[GET] Smart Solar Box - Ultimate Survival Device

[Lumos]

I hope that some of the folks just now seeing this thread from 2017 will actually READ the info here and realize that the item itself is just over-hyped IM junk.

The SP is full of baloney and the main PDF is filled with glaringly incorrect info.

Before even TRYING to use the provided instructions, it may be helpful to see this, from the main PDF:

Quote:...grid‐tied systems use the utility grid (the network of wires and cables that span every city and town in the US) to store their energy, sending excess energy into the grid during the day and pulling from it at night.

The above quote is the author telling folks that a "network of wires and cables" is able to somehow STORE electricity - which is not only incorrect - but patently absurd; wires DO NOT store power, period.

The above is not an opinion - it is simply fact;
This IS opinion=>
If storing power in wires were possible we'd all be powering our devices with rechargeable WIRES rather than batteries !!!

This entire 'system' shows the author's nearly complete lack of knowledge regarding electricity - and here are some of the glaring problems in that PDF:

1 - The closed box idea is nonsense because in a closed box with both the inverter and charge controller inside it, they will burn out from their own generated heat;

2 - 800W - even 4 x 800W will not come close to powering any household;
It will be enough for a few lights and maybe a small refrigerator - but the sustained heavy load of even that will use up even large deep cycle batteries in much less than several days time - and since the smallest normal electric heaters draw ~1500W, heating a single smallish room for some hours is quite beyond this 'system' with merely 800W.

3 - Having a room that can be closed off with a non-power using heat source and using straight 12V DC to power some LED lights and USB chargers - while putting the foods needing to be kept cold outside or in coolers periodically refilled with snow and ice from outside in winter makes more sense than trying to make AC line current from 4 small solar cells and a battery.

Most likely I could EASILY find more that reveals this 'system' as just a waste of time and money - but that is enough for me to see that this is just another shiny object with a fear-based pitch.

Nothing new under the sun - sadly.

If one knows enough about electricity and electronics to sort the wheat from the chaff in this, it may be used for a source of ideas instead, for example:

Old, retired (but still working) computer UPS units can be rewired VERY slightly to use external batteries as their supplies - have their piezo alarms pinched off - and will keep deep cycle batteries conditioned when power is on - and provide enough for small uses when there is a power failure.
Simple, quick and can be done for UNDER $100.

Adman1948 in reply #11 and 12 above suggests searching for info by
"Steve Harris".
I tried that both with and without 'solar' - and found so many different sites that are supposedly by that named person such that I might as well have been searching for the term 'WWW' !!

Lastly:
Anyone putting out technical info NEEDS to be able to grasp the differences between batteries, capacitors and wires.

Batteries and capacitors have storage capabilities whereas wires DO NOT.

Spending $200 - $300 based upon words published and sold by an IM writer who does not grasp such simple facts is clearly a waste of money.

There is some useful info in this share - but it must be sifted through with GREAT care in order NOT to become misinformed.