I gues its fortunate for me that I didnt refer to YouTube when putting my system together. Not because Im smarter than anyone else. It just didnt occur to me at the time. At the time, a couple of sources Id read advised a panel wattage to battery ah ratio of 2 to 1 and thats what Ive gone by ever since. Ive since learned that such a ratio is often over kill but stick to it anyway. Right now Ive got 2760watts of panels on my roof and a 1000ah primary bank of LifePo's and 900ah AGM "backup" bank. Weather conditions here(Maine) look similar to yours!
Off-grif solar system
- Thread starter compact72
- Start date
I dont mind constantly upgrading/modifying my solar power system. Im an oldish single guy. Everything I own is paid for and I dont have an electric bill so what else am I gonna spend my money on? Trips to the Bahama's?? Ok so there is that BUT.....
It just occurred to me what your "Eco Max" might be. Did you mean "Ecoflow"? I suspect so because I have one and it has the same interface as what you show in your vid clip. Mine is a smaller version and was given to me as a gift. I think its capacity is around 280 watt hours? They come in different capacities and you can get add on batteries to give them even more capacity but at their max, I dont think many of those devices hold a whole lot more than 1000wh, do they? I dont know how to ask this witout sounding condescending=I sure dont mean it that way BUT are you using 2400 watts of panels to charge just one of those EcoFlows or do you have another battery bank besides? Im not judging either way here but if you are using 2400 watts of panels to charge an ecoflow I now understand what you mean when you say that you are over paneled!
farmhand
Solar Enthusiast
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2022
- Messages
- 232
I have an Ecoflow Max 2000 2016wh.
I have a huge charge controller for the outhouse, and once can afford batteries I will split the array 1200 to battery bank, 1200 to Ecoflow. Pre wired it for this.
So after dark we will pull in 192watts via the 24v car charger input.
That's enough to keep our cabin above water.
Thanks for the follow up. Im not very familiar with the ecoflow type devices beyond the one I was given as a gift. I looked mine up on Amazon (because who doesnt look a gift up to see how much someone paid for it?) and saw that most of such devices were under 1000wh-at least the models claiming to be portable! I had no idea that they went up to 2000wh. At 13v thats a decent 154ah. You could charge significantly more than double that with 1200w of panels but you already know that. Batteries are a major investment these days. Feels like every spare penny Ive had over the past two years has gone into buying batteries. If I had it to do all over again, I wouldnt buy "pre=made" LifePo batteries. Id build a battery bank out of individual cells. It doesnt cost any less to build a battery bank out of individual LifePo cells and there's more work involved but you have a lot more control over the build: You arent stuck with some manufacturers cheap ass BMS for example. You can use whatever BMS suits your fancy. Its also much easier to diagnose and replace bad cells in the future. Another positive is that, without an extra bulky casing, you can get more creative about where you put your battery bank. Finally, although many solar people would frown on this, you can purchase individual cells as you can afford them(purists advise folk to buy all their battery needs as close to "at once" as possible and from the same manufacturer. There are good reasons for this but some of us just dont have the budget to buy that way). Anyway, Ive gone way off topic now. Sorry about that. I just like to hear myself type sometimes!
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