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

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Aharon

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Mirai said:
I have two of those Vizia 150Wh jobs for smaller laptops and Bluetti AC50S for Apple MBPs.
Former are good for 500+ cycles and Bluetti claims >1000 cycles but only uses 90% of its 500Wh battery due to overprovisioning. It's only 300W output with 450W peak but the MBP has no issues with that. It had a problem with the Vizia units not being able to power it.
For ONT and routers use Ellies Cube Mini (which never drops a single bar even on 4h) and Vizia mini ups which claim they use LG chem Lithium batteries.
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Hi,

Do you perhaps know how many Wh the device can supply? Trying to work out how many charges I can get out of it for my laptop which has a 36 Wh battery. Are there are similar devices?
 
B

Bliksis

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Well, so far the Mecer unit mentioned in the article is working as expected. It hasn't skipped a beat yet, even during 4 hour blackout slots. It still sounds like a PC, the fan hasn't sped up yet (implying more heat generation).

It charged the remaining 50% back up to 100% in about an hour.

It still has the three quick beeps occasionally, every few hours. It doesn't show an error code or problem LED, everything is working fine.

I did notice the incoming voltage from the mains fluctuate between 230-238. I am not sure if that is within normal parameters or something caused by loadshedding. Whether that causes a beep, I cannot tell.

All in all, so far so good.
 
Lupus

Lupus

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Bliksis said:
Well, so far the Mecer unit mentioned in the article is working as expected. It hasn't skipped a beat yet, even during 4 hour blackout slots. It still sounds like a PC, the fan hasn't sped up yet (implying more heat generation).

It charged the remaining 50% back up to 100% in about an hour.

It still has the three quick beeps occasionally, every few hours. It doesn't show an error code or problem LED, everything is working fine.

I did notice the incoming voltage from the mains fluctuate between 230-238. I am not sure if that is within normal parameters or something caused by loadshedding. Whether that causes a beep, I cannot tell.

All in all, so far so good.
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That's fine for voltage, it's when it goes user 250 and below 190
 
M

Muks

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Sep 20, 2006
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Bliksis said:
Well, so far the Mecer unit mentioned in the article is working as expected. It hasn't skipped a beat yet, even during 4 hour blackout slots. It still sounds like a PC, the fan hasn't sped up yet (implying more heat generation).

It charged the remaining 50% back up to 100% in about an hour.

It still has the three quick beeps occasionally, every few hours. It doesn't show an error code or problem LED, everything is working fine.

I did notice the incoming voltage from the mains fluctuate between 230-238. I am not sure if that is within normal parameters or something caused by loadshedding. Whether that causes a beep, I cannot tell.

All in all, so far so good.
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Very interested in this, or the Kool energy branded one.

Do you use it as a UPS? i.e. permanently plugged in to the mains even when there is power, and your devices plugged in to the inverter?
Is the fan on when there is mains power and it's fully charged?
I've managed to find the Kool Energy manual online, but there is no mention of the transfer time from mains power to battery.
 
B

Bliksis

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Muks said:
Very interested in this, or the Kool energy branded one.

Do you use it as a UPS? i.e. permanently plugged in to the mains even when there is power, and your devices plugged in to the inverter?
Is the fan on when there is mains power and it's fully charged?
I've managed to find the Kool Energy manual online, but there is no mention of the transfer time from mains power to battery.
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Yes, it's plugged into the mains permanently, and switches over to battery automatically. Aside from a beep, there is no noticeable switchover/transfer period.

I have a fan, lights, home entertainment system/amp and a 58" LED connected. As far as I can tell, they don't skip a beat.

The amp is sensitive to dips in electricity and usually shuts down when it happens, but it has not happened when switching over to battery.

The fan is always on, it sounds exactly like a standard office PC (not a tuned up gaming rig), so for me, it's not a problem.
 
soulie

soulie

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chromedome said:
Is it pure sine wave?
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pure or modified .look at the specs carefully some claim pure but its still a modified half wave invertor .if transformer driven even better .there are very few cheap units that are smooth .most are mosfet driven and choppy .if its very heavy you have a good chance its decent .unless of course the chinese put weights in the box .
 
Benedict A55h0le

Benedict A55h0le

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kory said:
Unless if your lights are off 24 hours a day or your house hold opens the fridge a lot during loadshedding your food should be fine. Like others have suggested the shops could also be a problem point . Perhaps loadshedding has affected the fridge in a way get a service check.
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The fridge is working great. I think you are all just too optimistic about how long a fridge keeps it`s temp. Go check how often it is working in an hour, it is working like more than 30mins in an hour. It is triggered by a significant rise in temp, at least 1 degree. Remove all this running time and there will be a major impact on the food expiry date. Ice blocks are needed to preserve food to the expiry even for 2 hours shedding - It still boils down to many hours of off time, and that is going to impact big time. This is my theory from my own experience and must still be verified scientifically. Maybe I will ask myBB to run a test.
 
Benedict A55h0le

Benedict A55h0le

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Dolby said:
If the fridge goes from 2 to 5 and everything goes off ... I think there is another issue .
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It is not just 2.5 hours. If you keep food for like 3 days and it only gets half the amount of energy that was used to calculate the expiry date, then that food will go off in half the time of the expiry date.

I guess if it is set to 2 degrees it helps because that is overkill cold for a fridge. A bit wasteful maybe but I think I am also gonna dial down the temp. It might be ok for 2.5 hours, but 5 hours is becoming the norm now...
 
Last edited:
Dolby

Dolby

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Benedict A55h0le said:
It is not just 2.5 hours. If you keep food for like 3 days and it only gets half the amount of energy that was used to calculate the expiry date, then that food will go off in half the time of the expiry date.
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What should a fridge be at ?
Seems under 4 degrees ?
So 4 should be fine ?
 
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