Power station HACK! Add a second battery to ANY portable power station!
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- Опубліковано 4 вер 2023
- This portable power station hack really saved us during Hurricane Idalia. #portablepowerstation #offgrid #solarpower #EcoFlow #ecoflow #oukitel #LaborDay #DisasterPreparedness
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This idea is one of the MANY reasons why I am a Kelley's Country Life fan. Andrew is the ultimate thinker tinkerer. I bet you are happy you followed code with all of the hurricane straps you installed when you built your house. I can tell your house survived quite a bit of heavy winds around your house that knocked down so many big trees and with only a little surface damage to the house. That is why Andrew overbuilds. Build it right once and you do not have to do it twice.
It sure makes me feel better to build stronger.
Good to see you Andrew, great idea. It's like having a bunch of fuel tanks when one runs out the next one kicks in and so on.
Exactly!
Good to see your smiling 0:47 face. Glad to see you're safe. Great information. Thanks for sharing.
This is a great episode. Good to see that you're doing well. We continue to pray for all of you and all that have been effected by the hurricane.
Thank you
Hi, Andrew! You certainly plan ahead. Tiffany is blessed to have a husband who takes care of his family. And you are blessed to have a wife who loves fishing, swimming, and cooking. God bless both of you as you continue to clean up after the hurricane.
We are for sure blessed!
Glad to see you guys are back with power someone putting out videos. God bless you guys.
Thank you, God bless!
Neat feature. Thanks for the information and test Andrew. Amazing what those battery units can do
Glad you are back! Hope stuff get sorted there soon.
Working on it!
Great to see you again great idea. 👍
Great information, Andrew. Im sure it'll help many folks who weren't aware of that option. Appreciate it, Sir!
Thank you for watching
Good to see you😊
Cool video Andrew!! Glad to hear you got power back for the most part!
So thankful!
Hi Andrew, you made my evening. Hope it all gets sorted out. Take care. 👍👍❤️❤️🇨🇦
Really good tips. Thank you. Congrats on getting power restored, well mostly restored.
I'll take it!
Yay for the upload, hope things are getting sorted there Andrew!
Busy busy!
Glad yall got power back. But having those power alternatives is a game changer!
It made such a huge difference for us.
This works well if you have multiple brands of units, but you do add significant losses when converting from DC to AC and then back to DC between the units.
Not true, if you have a ups feature there is little to no conversion losses on the last unit sitting idle. Yes there is losses once it's engaged, that's absolutely normal for any storage or power generation device.
Yeah you lose with all those conversions…i once left my delta a/c on overnight and i lost about 10% of my battery with no load plug in
@@TKCL you won't come close to doubling the capacity of the delta 2. i think that was the point
Hey, welcome back!
I'm trying!
Great way to maximize and utilize what you have without having to spend a bunch more money! Nice job👍👍👍
Agreed!
WOW how simple! Thank you this helped greatly
Glad it helped!
Thanks. This is brilliant to know especially making sure your second power staion MUST have UPS.
Great idea, thanks!
What up Doe Mr Andrew!?
I thank God for getting you guys some much needed grid power. I hope your parents and other family are powered up as well??
Now praying for back to back Sunny days so them solar panels can juice that battery bank up to 100%
Stay safe and God bless🙏🏻🙏🏻
Thank you, God bless!
Ho Andrew and Thanks for sharing this cool idea..
Glad to hear your power is going to be on finally 🙌
Thank you for watching
did same thing with bluetti and ecoflow, plus ecoflow can be powered from powerbank if you need little more juice. There is No efficiency loss because you use it the way manufacturer created it. If you put something into AC does it lose efficiency? What difference does it make plug in computer or power station into AC outlet? Same thing with input power outlet. The only limit is quantity of outpets and appliances you can power in the last power station (EcoFlow in his case) so make it has enough.
Awesome & Thanks for the info...Never knew this feature existed and very important... Will check my power stations....
Happy to help
Welcome back!!
Doing my best with horrible internet. Take care!
I think this is an awesome idea!!!
What a great idea..that never crossed my mind.!! thanks 🙏
Glad it was helpful!
Great video and I am glad your preparation has kept you and your family safe and in a position to have a near normal living arrangement. That enables you to go into recovery mode quickly because survival is covered.
I have tried this with my power stations and it does work, one area to watch is your AC voltage/Hertz need to be very close to the same. Having an unloaded 110 to a 120 that drops too much with a load may not allow the EPS or UPS modes to work as designed.
Thanks for the input
Glad to see you are back ! I have missed you and Tiffany😢. Just didn’t feel right not having our live on Sunday night! Looks like Florida is in the sites of yet another major storm! Hopefully it will avoid you guys this time!
Praying no more storms.
Glad things are looking up. Good information. I would like a review of the Champion generator and the Vevor fuel tank, now that you used them for hurricane preps.
They both have been critical pieces of equipment.
I have the Eco Flow Delta Max as my main power station and the BLUETTI EB3A as my back up to juice up the Eco Flow in the event of a long term power outage and it is cloudy and I can't use the solar panels. It has worked for me with enough power in the Eco Flow to return the favor and power back the EB3A without significant loss of power. However, I had not thought about the pass through approach.
Hey Andrew! So good to hear your voice....have missed it....great info today, thanks for showing and sharing. Hopefully power ill be restored soon and you can rest in a sense and go forward with your projects....I'm sure the hurricane alter your priorities to the 'to do' list....everything will progress as it should. We are in His time, not ours.
Priorities have definitely changed.
I was thinking the same today. Way cheaper to link these together than buy a bigger one. I don’t need more than 2kw output anyway. Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it
Awesome video. 🤠
Very nice 👌
Thanks for sharing 👍
Thanks for visiting
This does work quite well, I've used the pass-through AC feature in precisely this way. One thing to note is that even though there is a UPS bypass, the inverters in both power stations are still energized and each one will have 10-20W of idle losses. It adds up. So it is still better to just swap power stations than to daisy chain them.
If you don't want interruption at all (the UPS modes aren't perfect), an alternative is to plug the 12V output of one power station into the solar input of the other. This also has losses but what you effectively get is a trickle charge at around 100W (typically) simultaneous with the battery discharge. This will greatly extend the run-time of the primary power station. I prefer this method.
And this same thing works with discrete external batteries as well. Just plug an external battery into the solar input of the power station.
Another option includes cabling a vehicle's 12V battery or power port to the power station's solar input and then running the engine to keep things going. No very efficient, but it works. Be careful not to burn-out your alternator.
The best long-term solution is to use an actual gasoline generator to charge the power station to 100% as fast as possible (usually takes 1-2 hours), then turn the generator off. Maximum fuel efficiency for the generator since it is only running long enough, at a decent load, to fully charge the power station. How often you have to run the generator to top-off the power station depends on the capacity of the power station.
-Matt
Yeap, thats works 👌
The only issue and a huge difference - when U connect batteries to a specific port of the power station, U’ll loose up to 5% of the total efficiency. But when U connect one POwerStaion to the other , simulating series battery connection, U’ll get about 20-30% losses on the inverter. Any AC connection using inverter 🤷♂️
There's always loses, but it's better than not having it while your gone and can't monitor it. A quality unit should always be 80 percent or better on efficency.
Good to see you are ok after the hurricane. How is recovery coming along? A lot of good information. Thanks for sharing.
Still cutting mom and dad out, unreal amount of trees down.
Andrew, that is very cool. That's thinking outside the box. Exactly what I've been looking for. I did not know there was a difference. I bought a cheaper battery unit, till I can save up enough for an ecoflow for my refrigerator and freezers if I lose power. Thank you for sharing this. How are the parents doing?
Been cutting mom and dad out for days, they got power back this afternoon after 7 days without.
You truly are a treasure of tips to help others. How are your parents doing? Still "cutting" themselves out? Neighbours? General area getting back to some semblance of normal?
Yes been cutting them out for days, they did get power back today! Thank God!
This is a really nice way for those who have acquired several smaller units as the tech develops. A way to put that investment to good use!
Agreed!
Daisy chaining multiple would be a massive energy loss due to the constant dc to ac conversion. Maybe 1 would be sort of useful, but multiple would just exponentially decrease the max potential due to the inverter power change at each battery station.
Not if they have a ups feature.
I have a 4 patriots 2000x solar gen it is exspandible and has pass through charging everybody bashes them but mines never let me down it’s ran my fridge and chest freezer for over 10 hours and I take it to my off grid cabin it runs the whole cabin which is 12 vdc all but the window a/c unit it has ran it for several hours in the hot midday summer so thanks for the video bud it may help me in a pinch
Necessity is the mother of invention
Great to hear from you Andrew, will your big gas genset run home ac ,lights , refrigerator,freezers, & charge the ecoflows at the same time
Yes it will our house is very efficient.
You could gain some more efficiency by using the DC out of the 2nd unit into the EcoFlow. It’ll be slower and you can only do it at night when you have no solar
Good idea, less efficiency loss.
Any idea if the older EcoFlow Delta Max can be used as a smart extra battery for the EcoFlow Delta 2 Max via the side extra battery port?
Can't answer that, you'd need to contact their customer service.
It seems even less expensive to buy some lfp batteries and make up a power cable with battery ring connectors, an in line fuse and whatever plug type you need for your power station's solar input.
If needed, connect batteries in series or buy a boost converter to get sufficient input volts.
Hey Andrew, not sure if it's the same, but the UPS systems I buy for my home computer is always providing power from the 'battery', and the power cord just keeps that battery charged. So, there's no 'switch over time' cuz it just stops recharging and starts draining the battery.
These are definitely not like that, plus you can adjust in the app at what point you want it to kick on and charge. I do not like the idea of a battery always charging, it doesn't allow a proper cycle of the battery.
Nice channel Andrew! I have a delta pro, I can do what you just did right? By the way, I was actually disappointed with the time the delta pro lasts. I was using around 800 w and it only gave me 4 hours. I am going through SOC process now to train the system, where I run to 0% and recharge 3 times. We will see if that fixes it. I know it is a lot of wattage, but I am in PR and we are dependent on mostly electric devices, no propane like you.
That's actually very good. Remember it's a 3600 watt hour battery. You have conversion losses transferring DC to AC power. 4 hours times 800 watts is 3200 watts used.
Fantastic video. However, I do have two basic questions. With a lesser sub-Solar generator, and a higher demand than its throughput, will the mainSG be the supplier with the subSG just charging the mainSG? Secondly, can you simultaneously output the mainSG to the subG so it can charge itself automatically, thereby possibly automatically switching from output to input without intervention?
When using a unit with UPS features, it passes through the power from the second unit only using minor power to monitor that flow looking for any interruption. When the second unit dies, the main pass through UPS units senses this and swaps to its own battery supply in milliseconds. This keeps the conversion losses down by NOT using the second unit to charge the main unit while it's supplying power. You want to avoid as much conversion, aka DC battery to AC inverter for charging the main unit from stored DC to AC of the second unit. Using the UPS feature on one unit allows this.
I wanted to see you unplug the second unit to see if the delta switched over fast enough. Wasn't that the point as well as the extra battery capacity?
It’s all depending on the power you need just calculate how much power you need, and then see how many time you can use the backup system, it’s not so long
I wonder what EcoFlow says they don’t recommend chaining two Delta 2 max main units together? Any thoughts n your part. Buying 2 mains not that more expensive…and can charge and run separately ….not fully integrated as stand alone dumb battery….regardless any risks you see?
There no reason this won't work other than it caps you at 1800 watts for the pass through. Ecoflow has seen this video and told me they liked it, no one mentioned not doing this.
Good day all. Hope everyone in the state are recovering as fast as posable, their maybe more to come.
We are watching!
Will this work with Ecoflow Pro to Ecoflow Ultra to supply power to the Ultra? Have you tested it on large systems?
Yes but pass through will limit the Ultra to 1800 watts.
Hey buddy! Glad you guys are doing well with the outages you're facing. Thoughts and prayers are with you for sure, and all those who lost so much over there. Can I ask you something? I'm looking at the Ecoflow powerstation 3600Wh with the 3600Wh extra battery and the Ecoflow 1800W dual fuel inverter generator as an emergency backup for the house. I saw Amazon has a bundle pkg. Have you had any thoughts/research or experience with the new Ecoflow generator? I didn't even know it was a thing! Thanks. :)
It's an awesome piece of equipment, especially that it's automatic and communicates with the generator. I have not had a chance to test one, I'm hoping to in the future. I have two more batteries coming for my Delta Pros. I do plan to run some tests and show that off in a future video. Please email me at Kelleyscountry@gmail.com and let me see if I can beat the Amazon price for that bundle and get you a discount code.
Will it work with delta pro and delta pro extra battery ?
Delta pro does have the ups feature, but keep in mind that it will limit you to 1800 watts of power.
That what I am wondering. Is there any way to hook up a
Store bought lifepo4 battery, or do I have to buy another delta battery?? Thank you for any input.!!
You'll need a direct battery from Ecoflow.
Ok, bummer.
Thanks!
Thinking about this today and want to comment that in theory you could put the Delta's DC 12V output to the Outkitel and connect solar to Outkitel. So both can be charged and backup each other. I hope someone could try my idea since I don't have a 2nd unit.
Good idea
I think the biggest loss would be converting from the 12v battery to the 120v AC then back down to the 12v battery again.
You would be better off plugging the ecoflow into the 12v port on the other system.
How do you add one of these delta 2 max batteries to a conventional lifepo4 house battery with normal +\- poles?
You don't, they are made for the Delta 2 max only.
@@TKCL ok so it turns out it’s really simple you just connect into the solar input…. The delta 2 max dosnt know it’s not solar coming in… so just take your normal battery and use regular +\- ring connectors to solar MC4 which connects directly into the delta solar input. This allows you to easily add any battery to the delta
Just keep in mind to not use sensitive electronics and desktop computers directly plugged into Ecoflow when used as EPS, as there is an ever slight power fluctuation when it switches over to the internal battery. Get a $100 true UPS to handle that switch over time. (I use mine in EPS for my office, and have had the tower computer reboot from the switch over). It is one of those things documented deep in the manual no one reads, like they don't recommend always recharging on max input levels. (Mine is set via app to limit to 800watt charging)
Always set my recharge rates to lower myself. I was raised on slower charging is good for batteries.
Hey Andrew, What adapters/cables did you use to connect the Delta 2 Max to your transfer switch and were all the circuits in the transfer switch powered? Thank you!
Here you go
30 amp generator cord: amzn.to/3YBiNTL
TT30 to L14-30 plug (both phases bonded):
I can see from you video the TT 30 going into the power inlet box. What I can’t see is how you’re plugging it into the delta 2 max. Mine has (6) Nema 5-15 three prong receptacles for plugging into. Sorry but I’m a little slow here.
I think my problem is that I’m trying to plug the Delta 2 max into a GENERAC manual transfer switch not the Ecoflow transfer switch . The GENERAC Owner’s manual states in section 2 page 3 “ Generator output voltage must be 240V. This transfer switch is not compatible with a 120 Volt generator output voltage.” But the transfer switch works like a champ when I plug in my 2022 Ford F150 Lightning into the GENERAC.
Oops it didn't post this link. TT30 to L14-30 plug (both phases bonded): amzn.to/3Jcq6vc
You need to use the TT30P plug in the Delta 2 max.
Is this hooked up to a main or a sub panel? When my ups is connected to the outlet and to the transfer switch it trips the gfci
Main panel. You can't backfeed outlets with modern gfci or arc fault breakers.
Why does it trip the gfci? Also if you hook it up to a non gfci in the main. Plug into the ups and than plug into the transfer switch does that create a loop with the neutral ground bond?
@@timboe1848 you said you were back feeding outlets. That's a completely different scenario and modern breakers don't tolerate it. I can't answer all your questions because I don't know your scenario. Are you wired into a sub panel with neutral and ground seperarated per code, or a main panel?
Ooops I meant when I connect the ups to ac to charge and pass through.
So for some reason if I have my ups connected to ac input and the transfer switch it pops my gfci outlet on the input side.
It goes main panel to gfci outlet, gfci outlet to the ups, ups to the generator transfer switch, transfer switch to main panel. For some reason if I have the ac input and the ups output connected to the transfer switch it pops the gfci on the ac input outlet which is connected to the main. Not back feeding main. Etc
You should have a gas generator as. Plan B to charge your system when there’s not nothing sun.
Hopefully that’s is what you are doing, since I can hear the generator running in the background. 👍
I have 3 👍
I also did not understand where the hacking is. You connect cascaded powerstations that have connection ports for external batteries. If you did it where there is no such port, it would be hacking.
May God help everyone influenced by the hurricane, hope everything returns to normal soon.
The efficiency loss is much. I once did the calculation. As much as this looks great from a lay man’s view, you are losing almost 50% of your battery capacity from the second power station. The second power station inverter account’s normally for about 20% loss. Add that to the 25% loss of the inverter on the Ecoflow and you are easily losing 45 to 50% battery. To confirm this, run your ecoflow alone with a particular load and record the time it took to get the ecoflow to 0%. Run thesame test for your second power station alone. Add the time together. Now run the two together like you demonstrated in this video and do the calculations, you will realise you are losing between 40-50%. I was shocked when I did the test and calculation myself. Those portable power station inverters consume a lot of power. The most efficient I have seen is about 85% which seem good. But some ecoflows run as low as 70% efficiency
I just can't forsee the ups unit being that bad when the average unit I've tested doing full dc to AC conversion is typically in the 80+ percent efficiency range. I'll test when I get time.
Won’t be 50%. The EcoFlow isn’t converting that AC to DC. It’s going into bypass mode
@@xzibit8614 No, The Ecoflow will not just enter into bypass except its battery is 100% full. So far the battery is not 100% full, it is going to convert your AC power to DC(charge its battery), which it will then convert again from DC to AC the second time when you are using it. Before you argue it, Do what I told him to do if you have 2 portable stations. Do the calculations and come back to report your findings.
Thus the reason I stated and showed in the video to have the first unit at 100 percent. I'll have to be more clear if I show this again.
@EasyyokeFilms it wouldn't make any sense to charge the first station off of the second doubling your losses. Thus a very good reason to always keep your units charged before expected outages.
Hmmm. I was just thinking. It would be nice if the solar gen had a contactor that would remote start the Fossil fuel generator, charging the solar gen back up to 100% then power down the Fossil fuel generator. Something for me to design. I will add this thought to my to do list.
Ecoflow has that
On what unit?@@johnmf6096
Yes ecoflow has a smart Gen that communicates with the Delta pros to turn on and charge. Technology is amazing!
I'll be darned. I found it on the website. Never noticed it before.@@TKCL
❤❤
I foresee a solar panel wattage increase once things are recovered.
You are exactly right.
Hi
Yeah.
Got it!
@@TKCL 💪🏽
🧀🪤🪤🙄
your giveing me bad ideas lol
Too late I have been plugging things into my generator also LoL 😆
@@5150cash 🤫🤫🤫🤫 ive got two 8500 watt gens and a ecoflow river pro with the exstended battery i was thinking of another with extra battery lol.
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I literally selected for one add in the middle. If you seen several it wasn't my doing.