Honestly, they are all extremely overpriced, IMO.
this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2023
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Home Automation
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2600 bucks for
3kwh of battery that's about 700 bucks
3kw inverter/charger 1k
200w of solar 100bucks
You need 2 of them to get split phase 240 needed for a US home.
5k for 6kwh setup that still does not have a ATS etc to work well
I would and did get a pair of victron inverters for about the same money you can get 10kwh of batteries and expand from there. These work with a generator and integrate well with home automation (they talk MQTT so easy to deal with)
3kw inverter/charger 1k
Can pick up a 6kw inverter/charger for around 800$. (Prob cheaper if you went with 48v too....)
Been there, and done this project.
https://xtremeownage.com/2021/06/12/portable-2-4kwh-power-supply-ups/
I couldn’t find too many details about it on the website, but what’s the lifespan and expected usage pattern for these?
Something like a Tesla powerwall is expected to be in constant use. Constant load either charging or powering a home. These products look like they’re marketed more like a backup battery in power outage or occasional camping usage. If you’re trying to get a backup power source as an alternative to a generator, seems fine. But without more info about the engineered goals, I’d be cautious about subjecting to regular load for years. It says it can handle 3500+ cycles on the battery, so that could last many years, depending on how you use it.
I'd say it depends on your needs. Since my home would consume four or five of these in a singe hour, I'd say that they were undesirable to me at any price.
For an application such as my own, a whole-house generator is the preferred solution. It costs as much as three or four of these, but can carry the house for days before requiring refueling.
You don’t need to power everything in an emergency.
But if you get your heating and cooking with electricity and you’re in an environment that NEEDS cooling…
I use 10kwh/day average. But that includes power-hungry “steam” washer/dryer and dishwasher, none of which I need for a few days outage.
I’m lucky to have gas water heater and gas steam boiler. The boiler needs about 10 watts on standby and max 25 operating (ecobee, damper, auto-fill, etc.)
I’ve already rigged it with a cord and if there’s an emergency I put it on a little 300W/400 WH Jackery over night (will run it for close to a day) so I don’t have to run a generator. I plan on rigging up some kind of UPS with a few days capacity though.
I just bought a 1000W/1kWh gently-used Jackery for $450 from a neighbor who upgraded to a 2000Plus. That’ll run the fridge over night.
The Jackeries have great general utility and are both very portable.
Just got a 3000W 120V portable generator and that’s all I need for everything else. Stove top is gas, takes a match or lighter. Oven is electric I don’t need to bake cookies during an outage. Air fryer, toaster, microwave are fine on the generator, one at a time.
I’d eventually like one of those expandable battery systems with a 10 circuit automatic switch and load-shift during peak hours. The prices are coming down rapidly. Ecoflow looks good but plenty of competition coming.
I use 10kwh/day average.
Some of us use a LOT more than that.
But regardless of the number, when planning for comfort, I plan for peak load. Average doesn't help me when I need things to work. I opted for whole-house backup and it runs the entire house.
but hopefully most of us use a LOT less than that. I use about half of it, but I don't have a dryer. I use a cloths line.
They are extremely overpriced. Build your own
Build your own
Not great advice considering these could easily burn your entire house to the ground if not done properly.
Most people do not have the knowledge and skills to even begin to attempt this.
I have built many LiIon battery packs and it is not a huge savings over buying pre-built packs from professionals. The cells are going to be the primary cost no matter what. Then you still need to get an inverter and charge controller and package it all nicely.
These things are intended for people who like the convenience. Telling them to build their own is equivalent to telling my parents that Ring doorbell is overpriced and they should roll their own solution. You know, bu ya DVR, buy compatible cameras, connect it all and securely exposing it online. Easy right?
They are overpriced. So yeah, either build your own or find sales with steep discounts.
We did precisely this with some Ecoflow units. We got their smart power panel and I lined it off of the sub panel for our generator. Basically runs heater, water pump, fridge, freezer, network and home automation as well as a few lights in each room. We installed this at a secondary property (lake house) that is a few hours drive. This way if it loses power it’s ok for a few days and we don’t need to head up immediately. We have a generator that we can run when we get there, but a side benefit of using these units is that we can also pull one and charge it at a car charging station. It is also expandable as you mentioned. Our current config will probably get us 2-3 days in winter. In summer, this is probably one to two weeks.
It is much cheaper because you are getting a fraction of the capacity. The one you linked has 3 kWh of capacity. The power wall has 13.5.
The power wall also has a 6 kW inverter instead of 3 (and I seriously doubt it will output 3 continuously without overheating).
Plus you are not connecting these things to your home breaker panel like the powerwall does.
I'm not a Tesla fan, but you have to compare apples-to-apples.
It would probably be cheaper to buy separate Victron units and assemble them and that's saying something!
8 Bit Guy did it, but it's honestly a pretty crude setup and only worth it because he, as a popular YouTuber, got the units for free. It doesn't really make any sense for the average person.