Using DIY LiFePO4 Battery With EcoFlow

[Milli42]

Hi! Curious to know if this is possible. I currently have a Ecoflow Delta Pro connected to the smart home panel and have it running several circuits in my house. The EcoFlow expansion batteries (even on sale) are quite expensive compared to a DIY LiFePO4 5kWh battery. Does anyone know if I could connect the 48V LiFePO4 battery to the EcoFlow while having the battery being charged from solar (via charge controller) at the same time? Essentially creating a constant charge to my Ecoflow from the battery, while it gets topped off from my solar panels. Just trying to expand the capacity of my system without diving deeper into the expensive EcoFlow batteries. I'm not just sure if any damage could be caused by having feed power into the EcoFlow while at the same time being charged since the cables would be connected to the same ring terminals on the battery.

I feel like I'm missing a step here. Instead of connecting the solar to my Ecoflow, I want to route it to the DIY battery and just have the battery provide the constant charge that the EcoFlow will register as solar input (since it's going to the use the same port). Anyone try this?

 

[hwy17]

Battery and solar charge controller connected together into the solar port of the ecoflow.

I can see it working in concept, yes.

 

[Brucey]

A possible issue is that your charge rate will be limited to 15A (11-150V 15A), so with a final 48V nominal battery at say 55V would be ~825W. That's really the only main advantage of the official ecoflow extended batteries, the ability to feed full power like the main unit (and charge from it). If your usual util is 800W or less you should be fine, if it's more you may end up draining the d2 pro battery before the 48V external battery can get it charged back up.

 

[free2enjoy]

A possible issue is that your charge rate will be limited to 15A (11-150V 15A), so with a final 48V nominal battery at say 55V would be ~825W. That's really the only main advantage of the official ecoflow extended batteries, the ability to feed full power like the main unit (and charge from it). If your usual util is 800W or less you should be fine, if it's more you may end up draining the d2 pro battery before the 48V external battery can get it charged back up.

On the flipside, the DIY batteries can take much more that the 1600w limit of the DPs. 800wh of transfer to the DP x 24 hours equals 19.2kwh of energy transfer per day. I’m setting this up for myself and waiting for the server rack batteries to arrive. I’ll probably have one DP extra battery attached to each DP just to have a bigger buffer.

 

[BarkingSpider]

I'm doing exactly what you describe. I have 28kwh of eve lifepo4 52v batteries connected to my ecoflow Delta 2 DC charge port with the solar cable. The solar cable allows the power to charge at 500w instead of the 100w car charger cable. Your pro should charge at the full speed your solar port can handle.

Just connect the xt60i solar cable to your battery +/-, you could put a fuse or switch on the cable, but I didn't. It just works.

I bought the cable on Amazon for $10.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0BZCWT6HZ?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

Its a 10x cheaper solution than buying ecoflow batteries. My battery capacity is now 28 times bigger!

I'm charging my big batteries with an epever 48v 60amp charge controller with 3000 watts of panels.

The Delta 2 is nice inverter and has way less idle consumption (20W) than my big growatt inverter (120W), and I can control it from anywhere using the phone app.

I'm running my entire off grid house thru this setup. Fridge freezer, coffee machine, well pump, lights, tv etc. Been flawless so far.

 

[Brucey]

I'm doing exactly what you describe. I have 28kwh of eve lifepo4 52v batteries connected to my ecoflow Delta 2 DC charge port with the solar cable. The solar cable allows the power to charge at 500w instead of the 100w car charger cable. Your pro should charge at the full speed your solar port can handle.

Just connect the xt60i solar cable to your battery +/-, you could put a fuse or switch on the cable, but I didn't. It just works.

I bought the cable on Amazon for $10.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0BZCWT6HZ?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

Its a 10x cheaper solution than buying ecoflow batteries. My battery capacity is now 28 times bigger!

I'm charging my big batteries with an epever 48v 60amp charge controller with 3000 watts of panels.

The Delta 2 is nice inverter and has way less idle consumption (20W) than my big growatt inverter (120W), and I can control it from anywhere using the phone app.

I'm running my entire off grid house thru this setup. Fridge freezer, coffee machine, well pump, lights, tv etc. Been flawless so far.

Very cool setup. Was the Phoenix 800VA in place before you added the Delta 2?

 

[BarkingSpider]

I use the Phoenix inverter when I was not at the house. I turn everything off except internet and my security system and drops the load to under 50W. The Pheonix only uses around 10 watts idle consumption unlike my growatt that used 120, but the Phoenix 800 didnt have enough power for my septic tank pump and would fail. The Ecoflow has plenty of watts to spare (2000+)

I may use the Phoenix to AC charge the ecoflow from my big battery back on a timer. It may work better than DC charging the ecoflow, as it it doesn't support pass thru like AC does.

When you charge the Ecoflow from a DC source, the battery charges up to your set limit, stops the DC charging, then discharges around two and a half percent, then starts charging from DC again (see image below). It's very inefficient and wears out the batteries prematurely.

If I'm out of the country and there is no sun or heavy snow, and I see the batteries get low from my phone app, I can open the garage door (MyQ app) and start the generator remotely, let it get back to 90%, shut it down and close the door again. using some wiring hacks and an inching relay to simulate pressing the start button on the Westinghouse 9500 genny. It puts in 3000W an hour to my big bank.

I'll test the AC charging idea soon and report back.

 

[Blown284]

I'm doing exactly what you describe. I have 28kwh of eve lifepo4 52v batteries connected to my ecoflow Delta 2 DC charge port with the solar cable. The solar cable allows the power to charge at 500w instead of the 100w car charger cable. Your pro should charge at the full speed your solar port can handle.

Just connect the xt60i solar cable to your battery +/-, you could put a fuse or switch on the cable, but I didn't. It just works.

I bought the cable on Amazon for $10.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0BZCWT6HZ?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

Its a 10x cheaper solution than buying ecoflow batteries. My battery capacity is now 28 times bigger!

I'm charging my big batteries with an epever 48v 60amp charge controller with 3000 watts of panels.

The Delta 2 is nice inverter and has way less idle consumption (20W) than my big growatt inverter (120W), and I can control it from anywhere using the phone app.

I'm running my entire off grid house thru this setup. Fridge freezer, coffee machine, well pump, lights, tv etc. Been flawless so far.

I plan to do something similar. I , too, have ecoflow but have 3 delta pro's and 2 extra batteries along with 2, 48v lipo4 rack batteries. My plan is to use my victron 250/100 on one string (approx 1kw) to charge up the 48v batteries, keep them topped off and when needed, to run an external inverter (i'll have to get a 48v inverter) , then, plug one of the cords into inverter > ecoflow pro....

One other ecoflow gets solar directly from another array with is approx 1kw.

I wished I was smarter i would have avoided the ecoflow and the smart home panel and gone with something else. Oh well, live and learn.

 

[Andrewr05]

I've got 5Kw of batteries connected up to my EcoFlow Delta Mini.
But unfortunately it's input is only limited to 300w of input.

I'm likely going to get Bluetti AC200Max due to the 900w input (500 more if you also use the charge converter box thing into the AC input) rather than the paltry 300w of the EcoFlow.

So I went and bought an inverter for the battery bank too.
And I can now pull 3kW directly out of the batteries.

 

[Brucey]

I've got 5Kw of batteries connected up to my EcoFlow Delta Mini.
But unfortunately it's input is only limited to 300w of input.

I'm likely going to get Bluetti AC200Max due to the 900w input (500 more if you also use the charge converter box thing into the AC input) rather than the paltry 300w of the EcoFlow.

So I went and bought an inverter for the battery bank too.
And I can now pull 3kW directly out of the batteries.

I would consider a Delta 2 max, has two 500W MPPT inputs (11-60W 15A each). Gives you some flexibility in terms of multiple strings etc.

 

[Blown284]

I plan to do something similar. I , too, have ecoflow but have 3 delta pro's and 2 extra batteries along with 2, 48v lipo4 rack batteries. My plan is to use my victron 250/100 on one string (approx 1kw) to charge up the 48v batteries, keep them topped off and when needed, to run an external inverter (i'll have to get a 48v inverter) , then, plug one of the cords into inverter > ecoflow pro....

One other ecoflow gets solar directly from another array with is approx 1kw.

I wished I was smarter i would have avoided the ecoflow and the smart home panel and gone with something else. Oh well, live and learn.

I wanted to take a moment to update this thread since I now have my Sun Gold 6000w charger/inverter hooked to my 48v batteries. While inefficient, I have been charging the ecoflow delta pro's at 1800w when needed which is exactly what I wanted to be able to do. I realize that's a few inverters but I don't care. I didn't want to deal with boost converters and such...... and I found this heavy beast 6000w low frequency inverter for sale for half off and just bought it. This sucker is heavy and works like a champ, could also charge the batteries if I had it hooked to a/c (but I do not) and also do 240v.

 

[Andrewr05]

I would consider a Delta 2 max, has two 500W MPPT inputs (11-60W 15A each). Gives you some flexibility in terms of multiple strings etc.

Yes I was considering the Delta 2 Max as well, but the Bluetti is cheaper from what I've seen.
And the Bluettis own external batteries are cheaper than the EcoFlows as well, if I ever go down that road.

Plus the Bluetti does 900W input on one port.
(which actually I can't utilize anyways, unless I wire my setup to 72v)

So maybe actually the Delta 2 Max would be better?
Then I can just run two 36v lines into it at 540W each.

 

[Andrewr05]

I wanted to take a moment to update this thread since I now have my Sun Gold 6000w charger/inverter hooked to my 48v batteries. While inefficient, I have been charging the ecoflow delta pro's at 1800w when needed which is exactly what I wanted to be able to do. I realize that's a few inverters but I don't care. I didn't want to deal with boost converters and such...... and I found this heavy beast 6000w low frequency inverter for sale for half off and just bought it. This sucker is heavy and works like a champ, could also charge the batteries if I had it hooked to a/c (but I do not) and also do 240v.

Thanks for the update.
Yeah sometimes you just have to deal with a little bit of efficiency loss (AC.to DC etc) to make things easier, rather than have to worry about boosting voltages and trying to make things work.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hijack your thread.

 

[Blown284]

Thanks for the update.
Yeah sometimes you just have to deal with a little bit of efficiency loss (AC.to DC etc) to make things easier, rather than have to worry about boosting voltages and trying to make things work.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hijack your thread.

No worries at all. Were all here to learn so it's alllll goooooood

 

[Andrewr05]

Speaking of learning, I realized it wasn't even your original spread to begin with lol

Oops

 

[Brucey]

Yes I was considering the Delta 2 Max as well, but the Bluetti is cheaper from what I've seen.
And the Bluettis own external batteries are cheaper than the EcoFlows as well, if I ever go down that road.

Plus the Bluetti does 900W input on one port.
(which actually I can't utilize anyways, unless I wire my setup to 72v)

So maybe actually the Delta 2 Max would be better?
Then I can just run two 36v lines into it at 540W each.

Was just experimenting with a 36V rollable extension battery for my d2m with three Redodo 100ah minis. Just ordered two xt60i to terminal cables so I can get max input. The one cable I'm using doesn't have the shorting pin to enable solar mode versus vehicle. There's room inside to mount my 150/35 SCC to the lid, could wheel it out, open the lid for ventilation then hook up the solar panels. Cold temps maybe leave the lid closed to warm the box.

 

[Andrewr05]

Was just experimenting with a 36V rollable extension battery for my d2m with three Redodo 100ah minis. Just ordered two xt60i to terminal cables so I can get max input. The one cable I'm using doesn't have the shorting pin to enable solar mode versus vehicle. There's room inside to mount my 150/35 SCC to the lid, could wheel it out, open the lid for ventilation then hook up the solar panels. Cold temps maybe leave the lid closed to warm the box.
View attachment 193343

Mine is in one of these so it's rollable inside-