Humless is introducing its new, portable Sentinel generator system, which is capable of running off of various renewable power sources, like photovoltaics, wind turbines, hydroelectric power and even off the AC power in homes. The device is intended as an alternative to generators that use fossil fuels for emergency situations or remote operations.

The $1,495 device consists of an Advanced Lithium+ battery, a charge controller and an inverter. The charge controller can handle inputs from multiple sources—simultaneously, like two-phase AC power from a wind turbine and DC power from a photovoltaic array, or even from a home’s AC power, said Humless General Manager St. John Holloway.

“Our home base is definitely with the emergency-based crowd. It’s like a power supply in your pantry,” Holloway said. “The simplicity of it—that helps people. It’s nothing to be scared of.”

Another important market for the device is in developing nations like those in Holloway’s home continent of Africa.

“We have a huge drive on corporate responsibility. We’re really pushing to provide power where there is no power,” he said. “We are working on providing specific systems that can be used off-grid.”

Such systems could support microfinance entities that need power, or power supplies for medical purposes or schools, according to Holloway.

“It’s basically electronically set up with certain dos and don’ts,” Holloway said. “With wind you’re dealing with much different factors than solar.”

The battery management system is designed to respond to sudden bursts in wind bursts and shut off charging from that device when it’s generating too much energy so it doesn’t affect internal components. Similarly it will recognize when too much energy is coming through a solar panel and will shut off charging when it is too powerful.

“It will accept different sources and recognize size,” Holloway said. “The product we’re talking about now, in its smallest form, starts off at 600 watt/hours.”

It can run a larger appliance—like a refrigerator—or several smaller appliances.

“In the next two months, it will be expandable to 2,400 watts hours, enough to use four major appliances,” he said.

That’s because the generator’s 1,000 watt inverter can handle loads of up to 2,000 watts. However, it still won’t be able to run a home’s HVAC system.

The generator will be expandable by daisy-chaining more batteries to the system, Holloway said.

“The expansion pack will have a design similar to the Sentinel unit,” he said.

The units will have DC-charging inputs and DC outputs, which will flow through the main unit, expanding the amount of power it can provide.

Image courtesy of Humless.