Building an emergency power system with used panels

[Frank F]

Looking at options to build a system for power outages during hurricanes that will run a 5000 btu window AC, small fridge and charge cellphones and tablets. Originally was thinking maybe a delta 2 max with 4 200 watt panels... would that be enough to run a small AC through the night? another option is using 35v/ 200w used panels which I can buy as many as I need locally for $50 each but it seems the delta 2 max wouldn't be able to handle 4 of those because of the voltage so looking for suggestions on a system I could build that would utilize those panels. Thanks!

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Size of the project doesn't matter. First step is an energy audit. See the links in line #1 of my signature.

Running even a small A/C unit overnight is well beyond the capability of anything like the Ecoflow. The Ecoflow you reference might be able to run A/C for about 4 hours and absolutely nothing else. Unlikely it will be able to start the A/C compressor without overloading as motor surge is easily 5X the run current.

 

[Frank F]

I have the ecoflow on order, I will be testing it to see what it can handle and if it can't do it I will likely return it, but after that I will know exactly how much power the AC requires overnight, when you account for cycling

 

[zanydroid]

You’ll only get info on average power draw if it can actually start the AC. Otherwise the only piece of info you get is probably that it’s surge is too much for the Ecoflow. Not sure what you’re going to do with that, you could get that directly with a clamp meter with less investment (granted, you can probably return the eco flow, but that’s an inefficient use of research time unless your personal learning style doesn’t work well with test equipment ).

 

[sunshine_eggo]

AC clamp ammeter with an INRUSH function will measure surge reliably.

 

[Frank F]

The ecoflow ran the AC fine. It was cycling between 450-50 volts, so if you set a temp that only requires compressor 50% of the time you could get 7 hours or so

 

[Brucey]

The ecoflow ran the AC fine. It was cycling between 450-50 volts, so if you set a temp that only requires compressor 50% of the time you could get 7 hours or so

Sounds like you are keeping the Delta 2 Max?