I have a much larger BLUETTI that powers everything. We do not have power from the power company. It’s a quick hassle free way to setup offgrid power. I can run the microwave, air fryer, AC, welder, etc. I like that it’s all self contained and it actually outputs the power it says.

I tried the individual 12v 100Ah batteries and inverter, but these inverters all lie how much power they put out. My 1,200w inverter will beep if i use more then 350w. My 1,500 and 2,000w inverters also barely put out power. Kind of lost confidence in these cheap 12v inverters.

My plan is to setup a much bigger 48v system such as a EG4 system to power my house, once i finally build that.

I have a regular UPS for my computers and a 2kw generator that can run my fridge and computer for longer blackouts. A power station sort of fits between the two, so I don’t have a use case.

Project Farm recently did a video on them.

Based on his testing it seems like the Bluetti is best for computer UPS stuff, and Jackery is best for general long term outages.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=FfH4S1ttXiM

It doesnt look/sound like you are using solar panels with it, but thats like the main reason to buy one of these. Currently you are just slowly degrading the battery while getting zero benefit out of it unless you have power outages ever day. Would make more sense to just charge it and let it sit unused until there is an outage, otherwise you actually use more power than you would without it due to conversion losses.

Everyone’s saying “get solar” which is cool and all,

But the focus should be: hehe blue titty

Part of disaster-planning is to figure out the blast radius. If it’s just your house, or a small brownout, then something like this would work. As long as you plug your router so wifi can keep running, or maybe you can tether to a cell.

If it’s a neighborhood-wide outage, chances are internet is down and possibly nearby cell towers. Most of them are suposed to have battery backup.

We once had a six day outage and it turned out the cell towers ran out of power after a few hours. Phone companies brought in diesel generators just to keep emergency phone lines open (with degraded data). All the food in the fridges had to be thrown out after day 3.

It was right after that when a lot of people went and bought gas-powered generators as home backups. Many signed up for satellite data. Those who could afford it got solar panels and home-size batteries.

They have their place and I generally like the concept, however, not crazy about most implementations.

I don’t like the fact that the batteries are not replaceable in most of them and the ones that do have replaceable batteries (Ryobi and Ego come to mind) are generally prohibitively expensive per kwh and usually can’t be used as a UPS like some of the integrated models.

I don’t insist that the batteries be hot swappable like the Ryobi model I have, but there is no reason to toss all that extra plastic and circuitry when the battery itself eventually fails.

Solar panel and battery tech are finally mature enough to keep small electronics powered off grid near indefinitely now if you take the time to understand its capacity and build properly.

If your system is too small you might run into problems cooking, charging a car, gaming, or running an ac, basically things that draw huge amounts of power, but it can run a freezer, phone and laptop, and led lights pretty well. And those things can get you 75 percent of the way to feeling civilized if weather or disaster affects your neighborhood power.

So I’m a fan of this stuff, we are nearly in sci-fi territory with it, and think smart people with a backyard and some space should consider it for storm preparedness and the like. The tech will only improve with time, there’s some recent developments with new battery tech on the horizon that are hopeful.

When I’m elderly in 40 years, I hope to live in a home with plenty of solar and a huge house battery setup in the basement. If I can cover all my electric off grid including cooking, I would feel very rich and secure.

They have their place.

You pay a premium for how much power you get, but it comes in a convenient package.

One thing I can add, don’t let batteries completely die. If you leave them dead for a long time, the BMS which controls the battery loses power, and if that happens, many kinds of batteries and power stations become bricks that you cannot charge. You gotta take it apart and slowly charge and balance the cells to recover it.

Last fall I bought a 1 KWh Anker power station, and I’m loving it. It charges from 800 watts of solar and powers all kinds of random stuff around the house each day. Useful for power outages, too.

I have an Anker Solix 2kwh unit backing up my sump pumps. I’m looking to expand it.

In the next 5 years my plan is to add solar to my home with at least 10kwh of battery storage, or more if I can afford it.

I have been curious about them combined with solar panels but every product I have seen so far doesn’t seem to be overly practical, with a pay back period significantly longer than the warranty period even if you get perfect solar.

For off grid power, sure totally understand that. I already use USB powerbanks for when away from mains power and if I needed longer durations then adding a solar panel makes perfect sense at some point rather than just a larger battery. But for home? I can’t really see the point currently until prices drop, capacities increase or warranties extend.

Handy at times but worse value overall compared to a regular UPS

Beware of flaming hazards if it contains lithium battery cells though. I think the main advice from fire fighters is to not keep it close to the only exit out of the room it’s in. And away from flammable materials if possible.