rme said:

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Have you actually used battery and/or solar to run a house fridge? Seems like the compressor load would be too much for a single digit kWh system.

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Yes. I tested the first unit we purchased with a standard-sized fridge. Both our fridges are standard-sized units, hence why we have two of them. No issues whatsoever.

C

oklaunion said:

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Caladan said:

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oklaunion said:

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I have both Bluetti and Pecron. The Bluetti makes slick looking stuff that is pretty solid. Pecron is less well known but most likely has the best bang for the buck, Wh-wise. Jackery is expensive for what you get. Damn near everything is made in China.

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On your recommendation, I just ordered the smallest Pecron. It will be for the small 12v travel fridge that we are about to buy. When we go into town, we make a day of it. So this should work quite well for keeping the fridge powered when the car is off for many hours.

If it sucks, I gonna blame it on you!

C

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Did you get the E300LFP? I have not tried that one but have an E600 as well as an E2000LFP plus 2 battery packs with 3072 Wh each. I use the former for camping and general use where I don't have an extension cord (battery charger on a tractor or side-by-side).
The latter I use on a window unit at my barn as well as a large chest freezer. Never had any problems with them. Good luck.

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Yes, that is exactly the one. Not saying we *can't* do it, but the two Ecoflows are bigger than what we would like for running around town with a small fridge for the day. And since the Pecron is on sale at a pretty good price, why not?

C

Interesting

rme said:

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Interesting

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I thought so. If by chance you would like to see an actual test on youtube, search for a channel called "Homestead Engineering", and the video title is "Ecoflow Delta 2 Refrigerator Test with Ecoflow 220 Watt Solar Panel".

C

Honestly one of these paired with a solar and
one of the small predator generators from harbor freight, probably the 2,000 watt would be a fairly cost effective and efficient solution with redundancy for power back up.

AggieMPH2005 said:

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Honestly one of these paired with a solar and
one of the small predator generators from harbor freight, probably the 2,000 watt would be a fairly cost effective and efficient solution with redundancy for power back up.

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Sounds like a great idea. Charge your battery outside for a few hours, then bring it inside and run your stuff for the rest of the day. Don't have to put up with the noise and exhaust of a gas genset, or running extension cords through and exterior door or window. And one can always add solar panels at their leisure, for even more capable back up redundancy.

C

Caladan said:

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rme said:

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Interesting

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I thought so. If by chance you would like to see an actual test on youtube, search for a channel called "Homestead Engineering", and the video title is "Ecoflow Delta 2 Refrigerator Test with Ecoflow 220 Watt Solar Panel".

C

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Thanks for the recommendation....

Got hit with power outage for 3 days due to Beryl and was just wondering what size unit I would need to run a fridge for a day or two as well. I like the idea of having multiple redundancy with both UPS type unit and generator.

Here is the video link mentioned above, it is an interesting watch...

Caladan said:

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AggieMPH2005 said:

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Honestly one of these paired with a solar and
one of the small predator generators from harbor freight, probably the 2,000 watt would be a fairly cost effective and efficient solution with redundancy for power back up.

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Sounds like a great idea. Charge your battery outside for a few hours, then bring it inside and run your stuff for the rest of the day. Don't have to put up with the noise and exhaust of a gas genset, or running extension cords through and exterior door or window. And one can always add solar panels at their leisure, for even more capable back up redundancy.

C

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I had thought about running the fridge/freezer a few hours each on a rotating basis, then charging in between. How long does it take those batteries to charge on a sunny day?

I looked into these a few months back... two things: (1) their are various battery types each has its own pros and cons (2) i could not find any earthly idea how long the battery would last...

Battery + power sounds awesome but if you are only getting a few years before battery degrades you are gonna be under water dollar wise

B-1 83 said:

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Caladan said:

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AggieMPH2005 said:

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Honestly one of these paired with a solar and
one of the small predator generators from harbor freight, probably the 2,000 watt would be a fairly cost effective and efficient solution with redundancy for power back up.

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Sounds like a great idea. Charge your battery outside for a few hours, then bring it inside and run your stuff for the rest of the day. Don't have to put up with the noise and exhaust of a gas genset, or running extension cords through and exterior door or window. And one can always add solar panels at their leisure, for even more capable back up redundancy.

C

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I had thought about running the fridge/freezer a few hours each on a rotating basis, then charging in between. How long does it take those batteries to charge on a sunny day?

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Depends on the amount of sun and size of solar array...

On the video he mentions and I linked in the post above yours, he uses a 220-250 watts of panels and it appears to take 4-6 hours on a sunny day, which sounds about right 200 - 250 watts * 5 hours = 1 kwh (losses included in there)

A 1kwh like Op mentions would take 4 hours at full sun with a 250 watt panel (not counting losses, so probably take a little longer)

fulshearAg96 said:

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I looked into these a few months back... two things: (1) their are various battery types each has its own pros and cons (2) i could not find any earthly idea how long the battery would last...

Battery + power sounds awesome but if you are only getting a few years before battery degrades you are gonna be under water dollar wise

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If you are using a Lead Acid Battery, you would only get 3-5 years. 200-300 charge cycles

LifePo4 batteries and Lithium batteries can have 3000-6000 charge cycles and weigh 30-50% less as well.

They also have much more usable energy. A typical Lead Acid battery is considered 'dead' at 50% capacity, while a LifePO4 / Li-Ion can run all the way to 80% so much more usable energy




Only real downside to LiFePO4 is most of them cannot be charged below freezing, so not the best if used in an RV way up north. For Texas folks, shouldn't be much of an issue if kept in doors



For example, here is a constant 5 Amp load over time, battery sizes shown in graph....





Battery Voltages and Depth of Discharge Comparison

fulshearAg96 said:

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Battery + power sounds awesome but if you are only getting a few years before battery degrades you are gonna be under water dollar wise

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I've seen LiFePo batteries listed as anywhere between 3k and 3.5k charge cycles. So if you discharge and then recharge every day, a battery will last anywhere between 8.2 and 9.6 years. I would imagine that those numbers were found by testing in controlled conditions, which is why we keep our batteries inside the house. As always, YMMV.

I would not fault anyone for not buying a back-up battery for emergency use, but I am fine with an 8 year battery life (and possibly more), and would not consider myself under water dollar wise since I am lucky enough that this small amount of money does not make a difference either way in my life, and the peace of mind is worth it. But everyone has their own opinions on this sort of thing....

Oh no! Charts!! Next thing you know, we'll be asked to do math work.

Seriously though, thanks for putting up some very helpful information.

C

The older Life4po batteries are rated for 2000 cycles (think 18650) and the newer ones are 4000 cycles. There are a ton of factors (charge rate, temperature, cycle variance, discharge rate, charge/discharge perimeters) so it is a big guess. We had a pack (216 cells) go 3200 cycles before 2 cells went bad, another 3800, and one at 2400 that ran the ever living piss out of the unit. Keep in mind these are 24/7 type of applications that were air cooled. Most of our stuff is now water cooled which will help extend the life.

As I stated earlier for emergency or power shaving applications any lithium based battery will be just fine

There are inverter units which have the ability to be connected to additional batteries. Some of these batteries can be individually charged with ac power as well as solar at the same time, further reducing the recharge time.
Some of the Bluetti external batteries have an internal heater that automatically kicks on when attempting to recharge it below freezing which brings the temp inside the unit up to be able to begin charging.
Regarding degradation, the common claim by most companies is that even after the max number of recharges are reached, the battery only goes down to 80% ability. They are still functional.
All of the units have a maximum wattage of solar as well as dc and ac recharge. Some of the smaller ones can only handle 200w per hour to recharge. Some larger can take 3-5,000 watts. And some are in between.

I was looking to get an Anker Solix c1000 for $549. I've heard good things and it can be expanded and solar added

Caladan said:

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types of things, Ecoflow is having a really good sale right now. And some of the stuff they are selling on Amazon is even cheaper than their website. One example is their Delta-2 1kwh for $499 on Amazon. They also have sale prices for battery/solar panel combos too. For those not familiar, Ecoflow is one of the better manufacturers of these kinds of things.

C

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Anyone still looking for one, the Delta 2 Unit is $429 $479 for Prime Day..

https://www.amazon.com/EF-ECOFLOW-Portable-Charging-Generator/dp/B0B9XB57XM/?th=1


Extra battery is $429


https://www.amazon.com/EF-ECOFLOW-Portable-Capacity-Heavy-Duty/dp/B0BRCLSCL6/