Battery box/powerbox advice

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intuitive
Posts: 45
Joined: Fri Jul 31, 2020 2:06 pm
Location: lincolnshire

Battery box/powerbox advice

Post by intuitive »

Hi all,

I'm currently in the process of putting a basket together to make a portable 12v powerbox to charge items etc while out camping or power outages. This is only for small items such as phones, reachable lights, etc

I have everything but I'm completely stumped when it comes to batteries...if money was'nt an issue I'd just buy one and I know I'll be fine but I dont really want to spend anymore than maybe £30 on one...lithium for this reason is out the question as for amp hours worthwhile 12+ it's too much at the moment.

So that leaves me with agm...and I'm wondering if anybody else has built one before, what you used and was it worth it?

Thank you
Yorkshire Andy
Posts: 8772
Joined: Thu Oct 03, 2013 4:06 pm

Re: Battery box/powerbox advice

Post by Yorkshire Andy »

Remember with wet / AGM batteries you can only take them to 50% DOD (Depth of discharge) so a 100ah battery only has 50ah of useable power ... Deep discharge dramatically shortens the battery life...


Do you NEED 12v? Or could you get by with a usb power brick? Then top of from the car if your driving between sites or out for the day

I've got a couple of these

https://www.google.com/amp/s/morphmagaz ... rbank/amp/


Plenty available of various sizes on Amazon
If your roughing it, Your doing it wrong ;)

Lack of planning on your part doesn't make it an emergency on mine
User avatar
korolev
Posts: 607
Joined: Thu Jul 06, 2017 2:18 am
Location: Land of the South Saxons

Re: Battery box/powerbox advice

Post by korolev »

Do you think you can buy the components, retail, shipped from China, cheaper than a Chinese factory can buy them and put them together ?
I've been building electronics for 40+ years and, unless you're building something very specific, it's ALWAYS cheaper to buy off the shelf (albeit far less satisfying).
pseudonym
Posts: 4572
Joined: Wed Jul 27, 2011 10:11 am
Location: East Midlands

Re: Battery box/powerbox advice

Post by pseudonym »

korolev wrote: Sun Dec 12, 2021 9:42 am Do you think you can buy the components, retail, shipped from China, cheaper than a Chinese factory can buy them and put them together ?
I've been building electronics for 40+ years and, unless you're building something very specific, it's ALWAYS cheaper to buy off the shelf (albeit far less satisfying).
That's me to a tee. I wouldn't trust myself on anything more than wiring a plug.

I just love the "plug and play" of the Jackery system. I started out small with their E240 W power station and 100 W solar panel.


Last week I tested the system and powered my food saver vacuum sealer on it. Worked a treat.
Two is one and one is none, but three is even better.
JamesM95
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Feb 13, 2022 7:56 pm

Re: Battery box/powerbox advice

Post by JamesM95 »

Nice to see that I'm not the only one toying with the idea of creating a power station :D.

However, Jackery have some excellent products to which I'm considering buying myself... Although I've only been really looking at the 1000w station & 2 solar panels (According to the booklet & reviews, they are top notch)

I think there is a few other companies that make similar products.. Goal zero being one of them, Not too sure on the rest? Hopefully someone else can drop some suggestions.