Portable Power Stations

I don't think I've seen a lot here about efficiency of these portable power stations (or UPS's)? It interests me however.

I have 2 of the GEEWIZ 2200W 2kWh units and have hourly input and output measurements for both.

I'm busy doing some calcs with the 4 months of data that I have.

My units are running 24/7 in UPS mode, so each has specific loads that are connected 24/7 and the inputs are connected to council power 24/7.

I have noticed that the UPS output is always 10W lower than the input, so I will assume the 10W is an 'overhead' to keep the UPS electronics doing what it should.
I have also assumed that the difference in kWh input and the kWh output, will then consist of the 'overhead' and the DC/AC conversion losses.

Would these be fair assumptions, before I start calculating? @leon.davibe @wingnut771
 
Bundu said:
I don't think I've seen a lot here about efficiency of these portable power stations (or UPS's)? It interests me however.

I have 2 of the GEEWIZ 2200W 2kWh units and have hourly input and output measurements for both.

I'm busy doing some calcs with the 4 months of data that I have.

My units are running 24/7 in UPS mode, so each has specific loads that are connected 24/7 and the inputs are connected to council power 24/7.

I have noticed that the UPS output is always 10W lower than the input, so I will assume the 10W is an 'overhead' to keep the UPS electronics doing what it should.
I have also assumed that the difference in kWh input and the kWh output, will then consist of the 'overhead' and the DC/AC conversion losses.

Would these be fair assumptions, before I start calculating? @leon.davibe @wingnut771
Click to expand...
In my inverter's (ecco PSW 12V1000W) manual it mentions 99% efficiency when in AC mode, and 85% in DC mode. So I assume when there is power then its just the extra power needed to power the inverter but when running on battery then there is also conversion losses inverting DC to AC.
 
wingnut771 said:
In my inverter's (ecco PSW 12V1000W) manual it mentions 99% efficiency when in AC mode, and 85% in DC mode. So I assume when there is power then its just the extra power needed to power the inverter but when running on battery then there is also conversion losses inverting DC to AC.
Click to expand...
my thinking is that there is probably a fairly constant loss/consumption/overhead to cover the displays and other electronics, irrespective of load.
Then there is a conversion loss, which is probably a factor of the load, so I'm guessing at 10% load the loss will be x% of the 10% and at 90% load, there will be a y% loss of the 90% load, with x>y, as I've also read that the inverters are more efficient at higher loads.

I think I'm just going to get the data into excel and see what I get. Fortunately the one UPS has a load approximately twice as large as the other one, so we'll see.....
 
Bundu said:
I don't think I've seen a lot here about efficiency of these portable power stations (or UPS's)? It interests me however.

I have 2 of the GEEWIZ 2200W 2kWh units and have hourly input and output measurements for both.

I'm busy doing some calcs with the 4 months of data that I have.

My units are running 24/7 in UPS mode, so each has specific loads that are connected 24/7 and the inputs are connected to council power 24/7.

I have noticed that the UPS output is always 10W lower than the input, so I will assume the 10W is an 'overhead' to keep the UPS electronics doing what it should.
I have also assumed that the difference in kWh input and the kWh output, will then consist of the 'overhead' and the DC/AC conversion losses.

Would these be fair assumptions, before I start calculating? @leon.davibe @wingnut771
Click to expand...
Yea sounds about right

And naturally charging circuit losses , can't seperate the conversion losses and charging losses ie two way inefficiency

Depends what efficiency you want , all round then Yes this difference between in and out meters will give you that

If you want to seperate charging and inverting losses then you need to find either the output losses by comparing what was extracted out of the battery vs what you actually used (ie used 800wh vs 1000wh missing, 20% loss)

Or by getting the charge losses by knowing what was charged vs what was used out of battery

And deduce the other if needs be by using the total losses and the one you have

Some devices uses the same circuit to charge they use for inverting so then you can just split the loss down the middle ie same loss going in vs out

No idea if this is the case with this device

Edit as far as i know sunsynk/deye do this the high voltage mppt axperts do too, no idea which others
 
leon.davibe said:
Yea sounds about right

And naturally charging circuit losses , can't seperate the conversion losses and charging losses ie two way inefficiency

Depends what efficiency you want , all round then Yes this difference between in and out meters will give you that

If you want to seperate charging and inverting losses then you need to find either the output losses by comparing what was extracted out of the battery vs what you actually used (ie used 800wh vs 1000wh missing, 20% loss)

Or by getting the charge losses by knowing what was charged vs what was used out of battery

And deduce the other if needs be by using the total losses and the one you have

Some devices uses the same circuit to charge they use for inverting so then you can just split the loss down the middle ie same loss going in vs out

No idea if this is the case with this device

Edit as far as i know sunsynk/deye do this the high voltage mppt axperts do too, no idea which others
Click to expand...
thanks Leon, at the end of the day, I just want to get a 'feel' for the average overall losses, depending on load and roughly what has contributed how much.
I will try to find a gap in the data where there were actually very few loadsheds and see what that area shows as well
 
Bundu said:
my thinking is that there is probably a fairly constant loss/consumption/overhead to cover the displays and other electronics, irrespective of load.
Then there is a conversion loss, which is probably a factor of the load, so I'm guessing at 10% load the loss will be x% of the 10% and at 90% load, there will be a y% loss of the 90% load, with x>y, as I've also read that the inverters are more efficient at higher loads.

I think I'm just going to get the data into excel and see what I get. Fortunately the one UPS has a load approximately twice as large as the other one, so we'll see.....
Click to expand...
Yea remember finding this on one of my inverters

While charging the efficiency was like 87% charging slower the faster i went the more efficient it became 93% Efficient at max charge rate

I initially thought to charge slow to take it easy on batteries and shedding made a noticeable difference on my bill so did some checks
 
Bundu said:
thanks Leon, at the end of the day, I just want to get a 'feel' for the average overall losses, depending on load and roughly what has contributed how much.
I will try to find a gap in the data where there were actually very few loadsheds and see what that area shows as well
Click to expand...
Yea the difference between the meters is perfect

Load shedding is a nice bonus revenue for eskom too

We are all buying more power than we actually use

Having 2 with different loads will probably give some interesting data
 
leon.davibe said:
Yea the difference between the meters is perfect

Load shedding is a nice bonus revenue for eskom too

We are all buying more power than we actually use

Having 2 with different loads will probably give some interesting data
Click to expand...
well, this is what I got so far....
Identical UPS's, one more loaded than the other and has better efficiency. Both actually very low loaded. Might swop the 2 around at some stage.
Measured 'overhead' consumption of both is 10W.

Clipboard01.jpg
 
Bundu said:
well, this is what I got so far....
Identical UPS's, one more loaded than the other and has better efficiency. Both actually very low loaded. Might swop the 2 around at some stage.
Measured 'overhead' consumption of both is 10W.

View attachment 1631969
Click to expand...
yea it is interesting when inverting the overhead obviously goes up
probably why the one with less load gives consistently lower efficienc

could just be different batches and may get the same efficiencies if swopping positions who knows

other factors probably also affect it , cause the highest consumption fortnight does not equal the best efficiency

swopping them arround from time to time will also see the batteries degrade at the same pace it does not have to be regular just the same time frame cycle every 6 months or year
 
Last edited:
leon.davibe said:
yea it is interesting when inverting the overhead obviously goes up
probably why the one with less load gives consistently lower efficienc

could just be different batches and may get the same efficiencies if swopping positions who knows

other factors probably also affect it , cause the highest consumption fortnight does not equal the best efficiency

swopping them arround from time to time will also see the batteries degrade at the same pace it does not have to be regular just the same time frame cycle every 6 months or year
Click to expand...
yes, the load versus efficiency has some holes in it, but there seems to be a trend.
I will swop them soon and then look at the data again.

Bottom line is that these units are much better than the trolley UPS that I bought earlier and am not using at this stage.
That UPS has an overhead of 50W, which really screwed with the efficiency of my relatively small loads
 
Bundu said:
yes, the load versus efficiency has some holes in it, but there seems to be a trend.
I will swop them soon and then look at the data again.

Bottom line is that these units are much better than the trolley UPS that I bought earlier and am not using at this stage.
That UPS has an overhead of 50W, which really screwed with the efficiency of my relatively small loads
Click to expand...
Yea 40w doesn't sound like a lot but it is like R1k a year at current prices
 
Got a question.

I bought a Ugreen 2048Wh portable power station with LIFEPO4 batteries. Works fantastic.

What is the best way to extend the batteries life when using the PPS.

So, say you use the batteries down to 75%, should you recharge right away back up to 90% (see below) or let them discharge lower to around 35-40%, and then recharge?

Note, I use two functions that the Ugreen offers:
Battery Preservation Mode - Only charges up to 90% fulland doesn't discharge below 10%.
Quiet Mode - This disables the fast charge mode, and so charges with less power for longer and so extends the batteries life.

One more thing. If I have the option of charging with solar panels should I discharge and charge at the same time, will this affect the battery life?
 
OutlawJoseyWales said:
Got a question.

I bought a Ugreen 2048Wh portable power station with LIFEPO4 batteries. Works fantastic.

What is the best way to extend the batteries life when using the PPS.

So, say you use the batteries down to 75%, should you recharge right away back up to 90% (see below) or let them discharge lower to around 35-40%, and then recharge?

Note, I use two functions that the Ugreen offers:
Battery Preservation Mode - Only charges up to 90% fulland doesn't discharge below 10%.
Quiet Mode - This disables the fast charge mode, and so charges with less power for longer and so extends the batteries life.

One more thing. If I have the option of charging with solar panels should I discharge and charge at the same time, will this affect the battery life?
Click to expand...
I would use the preservation mode, SOC has more effect on wear and tear than charging speed imho. Regarding solar, you are not discharging the battery, the load is supplied by the panels (if there is enough power generated from the panel) if the inverter blends power which I'm not sure if it does.

The battery is happiest around 50% SOC, but most of the damage occurs at low state, and I would say 10% is a bit too low, rather don't go below 20%.

This is all academic as even if you did nothing and charged to 100% and discharged to 0% it will still last longer than 10 years imho.
 
wingnut771 said:
I would use the preservation mode, SOC has more effect on wear and tear than charging speed imho. Regarding solar, you are not discharging the battery, the load is supplied by the panels (if there is enough power generated from the panel) if the inverter blends power which I'm not sure if it does.

The battery is happiest around 50% SOC, but most of the damage occurs at low state, and I would say 10% is a bit too low, rather don't go below 20%.

This is all academic as even if you did nothing and charged to 100% and discharged to 0% it will still last longer than 10 years imho.
Click to expand...

Thanks, very helpful.

The solar panel is a 500W panel, so I would expect to get about 400-450W out of it in my particular case. I'm just thinking when I'm using more power than the panel is putting in.
 
OutlawJoseyWales said:
Thanks, very helpful.

The solar panel is a 500W panel, so I would expect to get about 400-450W out of it in my particular case. I'm just thinking when I'm using more power than the panel is putting in.
Click to expand...
If it can blend then the battery will provide the little bit extra that the panel can't, or it can't blend then when PV can't handle the load, it switches to battery and that covers 100% of the load and you lose all the solar production.
 
Hi everyone

I am not sure if this was mentioned in this post before, but i am looking to buy a power stations.
This post is for the Gamers out there, and hope you can help me.

So the plan is to have my desktop computer running with my 5G Rain internet. I want to play some games or just surf the webs mostly when power is off. So the question will be how long does your power station last when you do play games when power is off and what will you recommend.

So i was looking at the Anker Powerhouse 757 that is on takealot and the reviews seems good, but i dont find anything where people play games while the power station is off.

Takealot.com: Online Shopping | SA's leading online store

South Africa's leading online store. Fast, reliable delivery to your door. Many ways to pay. Shop anything you can imagine: TVs, laptops, cellphones, kitchen appliances, toys, books, beauty & more. Shop the mobile app anytime, anywhere.
www.takealot.com www.takealot.com

My Rig
Rayzen 5
500W power supply
AMD RX 580 4Gig
16 Gig Memory
1tb NVME
 
Spek said:
Hi everyone

I am not sure if this was mentioned in this post before, but i am looking to buy a power stations.
This post is for the Gamers out there, and hope you can help me.

So the plan is to have my desktop computer running with my 5G Rain internet. I want to play some games or just surf the webs mostly when power is off. So the question will be how long does your power station last when you do play games when power is off and what will you recommend.

So i was looking at the Anker Powerhouse 757 that is on takealot and the reviews seems good, but i dont find anything where people play games while the power station is off.

Takealot.com: Online Shopping | SA's leading online store

South Africa's leading online store. Fast, reliable delivery to your door. Many ways to pay. Shop anything you can imagine: TVs, laptops, cellphones, kitchen appliances, toys, books, beauty & more. Shop the mobile app anytime, anywhere.
www.takealot.com www.takealot.com

My Rig
Rayzen 5
500W power supply
AMD RX 580 4Gig
16 Gig Memory
1tb NVME
Click to expand...
That rig will most likely pull in the region of 250-300 watt going full tilt gaming

So may just just not make it with 4 hours of gaming straight in stage 6 (can limit the power usage with msi afterburner and probably just make it)

If some browsing time that the gpu is idle you may make it through a 4hrs shedding

But for the price of that anker with 1.2kwh battery

You would be able to get an inverter combo , 24v with 2.56kwh ie to be able to even have a cup of coffee or reheat some left over pizza

Or be able to game for longer in the event of outage in the area

Options

https://solarwarehousesa.com/produc...edding-combo-watt-1x-2-56-kwh-lithium-battery

solarwarehousesa.com

Ecco 3.5 KVA 3500 WATT MPPT 60A Svolt 106 AH 2.71 Lithium Combo Kit

Ecco 3.5 KVA 3500 WATT MPPT 60A Svolt 106 AH 2.71 Lithium Combo Kit ECCO Inverter Features: Pure sine wave Power factor 1.0 PV input Voltage 30Vdc~160Vdc Built-in MPPT 60A Detachable dust cover for harsh environment WiFi remote monitoring optional Support multiple output priority: UTL, SOL, SBU...
solarwarehousesa.com solarwarehousesa.com

solarwarehousesa.com

3.5KVA MPPT Pure Sine Wave Load Shedding Combo 3500 Watt 1 X 2.4kWh Li

Hybrid Inverter Solar Kit Combo 3.5KVA MPPT Pure Sine Wave Load Shedding Combo 3500 Watt 1 X 2.4kWh Lithium Batteries Kit Overcome load shedding with this premium hybrid inverter load-shedding Combo TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS Hybrid Inverter 3.5 KVA 3500 Watt MPPT 24V- Conderenergy (S-2435) MODEL...
solarwarehousesa.com solarwarehousesa.com

Or

Own combo

Stand-Alone Inverters

Buy Stand-Alone Inverters online at the Best Prices! Door to Door and Overnight Delivery. Voted the best online store in SA. View Here
www.geewiz.co.za www.geewiz.co.za

And 2 of these plus a balancer of R900

Lithium-ion Batteries

Buy Lithium-ion Batteries online at the Best Prices! Door to Door and Overnight Delivery. Voted the best online store in SA. View Here
www.geewiz.co.za www.geewiz.co.za
 
Spek said:
Hi everyone

I am not sure if this was mentioned in this post before, but i am looking to buy a power stations.
This post is for the Gamers out there, and hope you can help me.

So the plan is to have my desktop computer running with my 5G Rain internet. I want to play some games or just surf the webs mostly when power is off. So the question will be how long does your power station last when you do play games when power is off and what will you recommend.

So i was looking at the Anker Powerhouse 757 that is on takealot and the reviews seems good, but i dont find anything where people play games while the power station is off.

Takealot.com: Online Shopping | SA's leading online store

South Africa's leading online store. Fast, reliable delivery to your door. Many ways to pay. Shop anything you can imagine: TVs, laptops, cellphones, kitchen appliances, toys, books, beauty & more. Shop the mobile app anytime, anywhere.
www.takealot.com www.takealot.com

My Rig
Rayzen 5
500W power supply
AMD RX 580 4Gig
16 Gig Memory
1tb NVME
Click to expand...

You need to find out what the power draw is from your devices to work out how many Wh you will be using and so how long your batteries will last. Power stations never give you the full Wh as advertised, so bank on 90% max.

If you find that the 1229Wh (1106Wh) is too little for your purposes I can highly recommend the Ugreen Powerroam GS2200 2200W/2048Wh. But get it at Loot for R26 888 or somewhere else, R2000 cheaper than Takealot.

It is probably the best power station on the market right now.
 
OutlawJoseyWales said:
You need to find out what the power draw is from your devices to work out how many Wh you will be using and so how long your batteries will last. Power stations never give you the full Wh as advertised, so bank on 90% max.

If you find that the 1229Wh (1106Wh) is too little for your purposes I can highly recommend the Ugreen Powerroam GS2200 2200W/2048Wh. But get it at Loot for R26 888 or somewhere else, R2000 cheaper than Takealot.

It is probably the best power station on the market right now.
Click to expand...
These Pretty units with 2kwh and yet you can get 2.5kwh for 17k less

solarwarehousesa.com

2KVA 1600W Solar Ready Hybrid Inverter Steel Trolley 2.4kwh Lithium Ba

2KVA 1600W Solar Ready Hybrid Inverter Steel Trolley 2.4kwh Lithium Battery Portable Plug & Play Trolley The perfect solution for load shedding! The all-in-one portable plug & play inverter battery trolley system (Heavy Duty Inverter Trolley) Eazy portable compact unit with lock wheels as well...
solarwarehousesa.com solarwarehousesa.com
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X