When high winds took down power lines and left my family in the dark last March — twice — our difficulties were eased by a large battery we used to run our broadband router and charge phones. But with no way of knowing when power would come back on, I watched closely as its remaining charge percentage dropped hour by hour.
Which is why I was intrigued by Ugreen’s PowerRoam 1200 Solar Generation product, which combines a pair of the Hong Kong-based company’s 200-watt folding solar panels with its PowerRoam 1200 battery. I’ve been testing it for a few weeks.
In short, I like it. I still get a giddy sensation watching the watts pour in just from sunlight. Under the best circumstances I could set up at my house, the panels generated 237 watts, which is close to the 250-watt maximum the system can produce. Charging from 0% to 100% took a little under 7 hours on a sunny day.
The package, with a 1,024Wh battery and the pair of fold-out four-panel panel sections, costs $1,299. That’s not cheap.
But if you’re worried about the next power outage, or you like RV road trips, the solar panel-battery combo is a great option. With the frequency and length of power outages increasing in the US, and climate change expected to make the grid less reliable, panels and a battery can be worth the investment.
If you’re in the market, check my colleague Andrew Blok’s assessment of portable solar panels. His top pick is the Jackery SolarSaga 200.
As I type this, my laptop is recharging its battery from the system, drawing 56 watts of power. My broadband modem and router take another 20 watts. Add in a couple phones and another laptop, and the battery has enough juice to last well over 10 hours. (Battery powered devices need more power when recharging than when in use.) It’s nowhere near big enough to live off the grid, but I was able to use the battery to power my refrigerator for about 6 hours during warm weather. It uses 122 watts when its compressor is running.
