Solar Black Friday: Anker’s Solarbank 2 AC Slashed to €899 & More Deals!

Even though it might not seem like the ideal season for thinking about solar installations, Black Friday week presents a perfect opportunity to equip yourself at a reduced cost. Whether you’re looking to add a few solar panels on your balcony or in your garden, or if you’re considering smoothing out your power usage with home battery systems, here are some of the best current deals.

Solar Panels

A great way to start with solar technology is by purchasing a ready-to-use panel that simply plugs into an outlet in your home. It starts generating power as soon as the sun rises and immediately begins powering your devices through the included micro-inverter. I have personally tested Beem’s 500 W solar panel which is currently on sale for 365€, down from 429€. After a year and a half of use, it’s still performing excellently, the built-in stand is sturdy, and I have no complaints, especially given its very competitive price.

Other French manufacturers offer similar deals, such as Sunology, which has reduced the price of its PLAY2 kit with a comparable power output (460 Wc) by 100€, now priced at 499€ instead of 599€. Their range also includes the Play Max, which features a small battery and is currently priced at 599€, down from 699€.

One naturally pays a bit more for the pre-assembled stand and the box that plugs into the socket, which measures production and sends the data to a proprietary app. However, this integration is a valuable advantage for beginners. If you’re starting out, remember that there are certain regulations to follow in France, and you can find all the details in this article.

Home Batteries

The drawback of solar panels directly connected to your home’s electrical network is that if you don’t use the electricity as it’s produced, it will be “lost”. More precisely, it will be sent back to the public grid and used by your neighbors, which isn’t ideal for maximizing the return on your investment. This is why the next step involves adding home batteries that store the surplus solar energy typically generated during the day, to be used in your home when the sun has set, such as during the evening.

Anker offers a range of products in this category with the SOLIX devices, which I have also been testing for over a year. The Solarbank 2 AC can manage multiple panels and can also charge from the home, which is useful in winter to store energy during off-peak hours and reduce consumption during peak times. This 1.6 kWh battery is currently on sale for 899€, down from 1,299€, and you can add additional modules to increase storage by 1.6 kWh each time. Each additional battery costs 699€, down from 899€, and you can add up to five modules for a total of 9.6 kWh.

Since then, Anker has updated its range with the Solarbank 3, which stores more energy and improves on several other features. This new generation is also on promotion, priced at 1,099€ instead of 1,299€ for the base unit that includes a 2.68 kWh battery, and 799€ instead of 899€ for additional modules of the same capacity. Regardless of the model you choose, you’ll need an Anker smart meter to monitor your home’s energy consumption and precisely manage the energy produced and injected. This meter is priced at 109.65€ instead of 129 during Black Friday, though it is sometimes offered for free (currently the case with the Solarbank 3).

Zendure is a specialized manufacturer with a similar concept, and its SolarFlow products are also currently on promotion. On Amazon, the kit with the base model Hyper 2000, a 1.9 kWh battery, and four solar panels for a total theoretical solar production of 1,720 W is being sold for 911€, down from 1,359€. It’s a great way to have an almost complete solution; you’ll just need a connected meter, and coincidentally, the Pro EM-50 from Shelly is also on promotion, priced at 60€ instead of 89. I have been using these products for about a year, without a solar connection, but everything also works very well.

On its website, the manufacturer offers many other promotional deals, including its latest generation products, the Solarflow 2400. Their major advantage is managing a much higher charge and discharge power, up to 2.4 kW in both directions, which can cover high consumption appliances like heating in winter. The base kit with 2.88 kWh of storage is priced at 1,199€, down from 1,798€, 2,038€ instead of 2,997€ for a kit with an additional module and 5.76 kWh of storage, or even 5,394€ instead of 7,793€ for a massive storage capacity of 17.28 kWh, enough to cover the daily needs of many homes.

Lastly, Ecoflow has a range of home storage batteries, and they are also currently on promotion. The Stream AC Pro, a base module with 1.92 kWh of storage and a capacity of 1.2 kW in both directions, is priced at 713€, down from 899€. Several kits are also available depending on your needs, and you can combine multiple units and manage them together via the manufacturer’s app. For larger needs, Ecoflow also markets the Stream Ultra, which enhances the power (2.8 kW in solar inputs, 2.3 kW output) and the base capacity (3.84 kWh), and is sold for 1,399€ instead of 1,499€. You can also add four solar panels for a total of about 2,000 W: then count 1,969€ instead of 2,279€.