Cheapest power trollies and portable batteries for stage 6 load-shedding

[Gtx Gaming]

Pretty lituim batteries!

 

[RaptorSA]

But I have seen Youtube videos where they open big electric vehicle batteries and it also consisted of these 18650 and 21700 batteries

Correct, the vast majority of them are in fact typical li-on batteries. Thing is, the more cells you have in a pack the longer they tend to last so in many cases the Lithium battery life phobia is just that, a phobia.

Purely for the energy density weight savings they offer. I don't think there's much that can be done about the weight "issue" with LiFepPo batteries but with cars you can in fact get away with adding more weight as long as you make up the efficiency loss in some other way.

I know Tesla for instance is switching to LifePo in the future but from my understanding, the LifePo battery cells will be quite a bit larger than the typical 18650 or 21700 cells ... something more akin to the usual "D-Cell" flashlight style batteries we were used to in the old days

 

[zolly]

Would it not be cheaper to get a battery, inverter and charger separately?

Great idea!

*Orders these components separately.

*Looks at boxes on floor.

*Remembers that most people have no clue about building anything to do with electricity, including myself.

 

[KleinBoontjie]

Playing a bit fast and loose with the words "affordable"/"Cheapest".

 

[RaptorSA]

Great idea!

*Orders these components separately.

*Looks at boxes on floor.

*Remembers that most people have no clue about building anything to do with electricity, including myself.

This laaitie is by far the best resource on doing this yourself on the internet:

https://www.youtube.com/@WillProwse

He does anything from a really complicated in-depth understanding about wiring solar systems to stuff where the average joe can build a lithium system in a milk crate that outperforms the likes of systems 3X the money (looking at you EcoFlow).

Each time I watch his videos I regret living in a flat where I don't have a garage or proper workspace... would be building and experimenting with systems left, right and center by now.

Two things to take away from his channel:
- It's never been easier to build a full backup and solar system yourself
- By far, the best value-for-money battery wise currently are prebuilt lithium iron phosphate server rack batteries. Even building your own using cells purchased separately (and all the labour, time, knowledge and material that goes into it) cannot compete.

People like to complain about cost, but seriously, something like this is now almost half the price it was just 2-3 years ago and this thing will run my place for around 12 hours if I don't use it to run the fridge too. With four 400Watt+ panels, you'll charge that thing in a typical SA hoeveld day while still having enough energy to power work PC's or TV etc.

(Just don't go and moer a GTX4090 in your machine )

 

[zolly]

looking at you EcoFlow

Is it possible to build a system that does 2 hrs or less recharge time with off the shelf parts?

 

[RaptorSA]

Is it possible to build a system that does 2 hrs or less recharge time with off the shelf parts?

Depends on what capacity you're talking about, but even my 4.8kWh LiPo battery hooked up to el-cheapie Growatt inverter charges standard at 10Amps and recharges in <= 2 hrs if I take it down to 50-60% (which only happens once, say, every 4 months or so... with typical 2.5Hr loadsheding it's down to 80-83% and recharges in about 45mins)

I can halve that charge time if I wanted to, maybe even more, but there's no need and it's typically advisable to charge a lithium battery at 1C.

I'm assuming you're used to lead acid? Those things charge at a glacial pace. There's no comparison.
Lead acid is dead and friends should never let friends "invest" in a lead acid in 2022, complete waste of money.

 

[zolly]

Depends on what capacity you're talking about, but even my 4.8kWh LiPo battery hooked up to el-cheapie Growatt inverter charges standard at 10Amps and recharges in <= 2 hrs if I take it down to 50-60% (which only happens once, say, every 4 months or so... with typical 2.5Hr loadsheding it's down to 80-83% and recharges in about 45mins)

I can halve that charge time if I wanted to, maybe even more, but there's no need and it's typically advisable to charge a lithium battery at 1C.

I'm assuming you're used to lead acid? Those things charge at a glacial pace. There's no comparison.
Lead acid is dead and friends should never let friends "invest" in a lead acid in 2022, complete waste of money.

Lol no. I actually have an Ecoflow and one of the main reasons I bought it is because of its rapid recharge time compared to other units or DIY stuff (sub 2 hours to 80%). With the amount of load shedding we have it's important for me to have as much juice as possible for the next slot, especially considering they're so frequent these days. Regular LI systems are great, but with higher stages of load shedding you either need multiple units or to a lot of capacity so you don't run out.

 

[RaptorSA]

Lol no. I actually have an Ecoflow and one of the main reasons I bought it is because of its rapid recharge time compared to other units or DIY stuff (sub 2 hours to 80%). With the amount of load shedding we have it's important for me to have as much juice as possible for the next slot, especially considering they're so frequent these days. Regular LI systems are great, but with higher stages of load shedding you either need multiple units or to a lot of capacity so you don't run out.

They're simply too expensive for me to justify, but I won't lie, I have been tempted to get an Ecoflow as a worst-case backup to my backup or as something I can drop in the back of a bakkie with a solar panel or two and use it as a mobile power station for my electric dirtbike... that would be such an epic setup.

Which size one do you have?

 

[BBSA]

Great idea!

*Orders these components separately.

*Looks at boxes on floor.

*Remembers that most people have no clue about building anything to do with electricity, including myself.

Lots of people enjoy building and learning new stuff, including myself. Specially if it can save you thousands.

 

[BlackStatic]

Smart Power Systems | home

Get the MPSG if it's ever in stock again. I have an SPS-600 it's unkillable.

 

[zolly]

They're simply too expensive for me to justify, but I won't lie, I have been tempted to get an Ecoflow as a worst-case backup to my backup or as something I can drop in the back of a bakkie with a solar panel or two and use it as a mobile power station for my electric dirtbike... that would be such an epic setup.

Which size one do you have?

I got the Delta 1300 at the start of 2021 because I knew kak was coming (got it for about 4-5k cheaper than it is now). It's served me well, but ya, even it has its limits and I'm looking at getting one of their newer units which have more cycles once they become available in SA.

 

[Dan C]

Smart Power Systems | home

Get the MPSG if it's ever in stock again. I have an SPS-600 it's unkillable.

I got the MPSG recently. It works fine and super quiet. I can hardly hear the fan at any stage.

 

[_TrXtR_]

A laptop gets a bit small if you have a family of four.

Jammer om van jou ... probleme to hoor
Yeah my setup is for one person

 

[zolly]

Lots of people enjoy building and learning new stuff, including myself. Specially if it can save you thousands.

So I've been trying to educate myself as much as possible, but the reality is that while I can build a computer and do basic DIY myself, my knowledge of electricity is severely lacking. Maybe one day I'll know enough to do this myself, but today is not that day.

 

[Dan C]

Jammer om van jou ... probleme to hoor
Yeah my setup is for one person

No problems. I don't have a family of four. I was just pointing out that some cases a laptop is not suitable.

 

[BlackStatic]

I got the MPSG recently. It works fine and super quiet. I can hardly hear the fan at any stage.

That's awesome to hear, the SPS-600 is still oldschool, fan is noisy (standard small solar inverter intake fan) but that's where the complaints end, I chucked a lithium ion battery in and connected two solar panels, very well made, I'm sure the MPSG is the same.

 

[G.A.S]

Unfortunately the article makes no mention of recharge times ... with stage 6 it is quite possible that you have a 4 hour outage, followed by only 4 hours to recharge for the next 4 hour outage.

 

[Dan C]

That's awesome to hear, the SPS-600 is still oldschool, fan is noisy (standard small solar inverter intake fan) but that's where the complaints end, I chucked a lithium ion battery in and connected two solar panels, very well made, I'm sure the MPSG is the same.

Yes, it has solar inputs (not that I used it yet).
I have the smaller model, but it last for my 3hour LS sessions. 55"TV,5.1 Amplifier, DSTV and MI Box.
The silent fan is a big plus and the unit only weighs 15kg.

 

[garyc]

The average 55-inch TV draws less than 60W of electricity or 270Wh over four-and-a-half hours.

Measured my 55" LG OLED as drawing 280W on very bright scenes, and somewhat less than 60W on very dark scenes. Guess this means that owners of these TVs will be restricted to watching Batman movies during load shedding.

On a different topic - there have been several lithium battery fires at work, usually attributable to unattended charging. There was also a house near me that burnt down several months ago from similar reasons. Looking at the aftermath a good follow-up article may be one on fireproof safety boxes for load shedding solutions.