Some of you may have heard of or use products from Goal Zero. I can't recall if I had mentioned this before so I thought I would start a thread about their Yeti 1250 "generator." I had been looking at these for a while but there was a rep at Costco doing a "road show" so I finally got to see one in person and try it out. Today was the last day and the rep threw in some freebies that finally got me to cave in and get one.
I had been looking for an alternative to a traditional generator as I don't want to have to store and cycle through gas with fuel stabilizer or stock a bunch of propane tanks. I also don't want something loud that would attract a lot of attention during a power outage. I didn't want to have to worry about venting the exhaust from a regular generator or prop open a door or window to run power cords. Another requirement I had was that the power source have a pure sine wave output for running sensitive electronics like computers, controllers, etc.
I was going to build my own back-up power system using a bank of marine deep cycle batteries or batteries used in banks for storing solar or wind power, wall charger, meters for monitoring power output and levels, and a massive pure sine wave inverter. Total cost for this science fair looking setup I had planned was going to be about $900 or so for everything to do it right plus whatever enclosure I would have to have built. The Goal Zero Yeti pretty much does the same thing in a really slick form factor although at much higher cost (about $1400). Here's a link to their website: http://www.goalzero.com/shop/p/140/Goal-Zero-Yeti-1250-Solar-Generator/2:8/
It can run at a continuous output rate of 1250w for 1 hour so my tank in "limp mode" with one return pump, skimmer, some powerheads, and one 300w heater should go for about 3 hours plus on this setup. It can obviously run for much longer if the heater doesn't need to run and smaller setups or setups that use less power could go for much longer. I plan on testing the run time sometime in the near future to see what it can actually do. What I like about the Yeti is that it can be expanded in that I can just attach additional charged batteries in parallel through a connection in the back of it. So, I plan on making a run to Batteries Plus and doing a little shopping to see what battery options are out there. I figure I can keep a few spares around on a charger to extend my run time to 12 - 24 hours even with a heater running full-time. That would also allow me to run batteries to and from somewhere with power to charge them up and switch them around.
The Yeti can also be charged via solar panels which is kind of neat and can charge at a rate of up to 240 watts according to their literature so, if I don't need to run a heater and can keep my power consumption down to 240 watts, I could, in theory, run it off solar panels and any surplus would go back to charging the Yeti to extend overall run time. I can also use it to run other things like laptops and a coffee maker which I am confident I would need in such a situation.
There are smaller less expensive versions available that may work if you have a smaller setup. I also picked up one of their Extreme 350 packages that includes an inverter, although not a pure sine wave as I think only the Yeti offers that, so that I can run my modem and router to use more or less as a UPS and portable power source for electronics.
I had been looking for an alternative to a traditional generator as I don't want to have to store and cycle through gas with fuel stabilizer or stock a bunch of propane tanks. I also don't want something loud that would attract a lot of attention during a power outage. I didn't want to have to worry about venting the exhaust from a regular generator or prop open a door or window to run power cords. Another requirement I had was that the power source have a pure sine wave output for running sensitive electronics like computers, controllers, etc.
I was going to build my own back-up power system using a bank of marine deep cycle batteries or batteries used in banks for storing solar or wind power, wall charger, meters for monitoring power output and levels, and a massive pure sine wave inverter. Total cost for this science fair looking setup I had planned was going to be about $900 or so for everything to do it right plus whatever enclosure I would have to have built. The Goal Zero Yeti pretty much does the same thing in a really slick form factor although at much higher cost (about $1400). Here's a link to their website: http://www.goalzero.com/shop/p/140/Goal-Zero-Yeti-1250-Solar-Generator/2:8/
It can run at a continuous output rate of 1250w for 1 hour so my tank in "limp mode" with one return pump, skimmer, some powerheads, and one 300w heater should go for about 3 hours plus on this setup. It can obviously run for much longer if the heater doesn't need to run and smaller setups or setups that use less power could go for much longer. I plan on testing the run time sometime in the near future to see what it can actually do. What I like about the Yeti is that it can be expanded in that I can just attach additional charged batteries in parallel through a connection in the back of it. So, I plan on making a run to Batteries Plus and doing a little shopping to see what battery options are out there. I figure I can keep a few spares around on a charger to extend my run time to 12 - 24 hours even with a heater running full-time. That would also allow me to run batteries to and from somewhere with power to charge them up and switch them around.
The Yeti can also be charged via solar panels which is kind of neat and can charge at a rate of up to 240 watts according to their literature so, if I don't need to run a heater and can keep my power consumption down to 240 watts, I could, in theory, run it off solar panels and any surplus would go back to charging the Yeti to extend overall run time. I can also use it to run other things like laptops and a coffee maker which I am confident I would need in such a situation.
There are smaller less expensive versions available that may work if you have a smaller setup. I also picked up one of their Extreme 350 packages that includes an inverter, although not a pure sine wave as I think only the Yeti offers that, so that I can run my modem and router to use more or less as a UPS and portable power source for electronics.
