I ballparked the cost of the equipment, as in I guessed at pricing, and looks like this system is gonna be about $1600+. If you follow all the links at the video you can get a more accurate price.
Not including a solar panel.
If you use a smaller battery, your cost will go down by approximately 300 bucks or so.
The power station he built is portable. Although doesn't look like it would be too easy to load in the back of your truck and haul down to your relatives when they lose power. But the design can be changed. Maybe put it on a hand truck???
This system he built can be used for a lot of things,(fans, lights, phone chargers, etc.) either while the grid is still up, or when SHTF. Like a hurricane, earthquake, or something that collapses your electric grid. Like the fires we have had here.
The guy ran a small 6.7 cubic foot chest freezer for 48 hours on the battery by itself, without any recharge from anything. And the freezer was empty. If it was full it wouldn't take near as much energy I'm thinking.
Personally I think that's pretty darn good. The battery specs say it can be discharged almost to zero and then recharged without damage. That lowers the amount of charge/discharge cycles for the battery, but they are still higher than a lead acid battery.
My lead acid batteries are losing capacity, so I am thinking of upgrading to one or two of those batteries.
Just as soon as I get enough recycled can money to do that.
The lithium ion batteries are quite a bit lighter than lead acid. That box would not weigh as much as you think. You need to go all in on Li, not try to make do with your original charger, components etc. The batteries charge much more efficiently with an MPPT solar charge controller, and are much more capable than lead acid in terms of useable capacity, as you can pull around 80 percent of the battery capacity per discharge cycle almost indefinitely, and the voltage drop is much less than lead acid. The cost is higher, but the capability is far better per dollar spent.
ReplyDeleteI have a couple of Epever MPPT solar charge controllers that are compatible with LiFePo4. The discharge of 80% for 3 or 4 thousand cycles is definitely worth the price. Lead acid is nowhere near that amount of cycles. I think I have decided to go with a brand called Power Queen. Based on another video I saw where a guy uses 300 watts of solar panels and a 200ah battery and runs his fridge for 7 days with no issue.
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