Portable Power Stations

[Yorkshire Andy]

viewtopic.php?f=38&t=11070

Most will know I like tinkering

Added bonus is most of my kit I can swap between battery box and car ...

Lidl have inverters in this week btw

Whooooo. Only just seen your portable power station project from 2014. Brilliant! and worth a thread bump.

Have you used it in anger? Would you build bigger if you did it now?

Can you advise on what to look for in an inverter and are the Lidl ones up to much? I see they are 300W at £25

I guess these things are not capable of powering much and would not run, say a domestic freezer at all.

Yep it's in regular use in my shed I've 60w of solar panels on the roof feeding it it just about keeps up through winter but does get the odd boost from the mains when I drag the extension lead out to run the tumble drier ..

most of the stuff I run from it is usb or 12v (chargers and lights) inverters are just purely inefficient thought I do often run smaller things like the drill charger from it

300w is never going to start a freezer your looking at 2 to 3kw .. it's not running it it's the initial start up of the compressor . Not enough umph to start them once running they don't use masses of power but it's that initial inrush current that

Not sure on the Lidl one but at the price I'll guess it's modified sinewave pure sinewave is better for sensitive electrical devices

[jennyjj01]

Thanks YA.
I guess £25 is a modest investment to run minimal stuff on, but I might just bite the bullet and buy a bigger one at the outset. But it would be annoying if even a 1KW inverter would not drive a freezer. I guess we need someone techy, hint hint, to report on the success or failure of that, in practice.

I really must try running each of my freezers off my little 650W petrol jenny, BEFORE I need to do it in a power outage.

The idea of using an inverter or a generator just to charge USB stuff or anything through a mains adapter just feels silly and totally inefficient.

[jansman]

Thanks YA.
I guess £25 is a modest investment to run minimal stuff on, but I might just bite the bullet and buy a bigger one at the outset. But it would be annoying if even a 1KW inverter would not drive a freezer. I guess we need someone techy, hint hint, to report on the success or failure of that, in practice.

I really must try running each of my freezers off my little 650W petrol jenny, BEFORE I need to do it in a power outage.

The idea of using an inverter or a generator just to charge USB stuff or anything through a mains adapter just feels silly and totally inefficient.

You will struggle to run a freezer on a 650 watt gennie.Again,it’s the initial ooomph! to kick the compressor into motion.

[Yorkshire Andy]

The idea of using an inverter or a generator just to charge USB stuff or anything through a mains adapter just feels silly and totally inefficient.

Which is why my box has usb outlets on the charge controller

And a 12v outlet

If I'm running a generator I'd be boost charging power banks / leisure batteries whilst it was running. To store power for later

I've got a workshop fast car battery charger and several usb 2a chargers and the associated leads for the power banks

[QUAID]

At the end of the day, a portable power station is just a convenience, hence their high prices.
They are nothing more than Lithium Batteries and inverter with a couple of outlets.
The challenge is to keep them or have some form of charging them.

[jennyjj01]

Bumping this thread in the hopes of getting advice on my first power bank.

I've looked at some ads for inverters and there seems lots of deceptive and misleading ones.

I understand that they might shout about PEAK power rating, but some are just bang out of order.

This caught my eye a 7000W Peak inverter for £50 Yeah? Sure it is!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255512415013 ... SwTZFiV-Bc

So is it 7000W peak? or 2000W as per the picture or 1000W rated?

Frankly I feel deceived.

I aspire to lash up a solar panel, a few car batteries? and an inverter, that would be able to keep at least 3 of my 4 freezers cold, probably power cycling between them for a few hours a day. Solar panel would need to be moveable because we don't have a south facing roof, nor any area with full daylight.
I did think 1kw to 2kw rated might be enough.
I know Freezers need a surge to start up, but I THINK 3 of my 4 freezers are modern enough to not need that because they do work ok off my 700W genny.

I also hope to do this at modest cost. Cheap and Cheerful. I see that there are integrated solutions by Jackory, but I'm a cheapskate.

Current recommendations?

(apart from dont be a cheapskate )

[British Red]

What size freezers? Chest, large upright?

This site gives good statistics on power consumption

https://www.ukchestfreezers.co.uk

A big chest freezer can consume one kilowatt hour a day. It will do that in bursts as the compressor runs - not all at once. A BIG leisure battery is 100AH or contains 1.2kwh of power. So a very large leisure battery could just about run a large chest freezer for a day ( you shouldn't run them flat but leave that aside).

The big issue is recharging them. In Winter, there are only 10 hours of sunlight. So you need 120W from solar panels for 10 hours.

BUT solar panels only operate at about 10% efficiency in cloudy low sun conditions. So you might need about 1,000W of solar panels, charging two leisure batteries to avoid total discharge and a decent pure sine inverter to run one large chest freezer.

I'm sure others will chip in on my assumptions and maths but you are looking at a big setup for four freezers

[jansman]

Bumping this thread in the hopes of getting advice on my first power bank.

I've looked at some ads for inverters and there seems lots of deceptive and misleading ones.

I understand that they might shout about PEAK power rating, but some are just bang out of order.

This caught my eye a 7000W Peak inverter for £50 Yeah? Sure it is!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255512415013 ... SwTZFiV-Bc

So is it 7000W peak? or 2000W as per the picture or 1000W rated?

Frankly I feel deceived.

I aspire to lash up a solar panel, a few car batteries? and an inverter, that would be able to keep at least 3 of my 4 freezers cold, probably power cycling between them for a few hours a day. Solar panel would need to be moveable because we don't have a south facing roof, nor any area with full daylight.
I did think 1kw to 2kw rated might be enough.
I know Freezers need a surge to start up, but I THINK 3 of my 4 freezers are modern enough to not need that because they do work ok off my 700W genny.

I also hope to do this at modest cost. Cheap and Cheerful. I see that there are integrated solutions by Jackory, but I'm a cheapskate.

Current recommendations?

(apart from dont be a cheapskate )

My own take: a simple system.
A solar panel to power AA and AAA and Anker power banks.For light,FM/SW radio,and two way radio. If SHTF We’ll feed from the freezers and give it away. That’ll make the neighbours think we have nothing. Low tech , low worry.

[jennyjj01]

What size freezers? Chest, large upright?

Two x modern built under integrated ones, one older fridge freezer(50.50) combo and one older small chest freezer about 250mmx500mmx500mm capacity

The modern ones seem happy to start and run on my genny so I assume they are not going to be a problem on an inverter.
The older ones do work off the genny at a pinch. So long as they don't try to start up at the same time, they can all run on boost at the same time on 700W

I'd also hope to run a slow cooker off the inverter.

I know I have to do some maths to figure out what rating of solar panels and batteries I need, but it doesn't help when all the adverts lie.
Doesn't help too that I'd be wrestling with shade on the panels, having to move them around a lot through the day.

[jansman]

What size freezers? Chest, large upright?

Two x modern built under integrated ones, one older fridge freezer(50.50) combo and one older small chest freezer about 250mmx500mmx500mm capacity

The modern ones seem happy to start and run on my genny so I assume they are not going to be a problem on an inverter.
The older ones do work off the genny at a pinch. So long as they don't try to start up at the same time, they can all run on boost at the same time on 700W

I'd also hope to run a slow cooker off the inverter.

I know I have to do some maths to figure out what rating of solar panels and batteries I need, but it doesn't help when all the adverts lie.
Doesn't help too that I'd be wrestling with shade on the panels, having to move them around a lot through the day.

SHTF sound signature will be the issue. That’s why I binned my generators. Fuel cost, storage and degeneration of same is an issue too. If crap happens we will ADAPT. I ain’t gonna carry on on the way we do now…
S