Bluetti AC500 w/B300K battery for our home backup/supplement system install and review

I guess it thinks it an external source when the 48V pack is installed. No PV or AC power. And it would not shutdown. The Pecron does, as its a direct battery to battery connection. Bluetti external ports connects to the BMS. It shuts down once its disconnected, But dummy me has to remember.

I've just been keeping the power station as a UPS since I've added the 48V pack so it hasn't been an issue.

 

Data from 3-11-25. Wish I could figure out screen capture of savings. Will post a report pic at months end. But it's at $3.87 as of 3-11-2025. Waiting on some PV wire to increase the PV closer to 1 KWh then get the 2 new panels mounted and wired in to increase to 2 KWh.



This is the month of March day totals so far for energy saving stats. 3-6-25 is when I started to run it 24/7 for better data. Ignore 3-12-25(only a partial day)!!

 

The app is on my android phone.

 

Got my server rack battery today. Will post an update once I have it on the cart inline with the other batterys. I think I might ditch the cart idea and actually purchase a server rack as I do plan on one more server rack battery next year. But for now, The cart will have to do! Pic's to come!

 

Someone asked: Why I added another battery?! So here is what I have gathered on it!

How to configure overall battery storage!

Multiply the panel watts x the hours of expected sun. Then remove approx watts consumed by the inverter per hour. Then add the amount of storage you plan on saving for power outage/backup!!

Example:
2 540 watt panels(1080 watts) x 5(approx. hours of sun) = 5400 watts
4 540 watt(2160 watts) x 5 = 10800 watts(my next upgrade for this year!!).

So my current set up requires 5400 watts minus 2300(460 watts x 5) watts or 3100 watts to buffer incoming solar as once the batteries
are full. You clip off(lose) the unused incoming solar!! You don't want to waste any precious solar!!

Then I want a reserve of at least 10 hours of usage! 460 watts x 10 = 4600 watts.
So 3100 watts of buffer and 4600 watts of storage = 7700 wh's total.

With one Bluetti B300K(2764.8 wh's) and 1 48V(5120 wh's) battery. I had 7884.8 wh's. OK for the 2 panels, But not enough for the additional panels i plan to add shortly!

Once I add another 1080 watts of panels I'll need 8500 watts of available battery space or risk losing some solar!! Then add the reserve of 4600 watts.
So 8500 watts of buffer and 4600 watts of storage = 13100 wh's total.
With 1 Bluetti B300K(2764.8 wh) and 2 5120 (10240 wh's) 48V batteries. I'll have 13004 wh's which does not leave any room for the inverter consumption. So I will likely lose a bit of the 4600 watts for backup!

Next years upgrade of 2 to 4 panels will also require additional battery storage or risk losing solar!!

 

Being grid tied has its perks! No worries on buying batteries or dealing with system balance to fit the days worth of rays! Batteries have been the biggest expense of my system. And trying to figure out all the stuff like SOC ect! Much less grey hair!

I'm getting there, Once the sun hits the west facing surface of the garage roof. I'm like "wish I had some panels on this side too". I do see some panels going there at some point. There's at least 3 hours of good sun.

 

Gave that a try bb and it worked! I'll do it again at the end of the month to show my approx savings.

 

Didn't get much sun yesterday. Just let it charge the batteries as they said high wind warning for today. Sure enough power dropped out around 8:00 AM. Luckily I switched the box back on before bed and it did what it needed to do. Power and internet were our about 2 hours(came back around 10:15) and I still had 75% battery left. Suns out, powers back up and recharging. Just gonna let it ride in case we get another whoops in power again.

Priceless and not a worry when its on and providing back up. Me be happy!!

 

Screen shot of the months worth. A little less than expected but lots of cloudy rainy days. But its a good start to the adventure. Need to get more panels!

 

I like this more better! Server rack came in yesterday and with todays meh weather, I got it done! Looks better to me(I even get a junk tray to store the odds and ends/spare stuff). But we see what you all say? Got to clean up my mess next to it and then I can move it over and neaten up the wires a bit. I've got room now for 3 more batteries in the future. Hope to catch another rack battery on sale sometime this summer. That will give me 10Kwh of storage.

Next up is mount the 4 panels I picked up and mount them on the garage roof.