Solar & inverters
Solar Generators & Solar Backup
Solar backup and the portable battery units marketed as solar generators, with the terminology untangled and a straight account of what each will and will not run.
Two different products, one confusing name
solar generator is searched heavily in Kenya and it does not mean one thing.
The first meaning is a portable power station: a lithium battery with a built-in inverter and a socket for a solar panel. It is silent, safe indoors, needs no fuel and no maintenance, and will run lights, a router, laptops, phones and perhaps a small fridge for some hours. It contains no engine. Calling it a generator is marketing rather than engineering, and it is worth knowing that before buying one expecting generator behaviour.
The second meaning is a solar and battery installation: panels on the roof, a hybrid inverter and a battery bank. This can genuinely carry a household, and unlike any generator it produces energy rather than merely converting fuel into it.
The honest comparison
A generator is a cost centre. Every hour it runs burns fuel and wears the engine, and when the grid is healthy it does nothing at all.
Solar is an investment. It generates whether or not there is an outage, and it offsets consumption. Over a Kenyan roof’s lifetime that changes the arithmetic considerably, particularly with the amount of sun available here.
But solar has a shape. It produces during the day, stores a finite amount, and cannot be topped up by fetching a jerrycan. It also cannot supply a large motor’s starting inrush unless the battery and inverter were specified for it.
Where each wins
Solar and battery wins for frequent short outages, for anywhere the NEMA night noise limit makes a generator hard to site legally, and for anyone whose objective includes a lower electricity bill rather than only backup.
A diesel generator wins for long outages, for starting borehole pumps and motors, for heavy sustained load, and for plant that must run whatever the weather has been doing.
Both is common and sensible at the larger end: solar and batteries carry the normal day, and the generator exists for the long event and the heavy start.
What we will not do
We will not tell you a portable battery unit will run your borehole pump, and we will not size a solar installation off a guess at your consumption. Solar sizing needs your actual usage figures, and anybody quoting a system without asking for them is selling panels rather than solving your problem.
FAQ
▸What is a solar generator?
The term covers two quite different things. One is a portable battery unit with an inverter and a solar input, which is a battery you can recharge from panels rather than a generator in any engineering sense. The other is a full solar and battery installation with panels on the roof. Neither contains an engine, and neither behaves like a diesel set.
▸Can a solar generator run my whole house?
A portable unit, no: it is for lights, laptops, routers, phones and perhaps a small fridge. A properly sized roof solar and battery installation can carry a house, including refrigeration, but it is a capital project rather than an appliance purchase and the sizing has to be done against your actual consumption.
▸Solar or a diesel generator?
Solar produces energy and reduces your bill; a generator only provides backup and costs money every hour it runs. If outages are short and frequent, solar with batteries is often the better investment. If you need to start a borehole pump or carry heavy load for hours, you need a generator, and the two are not mutually exclusive.