Recently “solar generators” have flooded the internet in the form of YouTube review videos, but will a tent campsite allow you to run one if you were to buy one? I’ve owned one for about 4 years now, and there are a ton of misconceptions about these devices online due to the name. However, a common question arises among campers: Are solar generators permitted at tent campsites? Let’s explore this topic further.
Do Tent Campsites Allow Solar Generators
Yes, solar generators are allowed in tent campsites. Solar generators are considered to be more akin to batteries, and less like traditional gas powered generators when it comes to campground rules and restrictions. This is for a variety of reasons such as the noise and exhaust produced from a traditional generator.
Can You Run a Solar Generator at Night in a Campground?
Yes, you can run your solar generator at night in your campsite/campground, just like you could use a regular AA Battery at night in a campground. While you won’t be able to actively charge the solar generator using its solar panels at night, you can still use the electrical energy in the solar generator that was gathered during the day.
https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/homeowners-guide-going-solar
You can do this because the electrical energy is stored inside a battery in the solar generator.
Your solar generator uses the electrical energy stored in its battery to generate electricity when you are ready to use your solar generator to power a device. This generation of electricity does not produce any noise and does not produce any exhaust.
This is why tent campsites allow solar generators; no noise or exhaust is produced when the solar panels are out gathering energy, or when the generation is occurring within the device.
We use ours all night this way and the most noise they produce is the equivalent to a laptop fan if the generator gets too warm for a little bit. This is why you should think of solar generators more as a battery when looking at campground rules, and less like a traditional generator.
How We Use Our Solar Generator in Tent Campsites We Camp At
We use our solar generator for a variety of purposes depending on where we’re camping and how we’re traveling. For every tent campsite stay however, we use ours to run LED string lights at night. We buy the ones that run off USB so we can plug them straight into the USB port of the solar generator. We use a few of them as they’re typically under $10 on Amazon, for 30ft of light!
We also use our solar generator in tent campsites to power a fan or heated blanket, depending on the weather. We camp in 20-30degree Fahrenheit weather a few times a year so we bought some USB powered electric blankets.
Some of them come with their own small power banks now, but we found the batteries the blankets come with don’t last through the night when you need the blanket on a higher power setting.
As many tent campsites don’t have electricity, having the solar generator in those sites to help keep warm is a huge help to sleeping through the night.
And when on longer trips, we also use our solar generator to power our 12v fridge at our tent campsites.
Ours is a Euhomy fridge and uses about 45 watts when the compressor is on. If we happen to be at a tent campsite with power, we will use the power provided, but most of the time our sites don’t have it, or we intentionally chose sites that don’t because they’re cheaper.
In these cases, we use the solar generator to power the fridge in the tent campsite. It powers it through the night, and we charge it back up with solar panels during the day.
If you want more info on the thoughts and considerations when powering something larger, like a fridge, off your solar generator, check out the post below:
Can You Run a Solar Generator Inside a Tent?
Yes, you can even use your solar generator inside of your tent while you sleep. It is safe to do so for two main reasons. One, the generator is generating electricity from electrical energy. This generation process doesn’t produce any exhaust that would harm you. Two, there is no noise produced during this generation process, so you can have your solar generator on all night in your tent, or other enclosed space like a van or camper, and you will not be kept awake by the noise a traditional gas powered generator would make. We use ours all night in our tent, and when sleeping in our car, to power lights in the tent as well as a small fan during the hotter months.
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