I have a need for a smaller portable unit to provide power on my boat (at anchor..) and also allow power to items inside the house.
This system will provide the following:
- Light and manageable
- Individual components that can be easily replaced or upgraded
- Water resistance
- All power I need at a very reasonable cost
I have been looking at the Ecoflow delta 2 which is highly rated and offers a 1024w battery and a 1800w inverter in an attractive case for around $799 on Amazon. The 1800w inverter offers a possible major draw in the 1024 battery so they obviously intend you to add on the expansion battery which adds another 1024w for a total of 2048 and it costs another $799. That puts you at $1,600 for a system where if one component fails (battery, inverter, solar charger, charger..) you have to replace the entire thing.
I’m going to build a system which meets all my power needs and will cost less initially, provide redundancy, allow individual components to be upgraded or replaced and allow me to add a second battery for $329 and give me more watt hours (1280) than the Ecoflow at 1024.
Here are the components:
LiTIme 12v 100Ah battery. I already have 4 of these and really only need 3, I ran a 5,000 BTU airconditioner for 11 days on 3 of these after hurricane Ian. I will take one of these batteries to start so my cost here will $0 but the battery sells for $290 on Amazon.
Victron 100/20 MPPT SmartSolar solar controller. I already have one of these in my main system so using this in my portable version will give me redundancy if a failure occure. These controllers run 12/24/48 volt and have a load output which i like, the cost for this is $149 on Amazon.
150amp bus bar. I run 1 awg wire to allow up to 1920w constant load (safely) which is a maximum of 150 amps on the wire. This bus bar allow 4 main connections amd 6 additional smaller 12v connections and it currently sells for $27 on Amazon.
I’ll also be adding a 150 amp breaker (kill switch) and a 175 amp fuse and holder to the system.
This puts my initial cost at around $345 + wood. If I had to buy the battery it would be around $620 which is still less than the Ecoflow delta 2 and offers comparable power.
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