azazel1024
Solar Enthusiast
I am looking for some guidance here and/or confirmation of how I should set this up. Currently I have a Delta 2 power station. I am looking at changing that up for something like a Delta 2 max or the new Anker C2000v2 if the latter can manage this.
I want to run two critical circuits in my home, maybe 3 in the end. Basically my kitchen fridge, basement chest freezer, server, and network switch and down the road I might wire in that other circuit for my family room outlets that cover my wireless router, TV, security camera base station, and cable modem.
Really it would only be wiring in two circuits, as the basement chest freezer and computer/networking equipment can be plugged directly into the power station.
I would like to power this all with solar, with mains as backup. My understanding is, at least with Ecoflow, this is entirely possible by setting it up in Solar priority mode and leaving some reserve, say, 20%. Once the battery depletes below 20%, it'll switch to powering everything off mains. 2kwh isn't enough to power this. Especially including idle power consumption. My fridge circuit uses between 1.1-1.5kwh per day (electric kettle and blender for smoothies also gets used off that circuit), the basement chest freezer, server, and network equipment consumes about 1.1kwh per day. The family room equipment uses a high of 1.3kwh and a low of .8kwh in a day (depends on how much TV gets watched). So I am looking at needing about 3.9kwh, plus .6kwh for idle power consumption for a day. Or 4.5kwh. So even an extra 2kwh battery wouldn't cover it, I'd need two. For Ecoflow, that is kind of expensive since the Delta 2 max extra batteries are like $700-800 a pop.
I'd like to have sufficient battery power to cover 24hrs of use with ZERO solar input. Minimum.
I've been running a 100ah 12v battery to feed my Delta 2 for extra power when necessary, charged off either a pair of 16a LiFePO4 chargers off a generator/wall outlet if needed, or a Victron 75/15 and 100/20 and portable solar panels. This is just for backup power.
I am hoping the following setup would work okay to extend things out and be somewhat efficient (I recognize I'd be doing triple conversion here, so I'd be losing efficiency, but I am hoping it won't be THAT bad).
Solar input to that Victron 100/20, feeding a 48v 50ah or 100ah battery, that then feeds the Delta 2 max. I plan to deploy somewhere between 1200-1600w of solar (yes, the MPPT would be over paneled). I plan to install the solar on a ground mount/solar tracking mount. The 48v battery would input to the Delta 2 max through one of the XT60i ports. Leaving 20% reserve on the Delta 2 max, so if it ever did run the external battery down and its internal battery down, it would switch to mains.
Would this work? Do Anker power stations normally have the same ability to be setup this way? I realize the C2000v2 is still pre-release so probably no one can specifically comment on that, but the extra price over a Delta 2 max refurb on sale seems worthwhile for better idle power consumption, probably better surge capacity, and 800w of input on its MPPT (even if I lose the 2nd MPPT and 1000w total).
Or is this a recipe for burning the external battery quickly because the external battery is going to be micro cycling near empty as it tries to charge until such time as the solar panels and MPPT to the 48v battery can supply more power than the Delta 2 max is trying to pull? I don't care about maximizing battery longevity of the external battery, but I also don't want to kill it after 200 cycles either. Is my best bet on the external battery doing something like getting one with a BMS that can be configured so that I can set up the external battery BMS to do something similar, where it will not reconnect power until its internal capacity reaches a certain percentage, such as 10 or 20%? That way if it gets drained to zero, it'll disconnect, the Delta 2 max will continue discharging, and then the next day when the sun comes out, the MPPT will start supplying some power and both the Delta 2 max and external battery will charge off that, WITHOUT the external battery being able to supply output until it hits 10 or 20%. So no microcycling, and at worse, if the solar power is still not >500w of the Delta 2 max input, then the external battery would only be discharging 10 or 20% to 0 before disconnecting again.
Thoughts? Anyone do anything similar? Long term I want a proper hybrid install, Something with at least 12kw of output and 15-20kwh of storage, with probably 5-8kw of input. But that is going to be several years from now. In the meantime, I want to play, learn, get confident of what I am doing (I am extremely confident on the electrical end of things, I've been doing electrical work for about 30 years now, I just have only recently started dabbling in solar). Plus, this gives me a nice healthy backup if the power goes out for critical things. That Delta 2 + 100ah would be enough to limp along with the absolute minimum, but I'd also likely be running a generator most days for at least a little while. Both to charge them some, but also run other things here and there. This could give me enough power to run a bit more, full time (unless there is a long stretch of bad weather) AND I could be offsetting at least a little bit of my power bill. Even if 4-5kwh a day isn't all that much, but hey, 120-150kwh is more than 10% of my average electric bill I'd be offsetting in the meantime.
I can also likely reuse the system later, either for backup power, portable power (when I want or need a LOT of portable power, my River 2 max is perfect for glamping), or install it in my shed once I convert it to a workshop. 2400w of output would be perfect to power it. I don't ever plan to use very high-power output power tools in it (I use mostly battery powered stuff, and things like my welder, compressor, and plasma cutter are going to be used in the garage). I do plan to install a mini-split for heating and cooling, but 4.5-6.5kwh of battery and a 1000+w of solar would likely cover the power needs there too for a 1t high efficiency mini-split and a well-insulated 160sq-ft structure. I could run it right off the house, but meh. If I've got it, why not use it?
PS I am also considering just going with a 24v 100ah battery as input as that would be a fair amount cheaper than a 48v 50ah battery if I was going with ~2.5kwh of external battery storage anyway and the ~380w of input on the XT60i that a 24v external battery would produce should be plenty, though maxing to 500w would be nice (or for the C2000v2, 800w). I am not necessarily opposed to an expansion battery for the Ecoflow Delta 2 max, or Anker C2000 down the road, but it isn't a cheap option, so....
I want to run two critical circuits in my home, maybe 3 in the end. Basically my kitchen fridge, basement chest freezer, server, and network switch and down the road I might wire in that other circuit for my family room outlets that cover my wireless router, TV, security camera base station, and cable modem.
Really it would only be wiring in two circuits, as the basement chest freezer and computer/networking equipment can be plugged directly into the power station.
I would like to power this all with solar, with mains as backup. My understanding is, at least with Ecoflow, this is entirely possible by setting it up in Solar priority mode and leaving some reserve, say, 20%. Once the battery depletes below 20%, it'll switch to powering everything off mains. 2kwh isn't enough to power this. Especially including idle power consumption. My fridge circuit uses between 1.1-1.5kwh per day (electric kettle and blender for smoothies also gets used off that circuit), the basement chest freezer, server, and network equipment consumes about 1.1kwh per day. The family room equipment uses a high of 1.3kwh and a low of .8kwh in a day (depends on how much TV gets watched). So I am looking at needing about 3.9kwh, plus .6kwh for idle power consumption for a day. Or 4.5kwh. So even an extra 2kwh battery wouldn't cover it, I'd need two. For Ecoflow, that is kind of expensive since the Delta 2 max extra batteries are like $700-800 a pop.
I'd like to have sufficient battery power to cover 24hrs of use with ZERO solar input. Minimum.
I've been running a 100ah 12v battery to feed my Delta 2 for extra power when necessary, charged off either a pair of 16a LiFePO4 chargers off a generator/wall outlet if needed, or a Victron 75/15 and 100/20 and portable solar panels. This is just for backup power.
I am hoping the following setup would work okay to extend things out and be somewhat efficient (I recognize I'd be doing triple conversion here, so I'd be losing efficiency, but I am hoping it won't be THAT bad).
Solar input to that Victron 100/20, feeding a 48v 50ah or 100ah battery, that then feeds the Delta 2 max. I plan to deploy somewhere between 1200-1600w of solar (yes, the MPPT would be over paneled). I plan to install the solar on a ground mount/solar tracking mount. The 48v battery would input to the Delta 2 max through one of the XT60i ports. Leaving 20% reserve on the Delta 2 max, so if it ever did run the external battery down and its internal battery down, it would switch to mains.
Would this work? Do Anker power stations normally have the same ability to be setup this way? I realize the C2000v2 is still pre-release so probably no one can specifically comment on that, but the extra price over a Delta 2 max refurb on sale seems worthwhile for better idle power consumption, probably better surge capacity, and 800w of input on its MPPT (even if I lose the 2nd MPPT and 1000w total).
Or is this a recipe for burning the external battery quickly because the external battery is going to be micro cycling near empty as it tries to charge until such time as the solar panels and MPPT to the 48v battery can supply more power than the Delta 2 max is trying to pull? I don't care about maximizing battery longevity of the external battery, but I also don't want to kill it after 200 cycles either. Is my best bet on the external battery doing something like getting one with a BMS that can be configured so that I can set up the external battery BMS to do something similar, where it will not reconnect power until its internal capacity reaches a certain percentage, such as 10 or 20%? That way if it gets drained to zero, it'll disconnect, the Delta 2 max will continue discharging, and then the next day when the sun comes out, the MPPT will start supplying some power and both the Delta 2 max and external battery will charge off that, WITHOUT the external battery being able to supply output until it hits 10 or 20%. So no microcycling, and at worse, if the solar power is still not >500w of the Delta 2 max input, then the external battery would only be discharging 10 or 20% to 0 before disconnecting again.
Thoughts? Anyone do anything similar? Long term I want a proper hybrid install, Something with at least 12kw of output and 15-20kwh of storage, with probably 5-8kw of input. But that is going to be several years from now. In the meantime, I want to play, learn, get confident of what I am doing (I am extremely confident on the electrical end of things, I've been doing electrical work for about 30 years now, I just have only recently started dabbling in solar). Plus, this gives me a nice healthy backup if the power goes out for critical things. That Delta 2 + 100ah would be enough to limp along with the absolute minimum, but I'd also likely be running a generator most days for at least a little while. Both to charge them some, but also run other things here and there. This could give me enough power to run a bit more, full time (unless there is a long stretch of bad weather) AND I could be offsetting at least a little bit of my power bill. Even if 4-5kwh a day isn't all that much, but hey, 120-150kwh is more than 10% of my average electric bill I'd be offsetting in the meantime.
I can also likely reuse the system later, either for backup power, portable power (when I want or need a LOT of portable power, my River 2 max is perfect for glamping), or install it in my shed once I convert it to a workshop. 2400w of output would be perfect to power it. I don't ever plan to use very high-power output power tools in it (I use mostly battery powered stuff, and things like my welder, compressor, and plasma cutter are going to be used in the garage). I do plan to install a mini-split for heating and cooling, but 4.5-6.5kwh of battery and a 1000+w of solar would likely cover the power needs there too for a 1t high efficiency mini-split and a well-insulated 160sq-ft structure. I could run it right off the house, but meh. If I've got it, why not use it?
PS I am also considering just going with a 24v 100ah battery as input as that would be a fair amount cheaper than a 48v 50ah battery if I was going with ~2.5kwh of external battery storage anyway and the ~380w of input on the XT60i that a 24v external battery would produce should be plenty, though maxing to 500w would be nice (or for the C2000v2, 800w). I am not necessarily opposed to an expansion battery for the Ecoflow Delta 2 max, or Anker C2000 down the road, but it isn't a cheap option, so....
