Battery Station for Pellet Stove

I have a Champion 3500 watt genny that the UPS likes just fine as well. Just a regular one, not an inverter type.

 

Oh cool - that has a solar Panel Charger available. That would have been perfect if I wasn't already on the Ryobi bandwagon.

 

I jumped into the Residential Solar thread. In early pages I joined the discussions about cost, contractors, changing installation dates etc. About page 7, pst #123 I started documenting the install. I try to update my experience every once in a while so people can get the "real world, real user" experience.

You can use the power if the main grid goes down IF you have it installed that way. But, you can't rely on power being produced in winter (I've had days of nearly zero production this month) so you would need to have a battery back up system. I believe those systems qualify for the fed tax credits too but it was just too expensive for me to consider (NH doesn't have incentives, while other states do).

 

I have that too......JIC.

 

And even if you remember there is land outside the pellet pen, some of the stuff gets buried so quickly (or is in a weird spot), that is can still be difficult even with a search.

 

I have seen companies that have battery backup systems that can be used with or without solar.
Emphases is one, I think Sunrun is another. There may be more, but I have not looked too much.

 

I didn't run it to shut off but all the numbers looks like it would come in just under 4 hours of run time as is estimated as it began running. It ran for 1:45 and still said 63% left.
I then confirmed I could use it with my Kobalt modified unit to extend that even further and that looks to work as well.

 

SWEET

It looks like you did get the one you had posted before. Is that the big one or the smaller one? Looks like one is ~$200 and the other around $1100.

 

It is the smaller 300watt unit. I got it for about $140 as there was a $40 coupon at the time.

 

I was originally going to look at about a 600watt unit but there wasn't a lot of experience talked about here with them. Saw this deal as an experiment and it turned out very well. I can do what I intend with what I have now. But may still get a bigger one. More likely I will forgo a bigger one and get another small one when a deal comes up to give me a bit more flexibility.

 

ups's are set up for lead acid charging, you could rig a lifepo4 into it but you will not get the proper charge profile for it.
It won't destroy it but you may not want it "floating" a charge since lifepo's are not designed like that.
With that said, I run a lifepo in my camper on the original PDU and let it charge my battery when I'm using the camper.
When it gets low though I connect the victron charger to it with the proper voltage profile and top it off.

 

I work in data center infrastructure. I would advise against changing battery chemistry’s with a purpose built unit like a ups. That device and associated chips and firmware are built to work with what it came with. Mine is like yours, older style heavy sealed agm lead acid.

Better to look for a new unit with the battery type you want. Some exciting things in battery tech the last few years and down the road.

 

Jay....(IF MEMORY SERVES) I think the front plastic cover pops off on those and underneath is a metal plate. I think there's two screws that hold that plate/cover on. Once you remove it, unplug the plug for the batteries and slide them out. We had a few of those units at work long ago and swapped batteries all the time in them. Easy peasy. If you buy two loose batteries just swap over the plug and fused link from the old batts to the new and you'll be off and running.

 

Over the summer I was a busy girl getting a couple of smaller battery stations and some portable solar panels. I've gotten every one of them on a really good sale, plus can usually find a coupon code. They are available a lot of places (Amz, EBA, their website etc)

I now have two Bluetti AC180's and 2 PV350 folding solar panels. I got the first set back in July, then just got the second set. These are about 1100 wh and strong enough to run most stuff in the house. Although on paper, they should also run my 1,000w microwave, for whatever reason my nuker doesn't like them. but they do run the dishwasher, washing machine. I ran my double window fans every summer morning using stored solar energy. The PV350 solar panels are easy set up and I really like them. The AC180 are about 25 pounds each, so not bad to mover around the house.

Oscal 700. this is a small, non-lifpo battery but it also ran a double window fan all summer. It also charges my phones and Kindle. It charges very slowly, so when it is due I either hook it into a wall socket, or will pass-thru charge it from one of my other units while they are solar charging. This is nice a light weight.

Ecoflow Delta 2 Max, which IS compatible with my microwave and it lives in my kitchen to do just that (and runs dishwasher and coffee pot). It is just over 2 kwh and will run pretty much anything that is 120v. I also got the EF bifacial 220 solar panels. They work well but I hate setting them up (in fact, I got the second Bluetti PV350 because of that). Of course I'm a spaz and others love their 220 panels. The D2M comes in at about 50 pounds so is probably at the height of what I consider "portable".

I thought about getting a larger station, but then it wouldn't truly be portable and I'd end up running it of the house electricity - which is fine for some people. I don't want to do that.

And, of course, I have the trusty Ryobi battery pack which is actually stronger than any of them (and has been used to run some power saws for the crew that worked on my back porch since there is no electricity back there). I charged the 40v 6ah batteries off ieither the AC 180 or D2M.

No, not saving any money but am getting a bunch of practice with all of the stuff in case of another power outage