Portable Power Devices aka Solar Generator

[dieseltdi]

I was going to day the same thing about the cooler. I still have one and we use it on Car trips to keep drinks cool in the car but it almost never holds food. Very innovative for their time but with compressor technology what it is now, not what you would want to keep food actually good. As I said in my post, I ran my T49 Fridge on its lowest setting with nothing in it, the hardest possible condition to keep cold, for 48 hours on my power station and it still had 32% left at the end of that time. I actually ran my house fridge on it for several hours also. As far as the fan on the power station, I have only heard it run when it is recharging. I don't think I have ever heard the cooling fans run during normal use. BTW I also ran my exterior Christmas light on it this year, using the daytime sun and my house solar panels to recharge it about every 4 days or so charge status never fell below 60% or so.. I would guess that I was running about 275 "C" LED bulbs for about 6-7 hours each night.

[fxr]

[vanagonjr]

I’d look into reducing that CPAP power demand.
Some interesting reading @ https://www.cpap.com/blog/cpap-camping/
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FAQ thread: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=525798

[DuncanS]

Your cooler and CPAC machine are BIG DRAWS. If the 100AH LA battery did the job, then that's what you need, although for boon docking, my guess is 3 times that coupled with solar. Upgrading to a LiPo4 is going to cost some serious wampum.

I'd do a bunch of research--there are great threads here on LiPo batteries and all the gear needed to interface with them and the loads used by the various devices. In the mean time, the $150 is going to be the cheapest way to go. I haven't seen that price for 100AH deep cycle in quite a while. Everything is going up at significant levels. For example this item delivers half of your old group 27 battery and it's a kilobuck. https://www.jackery.com/products/explorer-1000-por...nc&utm

Your cooler is known to be horribly inefficient. Most people have dumped them. And they are useless in the summer sun when the interior goes to 110º. They cool 40º below ambient, so in this case the thing is trashing your battery in return for keeping your beer at 70º.

Duncan

[TO Rooster]

This thread is just what I was looking for! I need to replace the house battery in my '77 Westy. The current setup is a Group 27 Marine 100 Amp hours standard lead acid battery. It's dead. Replacement cost is around $150CDN for a similar low-end quality battery.

So I am starting to think that removing it and going straight to a portable power station is the way to go. However, I have some concerns/questions for you.

First of my intended use...

lights (mostly LED) minimal draw,
radio - minimal use,
kitchen faucet pump - minimal use,
recharging cell phones USB 5v 1.5A, nightly
recharging laptop - rarely need my laptop while camping - no USB-C, uses 120V 1.5A
Coleman 40 Quart PowerChill Hot/Cold Thermoelectric Cooler - 12V 5A / 60W
CPAP machine 120V 90W power supply "Typical power consumption: 53W (57VA), Peak power consumption: 104W (108VA)"

The cooler will run continuously and the CPAP for 6-8hours/night.

1. Noise: Most of my camping is in campgrounds. Whenever I camp in a serviced sections of campgrounds, I end up hearing the air conditioners from the big RVs/trailers nearby. Not the great outdoors experience I want. I want peace and quiet. Someday I hope to boondock! The cooler fan is too noisy to keep in the Westy so I usually leave it outside and tie it shut to keep the critters out. These portable power stations have their own fans. Do the fans run continuously? or only during peak power demand?

2. Location: The late-bay Westy has a batter tray on the left side on the engine compartment (opposite the starter battery). Would you temporarily (i.e. while camping) use that spot for the power station to keep the noise out of the camper and to keep the power station out of the elements and locked up?

3. Battery Capacity: For weekend (2-3 nights) camping, how much battery capacity would you recommend?

Thanks in advance!

[dieseltdi]

Well I ended my test today at 48 hours of running the truck fridge on full freeze mode. It still had 32% left for at least one more day of running that fridge. I also discovered that the wiring on my portable solar kit (Harbor Freight 100w Thunderbolt) I BACKWARDS from the wiring that plugs into the box for recharging. I ended up buying a reversing plug that swapped male and female plug ends around and then it worked. SO......if you have tried to use solar with your Ecoflow, two things to remember: 1) check the polarity of your plugs and 2) don't try to recharge it through your solar charge controller, it simply won't work. You have to plug directly into the Ecoflow charge socket.

[dieseltdi]

Sorry, we had about 300 people freeze to death in February. It is kind of a sore subject. In terms of the device. It has been plugged in to my truck fridge for 24 hours now and is down to 72%. I tried to make this test hard by leaving the fridge empty (makes it harder to maintain temp) and I set it on the lowest setting. Essentially my fridge is a freezer. Of course, if I was using this at a remote campsite, I would have my 100 watt solar panels attached to constantly recharge. I am pleased and actually surprised at how well it works.

[DuncanS]

Thank you Mr. Moderator for keeping things OT.

Another reason to have a Voltagon. Fully charged before the storm and it keeps the refrigerator going so the food won't spoil.

Duncan

[djkeev]

[dieseltdi]

I purchased this not just for the Vanagon but to have for emergencies. I live in Texas and well let’s just say that our stupid elected officials care more about keeping the electric companies making tons of money than keeping the electricity on.

[DuncanS]

The Delta at a K plus seems like a lot. However a 100AH LiPo4 is 650 plus by the time you get all the necessary accessories and do the wiring, perhaps not so much. It is truly plug and play...............unless you do something like:

[dieseltdi]

Spent the last two days doing some testing on my Ecoflow Delta. First day I tested it on my small chest freezer. After 5 hours the battery was still showing 88% capacity. Today, I plugged in my side by side refrigerator/freezer. After 7 hours, the battery was down to 50%. I am impressed at the performance. Tomorrow, I am going attach it to my truck fridge and just let it go to see what kind of usage I can get. Hayden

[dieseltdi]

Must plug panels directly into the Ecoflow. It has a built in solar controller. I have been reading ALOT about these things over the last couple of days. Hayden

[djkeev]

Just an update, my ECO Flow River has proven itself to be a very capable portable power pack.

Dave
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Ghia
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=392473

Vanagon
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6315537#6315537

Beetle
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=482968&highlight=74+super+vert

[S4VAGE]

Woke up this am to my first real test of the eco flow pro running my 63qt ARB. 20 hours on 120 and the eco pro is down to 35%. Fridge was in shade, opened 3-4 times. Based on my fridge and my conditions, I’m going to estimate that this might stretch me into 1.5 day of fridge power.

Not sure if this is a success or not. I really didn’t know what to expect in real use.

Sadly I can’t get solar to charge it. Any ideas? I bought the mc4 to Zamp adapter to plug into the unit. My zamp just flashes the “battery not detected” b01 alert. Plugged the panel into my van and confirmed panel is working. 🤷‍♂️

Cheers

[thebigben]

Now you have my wheels turning. I think I might try adding one of these portable battery packs to my house battery setup under the rear bench. At least to the charging portion.

It would be nice to have a small reserve that is also removable.
_________________
Ben

'85 2WD Westy w/ Peloquin TBD + 2.2 Subi (Kurt Vannegut)

[Vanlife Geek]

I went with a cheapo brand, Aligoo 300Watt Portable Power Station generator with 12V Car Jump Starter power bank, 266Wh lithium backup battery, Pure Sine Wave AC/DC outlet. It's on sale right now on Amazon for $159, https://amzn.to/35EFkpJ.

Even though I have two house batteries, sometimes when it's cloudy they don't get charged enough from solar, so this is my backup. I'm trying not to kill my AGM house batteries by running them down too low. It actually works great!

One feature I really like is the watt consumption readout on any device that is plugged in. For example, now I know my big "Endless Breeze" 12v fan uses 15 watts on low, 22 watts on medium and 32 watts on high. I always wondered how much some of the devices draw and now I know. My fridge uses about 70 watts during startup, but settles down to around 43 watts after a couple of minutes. It also will tell you how long it will last based on the current draw and how long it will take to charge based on current input.

One reason I chose this particular model is that it comes with an attachment to jump start the van should the starter battery become low over a long camp. I can use jumper cables from one of the house batteries (and have) but this is way easier. I experimented with using it to power my fridge and it could probably go for nearly a full day before it runs out of juice.

I did have to figure out a hack to keep it going when powering the fridge... it has an auto shutdown feature 60 seconds after no load is detected. Of course the fridge doesn't run constantly, so it would turn off between fridge cycles. To fix this issue, I discovered I could plug in my phone via USB and that would prevent the unit from shutting off automatically between fridge cycles, even when the phone is fully charged.

I always have my 2000w gas generator if all else fails. Overkill? Naw, I like my gadgets!

I just finished a two week camp and got to use it extensively and it worked like a champ. I'm not sure about other brands, but this one will function fine while being charged. I experimented with plugging it into a 12v receptacle to charge while the fridge was plugged into the unit and it worked fine and would still charge with the fridge load.

Anyway, I thought I'd share this inexpensive one for those that don't want to spend a fortune and don't have huge power requirements.
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Vanlife Geek
Current:
1986 Syncro Westy
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1983 Westy
1981 Westy
1972 Bug (Last year you could buy a new one for under $2,000)
1965/66 Bug (2 bugs from a junk yard combined to make 1 functional bug)
1959 Bug (Pre Gas Gauge Era)

[vegpedlr]

Just tried out my new Bluetooth AC30 at Adventure Van Expo. It powered my mini rice cooker in a home test, and did really well powering my 35qt Dometic. It’ll work well until I wire I up my solar stuff. It’s nice to be able to move the power source around.
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[thebigben]

..and I’m returning the battery back to Costco. The battery is really too small.

It’s also Lithium Ion, which generally doesn’t last as long as a Lithium Iron battery. From what I understand, the units shipped through their kickstarter were Lithium Iron.

For the same price ($700), I ended up buying a 100ah LiFePO4 battery + RedArc Ignition Switched Charger with MPPT. I like the ability to easily add more capacity down the line, for just the price of the battery.

If you go the EcoFlow route, keep in mind you still need a battery separator for alternator charging (which is limited to only 10a with EcoFlow).
_________________
Ben

'85 2WD Westy w/ Peloquin TBD + 2.2 Subi (Kurt Vannegut)

[djkeev]

A pattern is developing, I am getting four days of daily use.
10 - 14hours a day.
I shut it off at night and every morning it cools off the box and keeps it cool all day.

This system is until I wire in a lighter socket and a shore power plug.

Dave
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Stop Dead Photo Links how to post photos

Ghia
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=392473

Vanagon
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6315537#6315537

Beetle
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=482968&highlight=74+super+vert