In the event of an extended or permanent blackout, what could you reasonably power with something like this?

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wwglen@reddit

For the less:

Get an EcoFlow River 2 MAX or River 2 Pro, refurbished from eBay and add 200-300 watts of solar (ecoworthy also from eBay.

You are looking at $200-$300 for the EcoFlow, $150 for the panels and $30-$50 for the cables.

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gilbert2gilbert@reddit

There's a picture that literally shows what it can charge. Keyword being "charge." It's just a big phone charger.

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hadtobethetacos@reddit (OP)

Well i get that, but its a 1000w battery with ac ouput, i just dont know what that really translates to.

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AlfredTheSoup@reddit

I'm sorry youre being downvoted for asking a genuine question. Some (a lot) of folks on reddit are simlly immature dicks.

You can probably reasonably charge rechargeable stuff like flashlights, tasers, lights, water filters, etc. 1000w sounds like a generous amount, and I'm sure you can play around with the V / A to suit your needs

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gilbert2gilbert@reddit

It only has one outlet so you'd have to use a power strip to run a pc and printer, which is totally sketch.

But let's say your pc uses 500 watts and your printer uses 250. Okay, it can do that. For less than an hour. Assuming the specs are all correct and the capacity is as it says. But the fact that they measured it in Mah makes me think that you're not going to get full capacity because they are probably using old batteries. You're better off buying a power station and solar panel separately for a little more.

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Children_Of_Atom@reddit

Modern computers consume pretty far under 500 watts idle. They measure power consumption in this review and their test system and those they compare it to are almost all under 100 watts idle. And this review is for a gaming computer which is about the worst case for power consumption.

https://www.custompc.com/intel-core-i5-13600k-review

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hadtobethetacos@reddit (OP)

I see. i live in a very small town, less than 1200 people. if the power goes out for an extended period of time, i doubt fuel would last more than a few days. just trying to figure how to power small things without fuel.

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Particular_Juice_787@reddit

Set ups like this aren't too bad but there's definitely better ones out there, biggest issues that they'll never fully replace something like a generator regardless until they're too big to easily be mobile, my small battery bank that's a bit bigger then this is great for blackouts but it's not enough to power most heater circuits, as others have said they're practically glorified phone chargers only difference being the can power some low draw devices like lamps, air mattress pumps, fans, some corded power tools, or I've even used it on my wifi router so I could surf the internet during blackouts but they really drain faster then you'd expect for most use with the plug ins rather then usb

But Hell if you were gonna use it or something similar as emergency lights I'd recommend getting some of the Led grow lights that can plug into USB ports they can run quite a while on these compared to a standard lamp, I used my small battery bank to save my friends weed plants last power Outage and the timers and dimming settings of the lights just make it even easier to save power a bit more for prepping situations

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gilbert2gilbert@reddit

If the panel is built in, it's probably a gimmick. There are plenty of good batteries(solar generators) available. You can search this sub to dive deeper. Something like this jackery for $500 is far better than that and then you could buy whatever size panel for it you want. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D7PPG25F/ref=sspa_mw_detail_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9kZXRhaWwp13NParams&th=1

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RonJohnJr@reddit

Watts are volts * amps. Given that household wall outlets are 120Vac (Volts AC), it provides you with a max of about 8 amps of continuous power. (Normal wall outlets provide a max of 15 amps.) 8 amps is enough for most things.

The next question is "how long will it provide those 8 amps?" As u/08b said, there are only 614 watt-hours of energy in the batteries. Chop that by 15% because of inverter inefficiency and you get 522 watt-hours.

Thus, it'll provide:

8 amps (1000 watts) for about 1/2 hour.
4 amps (500 watts) for about 1 hour.
3 amps (360 watts) for just under 1.5 hours.

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Hefty-Squirrel-6800@reddit

You will need 1200 to 1500 W minimum to run a window unit. This will essentially give you access to lights and electronics.

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08b@reddit

No, the capacity is 614Wh. The inverter supposedly outputs up to 1000W.

Microwave is out of the question (I’d imagine even a super small one would be pushing it). Inkjet printer would likely work, laser won’t.

Runtime is a concern as well. This is really for small devices like laptops, etc.

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notquitepro15@reddit

This could run a fridge for a couple hours. Charge your devices 10s of times. The solar recharge time is gonna be horrid. This would be nice to bring with you on trips or something, in case where ever you’re at loses power and you want to charge your phone

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DisastrousLab1309@reddit

Some small led light an a phone? It won’t be good for much more.

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GarbageContent823@reddit

four freezers? there is your issue! why do you need so many freezers?

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DisastrousLab1309@reddit

Deer, sheep, rabbits, vegetables, mushrooms and so on.

It’s only around 500Wh per day during summer and about 200-250 during winter.

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GarbageContent823@reddit

"It’s only around 500Wh per day during summer and about 200-250 during winter"

For one freezer? Or for all four? Huge difference.

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DisastrousLab1309@reddit

For 4. They’re in a shed that has no heating until the temperature falls below 3°C

During summer there is 23-25°C, during winter 3-5. For a freezer set at -18°C it’s more than halving heat losses.

But the efficiency of the panels goes the other way - 1350W of panels barely give 500Wh.

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GarbageContent823@reddit

Oh! Jesus christ. How bad are your solar panels? three panels with such high wattage only give you 500Wh per Day?

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DisastrousLab1309@reddit

It’s not so much issue of panels, they give above 400W each easily in the summer. It’s just that during winter the sun is lower, the day is shorter and there’s overcast on multiple days.

In December getting about 10-15% of the July values is not unheard of.

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GarbageContent823@reddit

oh! so thats what you mean... I just ordered a cigs panel now. It has \~30 or even fifty percent of summer performance. Cigs panels are really good in winter, since they can use all sunshine parts (Red, bue and green light). similar to multijunction cells. blue light has the most energy, did you now that?

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NorthStateGames@reddit

The panels are that seem pretty gimmicky. Only rated for 40w, so you're looking at quite awhile to recharge the 1000w battery.

Just look into a Bluetti or Jackery and then get a few 100 watt panels.

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GarbageContent823@reddit

its a 640wh battery, not a 1000wh!

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NorthStateGames@reddit

Still would take ages with a 40w panel.

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GarbageContent823@reddit

yeah thats realistically a 30W panel. Its tiny.\~18 hours under full sun.

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junk986@reddit

1000w battery, max it can push out is 614wh and the weakest part is the solar panel which is 40w…which means…if depleted…it takes about 3 days to fully charge…3 days of sunlight.

The panel isn’t great. The batteries are lipo4 which aren’t known to last a long time without degradation. You can verify this with EVs. GM had massive recalls. VW, Ford have had them did them silently under warranty. Tesla uses mostly li-ion cells but their Lipo4 offering are coming in for warranty failures at an alarming rate. This were the cheapest cars they made…I think Single motor short range ? Everything else they make uses li-ion. So Tesla would be a good comparison as they tried a different battery chemistry and it isn’t viable (their EVs are profitable, remember ?). Li-ion is also repairable, by replacing and balancing the replacement cell.

What it can power realistically ? A cell phone.

614wh is about the full load of a gas furnace blower motor and inducer. So if true, you can run your furnace for about 1.5 hours every 3 days.

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GarbageContent823@reddit

Yep. My powerstation uses e car grade cells too. Powerful. Very long lasting. lifePo4 simply isnt good for big performance or long lifetime.

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GGAllinzGhost@reddit

My advice would be to spend a few weeks watching youtube videos and a couple hundred dollars for parts, and build your own solar setup. After that you'll know exactly what you need your unit to do, how long it will do it, etc. You'll know when and how to fuse, how to spec panel size vs charge controller input, etc.

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Traditional-Leader54@reddit

Pretty much charging a phone, lights, fan and a laptop. You might get a few minutes on a toaster over or microwave but I wouldn’t count on it. It seems overpriced for the power it delivers and at 24 lbs isn’t really any more portable than an EcoFlow or Bluetti?

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hadtobethetacos@reddit (OP)

is an ecoflow or bluetti actually useful for powring appliances and such?

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GGAllinzGhost@reddit

Yes.

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Subject-Loss-9120@reddit

Yes, I've got the ac200max with 2x b230 expansion batteries. 6kw - estimated 15% transfer loss on all solar generators. So let's say 5100 watts of power. Look at the wattage of all the appliances you plan on running and add them up and divide by your stored wattage, in my case, 5,100w.

Fridge and freezers will run me about 600 watts run time (fridges and freezers don't run all the time) so that gives me about 8.5 hours of run time for my needs, without recharging the units.

Always go bigger than you think you need, always.

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2020blowsdik@reddit

I too have the AC200MAX, I desperately want some expansion batteries but the MAX by iself can run both my fridges, my chest freezer, and my standing freezer continuously for around 24 hours without a recharge

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Subject-Loss-9120@reddit

Ya, I'm saying run time as if they were running constantly. I'd say easily 3 days of actual usage with my set up.

Black Friday is coming, capitalize if you can. I'm looking for a sale on a tri fuel inverter generator, we just moved to a house with a natural gas line and I'm absolutely going to jump on that.

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2020blowsdik@reddit

I have a duel fuel generator and solar panels that I can use to recharge the Bluetti. Propane is the key fuel. That lasts longer than the containers theyre stored in

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RonJohnJr@reddit

EcoFlow and Bluetti are brands, just like Ford and Chevrolet. And just like Ford and Chevy, they make "big stuff" and "little stuff".

Thus, the answer to your question is "it depends on what model of EcoFlow or Bluetti you buy". As far as fuel running out "permanently", you'd need enough solar panels to charge the power station in a reasonable amount of time.

That's a whole different rabbit hole, though.

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GGAllinzGhost@reddit

Yeah that doesn't look like a 1000 watt panel to me.

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Unicorn187@reddit

Some LED lights, a fan, charging phones, tablets, or laptops. Maybe a portable TV and DVD/Bluray player.

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HappyAnimalCracker@reddit

Not sure about how long that thing will take to recharge but you could run a sewing machine or charge your phone. Probably not a whole lot else.

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fost1692@reddit

It's rated at 640 WH (Watt Hours) with a maximum draw of 1000 W on the AC output. You can work out if you can run something from it by finding out what power it draws. So anything that draw more that 1kW will not run at all. You also need to be able to find out if there is a start up spike, there frequently is. Looks like this will support a max peak current of 1200 W so again anything over that is not likely to work.

It will run for (640/(power rating of appliance in watts)) * approx .8 to account for conversion losses.

Similar calculations apply for the other outlets.

So this would not be great for anything with a heavy draw, but would for example keep an internet router up for quite a while.

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Particular_Juice_787@reddit

Nice to see someone actually explaining why my battery bank doesn't like nearly anything that's designed to heat up too much, literally my massage chairs the only thing that's worked with it heater wise, and that makes more then enough sense since its able to be powered from a car charger port. Do gotta say tho I use that thing for luxuries too much I was trying to think of things I've used it for prepper wise and I don't feel like my wifi router or massage chair were valid uses of power in a blackout lol I just keep that thing around so I'm prepped to be comfy at this point

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PrisonerV@reddit

Much better off energy-wise to use wood, propane, or natural gas to heat with. Electricity is an energy hog unless it's a heat pump doing the work.

That's why my backup heat is a vent-free NG heater.

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tianavitoli@reddit

how do you know if your power outage is extended or permanent?

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hadtobethetacos@reddit (OP)

its permanent if it never comes back on

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tianavitoli@reddit

do they send you a letter beforehand?

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hadtobethetacos@reddit (OP)

yea, they usually send out a notice three to four weeks ahead of time. Permanent outtages are very rare though.

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tianavitoli@reddit

have you gotten a notice of a permanent outage???

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hadtobethetacos@reddit (OP)

Only once, but i was able to appeal it, got it dropped down to temporary.

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tianavitoli@reddit

well done!

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ARGirlLOL@reddit

Everyone else said everything else im sure but the list of appliances you made (oven, stove, microwave, toaster oven) is like the list of appliances I would find least best to use electricity for in a blackout situation. Electricity is valuable energy. Cooking energy can be derived from wood, solar, candles, oils, butter, lard, charcoal, sternos, etc. Electricity had valuable uses that can’t be substituted for a small, free grill fire.

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Zhaha@reddit

This has been answered so many times. I just googled "How many watts do things use" and there are dozens of tables that answer your question.

https://unboundsolar.com/solar-information/power-table

https://www.donrowe.com/usage-chart-a/259.htm

https://www.homelite.com/pdf/wattage_worksheet.pdf

https://www.wrecc.com/what-uses-watts-in-your-home/

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hadtobethetacos@reddit (OP)

cool

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bigeats1@reddit

Nothing for particularly long and nothing of notable size. It’s designed to charge laptops and the like. You’ll get light. You’ll charge batteries. You won’t get refrigeration of any meaningful kind, cooking, larger electric motor operation like a water pump, dryer or washing machine, or coffee.

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hadtobethetacos@reddit (OP)

i see. is solar even a viable option in that scenario then? as opposed to stock piling fuel and a generator?

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less_butter@reddit

Yes, solar and batteries are viable for producing power. But the unit you linked is very under-powered and over-priced for what you get. It's useless for what you want to use it for.

In general, it's a huge waste to use batteries for heating or cooling, including cooking. It's fine for lights and smaller appliances that don't use much power like fans. And for charging phones/laptops.

If you want to be able to cook, get a camp stove and a tank of propane. That will last far longer than a battery bank.

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iwannaddr2afi@reddit

Here's the energy page from the sub wiki. Off grid solar is certainly an option, but it can be costly. In the event of grid down, many things can and will go wrong. Solar panels will break and their manufacture would likely stop or at least be severely impacted (just by way of example). Fuels run out, things break.

My personal opinion is that it's great to have options, maintenance skills, and as many workarounds as reasonable for your energy/light/cooking/heating/cooling/water needs.

The other part of my opinion there is that expensive high tech stuff meant to last a lifetime is sort of the last thing I'll do as a prepper (after thorough financial prep), because if it came to it, we'd survive living very, very low tech lives.

But to each their own! We've got energy for short term emergencies covered, and I think that's extremely reasonable and prudent.

https://reddit.com/r/preppers/w/energy?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

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DisastrousLab1309@reddit

A fridge needs about 350Wh per day and about 150W when it’s working. So it should be able to supply it.

But with the panels so small I doubt it would be able to recharge during the day if the conditions are just a little off from ideal.

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bigeats1@reddit

Starting a home refrigerator compressor requires more amperage than that will supply. It will throw the breaker every time. Same with every big motor. Starting amperage, not running watts, is the problem.

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DisastrousLab1309@reddit

Starting current is what, 5 times the running one? So for a 150W running you have 750W starting for less than a second. This inverter is supposed to deliver up to 1000W.

I don’t know this particular device. I’ve run lights, laptop and refrigerator off my old 1000W setup without a problem in the past.

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bigeats1@reddit

I have 2000w inverters and 1000w. 1000w will not reliably start refrigeration. YMMV and I’m not interested in fighting on the internet. Most of the time it’ll be fine to RUN it. Starting is the hard part.

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deltronethirty@reddit

The panel is practically useless for anything but a phone charger. The battery can push 1000w, but only for a few hours at most. Then it will take a day or two of full sun to charge.

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helmand87@reddit

weathered thru a hurricane recently with no power in the house for 4 days. i have a power station around 250-300w. ran a pedestal fan in the evening and it took about 10% off the station for every hour of use. luckily i work in the medical field and my office is near by and has generators to recharge it

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RonJohnJr@reddit

A 1152 Watt-hour Bluetti AC180 power station has enough energy to run my laptop, external monitor, WiFi router and standing lamp (LED bulb) for 9-10 hours.

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Retire_date_may_22@reddit

Unfortunately unless you can afford something like a Tesla power wall batteries are pretty useless to run large appliances. You are gonna need a gas or propane generator.

I have two Honda 2200s that I link together. They are quiet, dependable and keep going