Inside battery backup - multiple small units or a large unit?
Posted by unknowncoins@reddit | preppers | View on Reddit | 17 comments
We have probably 6-9 power outages a year while I'm home and away. They last from 2-12 hours.
They happen during the heavy storms. The power lines run through our backyards and the trees take out the lines. I have no trees but my neighbors do.
We've had two so far this year. I got lucky but across the street they didn't. We had no power for 6 hours and my neighbors 6 days.
During colder months I just don't want to go outside to start the generator. And during the summer I'm too lazy the first few hours due to hopes it will be back on soon. I also don't like having the generator run at night. So, I want inside battery backups. Budget $2,000 total.
Would you get a bunch of ecoflow river 3 units and a few delta 3 plus setting them up in each room, having all your important equipment running through these units; 24/7 and have the ups kick on to battery mode automatically? 4kwh total across all units. Pro: ready to go no action required when we lose power. And I could slowly buy into multiple units. Con: not enough juice in one unit to run a space heater or larger appliance.
OR
Would you get one larger delta 3 pro, keep it under the steps plugged in, and when a storm hits run extension cords inside connecting your equipment? 4kwh pro: I could run critical items like a fridge or space heater. Con: extension cords. All my $2k gone at once.
In both options i would spend about $2,000 total.
17276@reddit
I have a delta pro, bluetti elite 200v2, Ecoflow river 3 plus. Not all with in your budget but all these units are great and have a purpose. I do have a dual fuel generator and solar panels for long outages. The delta pro is a good pice right now.
PrepperBoi@reddit
Get a Mr buddy and a 20lb propane tank. Electric is the least efficient form of heat.
Your deep freezer should last overnight and your fridge might need to kick on a couple times depending on the temp inside your home
JRHLowdown3@reddit
You mentioned having a generator which a lot of survivalists have, have you considered putting in an actual alternate energy battery bank? Then when longer outages happen (or SHTF) when you run your generator you can charge your battery bank (via a proper Inverter/charger) while the generator is running heavy loads like your deep well pump, etc.
This is how we used to do AE at survival retreats in the long long ago, before solar got cheaper. Later as funds permit, you can solar and have other options for power versus just running a generator constantly which equals poor use of fuel, sound and smoke equals security issues.
unknowncoins@reddit (OP)
My generator is a small 3300w inverting generator. For its portable size and quietness it has a punch.
I did a little searching and definitely see the benefit of having a whole home generator then having it charge batteries for the whole home. I really like the idea shutting the generator off at night, and running off batteries at night. Or having the home run off batteries while I'm at work and home is using minimal power.
Our last storm neighbors across the street had no power for 6 days this month. Half of the left. The other half had their noisy generator running at night. Me being 100 ft away thought they were loud. I couldn't imaging sleeping 30 from one.
Solar panels are a pipe dream for now. I still need a new roof.
Thanks for the aspirational vision!
JRHLowdown3@reddit
We live way out in the woods and you could tell everyone who was relaying on a generator during the hurricane from a long ways off.
And for a true survival situation, it's a major waste of resources to have a generator running constantly. But like I said, most survivalist have at least a contractor grade gas generator, which definitely isn't ideal but will work. Using that as the start of an alternate energy system via addition of small battery bank you can add to later and a true inverter/charger- is the start of energy independence.
unknowncoins@reddit (OP)
I've been a long time lurker here. I have a ways to go until I get solar panels and a battery backup.
I'm starting with daily living supplies that aren't perishable and aiming for a year of supplies. Part of it to save money by shopping less and randomly adding things to my cart. And mostly to eliminate those situations where I run out without a backup. I thought I was doing well this month, then ran out of deodorant.
Thanks for the feedback. Cheers.
funkmon@reddit
You're going to want at least 2000 watts capacity out of one unit because that will run your freezer and fridge overnight without you worrying about it. Then you start up the generator the next day to charge them up again assuming you don't do solar.
You can get a couple more if you want, maybe a smaller one you can take camping or doing other stuff outside, but you can also just get as much capacity as you can; it's going to be more seamless that way. You just run extension cords, charge up just one unit, etc.
You can also, once you get one or two, buy your own batteries piecemeal like you like to do, and simply wire them up to connect to the unit. You don't have to use their batteries if you're comfortable connecting wires. But you can. And if you do you can expand that Delta 2 to 6000kwh for less than one Delta 3 pro AND you can lift it and carry it around.
So you will need to think about it. 6000 watts will be your maximum seamless capacity on delta 2. That's enough for one tiny AC for 8 hours and a fridge and freezer for most of the day. It will run a normal gas furnace for about 3 days if that's all it's doing. To me, that is fine.
The Delta 3 Pro you can expand over time to be many many times that, running your whole house without ever touching a generator for multiple days. At tremendous cost.
Electric space heating btw is out. Just put it out of your head until you get 12000 kwh capacity. Run your non-electric furnace, get propane or kerosene. Or run it off your generator.
unknowncoins@reddit (OP)
There was a lot of good information to unpack here.
The most beneficial was the DIY add-on battery packs. Eg using a 100ah gold cart battery I found on YT. I figured these companies would have a chip inside their add-on battery packs with proprietary wiring to ensure no 3rd party packs are used. I was wrong. Thanks for the info.
I opened the door to my fridge thinking I don't have much here to loose then realized the cost of simple condiments on the door. I see your reasoning for all the extra watt hours. It should pay for itself within a year here for me.
Thanks again
funkmon@reddit
Yeah it's surprising there isn't more proprietary shit in the batteries, but to make sure they work with multiple solar panels, the kinda have to be able to just take dumb DC and charge with it.
So it's gonna be a bit difficult to run the system without essentially just building DIY solar generators, but it can be done. It's just gonna be fiddley.
The simplest way with the fewest moving parts is going to be just some alligator clips that go right into the DC input of your battery. That's like literally $15. To charge it, you can get an AC battery charger for about $20. Get 10 amp or better otherwise it's going to charge so slow it's barely usable. 20 amp+ recommended for twice the price.
The method is to charge one of the batteries at a time in the garage or something with that charger so you have a stack of em waiting for the power outage. When your ecoflow gets low, you grab one, plug it in to the DC Input, and charge the Ecoflow. If you are charging the Ecoflow through solar or your generator, you plug the battery charger in to the Ecoflow to have that charge it up. Theoretically you can just start the generator and charge the battery which has stayed connected to the Ecoflow as well. So there are some moving parts here.
Now if it were me, and it is, I have done this, it does work. I would only be doing it because I am cheap. If you have any amount of money lying around, I suggest doing the right thing and buying the Delta 2.
Remember, you're doing this primarily because you are lazy. There's nothing wrong with that. But if you have this loose battery and extra wires and bullshit like that, do you think you're going to want to use it? No. You won't. So just get it all in the Delta 2 plus extra battery packs and make it easy on yourself, IMO.
newarkdanny@reddit
The multiple small units is how I run my setup, apart from easy in my opinion also gives a certain sense of redundancy vs a single larger unit. Also multiple units means almost anyone in the house can move them or turn them on and off. When it's time for charging I do charge them off a gas generator starting with which load is the lowest.
NewsCamera@reddit
That's my strategy as well!
unknowncoins@reddit (OP)
Thanks. I like that thinking.
NewsCamera@reddit
During Black Friday Amazon sales I bought:
x2 Jackery 1,000Wh
x1 Jackery 2,000Wh
I figured the two smaller ones can be run to the toilets (we have electric toilets) and for charging small devices. The larger one can power the internet router and kitchen TV, etc. We have no viable solution for the refrigerator other than perhaps buying a gas generator or another Jackery 2,000Wh.
taipan821@reddit
Reading your post I am assuming you have a generator available for recharging and providing power during the day.
Unless you have devices in the rooms which are critical items that need power 24/7 (the river 3 can function as a UPS) I would go with the larger Delta 3 Pro, for the simple fact that the larger capacity gives you more options.
However saying that, with regards to back up power I am a big fan of doing it yourself. You can puchase the battery charger and inverter fairly cheaply, then you can put the rest into batteries. Quick google search using the aussie dollar gets me 2x 200ah batteries ($750 AUD each) a 2000w pure sinewave inverter ($200 AUD) and a 20A lithium battery charger ($320 AUD). add $120 AUD for premade battery cables to join everything up, an inline fuse and bob's your uncle.
unknowncoins@reddit (OP)
Yes. Bob is my uncle. I had to look up that phrase.
I do have a small 3300w inverting generator. The battery pack idea is for those cold days I'm not willing to go outside to get it running due to most outages being fairly short. And not liking the generator running when I'm sleeping or not home.
I should be capable of building my own like you described. I'll take a look now.
Never_Really_Right@reddit
I destest trying to wrestle with the big generator, and frankly I barely can, so that's my husband's job. We got.an Ecoflow Delta 2 with backup battery so I can easily lift it onto the counter and plug in the fridge if he's away. My point being, consider if everyone can do what is needed for each setup.
unknowncoins@reddit (OP)
Good input. I need to consider the occasional back pain that only happens when other things aren't going right. Even if it wheels dragging around that large of a unit 75+ lbs is a pain indoors.