenty two
dollars for a five gallon gas can
alright so you're looking at one hundred
and thirty-two dollars right for this
system versus six hundred and twenty six
dollars for this system right here this
one's looking pretty good right well we
need to remember right that it doesn't
just take a gas can to run this thing it
takes gallons of gasoline the website
says that this will run five hours on
1.1 gallons of gas all right so just to
make it easy let's say we're gonna run
this thing for five to six hours a night
and we're gonna use a gallon of gas a
day okay just like our friends are using
this guy right here so two dollars and
fifty cents a gallon is about the
national average right now your price
may vary you're looking at around
seventy five dollars a month to run this
thing running it every day for five to
six hours right to run just some small
things in your cabin or your RV or your
camp or whatever it is you're living in
so seventy-five bucks a month now if we
were to pay for this versus paying for
the gasoline how long would it take us
to run this before we reached our price
not including the price of the generator
or the gas can just the gasoline
it'd take us about eight months right in
eight months of running this we could
have bought this hmm now this one's not
looking all that great anymore
also think about this right this is like
one of the cheapest generators that you
can get is it designed to run for five
to six hours every day for eight months
I doubt it
may be it make it may be right it could
no doubt it could make it so how long is
this guy gonna last
well it'll last about 500 cycles right
500 cycles so if your totally draining
the battery everyday recharging it the
next day it's gonna last about 500 days
hopefully you're not doing that but if
you are that's how long it's gonna last
if you're only draining it a little bit
each day and charging there backup well
then it's gonna last much longer than
that maybe three or four years possibly
it just depends on how much you use it
right so you think about these two right
here and there's some other things that
you might just want to consider one is
this guy's noisy and it stinks and you
have to go buy gas for it and you got to
fill it up and you got to go outside and
start it and when it has a problem and
doesn't start you have no electricity
all right obviously right this guy he's
got some problems too if it's cloudy for
a couple of days and you can't generate
any electricity to charge the battery in
here then you're stuck you don't have
any electricity right so what's the best
situation this is my opinion the best
situation if you're gonna want to go
with a solar generator is to have a
small backup generator as well you're
gonna you're gonna need both if you live
in an area that has winters like ours
right if you're down in Arizona South
Texas maybe Florida right Southern
California maybe it's not an issue for
you because you have enough Sun year
around that it's not really gonna ever
be a problem but for a lot of us it
would be a problem so let's think about
this we drained the battery down the
next day is cloudy we come home from
work and right we only have like a
quarter battery left or something maybe
it's completely dead what are we going
to do well what you could do is start
this
write her up plug this guy into here and
power and then plug your cabin into here
so you're going to power your cabin off
of this for the night and you're gonna
charge this for the night all right so
this is gonna charge up there that I
isn't gonna charge 100% maybe it'll
depend on how low it is right but you're
gonna charge it up during the night the
next day you come home will you have
power again so could a solar generator
replace one of these I think it could in
the right situation let me know what you
think about it down in the comments
below if you want to know what else is
going on here on our homestead there is
a video right over there that you
probably like to check out otherwise I
hope you have a really great day keep
smiling and I'll see you over in that
video in just a second
you
