I'm just finding this video in early Dec. 2022 and I'm inspired to find there are options for creating one's own auxiliary battery supply for these large power stations! I just ordered a Bluetti AC200P and started digging around to see if I could expand its capacity without having to spend $1,300 or more for one of Bluetti's auxiliary batteries, i.e. the B230 or the B300. I'm so glad to find this explanation showing there are many options for making this happen, at a lower price, IF you have the skills to do all those calculations. I don't have the skills, but I could find someone to help, now that I know it's possible. I also want to say I think you do excellent presentations, Jasonoid! I've watched a couple of your videos so far, and I don't know why you don't have a larger Subscriber base by now. You are clear, articulate and know how to present information in a methodical, step by step process, with great demos and videography. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge with all of us who need it! I hope your Subscriber base continues to grow, and that it will help compensate you for all your efforts. Cheers!
Thanks Living It Up, one of the easiest ways to charge the AC200p faster is by getting either a 24v LiFePO4 battery, or a 48v battery (51.2v). By just connecting a 24v battery up to the charging input, you can charge the AC200p at around 240 watts, maybe a little higher. You could also purchase a 48v LiFePO4 battery and charge near 600 watts when connected up. Power Queen makes some excellent budget batteries. For example this battery has 4600wh, it would charge the AC200p at around 550-600 watts when connected, and only costs $1200: ipowerqueen.com/products/power-queen-51-2v-90ah-lifepo4-battery-built-in-90a-bms Probably even cheaper with my discount code: LLC3
@@Jasonoid Thanks Jason! Well, I have limited funds, so $1,200 for an extra battery for charging my new AC200P is not possible. BUT, you added some valuable info, reminding me about choosing a 24V or 48V configuration to speed the charging with a battery. I'll keep weighing all the options (incl. a propane-powered generator), for my emergency backup system, and budget for the next phase of investment. Just trying to prepare for the electrical grid outages that we keep being warned about. I'm in Portland, OR and our electricity providers have had at least 3 short-term outages just in the past 6 weeks....and today it's snowing, with 3" expected, which often brings power outages due to tree breakage and downed wires. We all have to be better prepared these days for more weather and grid-related emergencies. So, your thorough and clear videos are very appreciated in this education process. Thanks again for what you're doing! 🙏👍☮😉
I use a similar voltage booster to charge my power station from a running vehicle. However for this application, I would recommend using 2 100AH batteries in series for 25.6V instead of one 200AH 12.8V battery. You are losing efficiency with the boost converter, and adding expense. And, as you've noted, when you pull 40Amps things tend to get warm unless you are careful.
The best setup would be to have a 48v LFP battery so you could get quite a bit of power without any loss. EG4 makes a 5kwh 48v LFP battery for $1500. They can't keep up with the demand! The 24v battery is a decent option too. Thanks for commenting :)
The EG4 48v 5kw battery is what I’ve been looking at to expand my AC200Max, as I think Bluetti 2kw expansion batteries are too expensive. Since the EG4 and AC200 Max are 48v, is it a simple direct connection or is more involved? @@Jasonoid
@@raspillade6027 you can use a 48v EG4 battery to dump power into the Bluetti power station to charge it. You'll want to plug the output of that 48v battery into the solar input of the power station (and make sure it's set to solar input on the screen so it allows the higher voltage input). It won't be "officially" supported as an expansion battery for the Max since it won't use the Bluetti expansion cable with the communication connections.
@@raspillade6027 If you connect to the standard solar input port, it is a simple direct connection. That input current limits to 15 amps on my AC200MAX. For the other input port, the one that is used for the AC power brick, you have to use a Bluetti DC Charging Enhancer (D050S) ($200) which limits input to 10 amps. So, I can input 700W+ through the solar input port and 450W+ using the (D050S). Have fun!
I have a Bluetti AC200P connected to a 6 circuit transfer switch. I run a few circuits every day to take advantage of the unit rather than have it sit waiting to be used during a power outage. I decided I needed more capacity so I bought two of the Power Queen 12V LFP batteries and hooked them up in series. I was using the Bluetti D050S enhancer to connect the batteries to the AC200P and this setup was supplying 250W. I saw this video and decided to try a DC to DC converter like yours. Since the AC200P requires at least 36V input, I actually purchased a 24V to 48V converter and just got it hooked up and running this morning. It is supplying 322W input to the AC200P, drawing 13.2A from the battery and outputting 7.1A to the AC200P which means it is outputting around 45V. The converter was getting a bit hot so I will need to attach a fan. Wires were barely warm. Overall I am very pleased with the setup. Thanks for the video. I always look forward to watching your videos. Keep up the good work.
This is a great idea! I bought a similar boost converter a while back to do this but your setup is really slick. Good call on the fans - those get hot!
I've seen yours and some other videos on these Power Queens and if I were in the market to add capacity to my systems right now, I'd consider picking up a couple of these for extra capacity. Right now the 190 Ah models (over 2400 Wh) are just over $600 or about a quarter per watt-hour. That's getting pretty insane, in a good way.
I have a couple of 200 ah Ampere Time batteries that I use the same way with the 12 volt method you were showing. It trickle charges my Bluetti AC200 when running a refrigerator. The 130 watts keeps up with the wattage used by the refrigerator. When I need to charge the Bluetti faster from the battery, I just use a cheap Bestek 1000 watt pure sine wave 110 volt inverter and use the Bluetti AC 200 charging brick and it charges at a little over 400 watts. Using the inverter method you can charge any of your power stations by using their AC charging brick or the AC charging method that your Power Station uses. If you try to charge a large EcoFlow power station or any other power station that pulls over 800 watts, you will need a larger DC to AC inverter. I built a charging station that has another brand of 200 ah LIPO battery with a 3000 watt pure sine wave inverter that I charge all my larger power stations. This way I can charge the larger power stations with solar and AC at the same time.. Jasonoid, I really liked the dc to dc booster you built.
This is great I being looking for this video for past 6 months. I think you are the first one! Make sure you have good SEO tag, so lots people will discover this! Thank you
This is really a great and timely idea! Might as well add the 12/24 VDC converter as well. Then this battery system can pretty much be used to charge up any of the current solar generators from small to large, plus you get the ability to charge more than one solar generator at a time. Put all the electronics in a case or box, with some good 4 gauge wire with some alligator clips and you can use any 12 volt battery as a source. Definitely my next project:)
A couple other ideas that would also work: -Add a 500 watt inverter to your battery to charge your power stations using the inverter -Get a 24v or 48v battery instead of a 12v battery, and just plug in your power stations.... for best conversion efficiencies. There are so many options to do this so just chose what works best for you :)
@@Jasonoid This is good too. Just looking at the conversion losses, the fewer steps, the better. The best would be to use a 48 volt battery, which can go directly into the PV input of most large solar generators. This method involves only the conversion losses of the internal MPPT solar controller in the generator, and of course, the charging loss of charging the internal LiFePO4 battery, which is about 8.6% (from the original MIT patent) and translates to 916 watts of the 1000 watts being available to run loads. Introducing a DC to DC converter (typically 80% for the cheaper units to 90% or better for the really good ones). That one step means for every 1000 watts going from one battery to another, only about 733 watts will be available for use to run a load. A good quality AC inverter typically starts at 88% conversion efficiency and can reach as high as 97%, but they are going to be pricey when compared to a DC to DC converter. For a comparison with lead acid, you typically get only 60 watts back for every 100 watts you put in if you discharge at the 25 hour rate. If you run the starter until the starter won't turn the car over, and then recharge it, that drops to 9 watts for the same 100 watt input! I'm really glad to see these real world applications that anyone can do, as lots of us don't think of them ourselves!
Good idea. I like videos like this because they make me think of how I am going to keep my small system going at night. The simplest probably is a cheap modified sine wave inverter that's over 500 watts. For the PV input at night, you can have a setup like this on a two-way battery switch and just switch off your panels and switch on your battery. For one battery you could run a 10 or 20 amp charge controller and one or two panels and just slowly charge it up during the day.
@PWoods-cd6tk newbie here. WOW! Are you saying I could just hook up a - over 500 watts pure sine inverter to a 12v battery - and plug the my bluetti 200 max station right in to that to recharge? If so that would be so much easier for me! Would it still give high watt charge? or Does it lose efficiency over this whole wired way shown in thi svideo ( which is cool and creative, but intimidating for me) . I don't understand the battery switch so well, but I could do it manually I suppose. I'd rather put money into 12v batteries than bluetti's expansion to get way more capacity, if i can do it safely and not TOO inconveniently for a temporary stationary RV.
After a couple of years now since this video, I would say buy a 48 volt battery and a 40 amp charge controller instead of buying any of the external batteries for the Bluetti or whatever station you have. You then just run the 51.2 volts from the battery into the solar input of the power station at 10 amps or whatever and have 500 watts steadily trickling in. A 40 amp charge controller will let you run 2400 watts of solar to the battery. There's a few 48 volt 100 amp hour batteries going for under a $1000 now, and some 30 amp hour 48 volt batteries that are going for what 12 volt used to go for, so it's a better deal. When I purchased my two B200s, they were $1,200 a piece I believe. There are a few 40 amp mppt charge controllers going for $150 and lower that are pretty good. Bouge RV makes a decent one.
You can also parallel 2 batteries and charge them using a high amps 12V charger on the AC output. Or better yet use a 24V charger and keep the batteries in series. When the batteries are full, switch them to series configuration if not a 24V setup, and use them to charge the Bluetti when the Sun or whatever is not available. You are losing a lot of power using a boost converter and are limited in the 100 Wattish charging limit without a boost converter. I bought the new EB3A. I love it and that's one way I found I can extend the capacity, short of opening it up and paralleling the internal 24V battery with an external one.
That is super interesting. Have you take some photos of that connections or have you a scheme? Is there a limit to capacity of external battery? At 300 € plus external battery it would probably cheap and super efficient
I have the Power Queen 50 Ah battery, and have used it to expand the capacity of EB55 once the sun goes down. I just connect them straight up at 12v. I haven't tried boosting the voltage. I'm not usually running large loads on the EB55, so 12v charging has been fine.
Dumping power at 100 watts is fine for small loads, if you wanted to get double the speed without going over the charging voltage input, just use a 12v to 24v converter and you'll see around 200 watts charging instead of 100 watts.
Looks like a fun project! I'm just not a big fan of transferring energy from one large (discrete) storage source to another. You're going to lose energy twice. First during the transfer from the battery to the power station and then again when you convert it within in the main station to power your items (inverter loss, etc.). By the time you get it from the external battery to whatever appliance you are actually powering, you might only have 75-80% usable energy from the Power Queen battery. If it were a modular or expansion battery pack built specifically for the existing unit, I could see value in it as it would be designed to integrate directly into the circuitry of the power station with no conversion loss. I'd rather use the time and money to build a power station around the Power Queen battery and then I'd have TWO large power stations to offer myself some redundancy and ability to use them in multiple locations. If you've got to carry two big/heavy battery packs around, they may as well both be able to power appliances on their own. Redundancy is a good thing! In my videos, you'll see that I built solar pergolas to provide power to landscape/pool lights. I have also built several portable power stations. I can pull power off of any of these to use around the house/yard in emergencies when necessary. I'm sure there are use cases for this out there somewhere though. I do like the battery. I might have to build another portable power station with these and make another video! Keep experimenting for sure!
Hi Jason, can you do a video of charging a 48v 200ah stand alone battery with pv and charge controller? I'm sure many beginners like me would like to see for expanding storage for their power station. Your videos are so clear to understand. Thank you!!
If I was going to do it, I would just get the 24v battery they have listed and simply the entire setup. I realize they sent you the 12V and you had to work with what they sent. Great video!
@@Jasonoid Hi and great video. I am pretty new to this and have two questions - can I charge a 48v battery from my DeltaPro by using one of the chargers you showed ? Second one is - do i need to drop the voltage down when charging my DeltaPro from the 48v battery? Thanks!
The Delta Pro can handle the 48v just fine, no need to drop the voltage. When choosing a charger for a 48v lifepo4 battery you won't be able to use the chargers I have in the video, those are for 12v options. You'll find 48v options online listed as "58.4v 10 amp Lifepo4 48v 16s battery charger". Pick one with good reviews and you should be able to run the charger off the inverter of your Delta Pro.
Is it possible to charge a 48v battery with solar panels? I have 570w panels short circuit current 14.31amps and open circuit voltage 50.74v would they work ok? Thank you
You may like to see how to charge with better DC to DC converter, here's another video you'll like: ruclips.net/video/I78RxjRXTn4/видео.htmlsi=hdiSpMWjhnlSPHZD This is another video about using 12v 24v and 48v batteries instead: ruclips.net/video/tK4JKmfndh8/видео.htmlsi=LRawOdlofkvzUZYu
@@theinnocent714 using an inverter to charge your power station would do the same thing that's in the video, except it would be less efficient. DC to DC Charging is always more efficient.
I've been using two 12-volt LifePO4 batteries connected in series to become one 24-volt battery. I plug this directly into my Ugreen 1200W PowerRoam's car/solar charging input (one XT-60 connector) and get about 380 watts charging power. No converter needed. 15 amp pull/15 amp draw. It's been working well.
also you should turn off the fridge defrost timer either physically or electronically. It will run atleast once a day or every few days depending on the model. Defrost uses around 1-2k watts of a heater element that runs around 10 mins depending on how iced up it is or programmed. Just don't open the fridge doors too often that can let moisture into the fridge.
We live in a very dry environment, so frost isn't much of an issue since the humidity is so low. I have watched the wattage pull on this fridge it pulls 500 watts+ pretty consistently. I'll need to look into disabling that feature to save power!
Cool stuff , just picked up the Ecoflow Delta mini + 110W EF panel on Primeday for $600 total.... their 1400W inverter is enough for my need and you gave me some idea on extend capacity... thank you!
Awesome been waiting all week for this video! Nice job! I think I my be able to get away with just hooking the battery up through the 10 cigarette plug for my specific application. But I'm glad to see another option for fast charging!
Jasoniod, Thanks for your excellent video. As I am a novice, perhaps you can clarify some of the results I don't fully understand. Assumptions: Bluetti input current is limited to 10 Amps, power in = power out. Power = Volts x Amps. Looking at the Bluetti display at 5:39 in the video the input current assumption proved to be incorrect (36.3 V, 11.9 Amps, and 431 Watts). Here I have three questions. 1) If a specification is a numeric value and does not represent a limit, how are we to interpret the meaning of the value presented? 2) For Bluetti, what is the real limit for input current?, and finally, 3) How does the controller protect the circuit when it reaches the max input? Also, the clamp meter registered output of 38 Amps. 38 Amps x 12.8 Volts = 486 Watts. If power in is equal to power out shouldn't the bluetti have input of 486 Watts divided by 36 Volts which is 13.5 Amps? From a novice Thanks in advance.
I use the DC Charging Enhancer (D050S) from Bluetti to charge my AC200P from a 12 volt source or battery. It’s $159 and it works great. The DIY solution would be good for brands that don’t have the option. The downside of this setup is that the extra battery won’t charge with the main unit the way legit expansion batteries do on models which have that option like the AC200Max.
Ive seen some people use the D050S with solar panels at get the full 500 watts. How much power do you see using a 12v power source? No one has made a video about that and the Bluetti website says nothing about the specs.
@@Jasonoid I’ve used it to charge a Bluetti EB240 from a 12v lead acid battery. I was pretty consistently pulling about 95 watts. [edit: corrected, accidentally wrote EB55 earlier, which is not correct.]
I'm curious how the Bluetti option works as well. Looks like I could make this setup and save a few bucks but it would be nice to just have the Bluetti solution. It's just massive from what I've seen in the picture.
@@ziggy29 I've been told in order to use the DO50S with a small power station you have to use some kind of step down converter with it or it could fry your small power station
I've done something similar to connect a LiFePo4 battery to the Titan Solar Generator (24V battery) using an ISDT P20 DC-DC smart charger. Works well for extending the discharge time of the Titan.
On a smaller power station, why not buy two 100 Ah batteries, hook them in the series, which would give you 24 V then you would need no converter so it would be more efficient
You should also factor in the conversion loss on those two inveretrs since they are not 100% efficient, basically power in is not the same as power out due to conversion loss. You should provide the measured current draws on input and output.
Great presentation, thanks. Good add-on, with your charging devices' comparison, at the end. Re. your intended mods, to your custom charging converter, you could replace the fuse, with a resetable circuit breaker. Would be a lot more compatible with your applied loading. And, obviously, your increased cable sizing. I built a DIY power station, utilising 18650 Li-Ion cells, to produce ~151AH, @12VDC battery, which = ~1600WH. Really like your concept on multiplying the charge voltage, to reduce time. As I'm in the process of building 2x portable batteries (again, Li-Ion, @~90AH each), which can be run in parallel, to charge the main station. Looks like I have another project: modifying it to allow for a greater charge voltage. At present, it has an XT60 solar input connector, for my solar system, & couple of other alterations required. PS. You have another sub.
Thanks for sharing! I've been looking to do this on a smaller scale with my 100AH LiFePO4 battery and a Bluetti EB70S for those longer trips. Also useful in the event of a power outage to run a fridge like you did here. I definitely need to pick up the 12-24V converter for those faster charge times.
@@garrison_herbert I have the same box. What do you use to connect it to the Bluetti? Just the cigarette plug to the barrel connector? I believe that connection is 10A max, so wondering if it's better to connect it via the terminals.
Nice video. I put a 100 ah LiFePo battery enclosed in a Plano tool box with a AiLi shunt to measure SOC and use a XTAR solar panel coupled with a Powerwerx MPPT solar controller-both products you reviewed awhile back to recharge the battery when boon docking. Together with a few pigtails it works great at charging my EcoFlow River Pro but I typically use it to power my ICECO JP40, another product you reviewed. Thanks for all your videos!
Wouldn't it be easier to use an inverter and just plug it in? By the way loved the video and as always great information on much more than the topic. Appreciate your time and knowledge.
There are lots of ways to skin a cat haha... This one was just thinking a little outside the box. A little better efficiency than using an inverter to charge.
I use a 300w pure sinewave inverter to keep my Jackery 500w charged , when on the road. The charging brick that comes with the Jackery produces 83 watts or so and the inverter will deliver the same . Using the inverter mimics using the charger from your house ac outlet using the Jackery charger and this is the fastet method of the three types of charging methods, (solar 65W , 12v dc from car 35W and charger brick 83W) . My 12v car fridge only pulls 45W so my Jackery is always at 100%. I did a test at 75F ambient temp with my fridge connected to my Jackery 500 and with the fridge in the eco mode at 37F the Jackery lasted 37 hours with 25% power left. This without the Jackery being charged while it is being used.
Would like to see a portable solar generator that doesn't have an internal battery that connects to an external battery and then you can set the parameters for the solar generator to those of the external battery.
@@highwaymen1237 The problem is that most solar generators have a 48v internal battery for an inverter that also uses 48v. This is much easier to build. Smaller wires and less amps and less heat. You probably won’t find anyone making a battery-less inverter module that works with a 12v battery. It takes a lot of batteries to be able to give a 12v inverter enough power to make 2000w. It’s much easier with a 48v system.
I have a suggestion about keeping the inverter cool. 4:57 would it be better to have it submerged in mineral oil instead of using a fan? I’m talking about lowering the temperature. Feel free to correct me🙂 I’m learning
Why not plug the power queen into the Buletti to begin with and the Buletti will pull from the PQ batt and discharge both together? I am doing a similar idea with my DIY power station which has a 12v 16ah battery. I am adding a Ryobi battery receptacle and a buck converter so when I plug a Ryobi One+ battery in, it will replenish the power station, even while in use. I have several videos already about doing such things with Ryobi batteries. As long as the power station has pass thru charging (like your Buetti) your idea should work. Great video. I don't always comment, but I do always watch.
So you used two to double the amps. Its still not a bad price but you can get a 12v to 48v 10a step up converter for about the same price. so a little less wiring to deal with.
I was hoping you'd show how to do this on a typical midrange unit, perhaps wiring the big external battery in place of the internal battery on perhaps a 500WH unit. Many of those charge at max rates of 65W-72W, which won't allow you to offset even a modest demand. It still had some good ideas though, like using a voltage tripler (or doubler) to get much higher charge rates out of only a 12V source.
The options on the small power stations are limited since they don't allow high voltages and they have such low input amperage limits. If they accept 24v input, using a 12v to 24v converter would probably be best. You could also run a small inverter on your large battery and run the stock charger off the inverter. Sometimes a DIY solution (battery, inverter, charger) can be the best since you aren't limited by cheap engineering.
If you put 2 or more boost converter in parallel, i would use a diode, and make sure your boost converter has an adjustable battery under voltage protection
I do this with 10awg wire connected to my ecoflow river pro with just an xt60. It only charges at about 100watts but it stays cool and there is no need for a voltage converter or fan.
Yeah, that's the normal 12v charging each power station will do, it takes about 7 hours to charge the River 2 Pro at that speed. Sometimes you want a little faster charging.
@@Jasonoid Yes. Charging at 100 watts was too slow. I decided to wire my batteries in a 24-volt configuration and now I am getting 200-215 watts on my River 2 Pro. Much faster. Since most power stations have pass-through charging, they don't really need more than 200 watts. I plug my battery in as soon as we get camp set up and it's constantly charging the power station as we are using it. Have not needed it to be stronger than that yet. Nothing gets hot or even warm.
What is the advantage of the charging device you built over using the power inverter you used to drain the 200ah battery with the lamps, to recharge the power generated?
I just purchased an AC200MAX on the Black Friday sale, and am considering a Power Queen 51.2V 90Ah battery. It should work with their D050S magic box without DC-DC conversion. Nice added capacity for $1200.
You don't need the Bluetti charging enhancer for that battery to work, just plug the battery output (pos and negative) into solar input on the AC200Max.
@@Jasonoid True, though I may want to use solar panels during the day at least. I also like your transfer switch set up, as I want to power critical loads, especially during power outages. We had a three day outage last month…
Hey Tom, Is it possible (or have you tried) to connect the Power Queen battery directly to the AC200MAX adapter input instead of using the D050S? The adapter input is rated for 58.8 volts. Thanks
You can connect the 48v LFP battery to the solar mppt input port and it will charge. I'm not sure how it will react by plugging it into the AC port and I wouldn't recommend it. The wall charger and the D050s are both 48v "chargers" and connecting a 48v battery to that probably wouldn't do anything.
Is there a commercially available product (think battery maintainer sized box) that's basically designed for specifically this purpose and is premade, or are these still at the DIY stages?
That small fuse is not sufficient for the power source. Usually the small ATC fuses have an AIC (amp interrupting capacity) of 1000Amps, and the short circuit amp rating of that battery is certainly 3000+ amps, so you’ll need an appropriate fuse.
Maybe I missed it but I'd really have liked seeing an efficiency comparison between charging the power station directly and with the boost converters. Just to give a feeling for what are the losses involved.
Lots of loss to heat with these boosters compared to using solar panels. Solar panel charging is one of the most efficient ways to charge a battery because charge controllers can get around 95%+ efficiency. I'd say always use solar when possible, this battery expansion is a backup for night or when the sun isn't shining.
@@Jasonoid I'm aware of the losses, that's why I'm asking for the figures. Maybe you can add it to the comments. At least the ones from the converters are easy enough to measure and calculate.
gotcha, I'll have to do some future calculations with some clamp meters and voltmeters to verify exact efficiency. The best option would be to take a LFP 48v battery and use no converters, but those are quite expensive.
There are plenty of videos that teach you how to solder on RUclips. Just search for some tutorials. The connections are in parallel. The wiring diagram shows how it's wired up.
NIce!!! I have been waiting for this video! Good Stuff! I Have 2 Power Queen 300Ah now Wired in parallel :) FYI, I have some 48dc 5amp power supplies. I have taken the ouput of them and put it into the solar input of a MPPT controller. I get almost 300 watts out to charge. anyways, Keep up the great videos I look forward to new ones all the time :). 😎
Easier and probably safer option is to simply use a 500W sine wave inverter and plug the supplied power source which delivers 400W. Mine draws 32A from the 200Ah battery, if you think about it that would be the same as using a 12V 25A battery charger off mains power.
@@vanchauyes but it charges much much faster which allow you to take this time gains to charge again the battery with a powerful charger or big array solar panels.
Great video, very practical. Just what I was looking for. I saw a 12v to 48V, 8 amp would that work as well instead of two 12v to 36v? Just checking? Thanks again for this.
Hi, are you able to set this up as a battery expansion? How would you do that. Would like to keep it connected to my bluetti and treat it as an expansion.
EcoFlow makes an 800W alternator charger that could be used to do exactly this since it’s basically a DC-DC charger. Downside is that the DC output cable is EcoFlow specific so probably couldn’t use it with another brand.
Great Video. I did enjoy it. However, for me, the part that was missing was charging the big battery back from the Power station. Yes, you brushed over it, but it was missing sth in my opinion. I would like to use it properly as an extension battery like the OG ones. So charging and recharging through the powerstation. I don't need a separate mppt controller if I have akk that within the powerstation already. Idk if it is possible to make an adequate replacement for the expensive original expansions. But I hoped I would find that out in this video.
Thank you for your great videos. Just wondering what benefits do BLUETTI expansion batteries have over the lifePo system you describe. Appreciate your help.
The Bluetti branded expansion batteries are fully automatic. They charge and discharge with the power station battery. They do cost a bit more than a standalone battery like these. These batteries just allow you to charge the power station for a longer runtime, you have to separately charge them back up after they die.
Hey @Jasonoid, excellent video as always. I think it would be really helpful if someone could guide the community on how to setup solar+alternator charging to solar generator till 100% full, then dump excess into a secondary battery like this. Icing on the cake would be that the secondary battery could then automatically charge the solar generator when the sun isn't shining. I have searched, and I have not found any resources for this. Would be awesome.
You're right, I should have showed the volts/amps on both sides of the process to see loss. The most heat buildup was in the fuse holder and using larger wire or dual wires would have helped get rid of that completely. There are many ways to accomplish the same goal here. Using an AC inverter with the stock wall charger, using a 24v or 48v battery and dumping power straight into the power station, or using the voltage converters on a 12v battery are just a few options. I'm sure there's even more haha!
i was thinking to buy 2 12v 50ah batteires connect them in series to have 24 volts to charge the ac180 or ac180P that would work also but a bit more expensive
Hola , una pregunta porfavor: es posible cargar PowerQueen directamente con corriente continua (DC) desde la salida de 12v de una EcoFlow Delta2 por ejemplo?? Sin usar un inversor de 220v( 120v)?? Es posible? Muchas Gracias por todo tu trabajo, desde España
How would you charge the expansion battery if you're offgrid? Let's say you have a smaller Bluetti product - EB70 EB55 or EB3a for weekend camping. You want to have an extra 100ah LiFePO4 battery for extended touring and need to rely on solar charging. What would you need to do so that you can simultaneously charge both Power station and the expansion battery? Or would it be better to charge the expansion battery via solar and that would charge the Bluetti? If so, how would you set that up? Or would it be better to just get another smaller bluetti? And in that situation, would you even be able to charge both power stations from a single 200w solar panel unit? Just trying to think of the most elegant solution for tiny suv camper
Would it be possible to use solar to mppt to battery and then mppt out to Bluetti? Solar panels charging external battery, external battery charging Bluetti. I don't like the idea of AC charging the external battery.
This is a older video of how to get the most charging out of the EB55 and EB70. Hooking up a 12v battery and 12v to 24v converter to the EB3A will give you the same "expansion battery" ruclips.net/video/_7l8hoNebDY/видео.html
as I remember, that bluetti AC200p accepts solar voltage only starting from 36Volts, so your DYI power booster is good for this device for the case to charge that bluetti AC200p from solar pannels 17-20Volts or from batteries (e.g. 12 Volts like in this example )
Usually these converters don't like taking solar input. Maybe because it's not consistent. I tested once awhile ago but not with these specific models.
Good video. I dont trust those blade fuses for anything over 20A. I run several small lifepo4 batterys that I run in parallel on the AC200P that I use a ANL fuse with.
This guy has more common-sense than most bluetti shills on youtube. He'd get more benefit if an xt-90 Y-Cable was added to the motherboard then out to a 15KWHR home made battery. Also, don't rely on that 500W ac adapter barrel plug for too long it will start burning if used 24/7 in conjunction with solar input. Instead add an external 48V solar charge controller to the 15KWHR home made battery.
Great video, thanks for addressing wire size. I'm just a beginner so my question out of ignorance. What is the wire gauge you are using here? In videos I have seen it seems batteries of any voltage are always connected to inverters by very thick wires, thicker than what you have here, and official extra batteries for sold for power stations use very thick wires as well. However all the videos I have seen showing how to connect an unofficial extra battery to a power station use thinner wires as well. Is this type of connection a different situation where it is ok to use thinner wires than usual (but not too thin as you discussed), compared to something that normally uses even thicker wires? I ask because all of the pre-made wires that don't require any crimping for connecting battery clamps or eyelets to other connectors that could go into a power station (like mc4 or xt60) seem all quite thin. So if it would be unsafe to use them to connect for example a 12v 100ah battery to ecoflow delta 2, then I will seek out thicker wire and learn to crimp.
Wire size is all based on amps. Power stations typically rely on a 'lower amperage and higher voltage' setup to get their power so they don't require large charging wires. For example, your Delta 2 will take is 15 amps max at higher voltages and only 8 amps on anything under ~30 volts. Once you know the amperage going through your wires, you can look up an ampacity wire chart to determine what size of wire you need.
question concerning using the power supplies as battery chargers. Does the internal BMS control the power coming from the power supplies to properly charge the LiFePo4 batteries? Where are the 'smarts' to properly control the current and voltage?
I am doing exactly that right now. I am stepping down 48v to 24v because my small power station can only handle 30v max. But note that sparks can occur when you connect the battery unless you use a switch
@@moccaloto actually I tried it already. I have the EcoFlow delta max and I bought the connector from eBay to my bike battery and connected it to the solar port. The battery has its own switch so I just switch it off before I plug it in and bingo it works a treat !
Yeah it's fine, instead of buying two 5 amp converters you can use the 1 listed in the description. It will last longer since it doesn't have to work as hard.
OK. I like this idea but got to thinking. What about connecting two batteries (or more) in parallel and then connecting that array to the Bluetti 200p? Would that extend the Bluetti even more?
I tryed this on a eco-worthy battery 12v 100ah with 12v to 24v (step up) wired it up as you said, and it gave me 184w really happy with that, Then i noticed the small red wire coming from the battery side on the step up box was getting warm so i turn off not sure wats wrong im using xt60 plug . Which is charging a delta 2 power station
put 2 batteries in parallel and connect with the clamp cable that comes with bluetti ac200 max. and DO5OS, or you connect the batteries in series and connect to the bluetti on the PV input and you have more power and you don't get complicated with electronic assemblies on the plank
Why not using an inverter 3000w at 250$ on amazon , connected to the battery and charge the bluetti with an AC cable at 120v from the inverter. There would be a loss in conversion but it would charge with 1200w per h minimum, so much much faster. Maybe i miss the point here. I know nearly nothing in electrical systems.
i used a cheap variable dc-dc boost converter i got from amazon that allows 30 amps and for me to adjust the voltage and amps, has it's own cooling fan and a little over 30 bucks. but it does require supplying my own cables, and the 8 gauge ofc wires barely fit in the connectors. but it handled the 30 amps on the input for about 400 watts on the output. but you do have to set the voltage and current manually. imo if you are going to be using it on a load that is variable, like a fridge, and is around 150 watts when on, i would connect the battery directly to the power station, and remove the loss that happens from the boost converter.
Thanks P M for sharing your setup! You are right that charging at the 12v rate would probably be fine while running 1 fridge. For other larger loads this mod will allow it to keep up with charging. If I was going to invest into a more serious setup like this it'd probably be better buy a 24v or 48v LFP battery and just run the power straight into the power station. For example, the 48v 5Kwh EG4 batteries make a good argument since they are cost effective for what you get.
I have the AC200p. I have the b230 connected to the solar input with the panels connected to the enhancer. How would I add one of these LifePo batteries without that added converter to help keep my b230 charged overnight? No I know nothing about this so I'll try to see if I can understand your answer... Thanks
Hi, thank you so much for your video, I think I finally get it...I already have the Bluetti AC200MAX which I believe can take up to 51.2V, I was looking at having my Kia Carnival 2022 smart alternator/car battery connected to the Sterling Power DC-DC Battery to Battery Charger 12V 70A in / 48V out and connect the B2B Charger to my PowerStation, would that be correct? I'm hoping I'll get more than 500W into the PowerStation, up to 800W would be nice...lol. I look forward to your response.
You must also ensure that the battery discharge capacity (measured in 1C, 2C, 3C...) allows the max number of Amps you will have, else you make kill your battery in few months.
I put my old lead acid to work..24v system and have 2 leads from it in to the solar input on a 100/30 Victron. Out from 2 leads with Anderson connector. Using dolar input from the power station. An Anderson/mc4 connection. The powerstation can take max 230w , 13A..( EF R2 pro). With the victron i can change max A out so it gives me diversity. The old leadacid will be chsnged to 2 lifepo4 50A 24v. The 24v system can have days or even a week or two to fill up until i want a big charge in to the power station. Sure, an inverter is included so, yes, i can charge the P S with full AC-charge if i am in a hurry.
Great video. It takes some effort putting the pieces together and making a video of it all. Is it possible to connect the outputs of the ExpertPower 12v 20A Smart Charger and the KISAE Technology DMT1250 DC-DC Solar Charger in parallel? In another words, the LIFEPO4 battery would be charged using AC power, the alternator and solar all at the same time. Thanx!
Yes, you can parallel different types of charging sources at the same time on one battery. You'll just want to make sure they have the same charging parameters (which most LFP charging profiles do). The battery will charge faster with multiple chargers attached.
Wow real nice video but months before I watched this video I have already set up a system where I have two Power Queen 200 AH batteries in parallel powering my small vacation home and a 1000 AH lithium ion portable solar power station connected to a 20 amp LiFePo4 charger supplying power to the power queens. The power station has 600 watts of solar panels charging it. The LifePo4 charger was only $59 on amazon. So my system is reverse to yours. Not being an electrical engineer what advantages or disadvantages does my system have. Charging time is not an important factor to me and the system seems to works very well. Why did I do it this way? I will take out the portable power station out to use elsewhere in the RV or for portable power outside when not charging the power queens.
Hi Jasonoid, quick question, is there’s downside using a 36V 20amp step-up converter on a Pecron 600 that has an input limit of 15 amps? Will it just auto-regulate down to its max allowable? Is there an efficiency loss? Thanks!!!
It will limit the amperage input automatically and the converter will enjoy not being at full blast the whole time. Win win. Watch this video for efficiency testing on these types of converters: ruclips.net/video/I78RxjRXTn4/видео.html
Could I use my existing 12v solar panels and wire it to victron mppt controller and run it to 2 190ah batteries in parallel to run 24v into the pv port on my ac200max?
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I'm just finding this video in early Dec. 2022 and I'm inspired to find there are options for creating one's own auxiliary battery supply for these large power stations! I just ordered a Bluetti AC200P and started digging around to see if I could expand its capacity without having to spend $1,300 or more for one of Bluetti's auxiliary batteries, i.e. the B230 or the B300. I'm so glad to find this explanation showing there are many options for making this happen, at a lower price, IF you have the skills to do all those calculations. I don't have the skills, but I could find someone to help, now that I know it's possible. I also want to say I think you do excellent presentations, Jasonoid! I've watched a couple of your videos so far, and I don't know why you don't have a larger Subscriber base by now. You are clear, articulate and know how to present information in a methodical, step by step process, with great demos and videography. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge with all of us who need it! I hope your Subscriber base continues to grow, and that it will help compensate you for all your efforts. Cheers!
Thanks Living It Up, one of the easiest ways to charge the AC200p faster is by getting either a 24v LiFePO4 battery, or a 48v battery (51.2v). By just connecting a 24v battery up to the charging input, you can charge the AC200p at around 240 watts, maybe a little higher. You could also purchase a 48v LiFePO4 battery and charge near 600 watts when connected up. Power Queen makes some excellent budget batteries. For example this battery has 4600wh, it would charge the AC200p at around 550-600 watts when connected, and only costs $1200:
ipowerqueen.com/products/power-queen-51-2v-90ah-lifepo4-battery-built-in-90a-bms
Probably even cheaper with my discount code: LLC3
@@Jasonoid Thanks Jason! Well, I have limited funds, so $1,200 for an extra battery for charging my new AC200P is not possible. BUT, you added some valuable info, reminding me about choosing a 24V or 48V configuration to speed the charging with a battery. I'll keep weighing all the options (incl. a propane-powered generator), for my emergency backup system, and budget for the next phase of investment. Just trying to prepare for the electrical grid outages that we keep being warned about. I'm in Portland, OR and our electricity providers have had at least 3 short-term outages just in the past 6 weeks....and today it's snowing, with 3" expected, which often brings power outages due to tree breakage and downed wires.
We all have to be better prepared these days for more weather and grid-related emergencies. So, your thorough and clear videos are very appreciated in this education process. Thanks again for what you're doing! 🙏👍☮😉
Could i run 2 12v batteries in series to make 24v and plug into the solar port?
@@Chegooutdoors yes, that will work just fine!
I use a similar voltage booster to charge my power station from a running vehicle. However for this application, I would recommend using 2 100AH batteries in series for 25.6V instead of one 200AH 12.8V battery. You are losing efficiency with the boost converter, and adding expense. And, as you've noted, when you pull 40Amps things tend to get warm unless you are careful.
The best setup would be to have a 48v LFP battery so you could get quite a bit of power without any loss. EG4 makes a 5kwh 48v LFP battery for $1500. They can't keep up with the demand! The 24v battery is a decent option too. Thanks for commenting :)
The EG4 48v 5kw battery is what I’ve been looking at to expand my AC200Max, as I think Bluetti 2kw expansion batteries are too expensive. Since the EG4 and AC200 Max are 48v, is it a simple direct connection or is more involved? @@Jasonoid
@@raspillade6027 you can use a 48v EG4 battery to dump power into the Bluetti power station to charge it. You'll want to plug the output of that 48v battery into the solar input of the power station (and make sure it's set to solar input on the screen so it allows the higher voltage input). It won't be "officially" supported as an expansion battery for the Max since it won't use the Bluetti expansion cable with the communication connections.
@@Jasonoid
Could you theoretically plug a solar charger into the 48v battery so solar panels could charge the expansion pack too?
@@raspillade6027 If you connect to the standard solar input port, it is a simple direct connection. That input current limits to 15 amps on my AC200MAX. For the other input port, the one that is used for the AC power brick, you have to use a Bluetti DC Charging Enhancer (D050S) ($200) which limits input to 10 amps. So, I can input 700W+ through the solar input port and 450W+ using the (D050S). Have fun!
I have a Bluetti AC200P connected to a 6 circuit transfer switch. I run a few circuits every day to take advantage of the unit rather than have it sit waiting to be used during a power outage. I decided I needed more capacity so I bought two of the Power Queen 12V LFP batteries and hooked them up in series. I was using the Bluetti D050S enhancer to connect the batteries to the AC200P and this setup was supplying 250W. I saw this video and decided to try a DC to DC converter like yours. Since the AC200P requires at least 36V input, I actually purchased a 24V to 48V converter and just got it hooked up and running this morning. It is supplying 322W input to the AC200P, drawing 13.2A from the battery and outputting 7.1A to the AC200P which means it is outputting around 45V. The converter was getting a bit hot so I will need to attach a fan. Wires were barely warm. Overall I am very pleased with the setup. Thanks for the video. I always look forward to watching your videos. Keep up the good work.
Good boost of wattage! Great news, Robert!
This is a great idea! I bought a similar boost converter a while back to do this but your setup is really slick. Good call on the fans - those get hot!
I've seen yours and some other videos on these Power Queens and if I were in the market to add capacity to my systems right now, I'd consider picking up a couple of these for extra capacity. Right now the 190 Ah models (over 2400 Wh) are just over $600 or about a quarter per watt-hour. That's getting pretty insane, in a good way.
I have a couple of 200 ah Ampere Time batteries that I use the same way with the 12 volt method you were showing. It trickle charges my Bluetti AC200 when running a refrigerator. The 130 watts keeps up with the wattage used by the refrigerator. When I need to charge the Bluetti faster from the battery, I just use a cheap Bestek 1000 watt pure sine wave 110 volt inverter and use the Bluetti AC 200 charging brick and it charges at a little over 400 watts. Using the inverter method you can charge any of your power stations by using their AC charging brick or the AC charging method that your Power Station uses. If you try to charge a large EcoFlow power station or any other power station that pulls over 800 watts, you will need a larger DC to AC inverter. I built a charging station that has another brand of 200 ah LIPO battery with a 3000 watt pure sine wave inverter that I charge all my larger power stations. This way I can charge the larger power stations with solar and AC at the same time.. Jasonoid, I really liked the dc to dc booster you built.
Excellent ideas here in this post, thanks for sharing your setup Arman!
This is great I being looking for this video for past 6 months. I think you are the first one! Make sure you have good SEO tag, so lots people will discover this! Thank you
This is really a great and timely idea! Might as well add the 12/24 VDC converter as well. Then this battery system can pretty much be used to charge up any of the current solar generators from small to large, plus you get the ability to charge more than one solar generator at a time. Put all the electronics in a case or box, with some good 4 gauge wire with some alligator clips and you can use any 12 volt battery as a source. Definitely my next project:)
A couple other ideas that would also work:
-Add a 500 watt inverter to your battery to charge your power stations using the inverter
-Get a 24v or 48v battery instead of a 12v battery, and just plug in your power stations.... for best conversion efficiencies.
There are so many options to do this so just chose what works best for you :)
@@Jasonoid This is good too. Just looking at the conversion losses, the fewer steps, the better. The best would be to use a 48 volt battery, which can go directly into the PV input of most large solar generators. This method involves only the conversion losses of the internal MPPT solar controller in the generator, and of course, the charging loss of charging the internal LiFePO4 battery, which is about 8.6% (from the original MIT patent) and translates to 916 watts of the 1000 watts being available to run loads. Introducing a DC to DC converter (typically 80% for the cheaper units to 90% or better for the really good ones). That one step means for every 1000 watts going from one battery to another, only about 733 watts will be available for use to run a load. A good quality AC inverter typically starts at 88% conversion efficiency and can reach as high as 97%, but they are going to be pricey when compared to a DC to DC converter. For a comparison with lead acid, you typically get only 60 watts back for every 100 watts you put in if you discharge at the 25 hour rate. If you run the starter until the starter won't turn the car over, and then recharge it, that drops to 9 watts for the same 100 watt input! I'm really glad to see these real world applications that anyone can do, as lots of us don't think of them ourselves!
@@Jasonoid Great information,, how about a video on the least expensive 48v battery for this purpose
Be avered of BLUETTI !!!
Therevis no service for there product.
There is thousand of as filing class action against Bluetti company.
@@Jasonoid ever just used the victron DC to DC charger with xt60 ends or the renogy dc to dc 12 volt chargers?
Yes, I've been using LiFePO4 batteries to refill my little Bluetti EB3A, cheapest way to be happy.
Glad to hear it! One of the cheapest "expansion" batteries you can get.
Good idea. I like videos like this because they make me think of how I am going to keep my small system going at night. The simplest probably is a cheap modified sine wave inverter that's over 500 watts. For the PV input at night, you can have a setup like this on a two-way battery switch and just switch off your panels and switch on your battery. For one battery you could run a 10 or 20 amp charge controller and one or two panels and just slowly charge it up during the day.
I agree, small 500 watt inverter would work well for this.
@PWoods-cd6tk newbie here. WOW! Are you saying I could just hook up a - over 500 watts pure sine inverter to a 12v battery - and plug the my bluetti 200 max station right in to that to recharge? If so that would be so much easier for me! Would it still give high watt charge? or Does it lose efficiency over this whole wired way shown in thi svideo ( which is cool and creative, but intimidating for me) . I don't understand the battery switch so well, but I could do it manually I suppose. I'd rather put money into 12v batteries than bluetti's expansion to get way more capacity, if i can do it safely and not TOO inconveniently for a temporary stationary RV.
After a couple of years now since this video, I would say buy a 48 volt battery and a 40 amp charge controller instead of buying any of the external batteries for the Bluetti or whatever station you have. You then just run the 51.2 volts from the battery into the solar input of the power station at 10 amps or whatever and have 500 watts steadily trickling in. A 40 amp charge controller will let you run 2400 watts of solar to the battery. There's a few 48 volt 100 amp hour batteries going for under a $1000 now, and some 30 amp hour 48 volt batteries that are going for what 12 volt used to go for, so it's a better deal. When I purchased my two B200s, they were $1,200 a piece I believe. There are a few 40 amp mppt charge controllers going for $150 and lower that are pretty good. Bouge RV makes a decent one.
You can also parallel 2 batteries and charge them using a high amps 12V charger on the AC output. Or better yet use a 24V charger and keep the batteries in series.
When the batteries are full, switch them to series configuration if not a 24V setup, and use them to charge the Bluetti when the Sun or whatever is not available.
You are losing a lot of power using a boost converter and are limited in the 100 Wattish charging limit without a boost converter.
I bought the new EB3A. I love it and that's one way I found I can extend the capacity, short of opening it up and paralleling the internal 24V battery with an external one.
That is super interesting. Have you take some photos of that connections or have you a scheme? Is there a limit to capacity of external battery? At 300 € plus external battery it would probably cheap and super efficient
I have the Power Queen 50 Ah battery, and have used it to expand the capacity of EB55 once the sun goes down. I just connect them straight up at 12v. I haven't tried boosting the voltage. I'm not usually running large loads on the EB55, so 12v charging has been fine.
Dumping power at 100 watts is fine for small loads, if you wanted to get double the speed without going over the charging voltage input, just use a 12v to 24v converter and you'll see around 200 watts charging instead of 100 watts.
Looks like a fun project! I'm just not a big fan of transferring energy from one large (discrete) storage source to another. You're going to lose energy twice. First during the transfer from the battery to the power station and then again when you convert it within in the main station to power your items (inverter loss, etc.). By the time you get it from the external battery to whatever appliance you are actually powering, you might only have 75-80% usable energy from the Power Queen battery. If it were a modular or expansion battery pack built specifically for the existing unit, I could see value in it as it would be designed to integrate directly into the circuitry of the power station with no conversion loss.
I'd rather use the time and money to build a power station around the Power Queen battery and then I'd have TWO large power stations to offer myself some redundancy and ability to use them in multiple locations. If you've got to carry two big/heavy battery packs around, they may as well both be able to power appliances on their own. Redundancy is a good thing! In my videos, you'll see that I built solar pergolas to provide power to landscape/pool lights. I have also built several portable power stations. I can pull power off of any of these to use around the house/yard in emergencies when necessary. I'm sure there are use cases for this out there somewhere though. I do like the battery. I might have to build another portable power station with these and make another video!
Keep experimenting for sure!
There are multiple ways to skin a cat, each person has their own preference lol. Thanks for sharing your feedback!
This was exactly my thought. U Nailed it!
Im finding you a very good resource to help me understand! The comment section of this video is outstanding!
Glad you found the video helpful!
Jasonoid, I agree that your channel is so thorough and you do a great job, yiu should have 500,000 subscribers
Hi Jason, can you do a video of charging a 48v 200ah stand alone battery with pv and charge controller? I'm sure many beginners like me would like to see for expanding storage for their power station. Your videos are so clear to understand. Thank you!!
If I was going to do it, I would just get the 24v battery they have listed and simply the entire setup. I realize they sent you the 12V and you had to work with what they sent. Great video!
Buying a 48v battery would be even better! Like one of those EG4 5kw ones :) :) :)
@@Jasonoid Hi and great video. I am pretty new to this and have two questions - can I charge a 48v battery from my DeltaPro by using one of the chargers you showed ? Second one is - do i need to drop the voltage down when charging my DeltaPro from the 48v battery? Thanks!
The Delta Pro can handle the 48v just fine, no need to drop the voltage.
When choosing a charger for a 48v lifepo4 battery you won't be able to use the chargers I have in the video, those are for 12v options. You'll find 48v options online listed as "58.4v 10 amp Lifepo4 48v 16s battery charger". Pick one with good reviews and you should be able to run the charger off the inverter of your Delta Pro.
Is it possible to charge a 48v battery with solar panels? I have 570w panels short circuit current 14.31amps and open circuit voltage 50.74v would they work ok? Thank you
Man… I was looking for a video like this and you nailed every question I had. I really appreciate it.
You may like to see how to charge with better DC to DC converter, here's another video you'll like:
ruclips.net/video/I78RxjRXTn4/видео.htmlsi=hdiSpMWjhnlSPHZD
This is another video about using 12v 24v and 48v batteries instead:
ruclips.net/video/tK4JKmfndh8/видео.htmlsi=LRawOdlofkvzUZYu
Just go buy an invertor n you’ll extend ur bluetties battery life
@@theinnocent714 using an inverter to charge your power station would do the same thing that's in the video, except it would be less efficient. DC to DC Charging is always more efficient.
I've been using two 12-volt LifePO4 batteries connected in series to become one 24-volt battery. I plug this directly into my Ugreen 1200W PowerRoam's car/solar charging input (one XT-60 connector) and get about 380 watts charging power. No converter needed. 15 amp pull/15 amp draw. It's been working well.
I love the UGREEN 1200w, that device is a beast!
@@Jasonoid I first heard about it from you. Your review of it is what sold me. Thanks!
also you should turn off the fridge defrost timer either physically or electronically. It will run atleast once a day or every few days depending on the model. Defrost uses around 1-2k watts of a heater element that runs around 10 mins depending on how iced up it is or programmed. Just don't open the fridge doors too often that can let moisture into the fridge.
We live in a very dry environment, so frost isn't much of an issue since the humidity is so low. I have watched the wattage pull on this fridge it pulls 500 watts+ pretty consistently. I'll need to look into disabling that feature to save power!
Cool stuff , just picked up the Ecoflow Delta mini + 110W EF panel on Primeday for $600 total.... their 1400W inverter is enough for my need and you gave me some idea on extend capacity... thank you!
Awesome been waiting all week for this video! Nice job! I think I my be able to get away with just hooking the battery up through the 10 cigarette plug for my specific application. But I'm glad to see another option for fast charging!
Jasoniod,
Thanks for your excellent video. As I am a novice, perhaps you can clarify some of the results I don't fully understand. Assumptions: Bluetti input current is limited to 10 Amps, power in = power out. Power = Volts x Amps. Looking at the Bluetti display at 5:39 in the video the input current assumption proved to be incorrect (36.3 V, 11.9 Amps, and 431 Watts). Here I have three questions. 1) If a specification is a numeric value and does not represent a limit, how are we to interpret the meaning of the value presented? 2) For Bluetti, what is the real limit for input current?, and finally, 3) How does the controller protect the circuit when it reaches the max input? Also, the clamp meter registered output of 38 Amps. 38 Amps x 12.8 Volts = 486 Watts. If power in is equal to power out shouldn't the bluetti have input of 486 Watts divided by 36 Volts which is 13.5 Amps? From a novice Thanks in advance.
I use the DC Charging Enhancer (D050S) from Bluetti to charge my AC200P from a 12 volt source or battery. It’s $159 and it works great. The DIY solution would be good for brands that don’t have the option. The downside of this setup is that the extra battery won’t charge with the main unit the way legit expansion batteries do on models which have that option like the AC200Max.
Ive seen some people use the D050S with solar panels at get the full 500 watts. How much power do you see using a 12v power source? No one has made a video about that and the Bluetti website says nothing about the specs.
@@Jasonoid I’ve used it to charge a Bluetti EB240 from a 12v lead acid battery. I was pretty consistently pulling about 95 watts.
[edit: corrected, accidentally wrote EB55 earlier, which is not correct.]
I'm curious how the Bluetti option works as well. Looks like I could make this setup and save a few bucks but it would be nice to just have the Bluetti solution. It's just massive from what I've seen in the picture.
@@ziggy29 I've been told in order to use the DO50S with a small power station you have to use some kind of step down converter with it or it could fry your small power station
@@Moes_Prep_and_Tech You are correct -- I meant EB240, not EB55. I have fixed that.
Great Video. Thank you for talking about charging. Most of the other sites don't explain different options for charging.
Once the battery is dead, gotta get power into it :)
I've done something similar to connect a LiFePo4 battery to the Titan Solar Generator (24V battery) using an ISDT P20 DC-DC smart charger. Works well for extending the discharge time of the Titan.
On a smaller power station, why not buy two 100 Ah batteries, hook them in the series, which would give you 24 V
then you would need no converter so it would be more efficient
That would work just fine!
You should also factor in the conversion loss on those two inveretrs since they are not 100% efficient, basically power in is not the same as power out due to conversion loss. You should provide the measured current draws on input and output.
Good point, sure is some loss through heat. I'm sure it's similar to what an inverter would be using.
Great presentation, thanks. Good add-on, with your charging devices' comparison, at the end.
Re. your intended mods, to your custom charging converter, you could replace the fuse, with a resetable circuit breaker. Would be a lot more compatible with your applied loading. And, obviously, your increased cable sizing.
I built a DIY power station, utilising 18650 Li-Ion cells, to produce ~151AH, @12VDC battery, which = ~1600WH. Really like your concept on multiplying the charge voltage, to reduce time.
As I'm in the process of building 2x portable batteries (again, Li-Ion, @~90AH each), which can be run in parallel, to charge the main station. Looks like I have another project: modifying it to allow for a greater charge voltage.
At present, it has an XT60 solar input connector, for my solar system, & couple of other alterations required.
PS. You have another sub.
Why use the Bluetti and not just run off of the inverter?? Seems to be a waste to me to charge that thing up.
Thanks for sharing! I've been looking to do this on a smaller scale with my 100AH LiFePO4 battery and a Bluetti EB70S for those longer trips. Also useful in the event of a power outage to run a fridge like you did here. I definitely need to pick up the 12-24V converter for those faster charge times.
200 watts is a decent charging amount on the smaller power stations! That would work well on the 100ah battery.
I have this set up for power outage and camping, ebike, I got the "Newport Vessels Box" for the 100ah battery
@@garrison_herbert which size newport box are you using?
@@garrison_herbert I have the same box. What do you use to connect it to the Bluetti? Just the cigarette plug to the barrel connector? I believe that connection is 10A max, so wondering if it's better to connect it via the terminals.
@@sirramblinrose I think they only make one size; "for sizes 24 and 27"
I would be interested in seeing how long the Power Queen would run the fridge for without the mod, just hooked up to the Bluetti as a backup battery.
You should check your fridge runtime just charging with 12v. I bet it will be better.
Nice video. I put a 100 ah LiFePo battery enclosed in a Plano tool box with a AiLi shunt to measure SOC and use a XTAR solar panel coupled with a Powerwerx MPPT solar controller-both products you reviewed awhile back to recharge the battery when boon docking. Together with a few pigtails it works great at charging my EcoFlow River Pro but I typically use it to power my ICECO JP40, another product you reviewed. Thanks for all your videos!
You got all the things! Excellent setup Jack!
Which size tool box did you get?
@@sirramblinrose Approximately 22” x 10.5” x 12.5” (L x W x H).
What a cost efficient way to extend battery capacity. I like the idea of this, thank you for sharing.
Glad it was helpful!
This is great, thank you. It is always good to have options!
Wouldn't it be easier to use an inverter and just plug it in? By the way loved the video and as always great information on much more than the topic. Appreciate your time and knowledge.
There are lots of ways to skin a cat haha... This one was just thinking a little outside the box. A little better efficiency than using an inverter to charge.
I think he meant the appliances 😂
I use a 300w pure sinewave inverter to keep my Jackery 500w charged , when on the road. The charging brick that comes with the Jackery produces 83 watts or so and the inverter will deliver the same . Using the inverter mimics using the charger from your house ac outlet using the Jackery charger and this is the fastet method of the three types of charging methods, (solar 65W , 12v dc from car 35W and charger brick 83W) . My 12v car fridge only pulls 45W so my Jackery is always at 100%. I did a test at 75F ambient temp with my fridge connected to my Jackery 500 and with the fridge in the eco mode at 37F the Jackery lasted 37 hours with 25% power left. This without the Jackery being charged while it is being used.
Would like to see a portable solar generator that doesn't have an internal battery that connects to an external battery and then you can set the parameters for the solar generator to those of the external battery.
Like a bluetti ac300?
@@whitmorestrains I would like to use the generic lithium iron phosphate battery as shown in the video.
@@highwaymen1237 The problem is that most solar generators have a 48v internal battery for an inverter that also uses 48v. This is much easier to build. Smaller wires and less amps and less heat. You probably won’t find anyone making a battery-less inverter module that works with a 12v battery. It takes a lot of batteries to be able to give a 12v inverter enough power to make 2000w. It’s much easier with a 48v system.
@@whitmorestrains Renogy sells a 3,000 watt pure sine wave 12 volt inverter.
@Danang Alta Okay what is the efficiency difference? Since I'm an engineer I like numbers not opinions.
I have a suggestion about keeping the inverter cool. 4:57 would it be better to have it submerged in mineral oil instead of using a fan? I’m talking about lowering the temperature.
Feel free to correct me🙂 I’m learning
Mineral oil would work as well, but eventually the mineral oil would get warm too. You'd need a 'water cooling' loop to keep the heat down.
Thanks Jason. Awesome video. I learned a lot from this.
Imagine with AC200L and D40 you could charge these types batteries in the day then switch them over to the DC input on the 200L at night. Very cool.
Why not plug the power queen into the Buletti to begin with and the Buletti will pull from the PQ batt and discharge both together?
I am doing a similar idea with my DIY power station which has a 12v 16ah battery. I am adding a Ryobi battery receptacle and a buck converter so when I plug a Ryobi One+ battery in, it will replenish the power station, even while in use. I have several videos already about doing such things with Ryobi batteries. As long as the power station has pass thru charging (like your Buetti) your idea should work. Great video. I don't always comment, but I do always watch.
That would work well Russ, there are many ways to accomplish the same goal. Thanks for sharing your ideas, I'm sure others will see this comment!
Great idea,very intelligently thought out. And will save $ versus their expansion batteries.
So you used two to double the amps. Its still not a bad price but you can get a 12v to 48v 10a step up converter for about the same price. so a little less wiring to deal with.
Hi from France🇫🇷 , good tip to get cheap battery extensions for my AC200MAX👌👍💪
so for an older jackery 500 - I just hook my 12v 54 AH dakota lithium battery directly with a 10 amp fuse in the power/positive lead
That would work just fine!
I was hoping you'd show how to do this on a typical midrange unit, perhaps wiring the big external battery in place of the internal battery on perhaps a 500WH unit. Many of those charge at max rates of 65W-72W, which won't allow you to offset even a modest demand. It still had some good ideas though, like using a voltage tripler (or doubler) to get much higher charge rates out of only a 12V source.
The options on the small power stations are limited since they don't allow high voltages and they have such low input amperage limits.
If they accept 24v input, using a 12v to 24v converter would probably be best. You could also run a small inverter on your large battery and run the stock charger off the inverter.
Sometimes a DIY solution (battery, inverter, charger) can be the best since you aren't limited by cheap engineering.
If you put 2 or more boost converter in parallel, i would use a diode, and make sure your boost converter has an adjustable battery under voltage protection
I was thinking the same, placing a diode inline with one of the +ve terminals of one converter
I do this with 10awg wire connected to my ecoflow river pro with just an xt60. It only charges at about 100watts but it stays cool and there is no need for a voltage converter or fan.
Yeah, that's the normal 12v charging each power station will do, it takes about 7 hours to charge the River 2 Pro at that speed. Sometimes you want a little faster charging.
@@Jasonoid Yes. Charging at 100 watts was too slow. I decided to wire my batteries in a 24-volt configuration and now I am getting 200-215 watts on my River 2 Pro. Much faster. Since most power stations have pass-through charging, they don't really need more than 200 watts. I plug my battery in as soon as we get camp set up and it's constantly charging the power station as we are using it. Have not needed it to be stronger than that yet. Nothing gets hot or even warm.
What is the advantage of the charging device you built over using the power inverter you used to drain the 200ah battery with the lamps, to recharge the power generated?
I wish you used the same shunt on the 36v test to see if you could figure out if there was a capacity deficiency when you did the step up.
Thanks for this video! But how we can set up a solar panel? I had a panel directly connected to the power station
I just purchased an AC200MAX on the Black Friday sale, and am considering a Power Queen 51.2V 90Ah battery. It should work with their D050S magic box without DC-DC conversion. Nice added capacity for $1200.
You don't need the Bluetti charging enhancer for that battery to work, just plug the battery output (pos and negative) into solar input on the AC200Max.
@@Jasonoid True, though I may want to use solar panels during the day at least. I also like your transfer switch set up, as I want to power critical loads, especially during power outages. We had a three day outage last month…
The charging enhancer does allow dual charging, good call.
Hey Tom, Is it possible (or have you tried) to connect the Power Queen battery directly to the AC200MAX adapter input instead of using the D050S? The adapter input is rated for 58.8 volts. Thanks
You can connect the 48v LFP battery to the solar mppt input port and it will charge. I'm not sure how it will react by plugging it into the AC port and I wouldn't recommend it. The wall charger and the D050s are both 48v "chargers" and connecting a 48v battery to that probably wouldn't do anything.
Is there a commercially available product (think battery maintainer sized box) that's basically designed for specifically this purpose and is premade, or are these still at the DIY stages?
That small fuse is not sufficient for the power source. Usually the small ATC fuses have an AIC (amp interrupting capacity) of 1000Amps, and the short circuit amp rating of that battery is certainly 3000+ amps, so you’ll need an appropriate fuse.
Great video! I’ve been eyeing some second life 102v dc nominal lifepo4 batteries available locally that I can use for storage much like this concept.
Should work out pretty well! Local deals are always sweet!
Maybe I missed it but I'd really have liked seeing an efficiency comparison between charging the power station directly and with the boost converters. Just to give a feeling for what are the losses involved.
Lots of loss to heat with these boosters compared to using solar panels. Solar panel charging is one of the most efficient ways to charge a battery because charge controllers can get around 95%+ efficiency. I'd say always use solar when possible, this battery expansion is a backup for night or when the sun isn't shining.
@@Jasonoid I'm aware of the losses, that's why I'm asking for the figures. Maybe you can add it to the comments. At least the ones from the converters are easy enough to measure and calculate.
gotcha, I'll have to do some future calculations with some clamp meters and voltmeters to verify exact efficiency. The best option would be to take a LFP 48v battery and use no converters, but those are quite expensive.
Can you make another video show how you wire the device? Solder in real time and slower? Thank you
There are plenty of videos that teach you how to solder on RUclips. Just search for some tutorials. The connections are in parallel. The wiring diagram shows how it's wired up.
Got it Thank you Jason
NIce!!! I have been waiting for this video! Good Stuff! I Have 2 Power Queen 300Ah now Wired in parallel :) FYI, I have some 48dc 5amp power supplies. I have taken the ouput of them and put it into the solar input of a MPPT controller. I get almost 300 watts out to charge. anyways, Keep up the great videos I look forward to new ones all the time :). 😎
Easier and probably safer option is to simply use a 500W sine wave inverter and plug the supplied power source which delivers 400W. Mine draws 32A from the 200Ah battery, if you think about it that would be the same as using a 12V 25A battery charger off mains power.
10000 percent correct, he should do a video on that
but this is converting AC to DC. so there would be more power loss vs DC to DC
@@vanchauyes but it charges much much faster which allow you to take this time gains to charge again the battery with a powerful charger or big array solar panels.
Great video, very practical. Just what I was looking for. I saw a 12v to 48V, 8 amp would that work as well instead of two 12v to 36v? Just checking? Thanks again for this.
Yes, that 12v to 48v adapter would also work, just plan on large wires to reduce the heat and voltage drop.
Hi, are you able to set this up as a battery expansion? How would you do that. Would like to keep it connected to my bluetti and treat it as an expansion.
EcoFlow makes an 800W alternator charger that could be used to do exactly this since it’s basically a DC-DC charger. Downside is that the DC output cable is EcoFlow specific so probably couldn’t use it with another brand.
This option is more affordable and will work with most brands: ruclips.net/video/NqnYaqMwktE/видео.html
Great Video. I did enjoy it. However, for me, the part that was missing was charging the big battery back from the Power station. Yes, you brushed over it, but it was missing sth in my opinion. I would like to use it properly as an extension battery like the OG ones. So charging and recharging through the powerstation. I don't need a separate mppt controller if I have akk that within the powerstation already. Idk if it is possible to make an adequate replacement for the expensive original expansions. But I hoped I would find that out in this video.
Thank you for your great videos. Just wondering what benefits do BLUETTI expansion batteries have over the lifePo system you describe. Appreciate your help.
The Bluetti branded expansion batteries are fully automatic. They charge and discharge with the power station battery. They do cost a bit more than a standalone battery like these.
These batteries just allow you to charge the power station for a longer runtime, you have to separately charge them back up after they die.
Hey @Jasonoid, excellent video as always. I think it would be really helpful if someone could guide the community on how to setup solar+alternator charging to solar generator till 100% full, then dump excess into a secondary battery like this. Icing on the cake would be that the secondary battery could then automatically charge the solar generator when the sun isn't shining. I have searched, and I have not found any resources for this. Would be awesome.
I am hoping to learn this as well!
Would be nice up know just how much power was loss from all that heat the voltage converters generated.
You're right, I should have showed the volts/amps on both sides of the process to see loss. The most heat buildup was in the fuse holder and using larger wire or dual wires would have helped get rid of that completely. There are many ways to accomplish the same goal here. Using an AC inverter with the stock wall charger, using a 24v or 48v battery and dumping power straight into the power station, or using the voltage converters on a 12v battery are just a few options. I'm sure there's even more haha!
@@Jasonoid Since you are coming from a 12v battery there is just no way to avoid at least some conversation loss regardless what method you use.
Could you just use a 24v battery instead of buying a converter???
Yep, that would double your charging speed over just 12v.
i was thinking to buy 2 12v 50ah batteires connect them in series to have 24 volts to charge the ac180 or ac180P that would work also but a bit more expensive
That would work great
Awesome! Exactly what I was looking for
I would love to see a 48volt Server Rack Battery add on for a Solar Power Station
Me too, the EG4 48v 5kwh have been out of stock for months
@@Jasonoid I have my eyes set on something even better than those google [USA IN STOCK] I 4U | JK48V100PRO 51.2V 100Ah Server Rack LiFePO4 Battery
Hola , una pregunta porfavor: es posible cargar PowerQueen directamente con corriente continua (DC) desde la salida de 12v de una EcoFlow Delta2 por ejemplo?? Sin usar un inversor de 220v( 120v)?? Es posible? Muchas Gracias por todo tu trabajo, desde España
How would you charge the expansion battery if you're offgrid?
Let's say you have a smaller Bluetti product - EB70 EB55 or EB3a for weekend camping.
You want to have an extra 100ah LiFePO4 battery for extended touring and need to rely on solar charging.
What would you need to do so that you can simultaneously charge both Power station and the expansion battery?
Or would it be better to charge the expansion battery via solar and that would charge the Bluetti? If so, how would you set that up?
Or would it be better to just get another smaller bluetti? And in that situation, would you even be able to charge both power stations from a single 200w solar panel unit?
Just trying to think of the most elegant solution for tiny suv camper
I put a 100 watt panel on the Bluetti, then another 100 watt panel on the spare battery.
What does the Amp hour of the battery has to do with the efficiency,charging speed or convenience has to do? Does it make any difference?
Would it be possible to use solar to mppt to battery and then mppt out to Bluetti? Solar panels charging external battery, external battery charging Bluetti. I don't like the idea of AC charging the external battery.
You can try the expansion battery port which is 51.2v in/out
I made a video just about that here:
ruclips.net/video/tK4JKmfndh8/видео.html
Hoping to see a video of diy expansion battery pack lifepo4 50a 200wh for the bluetti eb3a
This is a older video of how to get the most charging out of the EB55 and EB70. Hooking up a 12v battery and 12v to 24v converter to the EB3A will give you the same "expansion battery"
ruclips.net/video/_7l8hoNebDY/видео.html
as I remember, that bluetti AC200p accepts solar voltage only starting from 36Volts, so your DYI power booster is good for this device for the case to charge that bluetti AC200p from solar pannels 17-20Volts or from batteries (e.g. 12 Volts like in this example )
Usually these converters don't like taking solar input. Maybe because it's not consistent. I tested once awhile ago but not with these specific models.
Good video. I dont trust those blade fuses for anything over 20A. I run several small lifepo4 batterys that I run in parallel on the AC200P that I use a ANL fuse with.
Great advise! Thanks for sharing
This guy has more common-sense than most bluetti shills on youtube. He'd get more benefit if an xt-90 Y-Cable was added to the motherboard then out to a 15KWHR home made battery. Also, don't rely on that 500W ac adapter barrel plug for too long it will start burning if used 24/7 in conjunction with solar input. Instead add an external 48V solar charge controller to the 15KWHR home made battery.
Are you plugging your DIY boost device into the 12 vdc input of the generator, or into the solar input?
Great video, thanks for addressing wire size. I'm just a beginner so my question out of ignorance. What is the wire gauge you are using here? In videos I have seen it seems batteries of any voltage are always connected to inverters by very thick wires, thicker than what you have here, and official extra batteries for sold for power stations use very thick wires as well. However all the videos I have seen showing how to connect an unofficial extra battery to a power station use thinner wires as well. Is this type of connection a different situation where it is ok to use thinner wires than usual (but not too thin as you discussed), compared to something that normally uses even thicker wires?
I ask because all of the pre-made wires that don't require any crimping for connecting battery clamps or eyelets to other connectors that could go into a power station (like mc4 or xt60) seem all quite thin. So if it would be unsafe to use them to connect for example a 12v 100ah battery to ecoflow delta 2, then I will seek out thicker wire and learn to crimp.
Wire size is all based on amps. Power stations typically rely on a 'lower amperage and higher voltage' setup to get their power so they don't require large charging wires. For example, your Delta 2 will take is 15 amps max at higher voltages and only 8 amps on anything under ~30 volts.
Once you know the amperage going through your wires, you can look up an ampacity wire chart to determine what size of wire you need.
@@Jasonoid Thank you for your answer, that makes sense now.
Very informative video. Would it be possible to straight wire a 36 V lithium ion 100 amp power battery to the Bluetti? Thanks
Which model of Bluetti?
question concerning using the power supplies as battery chargers. Does the internal BMS control the power coming from the power supplies to properly charge the LiFePo4 batteries? Where are the 'smarts' to properly control the current and voltage?
The power station charge controller does all the work. Just don't go over the voltage input limit for the power station and you're good.
Can i do it with my ecoflow 300w ,and is it possible to connect my solar panels and the battery in the same time
Yes, yes
Have you consider using an ebike battery to charge these stations? I have a 52v 20ah battery with the xt60 connections.
I am doing exactly that right now. I am stepping down 48v to 24v because my small power station can only handle 30v max.
But note that sparks can occur when you connect the battery unless you use a switch
@@moccaloto actually I tried it already. I have the EcoFlow delta max and I bought the connector from eBay to my bike battery and connected it to the solar port. The battery has its own switch so I just switch it off before I plug it in and bingo it works a treat !
Last you thing you said 12v to 24v 5amp converter, but your Amazon link is 12v to 24v 15amp is that okay to use? Use it for EB3A.
Yeah it's fine, instead of buying two 5 amp converters you can use the 1 listed in the description. It will last longer since it doesn't have to work as hard.
Got it Thank you so much!
OK. I like this idea but got to thinking. What about connecting two batteries (or more) in parallel and then connecting that array to the Bluetti 200p? Would that extend the Bluetti even more?
I tryed this on a eco-worthy battery 12v 100ah with 12v to 24v (step up) wired it up as you said, and it gave me 184w really happy with that,
Then i noticed the small red wire coming from the battery side on the step up box was getting warm so i turn off not sure wats wrong im using xt60 plug .
Which is charging a delta 2 power station
It's okay if the wire is warm, you just don't want it to get super hot.
put 2 batteries in parallel and connect with the clamp cable that comes with bluetti ac200 max. and DO5OS, or you connect the batteries in series and connect to the bluetti on the PV input and you have more power and you don't get complicated with electronic assemblies on the plank
You'd need to put those two batteries in series for a higher voltage. I agree, that would be much more simple :)
Why not using an inverter 3000w at 250$ on amazon , connected to the battery and charge the bluetti with an AC cable at 120v from the inverter.
There would be a loss in conversion but it would charge with 1200w per h minimum, so much much faster.
Maybe i miss the point here. I know nearly nothing in electrical systems.
i used a cheap variable dc-dc boost converter i got from amazon that allows 30 amps and for me to adjust the voltage and amps, has it's own cooling fan and a little over 30 bucks. but it does require supplying my own cables, and the 8 gauge ofc wires barely fit in the connectors. but it handled the 30 amps on the input for about 400 watts on the output. but you do have to set the voltage and current manually.
imo if you are going to be using it on a load that is variable, like a fridge, and is around 150 watts when on, i would connect the battery directly to the power station, and remove the loss that happens from the boost converter.
Thanks P M for sharing your setup! You are right that charging at the 12v rate would probably be fine while running 1 fridge. For other larger loads this mod will allow it to keep up with charging. If I was going to invest into a more serious setup like this it'd probably be better buy a 24v or 48v LFP battery and just run the power straight into the power station. For example, the 48v 5Kwh EG4 batteries make a good argument since they are cost effective for what you get.
I have the AC200p. I have the b230 connected to the solar input with the panels connected to the enhancer. How would I add one of these LifePo batteries without that added converter to help keep my b230 charged overnight? No I know nothing about this so I'll try to see if I can understand your answer... Thanks
Hi, thank you so much for your video, I think I finally get it...I already have the Bluetti AC200MAX which I believe can take up to 51.2V, I was looking at having my Kia Carnival 2022 smart alternator/car battery connected to the Sterling Power DC-DC Battery to Battery Charger 12V 70A in / 48V out and connect the B2B Charger to my PowerStation, would that be correct? I'm hoping I'll get more than 500W into the PowerStation, up to 800W would be nice...lol.
I look forward to your response.
You must also ensure that the battery discharge capacity (measured in 1C, 2C, 3C...) allows the max number of Amps you will have, else you make kill your battery in few months.
I put my old lead acid to work..24v system and have 2 leads from it in to the solar input on a 100/30 Victron. Out from 2 leads with Anderson connector. Using dolar input from the power station. An Anderson/mc4 connection. The powerstation can take max 230w , 13A..( EF R2 pro). With the victron i can change max A out so it gives me diversity. The old leadacid will be chsnged to 2 lifepo4 50A 24v. The 24v system can have days or even a week or two to fill up until i want a big charge in to the power station. Sure, an inverter is included so, yes, i can charge the P S with full AC-charge if i am in a hurry.
Great video. It takes some effort putting the pieces together and making a video of it all.
Is it possible to connect the outputs of the ExpertPower 12v 20A Smart Charger and the KISAE Technology DMT1250 DC-DC Solar Charger in parallel? In another words, the LIFEPO4 battery would be charged using AC power, the alternator and solar all at the same time. Thanx!
Yes, you can parallel different types of charging sources at the same time on one battery. You'll just want to make sure they have the same charging parameters (which most LFP charging profiles do). The battery will charge faster with multiple chargers attached.
Question. I’m converting a van. Determined I’d like an air conditioner. Can I buy an eco flow and just add batteries? Thanks!
Yep, that would work just fine!
Wow real nice video but months before I watched this video I have already set up a system where I have two Power Queen 200 AH batteries in parallel powering my small vacation home and a 1000 AH lithium ion portable solar power station connected to a 20 amp LiFePo4 charger supplying power to the power queens. The power station has 600 watts of solar panels charging it. The LifePo4 charger was only $59 on amazon. So my system is reverse to yours. Not being an electrical engineer what advantages or disadvantages does my system have. Charging time is not an important factor to me and the system seems to works very well. Why did I do it this way? I will take out the portable power station out to use elsewhere in the RV or for portable power outside when not charging the power queens.
Hi Jasonoid, quick question, is there’s downside using a 36V 20amp step-up converter on a Pecron 600 that has an input limit of 15 amps? Will it just auto-regulate down to its max allowable? Is there an efficiency loss? Thanks!!!
It will limit the amperage input automatically and the converter will enjoy not being at full blast the whole time. Win win. Watch this video for efficiency testing on these types of converters:
ruclips.net/video/I78RxjRXTn4/видео.html
Could I use my existing 12v solar panels and wire it to victron mppt controller and run it to 2 190ah batteries in parallel to run 24v into the pv port on my ac200max?