Battery question

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lpthomas

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Please correct me if I am wrong. I'm under the impression that a Yeti or Jackery battery will keep power to my van - without solar. How does the battery recharge? I'm perplexed. I also have zero electrical, construction, etc experience but I'm doing it anyway.
 
They recharge quickest from a 120V house outlet, their website will give the number of hours it takes for that particular battery given the amount of discharge.
Solar typically takes the longest, like days..... depending on how many watts you have available and how much you've drained the battery. Charging from the vehicles alternator is also do-able.
General rule of thumb, what you take out of a battery should be replaced the next day. Different chemistries may require different recharge processes but they all need recharged or they will die an early death.
 
Most of the power stations have 3 ways of charging.
1) Plug into standard household outlet- this is typically the fasted way to charge it
2) Plug into vehicle 12V cigarette lighter- this is usually limited to ~100 w/hr, but that's enough to keep it match the draw from typical loads like 12v fridge, mobile device charging, etc.
3) Connect to solar panel- time to charge is highly dependent on time of year, location, etc.

Power stations are complete solutions, nothing additional is needed, just plug and play. Make sure you get one with a large enough inverter to power your most hungry device. For me, that was a microwave.
 
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The Yeti and Jackery are using lithium batteries which actually prefer being partially charged if they will be stored for any length of time. Here's some charge times for a 1500 watt Jackery:

1x AC Adapter: 6 Hours
2x SolarSaga 100W Solar Panels: 9.5 Hours
4x SolarSaga 100W Solar Panels: 5 Hours
12V Car Adapter: 13 Hours

This shows that solar can give you the fastest charge time.
 
Yes, like others have already said......

Both use a battery to supply power and either will need to be recharged after each use.

How you recharge it is up to you.
 
Its not to plug into your van to power it. That's what car batteries are for.

Think of the Yeti or Jackery as just a big rechargeable battery pack, like your battery in your smart phone or Van. Just much more capacity and capable of plugging many things that need power. Eventually (like a phone) it will need to be charged depending on use.

YouTube some videos on those models.
 
The confusion may be caused by people calling them solar generators. They do not generate electricity. They only store it. There is also nothing solar about them. They require you to buy and attach solar panels if that is how you wish to recharge them.
 
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