|
I'm a type 1 diabetic who lives with an insulin pump. My wife and I go outside sometimes, but outside is scary because it doesn't always have places to charge my life-giving equipment or to keep my insulin vials at safe temperatures. I also know that if the world ends, my rear end is toast because of how dependant I am on said refridgerated insulin and hardware keeping me alive. I'm interested in trying to find a battery-powered portable cooler and some kind of solar-charging battery bank/power setup that I can use to power it to keep my insulin reasonably stable in the event we're somewhere without power for long stretches of time. I'm picturing something like an earthquake (I live in CA) or a hurricane (my family lives in FL) taking power out for a number of days, and I want to do the prepper thing and get the hardware for that potential disaster set up now. FWIW, this isn't just a thought experiment - last February we were without power for about two weeks and I managed by hauling ice around to keep my insulin cool, but that solution still seems to depend on functional infrastructure nearby. I'm curious if any goons have experience with this kind of thing - it seems like it might have some crossover with campers/survialist/tailgating demos who probably want the same kind of thing. I am thinking about :
A lot of the portable solar coolers that I have been looking at don't actually incorporate any of the solar elements into the cooler - with only one exception that I have seen so far they expect you to buy freestanding solar panel setups elsewhere, or lug what is basically a folding-table-sized panel separately with the cooler. Most of the coolers with batteries seem to need a 12V power source to charge. I'm not averse to the idea of having a solar-powered battery hub/charger setup that a cooler can plug into to charge as long as that is also potentially portable. I know the portability part of things might be tricky because there are just physical limitations to how much power you can get per square foot of solar paneling, but I'm also hoping there might be some better options I haven't come across yet that folks might be able to point me to.
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2024 22:27
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 29, 2024 21:12 |
|
|
100% agree that portability seems like it's going to be your biggest problem, I can't imagine hiking with any of these systems. Anker and Ecoflow both make coolers with removable batteries although the ecoflow seems to want you to charge those through the cooler directly. The Anker model looks like you could remove the battery, charge elsewhere with a solar panel and swap batteries to keep an unlimited runtime essentially. In general it seems like most folks selling battery systems are trying to build more of an ecosystem around those with coolers, AC units, etc. Could also leverage a separate battery system + chargers to keep any old electric cooler running and power other devices, but are still going to suffer from portability issues in general.
|
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2024 17:59
|
|
|
Don't they make RV refrigerators that run off propane? I think they also make them that run off 12v which is easy to setup and then you can just use a gas generator to recharge your deep cycle or whatever batteries. You can make this insanely complicated if you want but its hard to beat fossil fuels for portability.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2024 00:37
|
|
|
I work for ARB 4x4 Accessories, so my day job directly concerns questions like these. I haven't seen a 12v fridge I would say you could take hiking, let alone a power source for one. Maybe there's some sort of tiny chiller available? My thought would be to make ice with a proper 12v fridge at camp or in your vehicle and then take your insulin in a small esky or lunch box with ice. In regards to running a fridge out of say your vehicle, there are a number of options to achieve this, and many people here in Australia have a 12v system capable of running one or more fridges full time, off-grid or not.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2024 02:22
|
|