At the end of July I received an e-mail from a reader, and I thought you should see it along with my response and further correspondence. I’ll just give first names of the correspondents involved.

Paul wrote:

This relates to your July 9 article on the solar generator.

I have tried to comment on this topic three separate times, and I haven't seen either posted…I hope that it will be posted this time around.

The heart of the unit is the battery - without it operating well, the rest is virtually worthless. Note that it is absolutely identical to the Duracell 852-1807 unit sold on Amazon for about $437. Several commenters there

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000S0VFTM/ref=s9_simz_gw_s5_p60_t1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center2&pf_rd_r=0VECQQKTJH7KTN49AX9S&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

have stated that it is not what was expected and that it couldn't operate like a generator.

Lesson: maybe a better system could be found, one that would live up to the reputation of a real generator with less pollution and noise.

I think that at least you should let readers know that the unit apparently doesn't do everything that it initially sounds like it does.

Paul

Here's the reply I sent to Paul.

Hello Paul,

First, thanks for letting me know you've been unable to leave a comment on the post in question. I was unaware of that and haven't meant to give the appearance of ignoring you. I get notifications any time someone leaves a comment. Your e-mail is the first indication I've had that you wanted your thoughts aired. This tells me there is a problem with the comment feature on my blog. I'm anticipating a software upgrade soon, which I hope will remedy this problem. Meanwhile, I'll contact my tech support people about this.

As for the generator itself, I appreciate you letting me know your thoughts. I'll check into this further to see if I should discontinue advertising the generator from Solutions from Science.

Thanks again for getting in touch. I do appreciate it.

John Wesley Smith

Now, here's the relevant part of what I wrote to Elizabeth at Solutions from Science.

Hello Elizabeth,

…This morning I received an e-mail to my G-mail account I believe you should see. It's from one of my blog's readers regarding the solar generator. The post referred to is at
http://www.destinysurvival.com/2009/07/09/get-real-power-for-survival-with-t
his-incredible-solar-powered-generator/

…I have not looked to see if the solar generator is comparable or identical to a model sold on Amazon.com as the gentleman claims, since I don't have enough information at my disposal to verify or refute the claim. What can you tell me about this?

I would like to post this reader's comments along with my response and yours, assuming that's desirable for all of us, and assuming I don't run into technical difficulties in my attempt to post.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

John Wesley Smith

Here's the relevant part of Elizabeth's response.

Hi John,

Thanks for bringing this to our attention! I have forwarded your message to our engineer, and will send his comments to you as soon as I get a response.

My first reaction is that this has not been converted for solar, as it does not have the controller attached, and does not include the panel, (the panel alone is $500…)

We assemble them here, we have electricians wire the controllers to the unit and attach the plug-in for the 50 feet of cable that is attached to the solar panel.

I will provide more information to you ASAP, as soon as I get a response from our engineer…

Thanks again, John!

Warm regards,

Elizabeth

That’s the info I have to this point.

John

John,

Did Elizabeth ever get back to you? I am very curious as to what the engineers say.

In retrospect, I have realized that no battery-operated system can be stretched to the limits if you expect a long battery life. Liquid fuel is SO much more efficient than batteries at this point in time that there is little comparison. You need 1000 watts for a long stretch without power? Better be prepared to have 3 or 4 batteries that have a capacity of 2000 watts or more, and to be recharging those not in use on a constant basis. It seems like I expected too much of the unit in question (and maybe so did the negative reviewers on Amazon). It would be a good system by itself for a few LED lanterns, to recharge a few batteries and possibly to run a small refrigerator…and that might be enough for a while.

The simple truth is that long-term replacement of lost electrical power (as provided by your local utility) is simply not a cheap proposition…and in an EMP attack or a Solar storm, even equipment like this would probably be useless unless previously stored within a Faraday Cage.

Paul,

Thanks for your comment. No, Elizabeth didn't get back to me on this, which is a little disconcerting. The company now has a Solar Power Station, which, in a nutshell, looks bigger and better. At the moment, there's an add banner for it at the bottom of this page. Clicking on it takes you to a site where you can watch a video about it. I suspect this may have upstaged the generator, though it's still available. To give Elizabeth the benefit of the doubt, maybe that's why she didn't get back to me.

Also, time for True Confessions. I discovered a disheartening thing about comments to my blog a few days ago. Several comments have ended up in a spam filter, including the one from you I'm replying to now. This may account for why I didn't see previous comments from you on this. I'm now in the habit of checking the comment spam filter every few days to retrieve things that shouldn't have gone there. It seems nutty that blogs get spammed, but it happens frequently. I've blacklisted a number of words, including practically every pharmaceutical drug known to man, as well as a number of unwelcome IP addresses. This puts the spam filter at a pretty tight setting. While I'm thankful for that, it does obviously have inconveniences.