Hello! I’ve been thinking and reading for a while on a power station project. While the prospect of a DIY sounds both fun and rewarding, I’ve decided that a “portable” solar generator may be the way to go for me. I love the portability of a unit like the AC200 max or Ecoflow as I would get a lot more use out of it rather than just a UPS/battery backup sitting around my garage. At the cost of one of these puppies I probably can’t do a solar generator AND a power wall project. I’m not against like an EP500 or a delta Pro but those units really push the boundaries of “portable”. I’d love to use an AC200 for example as I wish and tote it around but if I need to, place it in the garage as a 2000w power station home backup. At is max though 6 kWh will last under 3 hours running near the full 2k watts. 2k watts is plenty but the capacity ( 6k ) is not enough to carry my home for a day even running minimal items as my whole home is electric. Yes I understand my big consumers ( HVAC, H20, dryer ) are a no go.
My goals are a portable unit BUT I would like the availability to set it in the garage and use a transfer switch for home backup. The issue is that the kWh just aren’t where they need to be even with the expansion batteries as Bluetti for example maxes out at just over 6kwh. Not to mention it would cost a small fortune. While they are very nice and beautiful units I feel that 2 kWh expansion batteries are pretty pricey for the WH you get. I understand they have individual BMS and Solar charge controllers built in which you pay for. I’ve watched many Will Prowse videos and Jahugargia and done a lot of internet browsing and found that MUCH bigger batteries are FAR cheaper than the nice expansion batteries they sell. As an example the EG4 batteries seem like a solid choice. I saw a video where JahuGarcia used a battery to simulate solar panels and an EP500 charged at 1200 watts basically expanding his capacity by 5 kWh. He didn’t go into detail on how he made the connections and I feel like the solar input maximum limits in these units are set to prevent people using stand alone batteries AS solar panels or expanding the units that way. Bluetti AC200 max only takes 900 watts as an example. The AC300 is impressive but good luck getting one apparently.
I was wondering if anybody had any decently easy way to expand one of these units with a stand alone battery-
OR how to wire a stand alone battery to act as a solar panel setup-
OR ideas on how to expand this system beyond 6 kWh.
I’m pretty handy and have a novice level of understanding on solar setups so please go easy on me. Glad to be here and I look forwards to reading ALOT and trying to learn from this great community.
Jim
My goals are a portable unit BUT I would like the availability to set it in the garage and use a transfer switch for home backup. The issue is that the kWh just aren’t where they need to be even with the expansion batteries as Bluetti for example maxes out at just over 6kwh. Not to mention it would cost a small fortune. While they are very nice and beautiful units I feel that 2 kWh expansion batteries are pretty pricey for the WH you get. I understand they have individual BMS and Solar charge controllers built in which you pay for. I’ve watched many Will Prowse videos and Jahugargia and done a lot of internet browsing and found that MUCH bigger batteries are FAR cheaper than the nice expansion batteries they sell. As an example the EG4 batteries seem like a solid choice. I saw a video where JahuGarcia used a battery to simulate solar panels and an EP500 charged at 1200 watts basically expanding his capacity by 5 kWh. He didn’t go into detail on how he made the connections and I feel like the solar input maximum limits in these units are set to prevent people using stand alone batteries AS solar panels or expanding the units that way. Bluetti AC200 max only takes 900 watts as an example. The AC300 is impressive but good luck getting one apparently.
I was wondering if anybody had any decently easy way to expand one of these units with a stand alone battery-
OR how to wire a stand alone battery to act as a solar panel setup-
OR ideas on how to expand this system beyond 6 kWh.
I’m pretty handy and have a novice level of understanding on solar setups so please go easy on me. Glad to be here and I look forwards to reading ALOT and trying to learn from this great community.
Jim
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