I like transportable energy stations a lot that my spouse and I’ve backed up our house with Anker SOLIX batteries as a substitute of an computerized fuel generator or a built-in house battery. Here is what I’ve discovered after having simply skilled three energy outages within the span of two weeks.
1
I Must Be Residence
Sadly, proper now I am the one one in our household who understands the way to plug our Anker SOLIX F3800’s into the generator inlets within the wall, flip off all the house breakers, reduce the ability from the grid, after which allow simply the breakers we wish. The 200A breaker chopping off grid energy is so tough to flip, I do not even know if my spouse can handle it. It is given me and prior electricians alike a tough time.
Plus, the F3800 weighs solely a dozen kilos lower than I do. Even the thick 25A and 50A cables we have now for connecting the generator to the house are unwieldy.
To be clear, that is simpler for my household to be taught than firing up a transportable fuel generator, and it is much less problem than rolling in extension cords from outdoors—nevertheless it’s not the comfort of an computerized whole-home fuel generator. If cash have been no object, we may have purchased Anker’s computerized switch swap as effectively, however that will have price us a number of thousand extra to buy and set up in our house, which has not one however two fundamental breaker bins.
2
One Anker SOLIX F3800 Can Final Most Outages
One F3800 battery cannot energy every thing for twenty-four hours, however most of our energy outages do not final that lengthy. Even when the ability goes out within the morning and comes on within the night, we’re typically speaking a few time interval of eight hours or much less. One F3800 can energy our fridge, web, effectively pump, septic, a number of lights, and a ceiling fan lengthy sufficient for the ability to return again on.
- Model
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Anker
- Dimensions
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27.6×10.3×15.6
- Weight
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136.7lb/62kg
- AC Output ports
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One NEMA TT-30R, One NEMA L14-30R, Six NEMA 5-20R
Most houses with only one breaker field wouldn’t want to speculate as a lot as we did. Since our house has two, with vital masses break up awkwardly between them, all our prices are doubled. With our effectively pump requiring a 32A breaker and our septic taking on 4 separate 16A breakers, we have now to allocate fairly a little bit of energy simply to maintain the water operating.
Fortunately, the masses on our second panel are a lot lighter, and an F3800 can energy that one for over 24 hours simply high quality.
3
With Photo voltaic Panels, the Battery Does not Drain
None of those latest energy outages have been the results of a hurricane or giant winter storm, so I knew our energy would probably be on by the tip of the day. Nonetheless, because it’s good to check out emergency gear earlier than you really want it, I pulled out my transportable panels and set them up within the driveway.
With a pair 400W panels plugged in, our F3800 just about broke even. It introduced energy in at roughly the identical fee as energy went out. That meant that throughout the daylight hours, we weren’t draining the battery. Hooking up a 3rd panel even meant we have been slowly recharging.
If this have been a extra critical outage, I’d most likely have plugged in a fourth simply to recoup as a lot energy as doable. The system can deal with as much as six.
4
Having A number of Batteries Helps Us Handle Hundreds
I do not try to do every thing from our F3800’s alone. I reserve these for issues that do not plug right into a wall outlet (the fridge being a notable, heavy exception).
We bought a number of Anker SOLIX C1000’s that we use for cooking. Plugging in an induction burner and making a meal was no drawback in any respect.
I additionally plugged in a kettle to boil sizzling water for bathing (since powering a sizzling water heater is a reasonably intensive job). These duties take up so little energy relative to how rapidly these batteries can cost within the solar that I fortunately use them for luxuries as effectively, similar to powering the TV lengthy sufficient for the youngsters to observe a film or play a recreation. One Anker SOLIX C1000 can energy our media middle for over six hours. It is these smaller batteries that allow us to extend how lengthy our F3800s final, because the latter solely must concentrate on the extra predictable background masses.
5
Having Redundant Energy Stations Makes Energy Really feel Ample
We’ve 9 energy stations all collectively: two F3800’s, an F3800 Plus I was provided to review (after we had already purchased the opposite two), three Anker SOLIX C1000’s, and three Anker SOLIX C300’s. We figured, somewhat than dump all of that cash right into a single house battery, which is dear to put in and offers a single level of failure, why not break up that one battery into many? As soon as added up, that is round 15kW of battery storage.
The chance of draining all 9 batteries could be very low. Powering units like telephones, tablets, laptops, and gaming handhelds is a non-issue. We are able to cost these utilizing our smallest batteries a number of instances over, then toss that battery out to recharge in a number of hours of solar. However an outage must be notably lengthy earlier than we even get that far, as a result of we first plug these transportable units into the even smaller battery banks we keep around the house and already use on a day-to-day foundation.
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Moveable energy is not only for whenever you’re out and about.
6
Giant Moveable Photo voltaic Panels Are a Ache
I purchased every of our F3800s as a bundle that included two 400W panels, since these energy stations are all the time on sale in a single type or one other. I figured 400W panels needed to be twice nearly as good as 200W ones. Seems, sure and no.
400W panels are heavy and a ache to unfold. I a lot want working with our 200W ones, of which I solely have two. If we had extra, I might extra rapidly attain for a number of of these throughout brief outages, even when I knew I could possibly be charging sooner with the heavy ones.
I am keen on the 100W panel for that reason, though I solely actually use it with the C300.
7
Photo voltaic Panel Extension Cables Are a Should
The Anker SOLIX C300 and C1000 are small and light-weight sufficient that I can toss them on the again porch with a transportable panel and name it a day. The Anker F3800 isn’t. Even simply rolling one out of the pantry (the place our breakers are) is a problem.
Fortunately, there are extension cords for photo voltaic panels. I purchased a pair of 60-ft cables from Windy Nation. This enables me to arrange panels within the driveway and run energy to the F3800’s related to the home inside.
This can be a basically totally different method to navigate energy outages than the choices I grew up with, the place batteries and fuel alike have been scarce assets. Now we all know we will climate outages indefinitely, and the outage will not price us any more money regardless of how lengthy it lasts. These batteries additionally require zero upkeep and supply layers of redundancy. In spite of everything, there are a number of different methods to recharge these batteries that are not depending on the solar. To call only one: I’ve bought a Renology pure sine wave inverter in order that I can recharge these energy stations utilizing the huge battery in my EV.
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It wasn’t low cost, nevertheless it was cheaper.
Is it an ideal system? There are trade-offs, simply as there are regardless of whether or not you go for a dearer built-in battery, a less expensive DIY setup, or stick a propane tank outdoors your home. However by going this route, every new transportable energy station is actually an growth battery I can add to my house with out having to name a contractor and cope with the added set up bills.
With this modular method, I can take pleasure in and participate in new fashions with out the remorse of committing to an older system. I stay up for watching our system develop.
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