The PortaMaxPower Solar Sentinel 2400 is a portable solar-powered generator that is designed, assembled, and engineered in the USA using the finest electronic components in the world. It features a patent-pending, proprietary design and assembly process that makes the Solar Sentinel 2400 the only truly sustainable portable solar generator on the market today.
Simple Operation
We designed the Solar Sentinel 2400 to be super simple to operate with no confusing wiring and setup required. It doesn’t get much easier than a simple ON/OFF switch. In addition, the cables included with the Solar Sentinel 2400 kit only connect one way, so it is impossible to make a cabling or connection mistake. Our Hybrid Inverter Charger is factory preset for optimum performance using PortaMaxPower solar panels and cabling. There are no settings to adjust. If you need to top off the battery before a storm or before going off-the-grid (and for optimal performance we recommend that you fully recharge the battery at least once every six months) just plug the extension cord that’s included with the unit into a standard wall outlet and turn on the AC IN breaker. Read our FAQs for more specific operation details.
The Solar Sentinel 2400 is safe for indoor or outdoor use. If you are camping or doing any other outdoor activity, keep the unit covered and out of direct sunlight, rain, snow, or other extreme weather conditions. In most settings, you should be able to set up the solar panels outside while the unit stays inside a tent or camper, under a tarp or under some other sort of protection. Once you’re done and all packed up, the watertight Pelican Storm iM2975 Case will protect your unit in transport or in storage until you are ready to use it again.
Performance
The best-kept secret in the world of solar generators is un-sustainability. Off the grid, most solar generators on the market take days to recharge their battery – even under ideal conditions. For example, if it takes “24 hours” to recharge a competitor’s battery and a typical Florida day provides 6 solar hours of sunshine, you will be waiting several days before you can use your generator again, while not using the generator. And this assumes there are no cloudy days during that stretch.
The Solar Sentinel 2400 was designed to provide sustainable solar power, day-in and day-out, in real world conditions. Our proprietary design combined with state-of-the-art technology allows the Solar Sentinel 2400’s solar array to fully charge its battery in less than a day, while in use.
Durability and Portability
Portable power must get to where it’s needed, in one piece, and still work when it gets there. The Solar Sentinel 2400 components are assembled on an aircraft-grade aluminum chassis, permanently shock-mounted inside a Pelican Storm iM2975 Case. Pelican Case is the industry leader in transporting and protecting valuable gear, and their products are used repeatedly by the military and first responders to safeguard critical equipment. The Solar Sentinel 2400 is rugged, watertight, and easily transportable. If you can transport a large cooler full of food, drink, and ice, then you can move the Solar Sentinel 2400 without any problems. On hard surfaces, the telescoping handle and in-line wheels on the iM2975 Pelican Storm case make moving easy. If you are loading into your trunk, the rack on your 4-wheeler, your boat, or RV, use the soft-grip handles provided and get a helper.
The PortaMaxPower Solar Sentinel 2400 is:
- Portable
- Rugged
- Sustainable
- Renewable
- Quiet
- Clean
Major Components
Solar Panels
The Solar Sentinel 2400 is powered by our lightweight, high efficiency folding or flexible 330-watt 57V @ 5.7A solar panels made with SunPower solar cells, a superior cell in the industry, and with a life-expectancy of 25 years. Our folding panels weigh less than 15 lbs. each and when folded, they measure 36″x36″ and fit comfortably into most vehicles. Our flexible panels weigh only 11 lbs. each and measure 36″x74″. For most power requirements, we recommend using three (3) solar panels to supply a total of 990-watts, 57V @ 17.1A, of class-leading power — more than three times the power output of our nearest competitor. The combined weight of the Solar Sentinel and three of our folding portable solar panels weigh much less than our competitor’s best product, while offering twice the power capacity. And while our panels prefer direct sunlight, they still continue to produce power even on a cloudy day, unlike many other portable solar panels on the market today.
Battery
Our 24v 100ah LiFePO4 battery is the finest technology available today. Most of our competitors use lead acid batteries, while several of them have upgraded to lower quality lithium-based units. While the initial cost of the LiFePO4 battery is higher than other technologies, it would be impossible to create a portable solar generator that meets the Solar Sentinel 2400’s high level of performance without it. The LiFePO4 battery has an ultra-safe track record, higher power-to-weight ratio, and is guaranteed to last at least 2,000 life cycles (while many in the field still operate at 10,000 cycles or more), compared to just a couple hundred cycles for the cheaper batteries – virtually eliminating the need to ever replace the Solar Sentinel’s LiFePO4 battery.
Inverters and Chargers
Our state-of-the-art hybrid inverter/charger is a proprietary design with preset factory settings for maximum efficiency to control AC/Grid charging and Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) solar charging using PortaMaxPower solar panels.
The 2.5kva Solar Sentinel 2400 provides 2,000 watts of continuous Pure Sine Wave AC power that will reliably operate anything you can plug into a standard outlet including refrigerators/freezers, cell phones, computers/laptops, Big Screen TVs, hair dryers, coffee makers, and much more.
The Solar Sentinel 2400 also boasts a surge capability of more than 6,000 watts allowing it to easily start an electric motor.
Featuring a simple ON/OFF switch and an easy-to-read display, the Solar Sentinel 2400 will automatically determine what it’s connected to, where to find power, and how to most efficiently meet your power needs. If the solar output is sufficient to supply your power needs, great. If there’s no sun, then the Solar Sentinel 2400 will switch to battery power and begin charging again when the sun returns — automatically!
Limitations: What the Solar Sentinel 2400 Will and Won't Do
There is a lot of conflicting information out there in the solar world, and we want to make it clear that the Solar Sentinel 2400 is not for everyone. There are a few things our product will not do effectively. For example, we don’t recommend using the Solar Sentinel 2400 to run air conditioning or electric heat. While you may be able to operate smaller electric heaters and AC units that plug into a standard outlet, they will not be sustainable through the evening and overnight, or on cloudy days when the solar panels are not charging at full capacity. Whole house electric heaters and AC units will not work at all, and they won’t work with most portable gas generators on the market, either. In emergency situations, we recommend using a fan, or if there is an electric blower attached to a fireplace or wood-burning stove, that should work fine as well.
What About Cost?
If all you want is “cheap” portable power, there are other options out there, if you only consider the initial cost and are not concerned about sustainability or reliability. But remember to budget for the cost of maintenance, gas, oil, spark plugs, filters, etc., to operate gas-powered generators; and the cost to frequently replace the cheaper lead-acid or lesser quality Lithium-ion batteries which most other solar generators use. Also, be sure you are comparing the maximum solar output of their panels to ours and you’ll see that they just don’t stack up. Potentially the highest cost – learning that the generator you purchased will not provide sustainable power when you need it most.
A cheaper solar unit might give you battery backup for a while, but in most cases, it will not provide SUSTAINABLE power if you are off-the-grid for an extended period. Granted, some of these units are smaller and lighter, but we discovered that to produce the renewable and SUSTAINABLE power you need and expect, we could not always use the lightest components. We did our very best to keep the size and weight to a minimum without sacrificing the quality of our product, and while the Solar Sentinel 2400 is not the smallest unit on the market, if you can handle and transport a large cooler full of ice, food and drink, then you should have no problem with the Solar Sentinel 2400. In fact, if you take our Solar Sentinel with three of our lightweight solar panels and compare the total weight to our competition’s much lower powered setup, the Solar Sentinel Power Package is likely the lighter choice.
The class-leading safety record and longer life-cycle of our LiFePO4 batteries are cornerstones behind the unsurpassed quality and sustainability of the Solar Sentinel 2400. The PMP lightweight solar panels with SunPower cells producing 330watts each are class leaders as well. With all factors considered, making sure to compare apples to apples, we think you’ll agree that the Solar Sentinel 2400 is a financially smarter choice. Check out The Solar Sentinel 2400 vs. The Competition for a quick comparison of features and cost.
If you need a portable and sustainable solar-powered generator that requires practically no maintenance (simply use and fully recharge at least once every six months) and one that will last for decades with normal use, there is only one choice: The PortaMaxPower Solar Sentinel 2400.