Portable Power Stations

[KevinC]

@KC1UA, once you learn the ins and outs of these they're even better.

 

[jeepsandradios]

Last month Jackery had some decent sales so we grabbed another but went to the 1000v2 this time. I plan to run my fridge and starlink in our Jeep for a trip across america in June. Our old Jackery worked ok on the fidge but in the extreme heat was basically dead last summer and would charge via Jeep all day to cover the night. We did end up bringing both in hotel each night at one point but that kinda defeated the idea of simple. The Jackery300 is still a go to box for around the house (charging phones on deck, etc) and goes with us on any short trips just to have it. My only complaint is the 1000 has alldifferent charger plugs than the 300 so my solar panels and DC cords wouldn't work. Ordered new adapters and cords.

 

[KevinC]

I just started an experiment, which may be completely useless, a bad idea and a waste of time, but you never know.

My electricity plan has free nights and weekends, so I decided to set up smart outlets to cut power to the EcoFlows that are hooked up to my fridge and downstairs entertainment (TV, cable box, soundbar, modem/router, Ooma and one small light) for the amount of time they will run the devices and return power once my free nights starts to charge them back up. I won't have any less electricity use because the batteries have to charge back up, but that will be done in my "free" period.

So I'll have about 4 hours on the entertainment and 7.5 on the fridge a day where I'll be "off the grid"

My quick calculation shows this may save me about $10 a month on my electric bill. Is it worth it? Probably not.

I nixed this project. Due to the goofy deregulation crap here I'm not saving as much as I thought I would. We can't "buy" electricity directly from the company that actually generates the power, so they charge the company we buy it from a "delivery charge" which is passed onto me. It's not included in the free nights and weekends so I end up paying to recharge the PPS anyway via the delivery charge. Which also means free night and weekends isn't a big deal. I should have known they would somehow get their money.

 

[KC1UA]

At this point this has become a new hobby for me.

After doing a substantial amount of research and watching countless YouTube videos, today I just finished building my own DIY power station. It's a small one, using a DCHOUSE 12.8V 150Ah LiFePO4 battery (1920 watt hours) and a 1500 watt pure sine wave inverter that got good reviews, brand name is Zetawale.



I managed to invoke the battery management system in it when hooking up a space heater, which in a way was a good test that it was actually working. The space heater ran initially at about 1560 watts for several seconds before the battery said "nope". Removing the load, the battery connections, and then re-connecting everything got me right back in business. There is a sufficient fuse attached at the positive battery terminal, and the thick cable is 2/0 AWG flexible welding cable cut to length. This is not quite as powerful as the Anker Solix C2000 Gen 2 I bought (and especially not now for reasons to follow) but it was a cool initial build and will surely come in handy for backup around the house. Everything is mounted on a printer stand. The battery terminals are a pain in the ass to get at so that's a design flaw, but as long as all runs well I won't have to touch them as both battery connections are going to 250 amp buss bars mounted on the side of the top shelf.

As to the improvement made on the Anker Solix C2000 Gen 2. More research and I wound up buying a Temgo brand 51.2 volt 100Ah LiFePO4 battery. These are intended for running golf carts but are also suitable for being set up in a power station configuration, or acting as an extension battery for pretty much any power station that can handle the volts and amps. The idea is that the power station is "dumb" and doesn't care what is connected to the solar input on it. This battery falls within the specs required for solar panel input for the Anker Solix, and the result is I now have well over 7000 watt hours of power available through the power station. This should do a nice job of powering refrigerator and other kitchen appliances for an extended period of time. The only downside of this is that it is not a smart connection from battery to power station, but not a big deal as the battery has an external display and a pretty decent bluetooth app to keep track of its status. It also came with an 18 amp charger.

Everything can be charged with the WEN inverter generator that runs off of propane. Short of a well placed EMP I should be able to run off-grid indefinitely in the event of a longer term outage.

Even with the extra expense of buying the welding cable, lug connectors, crimper, and various other tools to get me started I still paid less than I did for the Anker Solix C2000 Gen 2. The Temgo battery was a bit of an expense but far cheaper and with far more capacity than the Anker Solix brand add on batteries, which are really expensive.

My wife rolls her eyes and thinks I'm nuts (and is quite likely correct), tongue in cheek, but she has seen the benefits of using these devices and will appreciate the results when they need to be put to use.

Oh, and instead of using the Anker Solix C1000 for running the radios in my shack, I now have a Dyness 12.8V 100Ah LiFePO4 battery in place to do that. One quick disconnect switch and it is inline in place of my Astron RS20A and will run most of the radios in the shack (receive only) for about 24 hours.

Fun stuff!

 

[KevinC]

At this point this has become a new hobby for me.

After doing a substantial amount of research and watching countless YouTube videos, today I just finished building my own DIY power station. It's a small one, using a DCHOUSE 12.8V 150Ah LiFePO4 battery (1920 watt hours) and a 1500 watt pure sine wave inverter that got good reviews, brand name is Zetawale.

View attachment 196806View attachment 196807View attachment 196808

I managed to invoke the battery management system in it when hooking up a space heater, which in a way was a good test that it was actually working. The space heater ran initially at about 1560 watts for several seconds before the battery said "nope". Removing the load, the battery connections, and then re-connecting everything got me right back in business. There is a sufficient fuse attached at the positive battery terminal, and the thick cable is 2/0 AWG flexible welding cable cut to length. This is not quite as powerful as the Anker Solix C2000 Gen 2 I bought (and especially not now for reasons to follow) but it was a cool initial build and will surely come in handy for backup around the house. Everything is mounted on a printer stand. The battery terminals are a pain in the ass to get at so that's a design flaw, but as long as all runs well I won't have to touch them as both battery connections are going to 250 amp buss bars mounted on the side of the top shelf.

As to the improvement made on the Anker Solix C2000 Gen 2. More research and I wound up buying a Temgo brand 51.2 volt 100Ah LiFePO4 battery. These are intended for running golf carts but are also suitable for being set up in a power station configuration, or acting as an extension battery for pretty much any power station that can handle the volts and amps. The idea is that the power station is "dumb" and doesn't care what is connected to the solar input on it. This battery falls within the specs required for solar panel input for the Anker Solix, and the result is I now have well over 7000 watt hours of power available through the power station. This should do a nice job of powering refrigerator and other kitchen appliances for an extended period of time. The only downside of this is that it is not a smart connection from battery to power station, but not a big deal as the battery has an external display and a pretty decent bluetooth app to keep track of its status. It also came with an 18 amp charger.

Everything can be charged with the WEN inverter generator that runs off of propane. Short of a well placed EMP I should be able to run off-grid indefinitely in the event of a longer term outage.

Even with the extra expense of buying the welding cable, lug connectors, crimper, and various other tools to get me started I still paid less than I did for the Anker Solix C2000 Gen 2. The Temgo battery was a bit of an expense but far cheaper and with far more capacity than the Anker Solix brand add on batteries, which are really expensive.

My wife rolls her eyes and thinks I'm nuts (and is quite likely correct), tongue in cheek, but she has seen the benefits of using these devices and will appreciate the results when they need to be put to use.

Oh, and instead of using the Anker Solix C1000 for running the radios in my shack, I now have a Dyness 12.8V 100Ah LiFePO4 battery in place to do that. One quick disconnect switch and it is inline in place of my Astron RS20A and will run most of the radios in the shack (receive only) for about 24 hours.

Fun stuff!

Pretty sure I said it’s addicting. 😋

I use the external battery setup as well, but I use 12v ones. That will only let me charge at around 190 watts, but I just leave it connected and let the PPS decide how to use the energy.