Quite common overseas
Thoughts on an inverter of battery box thingy?
- Thread starter Skyliner33
- Start date
I went through this thought process recently to charge our e-biikes. Rather than go through the arse-ache of dismantling everything to cable in an inverter, and the expense of decent kit and cable I opted for a Bluetti ac180.
Ended up being an unexpectedly good choice.
Its portability is a bonus - Can pop it under the canopy and plug in my toaster and coffee machine.
The extra battery capacity of approx 90Ah combined with the fact it’s not cost much more than an inverter install makes the battery part virtually free.
It uses 4% to make one coffee from the pod machine and about 1% for 2 slices of toast.
I recharge it by plugging it into a 10A cig type socket-it charges at 8A, which I know is slow, but it puts back my coffee and toast in an hour and my solar or dc-dc replenishes the LB.
You can of course charge it up from a solar panel or suitcase.
I also use it in the house to charge my e bike, MacBook, phone, etc. then just drop it in the van to recharge it for free.
Ended up being an unexpectedly good choice.
Its portability is a bonus - Can pop it under the canopy and plug in my toaster and coffee machine.
The extra battery capacity of approx 90Ah combined with the fact it’s not cost much more than an inverter install makes the battery part virtually free.
It uses 4% to make one coffee from the pod machine and about 1% for 2 slices of toast.
I recharge it by plugging it into a 10A cig type socket-it charges at 8A, which I know is slow, but it puts back my coffee and toast in an hour and my solar or dc-dc replenishes the LB.
You can of course charge it up from a solar panel or suitcase.
I also use it in the house to charge my e bike, MacBook, phone, etc. then just drop it in the van to recharge it for free.
3A is common in Italy & Austria, especially in winter.
It's not so much the sizes as making sure they both perform the same when wired as a bank - otherwise the weaker battery will have a slightly lower voltage and parasitically drain (and over time damage) the stronger battery.
With "dumb" batteries like AGM best way of achieving this is to have identical batteries of the same age and let them form together.
With "active" batteries like Lithium it's much more about what the BMS in each battery can handle, particularly with Lithium the discharge curve is much flatter so the voltage stays about the same over much of it so there is much lower risk of significant voltage differences between them. Generally it's still best to have identical but the age is less important given the long life, you may also find the battery manufacturer willing approve of different capacity mixing in the same range as they use the same BMS.
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