I did not realize the storm in Ohio was that bad. Hope it will get back to normal soon for you, Khan.
I looked up the Ecotricity Power shown above because it sounded interesting. Here's what I found.
It is a system of 3 components: a portable solar panel charging a 40Ah battery, which then powers an inverter with a rating of 1,800 Watts. It is important that buyers of this kind of equipment do not expect too much.
First, the starting power requirement of a motor is generally 3X its continuous power demand. This means a 18cuft refrigerator with a 500W consumption will draw up to 1.5KW during startup. This inverter can run that. But for cooling, do not think that you can run a small AC from this, unless it is small, really small.
Secondly, the 40Ah battery capacity means that even if you can run an appliance, the running time is very limited. Indeed, the specs on Amazon say you can run the above frig for 15 min from the battery. That's it.
Thirdly, what the solar panel can put out is limited. If the panel can put out 500W or more to sustain the draw from the frig, then you can run the frig all day (not all night of course). I could not find any spec on the panel of this system, but run-of-the-mill panels output something like 100W per square yard. Highly efficient ones may be up to 170W/sq yard. Poor ones may be as low as 50W/sq yard. And that is max efficiency, when the sun is bright, the panel is facing the sun squarely, and the temperature is low (solar panels lose efficiency when they are hot). For 500W of power, you would need a bigger panel than what is shown, plus it would cost more than the price shown.
So, do you want to wait hours for the battery to get charged, so you can run your frig for 15 min?
Solar has its applications (I set up my own system for my RV), but most people would be sorely disappointed because they thought it would replace a gas powered generator. RV'ers who boondock have different equipment and most importantly, much reduced power consumption compared to a typical home owner.
