Lazy Daze Owners' Group

Monica, you asked "would I have enough power?" That's really two questions: "Can I generate enough power?", and "Can I store enough power?" Obviously if you ran your generator around the clock, you could generate enough power. But that would be obnoxious. Driving generates power, but if you're like most of us, you don't drive every day--maybe not even every week. So that first question largely depends upon whether your solar panels can generate enough power--enough that you won't have to run your generator too often or too long.

200 watts of panels aren't a lot. You're going to be adding the power consumption of the Starlink Mini (three amps or so) to what you're doing now--laptop, TV, phone, and lights. If you have a battery monitor such as Victron's BMV-712, you should be able to get a good idea of your present power consumption. If not, you'll have to take a guess. Remember, even if you had the world's biggest batteries, you only have 200 watts of solar power feeding them.

Next question is how much power you can store in your batteries. Rephrasing my last statement, even if you had the world's largest solar array, at night you're limited by your batteries. AGM batteries were the reliable workhorses for years, but they have been surpassed by lithium batteries. Putting it simply, you can get more power from a 100 amp-hour lithium battery than you can from a 100 amp-hour AGM.

Equally important, good quality lithium batteries are now cost-competitive with AGMs. If you've heard that lithiums are very expensive, that's no longer true. Yes, Battle Born, which was once a popular brand, is still selling 100 amp-hour lithium batteries for $750 apiece. They're not worth it. (And they're not particularly well built.) You can get a 100 Ah SOK brand battery for $299, and several of our members report good results with that brand.

So let's summarize: if you need to replace your batteries, lithium is likely the best way to go. You'll be able to store and use more power than AGM batteries with the same amp-hour rating. But that power has to come from somewhere, and by adding Starlink to your rig, you'll be using more than before. So you may need to add more solar panels. That's not as expensive as you might think, since solar panel prices have dropped quite a bit. You can get a 100 watt panel now for sixty or seventy bucks--this Newpowa panel is a good example. (I'm using a couple of these now; I made them into a portable "solar suitcase.") Installation will probably cost more than the panels, unless you do it yourself.

If I were you, I'd get a couple of new SOK lithium batteries, install the Starlink Mini, and see how things go. Then I'd add a couple of 100 W solar panels if necessary.

Congratulations, Monica! Now here's a power-saving improvement you can make. Instead of using the Starlink Mini's AC adapter, which requires either shore power or an inverter, you can run it from 12 VDC, reducing its power consumption. Here's what you need:

Starlink 5 M Mini USB-C Cable ($31)

120W Car Charger ($26)

With these two items, you can power the Starlink Mini from any 12 volt outlet, and save power in the bargain. :-)