This is the our Amazon Parts recommendation for a 1000W DIY solar kit. Our 1000W kit refers to the watts of the 1000W inverter, and includes 200W of solar panels and a 500Wh Lithium Iron Phosphate battery – so the Watts in the title do not refer to solar wattage. We figure though that most people don’t really care about the wattage of the solar initially, they care what kind of performance they can get out of it. Of course you can simply add more solar panels to any one of these kits. Questions or comments on this? Contact us above!
This 1000W inverter size is great for running pretty much anything, and in our eyes is the current performance sweet spot in 2020. You can run small hot-plates with this, hair-dryers, and most importantly a family fridge. This you cannot do reliably with a 500W system. The big difference is that this one will run a household fridge, which is the killer backup use-case for preppers. Beyond that, you can of course run the usual CPAP machines, TVs, laptops and phone chargers (same as the 500W kits).
Total parts cost: $685 (We sell the same kit pre-built for $1,399).
$69 - 1000W (car) inverter
$399 - 960Wh LiFePo battery (12V 80Ah)
$158 - 2 * 100W solar panels HQST
$29 - Solar controller (Max 300W in)
$22 - 20 ft extension MC4
$8 - Crocodile connectors from Battery => charge controller.
This system will create around 920Wh per day (200W * 4.6h annual average solar hours at max capacity in example of San Francisco), which will be the usable amount per day. So the battery will more or less fully recharge from the sun every day (completely in summer, slightly less so in winter).
The Kit
Parts Cost on Amazon: $685
2 x 100W Solar Panel
MC4 Cable
Solar Controller (Renogy Wanderer)
Cable #2
Lithium Iron Phosphate Deep Cycle Battery (960Wh LiFePo battery at 12V 80Ah)
1000W Inverter
Setup Diagram
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to hello at sunboxlabs.com and we will gladly help.