A portable Solar Generator is a versatile off-grid energy system. Whether you’re out in the wilderness or far from an outlet, this portable battery can provide power via its AC outlet.
An Instant Pot uses pressure to cook and it needs electricity to create the heat to produce the pressure. Instant Pots use less electricity compared with other kitchen appliances. The average Instant Pot uses between 500 and 700 watts.
In this article, we look at how to size a solar generator for an instant pot and how long you can run the instant pot off a solar generator.
What Size Portable Solar Generator to Run an Instant Pot
Instant Pots are amazing pieces of kitchen equipment. You can cook virtually anything in them, and they’re so easy to use.
In order to match an appliance to a portable solar generator you need to match the appliance to the inverter rating of the solar generator. You need an inverter rating that is higher than the power rating of your appliance. For a 700-watt instant pot, you’ll need an inverter rating that is at least 800 watts. A solar generator that is close to this rating is a 1000-watt solar generator.
To run a 700-Watt Pressure Cooker you’ll need a 1,000-Watt Solar Generator. This Solar Generator will run the Pressure Cooker for 58 minutes. With the addition of a 300W solar panel, you can the Pressure Cooker for up to an hour and 14 minutes. This provides enough power to cook a variety of meals on the pressure cooker.
How Long Will a 1000-Watt Solar Generator Run a 700-watt Instant Pot
Electrical energy is measured in Watt-Hours. The length of time the pressure cooker operates determines how much power it uses. Watt-hours take into consideration the number of hours you will be running your Pressure Cooker.
To calculate Watt-Hours you multiply the Wattage of the device or appliance and multiply by the number of hours you use the device.
Watt-Hours = Watts X Hours
If you want to use a pressure cooker for 1 hour, you will need 700 Wh of energy.
To calculate the running time of a pressure cooker, you would use the following formula:
Running Time = Solar Generator Watt-hours/operating power of the device
For example to get the running time for a 700-watt pressure cooker
= (800*0.85)/700
= 0.97 hrs
1000 Watt-hours is enough to run the Instant Pot for around 58 minutes.
How long will the Solar Generator Last with a Solar Panel?
If you use the solar generator for 58 minutes to power your instant pot you will be depleting the full capacity of the solar generator. Adding a solar panel to the solar generator adds more capacity to run your appliances for longer.
A 300-Watt Solar Panel can fully charge a depleted battery in around 4 hours. This will depend on the time of day, and availability of sunlight. 4 hours is enough to produce 1000Wh but because of efficiency losses and overcast, this will probably reach to 5 hours.
With the extra 300 Watts coming to your solar generator, you add a couple of minutes of your running time:
With 300 watts
= (300*0.85)/700
= 0.36 hrs
With the solar panel hooked to the solar generator, you add 21 minutes to your running time to run the instant pot in 1 hr 19 minutes.
Different foods require different times to cook in the pressure cooker and different temperatures which will require less power. We’ve already calculated how much power you need to run an Instant Pot in an hour.
| Food | Time to Cook | Watt-hour Requirements |
| 1 hr | 700Wh | |
| Turkey Breast | 30 minutes | 350Wh |
| Beef Stew | 20 minutes | 233Wh |
| Rice Brown | 15 minutes | 175Wh |
| Potatoes | 10 minutes | 116Wh |
Note that a 5-minute pressure cooking recipe could take 10 minutes to come to pressure + 5 minutes to pressure cook + 10 to 30 minutes to release pressure = a total time of 25 to 45 minutes.
Conclusion
An Instant Pot is a great appliance to have off-grid. It consumes less energy and cooks efficiently compared to other types of electric cooking appliances. Because it uses steam to cook it can cook quite fast and can cook vegetables in under 3 minutes and stews in 15 to 20 minutes.