Found a decent video explaining these portable power stations and solar generators

I did not watch it yet but wouldn't a solar generator actually be an inverter ??

 

He addresses that at about the 3 minute mark.

I believe I watched his video and used his spreadsheet last summer to help me understand some stuff before buying my first station. I was happy to see that this is an updated video.

At the 5:30 mark, he does some math about how to figure out the watt hours needed to run a couple of items and uses that divided into the stations rated wh. He makes a side mention about efficiency and he should have put way more emphasis on it - most people are surprised when they only get about 80% of the output (and if you run small loads on larger stations, it gets worse - large loads on large stations are better). I understand he gets into that further into the video, but I would bet a lot of people don't get that far.

I didn't watch until the solar panel stuff. From what I see on FB pages, a lot of people get small panels for large units and cna't understand why the charging won't keep up. The brands don't help because their "bundles" many times feature a 100w or 200w panel. The price looks great but if you're trying to charge a 3kw machine, that just ain't going to happen.

The prices he shows were from a couple of months ago. During prime days, they were way lower for at least some of the EF and Bluetti units. When you get ready to buy, Google around for different sites because some will have great sales going on while others won't (and that can change from week to week). You can usually find coupon codes that will work with Amazon, ebay or the oem website - I got an EF Delta Pro during Prime days for $1,850 because I used a coupon code that worked on top of the sale price. Make sure to buy from the oem website, an authorized reseller, or the oem Amazon/ebay stores to get the max warranty upon registration (some will add up to 3 extra years if bought thru their authorized channels).

If you do decide to buy an EF or Bluetti, feel free to message me if you want a price check or want to check for a code - I'm usually fairly hooked into those things thru their FB pages.

Eh, I've probably yacked way more than you want to read so I'll leave it at that. But, I'll be happy to answer questions about the units I have or my experiences.

 

While most lithium batteries can handle being used in cold temps, a lithium battery can be destroyed if you try to charge it when the battery cells are under 25ºF. SOME HAVE low temp protection . SOme don't. Some say they do, but if you cut the battery open and look for a sensor either connected to the BMS or on the BMS, they don't. There are guys cutting some of the standalone batteries open, not only to check for temperature sensors but to inspect construction and what BMS they are using. Will Prowse was doing this for a while.

It's usually cheaper to over panel rather than invest in a tracker.

 

I didn’t watch the whole video so I’m not sure whether he touched on it or not, but solid state battery options are starting to hit the market

 

It shouldn't take much. I have some plant heat mats with thermostats and that is probably good enough with a box. Of course we don't get a lot of really cold weather here close to Buzzards Bay.

 

Plant heat mat with a rigid foam lined box.

I have no trouble keeping my AC180s or Delta 2 Max solar charged with a couple of 320w panels at this time of year. The D2M has two separate 500w inputs, so I attach a panel to each. The AC180 has one 500w input, so I parallel the two panels t the unit.

I didn't even try to run the units during the deep of winter - just kept them as emergency backups. But, I only had folding panels at that time which weren't weather proof.

The larger the unit, the more input it can take. My Delta Pro can take 1,600w. the DPU and Delta 3 can take in a massive amount that I don't even want to think about - those really are whole home solutions.

BTW, although you probably already know this, when looking at solar panels, the important number is the VOC - you need to keep that below the volts the unit will take (I think most are at 11-60v).

 

Watts and amps are pulled by the unit. So even if the panels in parallel produce say 1000w the unit will only pull the 500w it can use. Same with Amps. the VOC (Open Circuit Voltage) MUST stay under the max volts in allowed because those are pushed. Volts are added together when in series. Also, the VOC is measured for the panel specs at something like 75*. When it is colder, panels will produce more volts than the rating states. There are calculators out there there that can tell you what the max volts will be produced according to your low temps - so then you can figure out how many panels you can place in series.

For a lot of mid-sized power stations (under 3,000 kwh) will take up to 60v for solar charging - truly small stations may take even less. So using the 60v max and this panel with a VOC of 40.3



you cannot have any more than 1 panel in series (I know that sounds strange). But you can have 2 or more in parallel. So, if I put two in parallel, that would be referred to as 1S2P.

For larger stations, like my Delta Pro (over 3kwh), the solar charge port can take up to 150v (huge stations will go even higher). For the above panel I could have 3 in series and then also parallel if I wanted. BUT: If the panels I had were 50VOC - I could only do 2 in series as the danger of going over 150v at cooler temps is an issue.

Remember: I have a house solar system that is net metered. I do not have battery storage for that (at the time, it would have cost more than my entire installed system). For 8 months out of the year I rack up credits with the power company and only pull from the grid at night for my lights, fridge and AC (when in use). Most of the big usage is during the day while I am pulling in energy from the rooftop solar so I am not pulling from the grid.

I run my microwave, dishwasher, coffee maker, washing machine, window fans etc by solar charged battery packs. I also use the packs to charge Ryobi batteries, my phone and tablet. I got the battery packs as backup solutions for power outages, and have made it a hobby to use them every day. Plus, since I already have the equipment, I might as well use it and be intimately familiar with it when I do lose power so I'm not scrambling trying to figure things out.

 

I bought an Anker 2600 at Home Depot with a coupon back in April and bought 2 additional panels from the company so I have 4 panels for 800 watts. I haven't used in a test yet, I charged and put it my Faraday bag. I still have my gasoline jenny and fuel also.

 

Make sure to keep up with the storage directions. A lot of people forget to do so and the brick the unit because it sat without charge for too long. That is true of all major brands that I know of that use LPO4 units.

 

Does your bud insist on pronoun use too ?

People call the things solar generators and pretty much everyone in the world knows what you're talking about.
Same with hot water heaters.