Outdoor entertainment is something everyone loves. However, it doesn’t always have to involve pool parties and backyard barbecues. Rather, you can enjoy the outdoors by hosting an outdoor movie night.
Perhaps it’s the stause portable solar panels to host an outdoor movie night. In this article, we will tell you everything you need to know about planning an outdoor movie night with portable solar panels. rry sky, the big screen, or just the novelty of being outside on a blanket with friends and family, but there’s something about an outdoor movie that’s just so much more fun than sitting around an indoor lounge television.
The best thing is that you can now use portable solar panels to host an outdoor movie night. In this article, we will tell you everything you need to know about planning an outdoor movie night with portable solar panels.
Benefits of Portable Solar Panels for Outdoor Movie Night
Here are some great reasons why you should use portable solar panels for an outdoor movie night.
1. No Need to Drill Holes or Run Wires in Your Roof
You want the movie night to be a relaxing and fun experience, not something that can turn into a mental or physical burden for you. Fortunately, portable solar panels are fairly simple to install, even if you do not have a lot of experience in the field. Many popular brands make folding solar panels that you can connect to your deep-cycle batteries in just a couple of minutes. Moreover, some even have USB outlets for powering electronics such as your laptop and phone.
2. No Risk of Power Outage
If you’re fond of watching movies in the dark, you would know how frustrating it can be when the lights go out. This is why a lot of people use portable solar panels when they want to watch a TV show or movie outside. Thus, even if there’s a power breakdown in your area, you can still watch movies in any weather. All you need are portable solar panels, some batteries, an outlet switch, along with a couple of wires that connect to your TV, so you don’t have any trouble powering up your TV even when there’s no electricity.
3. No Need to Pay for Electricity
If you’re planning to host an outdoor movie night, using portable solar panels is going to help you save money as well as they don’t need any additional source of power other than sunlight. Even when there’s no sunlight, you can use the batteries for backup. The battery is going to charge during the day and stay charged until the sun sets again. After it gets dark, you can simply plug your devices into the solar panel’s outlet and enjoy watching your favourite movie in the backyard without stressing over mounting energy bills.
4. Low Maintenance Costs
Another great thing about portable solar panels is that they require very little maintenance. It’s best to clean them once a month for optimum efficiency. Typically, portable solar panel manufacturers offer warranty deals that can go up to 25 years. Thus, if you have any problems with your panels within a particular period, you can simply get in touch with them. Besides the warranty, there’s no additional maintenance needed. All you have to do is follow the required cleaning schedule.
5. Portable
If you wish to watch movies near your pool or in the backyard, portable solar panels will work perfectly as they’re portable. The easy-to-move-around system is ideal for several situations where you need to power an appliance or device, such as TVs, cell phones, laptops, etc.
6. No Harm to the Environment
Portable solar panels are the perfect way to safeguard the environment while still enjoying at the same time. Portable solar panels don’t produce any carbon emissions while working, which makes them an excellent choice for eco-conscious individuals who wish to lower their carbon footprint but still enjoy the fun of watching movies outdoors.
Tips to Plan an Outdoor Movie Night with Portable Solar Panels
Hosting a movie night with portable solar panels does require some planning. In this section, we highlight some important tips you need to follow.
1. Determine Your Energy Needs
The first thing you need to know when planning an outdoor movie night is your energy requirements. This way, you can correctly size your off-grid power supply and make sure that it has the desired number of solar panels, an appropriate-sized battery, a charge controller, and an inverter, all of which are essential elements of an off-grid solar panel system. Keep in mind that setting up a system without accounting for your energy requirements could make you oversize or undersize the system.
This means you could invest money in purchasing a system that generates more power than you require. And since there’s no policy of net metering for portable panels, the extra power you generate would only be wasted. On the other hand, you could perhaps get an off-grid power system that doesn’t generate sufficient energy to meet all your power needs.
That said, you can now see why it’s essential to account for your power needs when setting up portable solar panels for an outdoor movie night. You can do so by listing down all the electronic devices you wish to run during the movie night. This can encompass electrical devices like TV, DVD player, fans, lights, etc. The next thing is to add the energy used by the listed electrical appliances. If the wattage is not mentioned on the appliance, you can calculate it yourself – all you have to do is multiply the voltage and input current. This way, you can get a fair estimate of how big of a solar panel system you require.
2. Choose the Portable Solar Panel System Wisely
There are several things you need to remember when choosing portable solar panels for an outdoor movie night. Firstly, it’s the portable panels’ wattage. Remember, like regular solar panels, the portable ones are available in numerous wattages, such as 350 watts, 200 watts, and 120 watts. You can check which solar panel is going to be right for you by taking your net power requirements into consideration.
To understand things better, assume your total power requirements add up to 180 watts. To meet your power needs, you could get one 200-watt panel. The extra 20 watts will be useful in overcoming the losses in efficiency along with any unforeseen changes in the level of sunlight you get.
The higher amount of sunlight you receive and the greater the efficiency of the solar panels, the less oversizing you need to do in order to make up for the losses. In simple words, if your portable solar panels are not that efficient and you don’t get sufficient hours of sunlight, you will be better off with an off-grid power supply system bigger than 200 watts, say 240 watts, to meet your 180 watts of power needs.
Thus, when choosing a portable solar panel system, you should opt for those that have high efficiency. For instance, at BLUETTI, our portable solar panels have an efficiency rating going up to 23.4 percent, making it an excellent pick for you.
In addition, you should remember that the outdoors tend to get a little rough sometimes. Thus, you should use solar panels that are robust and durable. Ensure the panels you pick have some type of scratch-resistant coating to safeguard the top layer of glass and are even certified splash or water-resistant.
Fulfilling all the requirements mentioned above is going to get you a long-lasting and dependable portable energy system that’s capable of meeting all your power requirements.
3. Correctly Size the Battery
Batteries are imperative for portable solar panel systems, as solar panels alone cannot generate any electricity after sunset. With batteries, you can store the excess energy generated by the off-grid power supply in the battery and use it for powering your devices on a movie night.
Ideally, you should choose deep-cycle batteries to go along with your portable solar panel systems. These batteries can support deeper discharges, which means you can draw more power from them. Moreover, these batteries are capable of rapid recharging and can maintain charge and recharge cycles longer than regular batteries.
4. Buy a High-Quality Charge Controller
A battery charge controller regulates the flow of current from the portable solar panels to the solar battery. It keeps the PV array’s current and voltage in check to prevent the battery from overcharging and over-discharging. This way, charge controllers stop your solar battery from getting damaged and increase its life.
To get the correct charge controller size, simply divide the net energy generated by your portable solar panels by the battery’s voltage. This will help you get the right current rating for the charge controller. Nevertheless, you should always multiply the value with a safety figure to account for variations in the electrical output of your portable panels. Just ensure that the charge controller’s voltage matches your solar battery’s voltage.
5. Get an Inverter to Rectify the Current
Inverters are a vital part of all portable solar panel systems. These inverters change the DC electricity generated by the portable panels into AC power. Typically, most devices and electronics use AC energy as that’s the form of energy supplied by the grid.
Consequently, these appliances are unable to work on the DC power produced by your portable panels and will immediately get ruined if you try to run them directly. Thus, you need an inverter to rectify the DC current into AC current.
Note that the input rating of the inverter should be higher than the combined wattage of all the devices you will be running on your solar setup. In addition, the nominal voltage of the battery and the inverter need to be the same.
Your off-grid portable solar panel system’s inverter needs to be big enough to handle the total wattage of all the devices you’ll be consuming at any particular time. Additionally, you should even incorporate a safety factor for unprecedented electricity surges, as it is common with fans and TVs, and thus, ensure your inverter size is around 30% higher than the net wattage of all appliances.
Sine wave inverters are typically recommended because they are more efficient. Their efficiencies can actually go up to 95 percent.
Host the Best Outdoor Movie Night with BLUETTI’s Portable Solar Panels
The idea of a portable, solar-powered DVD player is not new. However, the fact remains that it’s a great way to overcome power outages! Buy one of BLUETTI’s portable solar panel systems and get ready to watch your favourite comedy or sci-fi blockbuster with family and friends!
We make sure to provide you with everything you need so that you can start planning your perfect outdoor movie night immediately! Check out our website for the top portable solar panels, solar generators, and solar power stations!
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