Anker f3800 with 48v batteries as backup.

[anandsalodkar]

Hi guys, long time lurker, first time poster. So after trying to convince my wife for years to invest in Solar and batteries, it finally took a hurricane and a week without power to bring her to the ‘sunny’ side of Solar. Here is system I have put together. My plan is to switch to a free nights plan from either TXU or Reliant and charge my solix + batteries at night. During the day, use the power stored in the F3800+the 2 48v server rack batteries and use a small Solar setup to supplement. The smart home panel will charge the F3800 and the EG4 Chargeverter will charge the 48v battries. At night I will kill a switch that connects the 48v battries from the F3800 if needed. If someone could look over my wiring diagram and tell me the many mistakes I have, which I’m sure I did. I would appreciate it a lot because without saying that I have not included proper size fuses yet, and will add them to every single possible point between devices.

In return, if anyone ever needs help with high school chemistry for their kids, I’d be more than happy to help. I high school chem teacher.

 

[roberty3k]

Hi!

I'm thinking about trying something similar to your setup. Did you end up building and testing it?

 

[anandsalodkar]

Yup… works like a charm. I am one day 3 of my setup. I have not added the Solar panels yet though. I ended up getting 2 7KW batteries from big battery for my first bank and 8 12v ecoflow trolling motor battries in a 2p4s configuration. Overall, I have about 30 kW of stored energy, which is enough for right now in Texas. Once the air conditioners start turning on, I will definitely need the solar panels.

 

[roberty3k]

Nice!

I'm hoping to setup 2x 48v 100aH batteries, connected to the xt60 ports on the F3800, and a 4kwh solar array to an MPPT to keep the batteries topped off during the day with whatever energy the F3800 isn't using.

 

[anandsalodkar]

Good luck! Do you already have the array set up?

 

[roberty3k]

Good luck! Do you already have the array set up?

Not yet, it's a solution I'm working on for family I have in another country, going through rough times with power and gasoline outages.
I already sent them the F3800 and it's helping a ton, but we need to increase capacity and generation, without having to rely on gasoline for the generator.

 

[Rustic]

I have 3 48v 100ah batteries and Growatt all in oine inverter that's a few years old. I recently purchased a F3800 and expansion battery. Since I bought the inverter and batteries I haven't had one power outage in my area, go figure. Now with EV's I switched to TOU plan. Buying a F3800 with HPP load shifting was a no brainer with tax credit. Hooking up batteries to solar port charges at 1150 watts. Anker is really behind Ecoflow in App management of the F3800 in setting charge levels etc. I connected directly to batteries and use a 30 AMP rail mount breaker.
My TOU plan only has peak and off peak 25/5 cents.

 

[Fordohio]

Enjoy reading your journey on setting up backup power. I just setup F3800 with smart panel and want to ad an additional battery. Any suggestions as to best choice here in Feb 25. Just getting started and don’t have a sense of best alternative to Anker battery.
Thanks for any suggestions

 

[brooksdbetts]

Hey All, I have a similar question/challenge with (2) F3800 plus units with the Home Power Panel. How do I charge both of these units when I have extended outage. I have been tossing around buying a pair of EG4 Chargeverters but they are $719 each and then use the Solar input. I already have a 11K Inverter Gas Generator that I was using with a Interlock on my main disconnect before I bought this setup. My hope is to be able to backfeed the Home Power Panel with the two F3800+ to charge them as if the generator is the Grid. The sinewave on my generator is pretty strong up to 7K. I called Anker support but they did not know...they referred me to an electrician and I called my electrician and he thought it would not hurt anything but had no idea if it would work. It is $6K of equipment so I am a bit nervous....anyone done this or know anything about it?

 

[brooksdbetts]

Nice!

I'm hoping to setup 2x 48v 100aH batteries, connected to the xt60 ports on the F3800, and a 4kwh solar array to an MPPT to keep the batteries topped off during the day with whatever energy the F3800 isn't using.

Did you end up doing this? I am not doing this yet but it crossed my mind to use a 3rd party battery and use the solar input port to offload from the external battery. Would love to know if you did this and how it worked.

 

[mjrkong]

Hey All, I have a similar question/challenge with (2) F3800 plus units with the Home Power Panel. How do I charge both of these units when I have extended outage. I have been tossing around buying a pair of EG4 Chargeverters but they are $719 each and then use the Solar input. I already have a 11K Inverter Gas Generator that I was using with an Interlock on my main disconnect before I bought this setup. My hope is to be able to backfeed the Home Power Panel with the two F3800+ to charge them as if the generator is the Grid. The sinewave on my generator is pretty strong up to 7K. I called Anker support but they did not know...they referred me to an electrician and I called my electrician and he thought it would not hurt anything but had no idea if it would work. It is $6K of equipment so I am a bit nervous....anyone done this or know anything about it?

I’ve been thinking about same setup for my HPP with OG non-plus F3800s. What do you think could be an issue with back-feeding HPP with a generator ? Only thing I can think of is HPP pulling too much power for charging and backup loads. But then wouldn’t it just trip the geny ?

Is Ankers suggestion to replace one F3800+ with generator adapter on the HPP and charge one at a time ? I think I saw that in their YouTube video.

 

[wwu123]

I’ve been thinking about same setup for my HPP with OG non-plus F3800s. What do you think could be an issue with back-feeding HPP with a generator ? Only thing I can think of is HPP pulling too much power for charging and backup loads. But then wouldn’t it just trip the geny ?

Is Ankers suggestion to replace one F3800+ with generator adapter on the HPP and charge one at a time ? I think I saw that in their YouTube video.

I believe folks have done this and it works to use a generator interlock to charge the F3800's via the HPP. But I think you want to put the interlock on the main panel (i.e the grid side input of the HPP), not the backup side. IIRC the HPP does not like to see power being backfed to it from the backup side, and will shut down or something, rather than taking in power from the backup side to charge the F3800.

So with the interlock on the main panel side, it looks like grid power to the HPP, and can use that to charge the F3800's. But there is one important difference, the CT's that measure grid input via the main feeders or breakers don't see the generator power, since the interlock is coming in from a branch breaker usually. So the self-consumption and TOU modes may not work properly. But you can manually bump up the Battery Reserve Level in the app, and force an immediate charge at max charge rate.

 

[roberty3k]

Did you end up doing this? I am not doing this yet but it crossed my mind to use a 3rd party battery and use the solar input port to offload from the external battery. Would love to know if you did this and how it worked.

I actually ended up going a different way. The components I wanted to use made the price similar to just doing an EG4 6000xp setup, so I sold the F3800 and went with that instead. It was prior to the price hikes.

 

[mjrkong]

I believe folks have done this and it works to use a generator interlock to charge the F3800's via the HPP. But I think you want to put the interlock on the main panel (i.e the grid side input of the HPP), not the backup side. IIRC the HPP does not like to see power being backfed to it from the backup side, and will shut down or something, rather than taking in power from the backup side to charge the F3800.

So with the interlock on the main panel side, it looks like grid power to the HPP, and can use that to charge the F3800's. But there is one important difference, the CT's that measure grid input via the main feeders or breakers don't see the generator power, since the interlock is coming in from a branch breaker usually. So the self-consumption and TOU modes may not work properly. But you can manually bump up the Battery Reserve Level in the app, and force an immediate charge at max charge rate.

Yes, it would have to be on the Grid side of the HPP, not the backup side. HPP won't backfeed the grid side unless it sees both Grid Up (which the generator should provide) AND CT input. It does charge batteries and pass-through grid power to the backup side even without CT input. That being said, once you turn off the generator, HPP will only power the backup side.

In my case, I don't have the backup subpanel. In Grid Up, HPP is backfeeding the main panel for TOU. During outages, I can turn off the main breaker, then swap HPP to the main panel connection from the grid to the backup side of HPP. That part works fine. For extended outages, I was thinking of connecting a generator directly into the grid side of the HPP to have it recharge the F3800s and still keep the backup side working.

 

[brooksdbetts]

Yes, it would have to be on the Grid side of the HPP, not the backup side. HPP won't backfeed the grid side unless it sees both Grid Up (which the generator should provide) AND CT input. It does charge batteries and pass-through grid power to the backup side even without CT input. That being said, once you turn off the generator, HPP will only power the backup side.

In my case, I don't have the backup subpanel. In Grid Up, HPP is backfeeding the main panel for TOU. During outages, I can turn off the main breaker, then swap HPP to the main panel connection from the grid to the backup side of HPP. That part works fine. For extended outages, I was thinking of connecting a generator directly into the grid side of the HPP to have it recharge the F3800s and still keep the backup side working.

This is exactly what I am talking about. Interlock would be on the Grid side of the HPP. I don't have my clothes dryer or electric oven on my backup panel, but that is okay. If I start the generator and it will provide power to the whole house and charge the (2) F3800s. If I need to run the dryer or oven, I will do it with the Generator Running. Then when I am done with the heavy loads and the F3800s are up to full charge, I shut down the generator and we go back to battery only. This will be a great system in the case of a multi-day power outage and be much less on the generator over a 24-hour period. Living in rural Maine we tend to get multiple 24 hour or more events every year. Last year had (2) +/-4-day outages and probably (6) 24-hour or more total.