Solar Generators -recommendations please

[Paradigm_Shift]

I have a small off-grid cabin and have installed about 1600 watts of PV on the roof. The place is on the top of a mountain and is accessible only by a snowmobile or tracked vehicle in the winter. I am looking for a portable all-in-one to serve as the middle component between my panels and my electrical panel. I like the simplicity and ability to easily pull the battery when I shut the system down over the winter. I need 240 volt output capability. I am considering Anker Solix F3800 Plus and Bluetti Apex 300 w/ expansion battery(s). Curious to hear from others who have these or possibly Ecoflow to hear about their experiences with these units.

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[MikeWilliams_R1T]

If you want something portable and simple, I use an OUPES Mega5 if I need significant power. It has a 4kw inverter and a 5kwh battery.
If I were powering an off grid cabin, I’d get the Walrus g3. It has a huge 22kwh battery, split phase inverter and can take a lot of solar. You could top off your truck with level 2 before you head home.

https://batteryevo.com/product/walr...bundle_quantity_1380=1&bundle_quantity_1381=2

 

[Paradigm_Shift]

If you want something portable and simple, I use an OUPES Mega5 if I need significant power. It has a 4kw inverter and a 5kwh battery.
If I were powering an off grid cabin, I’d get the Walrus g3. It has a huge 22kwh battery, split phase inverter and can take a lot of solar. You could top off your truck with level 2 before you head home.

https://batteryevo.com/product/walr...bundle_quantity_1380=1&bundle_quantity_1381=2

Hadn’t heard of this one. Pretty impressive for the money but not portable enough for my use. My location can see temperatures well below zero in the winter so probably safer to remove battery during these months.

 

[camaroz1985]

I have had the Anker Solix F3800 for about a year and a half. I have 2 expansion batteries, and use it as a whole house backup (connected through a generator interlock, so have to manually switch it). It gives me about a day of running. Luckily I have only needed it twice, but I am happy to have it. I haven't tried using the direct solar inputs, but I understand the newer models are improved in that aspect. Not sure of how you currently have things setup, but that would probably be a good option for you.

 

[Jeff B.]

I have two delta pro ultra units from ecoflow as well as the smart home panel. I had them installed last year prior to hurricane season and they performed flawlessly thought Hurricane Milton. I usually watch for sales from ecoflow or other vendors and you can find these and expansion batteries at pretty decent prices online.

I upgraded the system this year to include the eco-worthy charger which can input 120v or 240vAC and output 36 to 64 vDC. Using the eco-worthy charger to feed the low voltage PV inputs on the delta pro ultra, I can pull about 945 watts from the Rivian outlets to recharge the ultra's while still having loads used in my house. I have the option to still ad some additional solar through the other PV inputs on the ultra. It is working very well for my needs.

I would like to hack the expansion battery port to get higher amps directly into the ultra batteries, but I am not quite ready to hack this thing apart yet and risk my investment.

 

[Iatros786]

Nice setup..

I did something similar and just recently worked out the quirks.

Delta Pro 3 (gives me the 240v I need as output for our home via a generator inlet)...

And it came with a 400w solar panel...

In addition, the safest way to top it off from the R1T is to convert the AC to DC and feed it into one of the solar ports using either something like the EcoWorthy mentioned above or to save some money, a DC switching power supply like this one I used -

BOSYTRO DC 48V 20.8A 1000W... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CWTY3G1C

This gets me 7-800W without tripping or overheating anything. (I tried the more powerful ones and they were not as reliable).


This is safer than plugging the DP3 directly into the R1T 120v outlet.. people have damaged their Rivian inverters doing this.

 

[sizotty]

Another option could the the 5kWh Jackery 5000 Plus. Pretty great unit from what I understand.
https://amzn.to/3JaajRh

 

[windblowlc]

I have two delta pro ultra units from ecoflow as well as the smart home panel. I had them installed last year prior to hurricane season and they performed flawlessly thought Hurricane Milton. I usually watch for sales from ecoflow or other vendors and you can find these and expansion batteries at pretty decent prices online.

I upgraded the system this year to include the eco-worthy charger which can input 120v or 240vAC and output 36 to 64 vDC. Using the eco-worthy charger to feed the low voltage PV inputs on the delta pro ultra, I can pull about 945 watts from the Rivian outlets to recharge the ultra's while still having loads used in my house. I have the option to still ad some additional solar through the other PV inputs on the ultra. It is working very well for my needs.

I would like to hack the expansion battery port to get higher amps directly into the ultra batteries, but I am not quite ready to hack this thing apart yet and risk my investment.

Can you run two of these chargers from the Rivian outlets to charge the two DPUs connected to the 50 amp hub at the same time?

 

[Jeff B.]

The Rivian outlet will trip if you pull more than 1500 watts ands it’s very sensitive. You could split the dc output from the AC DC charger using solar wye cables to two separate pv inputs.

Personally I would charge them each separately and supplement some solar if you have fixed or permanent panels.

If you have a smart home panel 2, I believe it will try to balance power in/out between two delta pros plugged to the same smart home panel. Have not verified this, but I think I saw this in the last firmware update. Not sure about the 50amp hub and whether or not the units will load balance themselves with only the hub.

My use case is a little different. I have two smart home panels. One full of all my critical loads and the other with less critical nice to have loads, like two ac units, clothes dryer, oven and microwave, etc.

I move the delta pros between the two panels based on my needs during and outage. Since I got everything through various sales from EcoFlow, the price of the extra smart home panel was worth the extra flexibility for my needs.

 

[windblowlc]

The Rivian outlet will trip if you pull more than 1500 watts ands it’s very sensitive. You could split the dc output from the AC DC charger using solar wye cables to two separate pv inputs.

Personally I would charge them each separately and supplement some solar if you have fixed or permanent panels.

If you have a smart home panel 2, I believe it will try to balance power in/out between two delta pros plugged to the same smart home panel. Have not verified this, but I think I saw this in the last firmware update. Not sure about the 50amp hub and whether or not the units will load balance themselves with only the hub.

My use case is a little different. I have two smart home panels. One full of all my critical loads and the other with less critical nice to have loads, like two ac units, clothes dryer, oven and microwave, etc.

I move the delta pros between the two panels based on my needs during and outage. Since I got everything through various sales from EcoFlow, the price of the extra smart home panel was worth the extra flexibility for my needs.

I don't have SHP2, just 2 DPUs with the 50 amp hub plugging into a 50A power inlet. It won't do load balancing. My critical loads are distribute between the main and a sub panel, not easy to back up with a SHP2, and my south facing roof is very steep so not able to install solar panels. Anyways, could you please list what is needed for me to get the Eco Worthy charger hooked up to the DPU - wirings, adapter, etc... I just got the Ecoflows last week. Would very much appreciate the direction!

 

[Jeff B.]

I don't want to hijack this thread, but this could be helpful regardless of the solar generator.

I am obviously going to oversimplify this, and this gets way more technical than my summary below, so you may want to consult a friend, or do some research, etc. to get some experience with AC and DC circuits. You do not want to overload something or hurt yourself, so be smart if you don't understand how this works. Also frying your Rivian 120v inverter or the DPU will not be a good experience, so user beware!

The low voltage PV input of the DPU is 30-150v at 15 amps. Don't ever exceed the 150vDC voltage limit. The high voltage PV input of the DPU is 80v to 450vDC at 15 amps, same goes here you never want to exceed the voltage limit. Good news is the eco-worthy does not come close to these limits with a maximum of 64vDC output, so we can just us the low voltage pv inputs. The real limit will be the fact that you can only pull about 1500 watts from the Rivian 120/110v outlet.

The other problem is that the 240v to 120v adapter that comes with the eco-worthy is wired wrong for the eco-worthy charger. It simply will not work if you try and use it. I had to make my own adapter by re-wiring the neural on the 240v side. I'd rather not post specifics about what needs to be done because it involves switching the neural around, but you can look it up online or you tube. Once you make your own adapter, it will work with the Rivian 120v outlets.

You will need to replace the ends of the positive and negative DC output wires on the eco-worthy and install MC4 connectors to wire it the pv inputs on the DPU. You'll also want male and female MC4 wye connectors to wire them in parallel. Once all the connections are made you can power on the eco-worthy and adjust the voltage and amperage output.

The eco-worthy charger is only capable of 36-64vDC output and the amps will cap at 30 if you're using a 120v input. In my experience, the DPU's do not pull more than 14.8 amps each, so that means you will only get about 950 watts to a single DPU at the max 64 volts. If you parallel the two DPU's using the low voltage PV inputs, you will have to adjust the output on the eco-worthy to a max of about 48vDC at 29.6 amps (14.8 amps x2 DPUs = 29.6 amps) that should allow you to deliver about 1400 watts out of the eco-worthy or about 700 watts to each DPU when wired in parallel. Keep in mind, that anything above 48vDC at 29.6 amps will likely pull too much power from the Rivian 120v outlet. Remember you do not want to exceed 1500 watts from the Rivian outlet, so it may take some trial and error to dial the voltage and amps in to find the sweet spot. I have not tested feeding the DPUs in parallel this way, so user beware!

EDIT: I just tried paralleling two DPUs fed by the eco-worthy and it works with a big caveat. The amps need to be set low and ramped up slowly and you can get this to work to a degree. You have to babysit the charger a little too much for my comfort. This is likely because the eco-worthy does not ramp up the demand slowly by itself and any instantaneous loads or imbalance between the two dpus might cause and intermittent spike and the eco-worthy will shutoff. Without more testing I’d be hesitant to parallel two dpus. Possibly a different switching power supply might solve this, but I am going to stick with charging one dpu at a time which works well for my use case and is reliable over a long duration.

 

[Cycliste]

Weren’t we predicted to get Mr Fusion in 2015? Why the delay? All of the above is too complicated for me. Electricity is hard. But I always have banana peels, coffee grounds, and I can get beer cans

 

[Jeff B.]

I’m an engineer and a tinkerer, so it hemorrhages out of my brain uncontrollably.

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