Inverter+battery setup for home office

Dylan_G

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Been discussing this on all the threads that come up... I think it's time for my own.

I am looking for an inverter+battery setup for my home office. I checked with a kill-a-watt... The absolute max I've seen this system pull is 220W (on startup). The average/standard draw sits around 140W.

A few conclusions that I've come to. You can tell me if you see any red flags:
  1. I don't need a huge inverter. >300W should be fine.
  2. I want an inverter that will charge the battery and do an automatic switch over when the power goes off (so full UPS mode or whatever its called)
  3. I will go with a lithium battery. So the inverter needs to "handle" LiFePo4 batteries.
  4. The inverter should be able to charge the battery quickly between load shedding slots. So I'm guessing it needs to have a charge rate of at least 10A, with 20A being preferable? LiFePo4 battery should be able to handle this charge rate, right?
  5. With an average draw of 140W, a 50Ah battery should be sufficient for 2.5 hours of LS. It'll run to 3.5 hours at 80% DoD.
  6. Ideally, the inverter should be quiet as it will be in the room with me. As mentioned by @wingnut771, pure sine wave inverters buzz less.
The options that I'm considering:

@Sapphiron mentioned the Smart Power SPS unit. It's a nice all-in-one unit, albeit pricey. SPS-600 is R6490 on its own. It takes a standard 12V Lithium battery and is PSW.

@RedViking mentioned he got 600W Ceil Inverter from Geewiz for R3000. I would also have to get a battery case/trolley. Maybe something like this from Geewiz. Haven't heard much about this unit though, and not sure it would satisfy all my requirements listed above.

@Park@82 found a nice Securi-Prod 50Ah battery for R3550. I am thinking this could pair with the SPS-600 (R9840 total cost) or the Ceil Inverter (R6695 total cost with the battery case)

Do my options make sense? Any flaws in my thinking? Anything else I need to consider? Do you know of some other solution/combo that would work, at a comparable price?
 
@RedViking mentioned he got 600W Ceil Inverter from Geewiz for R3000. I would also have to get a battery case/trolley. Maybe something like this from Geewiz. Haven't heard much about this unit though, and not sure it would satisfy all my requirements listed above.

Will be perfect. I suggest a lithium battery though, but temporarily a lead acid is fine as well. Currently difficult to get something like the Hubble S-120's.
 
I cant believe someone that ask for advice, after doing homework...

You doing your best to call the rain hey :D

Personally I would up the battery to 80ah if not 100ah... just to cover those rainy days when Eskom takes longer to return power.
 
I would go mecer 720watt and hubble s100 or any 100ah lithuim, 4hours sessions is a real thing and not going away
 
Been discussing this on all the threads that come up... I think it's time for my own.

I am looking for an inverter+battery setup for my home office. I checked with a kill-a-watt... The absolute max I've seen this system pull is 220W (on startup). The average/standard draw sits around 140W.

A few conclusions that I've come to. You can tell me if you see any red flags:
  1. I don't need a huge inverter. >300W should be fine.
  2. I want an inverter that will charge the battery and do an automatic switch over when the power goes off (so full UPS mode or whatever its called)
  3. I will go with a lithium battery. So the inverter needs to "handle" LiFePo4 batteries.
  4. The inverter should be able to charge the battery quickly between load shedding slots. So I'm guessing it needs to have a charge rate of at least 10A, with 20A being preferable? LiFePo4 battery should be able to handle this charge rate, right?
  5. With an average draw of 140W, a 50Ah battery should be sufficient for 2.5 hours of LS. It'll run to 3.5 hours at 80% DoD.
  6. Ideally, the inverter should be quiet as it will be in the room with me. As mentioned by @wingnut771, pure sine wave inverters buzz less.
The options that I'm considering:

@Sapphiron mentioned the Smart Power SPS unit. It's a nice all-in-one unit, albeit pricey. SPS-600 is R6490 on its own. It takes a standard 12V Lithium battery and is PSW.

@RedViking mentioned he got 600W Ceil Inverter from Geewiz for R3000. I would also have to get a battery case/trolley. Maybe something like this from Geewiz. Haven't heard much about this unit though, and not sure it would satisfy all my requirements listed above.

@Park@82 found a nice Securi-Prod 50Ah battery for R3550. I am thinking this could pair with the SPS-600 (R9840 total cost) or the Ceil Inverter (R6695 total cost with the battery case)

Do my options make sense? Any flaws in my thinking? Anything else I need to consider? Do you know of some other solution/combo that would work, at a comparable price?
50Ah might be a bit small:
1664802566290.png
 
Will be perfect. I suggest a lithium battery though, but temporarily a lead acid is fine as well. Currently difficult to get something like the Hubble S-120's.
The Securi-Prod battery linked is Lithium... Just a bit small as the other guys mentioned.
 
Personally I would up the battery to 80ah if not 100ah... just to cover those rainy days when Eskom takes longer to return power.

hubble s100 or any 100ah lithuim, 4hours sessions is a real thing and not going away

50Ah might be a bit small:

Noted. The issue is finding an 80/100 Ah battery in stock and at a decent price. Any good options you guys know of?

The 50Ah just seems like this magical quick solution to the problem. I could use it for now and upgrade later on and sell the 50Ah (as it's Lithium, it should still be worth something, as compared to LA after a few cycles).
 
It will be soon :)

Supplier(mustek) just let me know my back order is ready for collection, 5min ago.
Does the Mercer support charging Lithiums at 20A? I'm sure I read somewhere that they go "poof" at that current...
 
@RedViking what charge current does that Ceil inverter support? And I'm guessing it works fine with Lithiums?

EDIT: Asking because I'm thinking about how long it would take to charge a 50/80/100 Ah battery during Stage 6 loadsheddings.
 
The expensive (and supply constrained) part is the batteries.

I needed something that could keep my home network and alarm up (as to not wreck those LA batteries), so I decided to splurge a little and got myself a Ecoflow River Pro (R12999 at TA). It's only 720Wh and not LiFePO4, but more than enough for my requirements. Can keep the network and alarm up for around 10-11 hours.

I intend installing a full home backup next year anyway so my thinking was I'd rather get something that would still be useful once that's installed, as the Ecoflow unit is super portable so you can take it on holiday, camping, etc.

I even manage to keep my Plex server and storage up for the 2 hour slots, with about 20% charge left (the full load of everything ends up being around 220W). Would shut down this part when we have 4 hour slots though.

Charges extremely quickly if you want (660W peak) so it can recharge from 0 to 100 in less than 2 hours, I've disabled this for now to try and keep the batteries a bit healthier.

Can also connect it up to the app, so nice to check on things when load shedding during the middle of the night and I'm in bed.

1664803621528.jpeg

EDIT: It's also a UPS, switchover delay might not be suitable for very sensitive equipment though but fine for most things.
 
@RedViking what charge current does that Ceil inverter support? And I'm guessing it works fine with Lithiums?

EDIT: Asking because I'm thinking about how long it would take to charge a 50/80/100 Ah battery during Stage 6 loadsheddings.
It has 3 charge modes. Could confirm with Geewiz but should be able to handle Stage 6
 
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