MAINS BLACKOUT - can the EcoFlow River 2 save my PC work?
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- Опубліковано 26 лис 2022
- I wanted to test whether the EcoFlow River 2 can act as an uninterrupted power supply for my desktop PC in the event of a mains power outage.
Buy the EcoFlow River 2 - campingsecrets.co.uk/recommen...
Please note that the product reviewed was provided by the manufacturer, but my views on it are my own.
I feel honoured! Great video and just the solution I need. Glad I contacted you. Thank you so much. New subscriber.
No problem Alan - thanks for the great idea. Please subscribe to the channel!
The best bit I like about that River 2 is that it has a 3000 charge cycle. Which would translate to about 10 years of use.
It's much more than 3000. After 3000 you have only lost a fifth of the capacity
You're a lifesaver!
part of the job of a UPS is to connect to the computer via USB and shut it down properly when the battery is depleted. Until ecoflow adds a PC driver it can not really be used as a UPS it will crash your PC if you are not there to shut down. You will still need to connect your PC to a conventional UPS and power that with the ecoflow.
I've not heard of that functionality requirement. That must be for a specific computer UPS I guess. A bit out of the design scope I would say
@@CampingSecretsUK every modern computer has a UPS function under power on a desktop PC you will see a little battery icon in the tray when one is connected just like a laptop with an internal battery.
I have just ordered a EcoFlow River 2 Max and a Renogy 12V 200w Solar panel
my question is, rather than having the solar panel direct to the River 2...
If I bought a Renogy 12V 100Ah LifePO4 Lithium Battery and pluged it in to the XT60 port, have I now extended my 512Wh River 2, by another 1200Wh ?
and if I bought a Renogy 40A MPPT Solar Controller. and have the solar panel connected to the controllar, then to the battery, and then to the River 2 Max
Would it all work, would the solar panel charge the 100Ah 'house battery' and in turn, charge the River, and extent its capacity
assuming I got enough Sunshine. and if I was charging via the 40A MPPT Solar Controller... I could add another 300w of solar panels. (I think)
I think that would work yes. I've used a power station to charge another power station. The only problem is that you're doubling up on efficiency losses. Ultimately though, you've got more battery capacity, so you've got more storage.
@@CampingSecretsUK I am hoping the R2 Max will have enough power to run my Gas central heating unit, that draws 40watts (when it’s running) and my Fridge at 120watts (when it’s running)
So if my calculations are right, I should get about 2.7 ‘continuous hours’ of runtime. So more than enough for any three hour scheduled power outage.
One disappointment is that the New River 2 series does not have an expandable “Extra Battery” pack
however, I do have a load of 5Ah Ryobi 18v one+ batteries and an aftermarket power cap that has a XT60 plug already fitted to it.
Witch I am hoping will charge the R2 by about 80Wh (giving us an extra half an hour of continuous runtime) per battery
Guess I'll find out, when it all arrives :)
@@FiddlingwithmyWhistle great stuff. Good luck!
@@CampingSecretsUK and yes. I saw you used a power station to charge another power station
when you use the USB-C cable... how does it know witch way you want to charge ?
You charge the R2 from the Delta ". but what if you wanted to use the R2 to top up the D2 ?
That's a good question. I don't think the Delta 2 has USB-c charging capability. If it did then I have no clue what would happen. Safer to charge using the AC in and out in that case
How can we be sure the computer is powered directly from the mains when conected and not from the battery all the time? Why should the R2 make its job more complicated than necessary or why should it risk being too slow?
This is true, and I'm not able to test that. I think you could be right and there is no actual switch from mains to battery. Battery all the time, with the mains keeping the battery topped up seems more likely. I'd be interested in what this does to the battery lifetime but have no info.
@@CampingSecretsUK Good point! EF defines lifetime of its batteries by the number of charging cycles (e.g. 3000). Since the usage as UPS does not result in complete zero-to-full charging cycles, this must not affect battery lifetime ... theoretically.
Just gonna point out that it isn't true UPS.
It's certainly enough for most people with a 30ms switch... It'll keep a damn pc running. But actual UPS is something like 3ms, and the kind of switch you want for medical equipment.
Yeah if you want the fastest switch time then you buy a dedicated switch. For matters of life and death that's a no brainer
Aside from powering any PC, I can use it to charge my DJi drones whenever I am out. 256Wh is a lot of power.
One thing I do like about the River 2 is that I am able to charge it in an hour.
Yes the Ecoflow fast charging is excellent
Since the River 2 has 256Wh of capacity. I'm sure it has more than enough juice to keep the PC running for a time.
Not really a true UPS, more an EPS. UPS will switch faster but they can work.
Own a fair few ecoflow units myself now and they are very good.
I had to Google that - Emergency Power Supply - yes you're right, because the battery will obviously only last a short time. However, as long as the power outage is shorter than the stored capacity time, it's effectively a UPS
I do think the 256Wh capacity of the River 2 is more than enough to power that PC.
The pc was drawing about 100W, and so it would keep it going for about two hours. Enough time hopefully for the power to come back
@@CampingSecretsUKA computer is 100 watts?
@@Peace-tk3gr yup
turn off the automatic switch instead of taking out the power cord and pc will turn off
Why? What's the difference? I'm dealing with daily blackouts over here and this feature for the PC would be very welcome.
@@Pandamasque I live in Kyiv so I know what I am talking about we have electricity about 6hours a day every day sometimes even less than that, 6-7hours no electricity 2 hours electricity then again 6-7h no electricity and I already tried most powerstations, inverters, UPS and other solutions to help myself to overcome this struggling 😉 and I have the same power station as well, including few more from Bluetti, if EcoFlow has X-boost on believe me it can sometimes turn off your pc when grid will get off and will not do the same when you just unplug cord because when you just unplug cord your voltage doesn't do voltage drops, its a common EcoFlow problem, they have AVR with 30ms ups mode its kind of slow when voltage drops or gets high. Lab Mode, X-Boost means no UPS mode because UPS mode is very sensitive to voltage. When I first purchased River 2 I did the same tests as you, unplugged the cord and wow UPS was on and what was my surprise when electricians turned off grid suddenly and my pc turned off)))
@@deraid712 Same situation. Pechersk, Kyiv. I've had 2h of power today so far. I had to turn down a job opportunity, because I don't even own a laptop. I'm on my phone right now with a wifi router powered off a 20000mAh powerbank.
Your explanation gave me an idea though. You can plug the River2 into a wall via a power strip with an on/off switch. 5 minutes before the scheduled outage you manually cut the power via that switch (like unplugging, but more convenient). And the PC will keep running. Flip the switch back on after the outage happens so River2 is ready to start charging as soon as the power comes back. It's not ideal, but it's cheaper than buying a true UPS to put between River2 and the wall socket.
This doesn't help if it's an unscheduled outage!
Interesting comment sir - I will test it again. I send my best wishes to you and your country. Keep up the good fight