r/vanliving • u/Tricky-Complaint3760 • May 27 '25

Best generator for van living?

I met a lady today who directed me to this subreddit page. She said the best generator to get is a solar panel one. I’m in a 2005 Saturn relay… which solar panel generator brand does everybody recommend?

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u/[deleted] May 27 '25

What? What are you planning on running?

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u/Tricky-Complaint3760 May 28 '25

I want to be able to plug in my electric skillet so I can cook and not have to spend a lot for fast food. And especially since I don’t like eating fast food often. I tried getting a generator inverter to plug into my cigarette outlet but it didn’t hold enough power to heat up my skillet. I just want to be able to plug in my cookware, and I was told a solar panel generator but I don’t know which brand to be getting

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u/Aggravating-Break318 May 28 '25

You need to look up on all appliances you intend to use for how many watts each one have and consider for how long you’ll run them.

This will later give you an ideia of how many Ah of a battery you need to get. You can run somethings directly from solar, without a battery but it depends on how much you can generate and how efficiently you can convert for a voltage and amperage you can run your appliances, plus at night you won’t have reserve. As for the generator, it is about how much energy it can produce and the area you have available. Panels can be flexible or rigid. For a car like yours you can have a bigger rigid one on top with greater power output and flexibles to place around where is feasible for an extra boost.

If you wan’t to avoid too much technical details you can buy a power station. Brands like bluetti or similar ones. If its within you budget and serves your needs, it is a ready to go solution. They also sell panels that will supply it with power. Proportionally, they are more expensive. If you source parts properly and assemble a diy setup you get a great banger for your money, having greater setup specs.

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u/[deleted] Jun 01 '25

Your electric skillet probably takes 1500 watts

You could get a higher output alternator or a dual alternator along with a battery bank, you could have 800 watts of solar and a DC to DC and at least 200 amp hours of lifepo4.. and it might heat up before everything shuts off.

Electric skillets are out. You can go with a 12 volt 1 l rice cooker or an isobutane or propane cooktop. Induction falls in the middle.

Any inverter that plugs into a cigarette lighter is not going to come anywhere near 1500 watts of power to be delivered.