A Generator That Uses Solar Power To Silently Charge All Ones Electronics And Appliances While On An RV Trip.
RV campgrounds can provide the luxury of a modern home. But many RV owners are looking for something a bit more adventurous and off grid. While the beauty of traveling by RV is the ability to traverse the great outdoors and escape the hustle and bustle of society, a good amount of RVers are still looking to use their electronics and appliances.
When away from their campground hook-ups, RV travelers do not want to use all of their fuel or disturb the peacefulness around them with a loud generator.
Goal Zero's Yeti Solar Generators are made for that exact situation. “At night, you want to look up at the stars, be near a campfire,” explains Norm Karandz, Vice President of Innovation at Goal Zero. “You don't want a generator going [since maybe] you [just] want to watch television or turn on a light to read. You can do it silently without the sounds of a generator, since [our product] is a battery. There's no engine noise.”
The Yeti comes in three different models. The smallest generator has a 150 watt hour battery life and - at just 12 pounds – is easy and convenient for travel. This model is often used to charge a laptop, a phone or a few lights. The Yeti 400, by comparison, is twice the size, with more than twice the power. The largest model has a 1250 watt hour battery life and can run a freezer along with other large appliances and power tools. The difference between Yeti and common generators is that the Yeti will only use the amount of watts required (for example 5 or 10 watts for a phone charge) instead of wasting power.
RV campers can charge up the Yeti at a standard campsite, preparing it for the adventure ahead. How a big advantage is that it can be charged via solar reserves…which assures RV owners that they won’t be without basic energy, even in dire situations.
“We have a great team of electrical engineers that just nerd out on this stuff,” continues Karandz. “We just really dig into it.” As the VP of Innovation, Karandz follows production from birth to launch, compiling what user needs might be, what problems they can solve and how the product looks.
Describing himself as “pretty outdoorsy,” the position at Goal Zero is a dream job for Karandz, who grew up backpacking through Hawaii. With his moniker as “a product guy,” Karandz recalls failing tests because he was at home making gadgets instead of studying. Helping create gadgets for the outdoors is a perfect match for Karandz.
The journey with Karanz at Goal Zero started 7 years ago. At that time, Goal Zero founder Robert Workman was searching the world, looking for ways he could help people. The worst place, he found, to do business in was the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa which he visited. One thing Workman realized was that many people had no lights.
“In Africa it is pitch black [as in] completely dark when the sun goes down,” said Karandz. “That's it. [Nothing]. A lot of bad things can happen in the dark…some very scary things. On top of that nobody can work. Kids can't study. Everything just shuts down.”
Karandz knows first-hand. He visited these villages in the Congo three years ago. He helped set up solar panels there with Workman. He remembers standing in the backyard of where he was staying, looking out at the African plains, watching a young girl walk down a path with a pot on her head, traveling to get water for her village. A part of him longed to stay there seeing the simplicity of existence.
“It was one of the coolest things I've done,” he explains. “It was so neat when we put solar on a house and flipped the lights on one night. They'd been using kerosene before that – which makes people go blind. Just [to be able to] flip on a switch [and bring light]... was really, really cool.”
Through these and other experiences, Karandz, Workman and other Goal Zero employees realized that people all over the world, even in the United States, want solar powered products, all for different reasons. Work-shopping their implementation all over the world proved their business to be more sustainable, which is also a big selling factor.
“We were a cause looking for a business. Not a business looking for a cause. That's what Robert always said,” Karandz concludes.
Equipped with a Yeti solar generator in hand, backpackers and adventurous RVers can journey on extended hikes while still bringing along those basic power needs. They can read by light inside of their tent or outside, silent except for the sounds of nature all around them. Meanwhile, halfway around the world, a child in the Congo powers a light by their bed, allowing them to study for a better future. This is the “solar life” that Goal Zero swears by.
Olivia Richman
A graduate of East Connecticut State University in Journalism, Olivia has written for Stonebridge Press & Antiques Marketplace among others. She enjoys writing, running and video games.
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Goal Zero, who's mission is to put reliable power into every human hand on this earth, without overwhelming our resources.