Jackery technical support has been great at answering questions as I try to figure out the optimal configuration for my house. Since at this time there isn't a lot of Explorer 5000 information out there yet, I thought I'd share the answers I've been getting. As of right now I have an E5000 and the Smart Transfer Switch, but haven't installed yet as I'm waiting on a permit from my AHJ.
1. Total Solar Input: The E5000 has three solar inputs: two DC8020 Low Voltage ("Low PV") inputs capable of up to 60V @ 10.5 amps, and a set of MC4 connectors ("High PV") capable of a range of 135-450 volts at up to 15 amps. However, those are the ranges, and not representative of the total maximum input. The Jackery charging system is capable of handling a maximum of up to 4,300 watts total.
2. No Excess Solar Throughput: Solar is used for charging batteries. If all the batteries are already full, what happens to any excess solar input? It ends up being wasted. The solar input doesn't get on-the-fly converted to AC output. The batteries' storage is converted to AC output, and as the battery is drawn down, the solar can replace what's been used, but only up to the battery's capacity. If you're ending up with full batteries and wasted solar, that's probably a good sign your solar array is oversized for your current situation, and you could use more batteries and increase the number of circuits the E5000 is powering to optimize your configuration.
3. Battery Charging Time: The E5000 has a 5kWh battery, and multiple possible inputs: HV solar, LV solar, AC wall power, and a direct connection to the Jackery Smart Transfer Switch, and it can use all these sources to charge the battery simultaneously (for example, if you had the AC wall power plugged in, that will deliver around 1800 watts, if you had an external DC source like a Chargeverter connected to the LV inputs that can deliver up to 1200 watts, and if you had a solar array on the HV inputs it could pull in wattage from there too). However, regardless of how many power sources you have and how much wattage they can deliver, the maximum charging wattage is 4300 watts. This applies for internal and external batteries. So with 4300 watts available to it, the Jackery can recharge its internal battery from 0 to 100% in 1.7 hours.
4. Charging Expansion Batteries: The E5000 has its own proprietary expansion battery, the 5kWh Jackery Battery Pack 5000 Plus (JBP5K for short). This is the only expansion battery that works with the Explorer 5000 Plus, and this battery works only with the Explorer 5000 Plus. You can connect up to five expansion batteries to an E5000. They all get charged by the same 4300 watt charging system in the E5000. As such, if you had a fully maxxed out system (J5000 + five external JBP5K batteries) and they were all completely empty, it would take just over 10 hours to charge them all to 100% if you had full power input (such as from the Smart Transfer Switch, or from maximized solar input). That would be 30kWh of storage.
5. Third Party Batteries: It is assumed unlikely that any third party battery manufacturer will be making an alternative expansion battery that uses the proprietary Jackery connection and communication protocol that the JBP5K uses. However, you could make use of an external battery to a limited degree, through the two Low PV inputs. Each input is capable of a maximum of 600W, so an external battery such as a server rack battery could feed each Jackery 5000 up to 1200 watts. A large battery like an EG4 or Ruixu Wallmount could recharge an E5000 almost three times overnight, keeping 1.2kWh of electrical service going for around 14 hours until the sun comes up or the grid comes back on. That's not a ton of power, but considering that competitors like the Anker F3800 only provide a maximum of 2400 watts of solar/DC input in total, 1200 watts is not nothing. The advantage to a third party battery is cost, clearly: a 5kWh server rack battery is around half the cost of a 5kWh JBP5K. But there are tradeoffs. You get only 1200 watts of input from a 3rd party battery, but the JBP5K is capable of feeding the E5000 a full 7,200 watts at a time. Plus you'd have to figure out a way to charge the 3rd party battery; maybe a Chargeverter to charge it from the grid, or its own dedicated solar array and solar charge controller; the JBP5K charges from the E5000. And the JBP5K takes up a lot less space than a server rack battery, but the EG4 and Ruixu Wallmount batteries are quite compact and rival the JBP5K for space optimization.
6. High PV/Low PV Priority: If you had an external 3rd party battery connected to the LV inputs, and a solar array connected to the HV inputs, the E5000 will prioritize drawing energy from the HV (High PV) inputs first. That means if you had a sufficient solar array to keep the E5000 (and any connected JBP5K batteries) full, your external 3rd party battery would remain untouched throughout the day, and would only begin to be accessed when your HV solar input is insufficient to meet the load that the E5000 is supplying.
7. Can You Stack Two Explorer 5000s? If you had limited floor space but plenty of vertical space (such as in a narrow closet), yes you can stack one E5000 on top of the other, and you can stack batteries on each other. Keep in mind that each unit and battery has fans and needs air circulation space, so you can't put expansion batteries too close to the E5000 or to each other in such a way that those vents get blocked. You can stack the batteries vertically, just make sure each stack has room to breathe.
8. How Much Can The Smart Transfer Switch Power? The Smart Transfer Switch (STS) can handle 100 amps at 240V. It can distribute that current through up to 12 circuits to the house (up to a max of 60 amps of flow-through power) and to up to two E5000 units (16.7 amps each, or 4008 watts). A single E5000 can feed the STS circuits at a rate of 30 amps, two E5000s together can meet the full 60 amp load potential of the STS.
9. Can You Connect Two E5000s Together Without The Smart Transfer Switch? Not at this time, no; connecting two together requires the STS. The Anker F3800 can use a Double Power Hub to connect two F3800s together to gain a single 50A outlet and split-phase power. The E5000 already has 240V output on its own, it doesn't need to be paired to gain that (although maximum output of a single unit is 30 amps.) When paired with the STS, two E5000s output 60 amps of 240V split-phase. So far as I can discern, Jackery has no plans to introduce something like the Double Power Hub.
10. What Wire Gauge Needed To Connect STS To Home Power Panel? There's a video on Jackery's Smart Transfer Switch page, a review from Electric Pro Academy that shows installation of the STS, and in it he describes his logic in using 6 AWG wire to connect the STS to the main panel. But Jackery's STS owner's manual calls for 2 AWG. Which should you use? Definitely follow Jackery's recommendation of 2 AWG. Electric Pro Academy did a very limited installation; he only installed one circuit in the transfer switch and only connected one E5000 to the STS. As such, the current draw was minimal (well below 40 amps); he even used 3/4" conduit. And while he did the calculation for the wire for the 60A load correctly, I think he didn't count on the additional 16.7A power draw each connected E5000 will pull from the STS, on top of the home load! But in a real-world full home installation, where the STS is drawing 100 amps from the main panel and powering up to 12 circuits at 60A and up to two E5000s at 16.7A each, you're going to need 2 AWG wire. That 6 AWG was fine for one circuit and one E5000, but a full home installation needs a 100 amp breaker, appropriately-sized wire and a much larger conduit to handle all the conductors for the 12 circuits, more like 1.5" to 2" conduit. I think Electric Pro Academy's review/video is overall excellent and thorough, but I think he made a mistake in choosing 6 AWG wire and I strongly urge STS installers to use Jackery's recommendation of 2 AWG.
11. Can You Use a 120V Generator With The E5000 Or The STS? I've got a generator inlet with interlock on my main power panel, and I have an old 120V, 23Amp generator. It outputs 120V AC on a 30-amp RV outlet, which powers my whole main panel's 120V circuits on both legs, but I have to shut off the 30A and MWBC circuits first. Can you use a generator like this to recharge the E5000 during an extended power outage? This question is not definitively answered yet, I will update when I receive the final answer. My guess is that you cannot use a 120V generator with the STS through a generator inlet, since the STS specifications sheet specifically calls for split-phase power. But I believe you could recharge the E5000 from a 120V generator; you'd just have to connect the generator output directly to the E5000's 120V AC input socket. That should work even with the E5000 connected to the STS, but it means you'd get a maximum of only 1800 watts of charging power, so it'll take 3.5 hours to recharge the E5000's battery. If you want the quickest recharging time, you'll almost certainly need a 240V generator with proper 240V output feeding a 30A or 50A generator inlet with interlock on your main panel.
1. Total Solar Input: The E5000 has three solar inputs: two DC8020 Low Voltage ("Low PV") inputs capable of up to 60V @ 10.5 amps, and a set of MC4 connectors ("High PV") capable of a range of 135-450 volts at up to 15 amps. However, those are the ranges, and not representative of the total maximum input. The Jackery charging system is capable of handling a maximum of up to 4,300 watts total.
2. No Excess Solar Throughput: Solar is used for charging batteries. If all the batteries are already full, what happens to any excess solar input? It ends up being wasted. The solar input doesn't get on-the-fly converted to AC output. The batteries' storage is converted to AC output, and as the battery is drawn down, the solar can replace what's been used, but only up to the battery's capacity. If you're ending up with full batteries and wasted solar, that's probably a good sign your solar array is oversized for your current situation, and you could use more batteries and increase the number of circuits the E5000 is powering to optimize your configuration.
3. Battery Charging Time: The E5000 has a 5kWh battery, and multiple possible inputs: HV solar, LV solar, AC wall power, and a direct connection to the Jackery Smart Transfer Switch, and it can use all these sources to charge the battery simultaneously (for example, if you had the AC wall power plugged in, that will deliver around 1800 watts, if you had an external DC source like a Chargeverter connected to the LV inputs that can deliver up to 1200 watts, and if you had a solar array on the HV inputs it could pull in wattage from there too). However, regardless of how many power sources you have and how much wattage they can deliver, the maximum charging wattage is 4300 watts. This applies for internal and external batteries. So with 4300 watts available to it, the Jackery can recharge its internal battery from 0 to 100% in 1.7 hours.
4. Charging Expansion Batteries: The E5000 has its own proprietary expansion battery, the 5kWh Jackery Battery Pack 5000 Plus (JBP5K for short). This is the only expansion battery that works with the Explorer 5000 Plus, and this battery works only with the Explorer 5000 Plus. You can connect up to five expansion batteries to an E5000. They all get charged by the same 4300 watt charging system in the E5000. As such, if you had a fully maxxed out system (J5000 + five external JBP5K batteries) and they were all completely empty, it would take just over 10 hours to charge them all to 100% if you had full power input (such as from the Smart Transfer Switch, or from maximized solar input). That would be 30kWh of storage.
5. Third Party Batteries: It is assumed unlikely that any third party battery manufacturer will be making an alternative expansion battery that uses the proprietary Jackery connection and communication protocol that the JBP5K uses. However, you could make use of an external battery to a limited degree, through the two Low PV inputs. Each input is capable of a maximum of 600W, so an external battery such as a server rack battery could feed each Jackery 5000 up to 1200 watts. A large battery like an EG4 or Ruixu Wallmount could recharge an E5000 almost three times overnight, keeping 1.2kWh of electrical service going for around 14 hours until the sun comes up or the grid comes back on. That's not a ton of power, but considering that competitors like the Anker F3800 only provide a maximum of 2400 watts of solar/DC input in total, 1200 watts is not nothing. The advantage to a third party battery is cost, clearly: a 5kWh server rack battery is around half the cost of a 5kWh JBP5K. But there are tradeoffs. You get only 1200 watts of input from a 3rd party battery, but the JBP5K is capable of feeding the E5000 a full 7,200 watts at a time. Plus you'd have to figure out a way to charge the 3rd party battery; maybe a Chargeverter to charge it from the grid, or its own dedicated solar array and solar charge controller; the JBP5K charges from the E5000. And the JBP5K takes up a lot less space than a server rack battery, but the EG4 and Ruixu Wallmount batteries are quite compact and rival the JBP5K for space optimization.
6. High PV/Low PV Priority: If you had an external 3rd party battery connected to the LV inputs, and a solar array connected to the HV inputs, the E5000 will prioritize drawing energy from the HV (High PV) inputs first. That means if you had a sufficient solar array to keep the E5000 (and any connected JBP5K batteries) full, your external 3rd party battery would remain untouched throughout the day, and would only begin to be accessed when your HV solar input is insufficient to meet the load that the E5000 is supplying.
7. Can You Stack Two Explorer 5000s? If you had limited floor space but plenty of vertical space (such as in a narrow closet), yes you can stack one E5000 on top of the other, and you can stack batteries on each other. Keep in mind that each unit and battery has fans and needs air circulation space, so you can't put expansion batteries too close to the E5000 or to each other in such a way that those vents get blocked. You can stack the batteries vertically, just make sure each stack has room to breathe.
8. How Much Can The Smart Transfer Switch Power? The Smart Transfer Switch (STS) can handle 100 amps at 240V. It can distribute that current through up to 12 circuits to the house (up to a max of 60 amps of flow-through power) and to up to two E5000 units (16.7 amps each, or 4008 watts). A single E5000 can feed the STS circuits at a rate of 30 amps, two E5000s together can meet the full 60 amp load potential of the STS.
9. Can You Connect Two E5000s Together Without The Smart Transfer Switch? Not at this time, no; connecting two together requires the STS. The Anker F3800 can use a Double Power Hub to connect two F3800s together to gain a single 50A outlet and split-phase power. The E5000 already has 240V output on its own, it doesn't need to be paired to gain that (although maximum output of a single unit is 30 amps.) When paired with the STS, two E5000s output 60 amps of 240V split-phase. So far as I can discern, Jackery has no plans to introduce something like the Double Power Hub.
10. What Wire Gauge Needed To Connect STS To Home Power Panel? There's a video on Jackery's Smart Transfer Switch page, a review from Electric Pro Academy that shows installation of the STS, and in it he describes his logic in using 6 AWG wire to connect the STS to the main panel. But Jackery's STS owner's manual calls for 2 AWG. Which should you use? Definitely follow Jackery's recommendation of 2 AWG. Electric Pro Academy did a very limited installation; he only installed one circuit in the transfer switch and only connected one E5000 to the STS. As such, the current draw was minimal (well below 40 amps); he even used 3/4" conduit. And while he did the calculation for the wire for the 60A load correctly, I think he didn't count on the additional 16.7A power draw each connected E5000 will pull from the STS, on top of the home load! But in a real-world full home installation, where the STS is drawing 100 amps from the main panel and powering up to 12 circuits at 60A and up to two E5000s at 16.7A each, you're going to need 2 AWG wire. That 6 AWG was fine for one circuit and one E5000, but a full home installation needs a 100 amp breaker, appropriately-sized wire and a much larger conduit to handle all the conductors for the 12 circuits, more like 1.5" to 2" conduit. I think Electric Pro Academy's review/video is overall excellent and thorough, but I think he made a mistake in choosing 6 AWG wire and I strongly urge STS installers to use Jackery's recommendation of 2 AWG.
11. Can You Use a 120V Generator With The E5000 Or The STS? I've got a generator inlet with interlock on my main power panel, and I have an old 120V, 23Amp generator. It outputs 120V AC on a 30-amp RV outlet, which powers my whole main panel's 120V circuits on both legs, but I have to shut off the 30A and MWBC circuits first. Can you use a generator like this to recharge the E5000 during an extended power outage? This question is not definitively answered yet, I will update when I receive the final answer. My guess is that you cannot use a 120V generator with the STS through a generator inlet, since the STS specifications sheet specifically calls for split-phase power. But I believe you could recharge the E5000 from a 120V generator; you'd just have to connect the generator output directly to the E5000's 120V AC input socket. That should work even with the E5000 connected to the STS, but it means you'd get a maximum of only 1800 watts of charging power, so it'll take 3.5 hours to recharge the E5000's battery. If you want the quickest recharging time, you'll almost certainly need a 240V generator with proper 240V output feeding a 30A or 50A generator inlet with interlock on your main panel.
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