In the age of rapidly accelerating climate change, extreme weather events such as hurricanes and floods mean you and your family need to be as safe and connected as possible. Superstorm Sandy in the Northeast, for example, knocked out power for tens of thousands; along the shore in Connecticut, power was out for about four days.
LIPOWER's solar-powered generator, Portable Power Station Mars-1000 would have come in handy when I was unable to charge my cell phone and had to rely on the kindness of strangers at the local Starbucks. It is a 1000W portable power supplier that can charge numerous devices (below 1000W), touting 10 different ports. All those ports mean it can be used to charge everything from your daughter's curling iron to your husband's power saw, Mom's cell phone to Grandma's iPad. (After all, it's important to be able to play Candy Crush even when the lights are out!)
Speaking of lights, you can connect your LED-powered lamps, too, illuminating your home for tens of thousands of hours, which comes in handy after a hurricane blows through town. After all, the umph in the generator comes from the added efficiency and power of a lithium battery, commonly used to power fleets and large operations.
Lithium batteries are a popular source of energy storage on the market, some using what are called LiFePO4s, which often serve as back-up power in the family home. This battery is extremely durable and lasts about five years, with a long service life.
LIPOWER tells me that "the main advantage of our products is their high performance for the cost. While many portable power stations set the standard pricing at around $1 per watt or $1 per watt hour, our price is far cheaper, at around .08 per hour." It is used with solar panels, which can range in size or type. These are becoming quite common here in Connecticut, where green living is a priority, even if not on a par with the West Coast.
James King, an outdoor equipment expert with REI in Milford, Connecticut, demonstrated how such a generator would work. He shared that the appeal of such a device is connected to the types and numbers of apps companies are producing these days. Competitors, for example, are also offering a way to charge one's cell phone without having to bring a standalone charger, provided one has the cable to the generator; ditto for standard items such as the aforementioned iPads. "It's all the things you can add to it," that set a generator such as LIPOWER's apart, says King.
Another perk of LIPOWER's Mars-1000 is its noiselessness. Much like hydrogen power, lithium power doesn't cause a distressing sound to give the family headaches. Its quietness is only matched by its umph, of course, which is what you'll appreciate when it's on hand for the next extreme weather event. This portable power station does not drip fuel or gas, or exude fumes.
King acknowledged that here in Connecticut, the popularity of generators is growing. Not only because of the unpredictable hurricane but because of illnesses. He says in the current Covid climate, people are apt to buy one for a family member who may need oxygen. The generator ensures that the person will not have to suffer unnecessarily should the power go down.
King adds more on its reliability: "This is not only clean energy, but it's stable." If a family goes camping, the generator means the cell phone won't run out of juice because other types of voltage are connected to a camper that's hit a pothole. Further – because a lithium battery holds far more energy than, say, the C or D lead acid batteries we all grew up with – Mom, Dad and the kids can easily extend their family vacay by another week.
This durable generator boasts three USB-A ports (including a Quick Charge 3.0 port) and multiple DC plugs. You will be delighted when you plug in your solar panel to the Mars-1000, which can support 200W of solar rays. Thank you again to REI's James King for demonstrating out how this works!
You can buy different sizes of lithium batteries, but an average life expectancy on a unit such as this is 2,000 uses. When asked why that is, King quipped: "See your drinking cup? How many uses could you get out of that after you'd put milk or juice in there and cleaned it out a bunch of times?"