Portable power stations

[Mr Smooth]

I've had my Ecoflow Delta since early 2021 and it's far from a waste. Chills in my room until I need it. Have used it for all my entertainment electronics and had no issues. Only thing is it's not super quiet but it is quieter than a generator and I can use it indoors no problem.

I’ve been looking at this range as well. If you don’t mind me asking, what did it cost you when you purchased yours?

 

[zll]

I’ve been looking at this range as well. If you don’t mind me asking, what did it cost you when you purchased yours?

I got mine for 19.5k at the time. It was on special and the Rand was much better against the dollar. The lowest I've seen the same unit these days is about R23k from Flexopower (same company I bought mine from in the first place).

 

[derp90]

If you just want to run a fan, I would just get the Xiaomi Smart Standing Fan 2 Pro.

Keeping your cool durring loadshedding! - South African Consumer

here are some ways to keep cool during loadshedding.

southafricanconsumer.co.za

or a 12v DC fan, a battery and charger if you want to go cheaper (not seamless).

Oh that Xiaomi one looks nice!

I already have this one though: https://www.meaco.co.za/product/meacofan-1056p-pedestal-air-circulator/

It looks like it's a DC motor, but it plugs into the wall so I'm guessing it still needs AC power?

It might also be cheaper to buy the Xiaomi one (although it's out of stock) than buying a battery and inverter solution for my current fan.

 

[Park@82]

Oh that Xiaomi one looks nice!

I already have this one though: https://www.meaco.co.za/product/meacofan-1056p-pedestal-air-circulator/

It looks like it's a DC motor, but it plugs into the wall so I'm guessing it still needs AC power?

It might also be cheaper to buy the Xiaomi one (although it's out of stock) than buying a battery and inverter solution for my current fan.

I'm pretty sure they will come back into stock. Syntech distributes them. I'll give you a heads up when I see them in stock agian.

Yes, yours does have a DC motor but it looks like the AC to DC power adaptor is build onto the unit unfortunately.

If the power adaptor was external, one could have tried to get a battery that would match the DC voltage required to run the fan...

The upside is that I think you should not have a problem running it form a cheap none pure sine wave UPS since your fan motor doesn't run of AC anyway and it only uses a maximum of 24 watts so you'll just need a battery that is capable of delivering 48Wh (after the losses form the inverter and keeping on mind that you never want to drain any battery to 0) in order to run it for 2 hours which is a pretty small battery.

If you have a small cheap UPS laying around, perhaps replace the 7/8ah battery with a 8ah or bigger LFP battery, remove the speaker then try to run your fan form that.

 

[derp90]

I'm pretty sure they will come back into stock. Syntech distributes them. I'll give you a heads up when I see them in stock agian.

Yes, yours does have a DC motor but it looks like the AC to DC power adaptor is build onto the unit unfortunately.

If the power adaptor was external, one could have tried to get a battery that would match the DC voltage required to run the fan...

The upside is that I think you should not have a problem running it form a cheap none pure sine wave UPS since your fan motor doesn't run of AC anyway and it only uses a maximum of 24 watts so you'll just need a battery that is cabable of delivering 48Wh (after the losses form the inverter and keeping on mind that you never want to drain any battery to 0) in order to run it for 2 hours which is a pretty small battery.

If you have a small cheap UPS laying around, perhaps replace the 7/8ah battery with a 8ah or bigger LFP battery, remove the speaker then try to run your fan form that.

Thanks a lot for the detailed info and assistance!

Unfortunately I don't have a UPS, and to get one and replace the battery/get one with a good battery seems like it will cost more than the Xiaomi fan. May as well just buy the fan.

Pity cause I really like the fan I have, but it's a way more elegant solution to just get something built for that purpose.

 

[AlphaJohn]

I'm looking for something to power a floor-standing fan. It will only be used at night, to power it through a couple hours of load shedding. Ideally, I can leave it plugged in between the fan and the wall and it will seamlessly switch between wall power and battery power when the power goes out.

Any recommendations?

I just use a normal PnP jobby in my bedroom and its plugged into my 24V Mercer

Has a soft buzz when on load shedding (MSW instead of PSW) but I can deal with it. Only consumes about 40W on max.

 

[derp90]

I just use a normal PnP jobby in my bedroom and its plugged into my 24V Mercer

Has a soft buzz when on load shedding (MSW instead of PSW) but I can deal with it. Only consumes about 40W on max.

It would make sense to do this if I already had some sort of inverter, but buying one just for the fan is more expensive than buying the fan with the battery.

 

[derp90]

If you just want to run a fan, I would just get the Xiaomi Smart Standing Fan 2 Pro.

Keeping your cool durring loadshedding! - South African Consumer

here are some ways to keep cool during loadshedding.

southafricanconsumer.co.za

or a 12v DC fan, a battery and charger if you want to go cheaper (not seamless).

Have you got this fan? I want to make double sure that I can turn it on when there's power, and then at 2AM when the power goes out it will just stay on with no issues/beeping/warning/etc. and then stay on again once the power comes back a couple hours later.

Essentially, I want to run it the entire night uninterrupted from a mix of wall and battery.

 

[Park@82]

Have you got this fan? I want to make double sure that I can turn it on when there's power, and then at 2AM when the power goes out it will just stay on with no issues/beeping/warning/etc. and then stay on again once the power comes back a couple hours later.

Essentially, I want to run it the entire night uninterrupted from a mix of wall and battery.

Yes. It just stays on, no interruptions. I haven't had to use it on the fastest speed for more that 2 hours, so I can't comment on battery life... Their website states up to 2.7 hours if I recall correctly.

I suspect that the Xiaomi may not blow as hard as your Meaco because your Meaco has a bigger motor. And maybe the build quality is not as good as your Meaco.

The Xiaomi fan is very quiet and efficient because of the brushless motor.

 

[derp90]

Yes. It just stays on, no interruptions. I haven't had to use it on the fastest speed for more that 2 hours, so I can't comment on battery life... Their website states up to 2.7 hours if I recall correctly.

I suspect that the Xiaomi may not blow as hard as your Meaco because your Meaco has a bigger motor. And maybe the build quality is not as good as your Meaco.

The Xiaomi fan is very quiet and efficient because of the brushless motor.

I use the Meaco on speed 4, which is quite low. I don't need high speed.

As long as the fan isn't too quiet? The main reason I have a fan is for some white noise.

 

[Park@82]

As long as the fan isn't too quiet? The main reason I have a fan is for some white noise.

That's hard to quantify xD

It's way quiter then my old fan but its audible.

There is less noise with the natural breeze setting than with the direct breeze setting.

 

[WAslayer]

Last time I checked these units won't recharge from 0 to 100% in the time between regular load shedding slots? I might be wrong though.



Do your research on the EcoFlow UPS'. They do have a UPS mode, but it's way too slow for PCs (something like 30ms). Also, I don't think they have a full UPS system in that it draws from mains and then switches over to battery when load shedding kicks in. I have the Ecoflow Delta and I'm 90% sure it just drains from the battery 24/7 if you have devices plugged in, it just recharges off the wall at the same time.

The Ecoflow Delta 2 and River 2 has just been released overseas and offers a much greater lifespan than the original units as they use a different battery chemistry. If you are looking for Ecoflow products, rather wait for one of those to arrive locally. Might be a while though because they are being marketed overseas first while they dump their old stock on us.

This is my ecoflow river pro.. in UPS mode.. cutover is 30ms as per specs, but haven't tested this yet, to see if it actually does drop power to my pc or not..

Battery level hasn't dropped since charged to full, which I set charge level to 95%.. it charged from 30% to 95% in an hour, so it should have no problem topping up between stage 4 loadshedding stages..

 

[derp90]

That's hard to quantify xD

It's way quiter then my old fan but its audible.

There is less noise with the natural breeze setting than with the direct breeze setting.

Do you have any further insight than Syntech's 'backorder' status as to when the Xiaomi fan will be back in stock?

If I'm going to be waiting months and months I better make another plan.

 

[Park@82]

Do you have any further insight than Syntech's 'backorder' status as to when the Xiaomi fan will be back in stock?

If I'm going to be waiting months and months I better make another plan.

Ill see if I can find out for you.

 

[WAslayer]

This is my ecoflow river pro.. in UPS mode.. cutover is 30ms as per specs, but haven't tested this yet, to see if it actually does drop power to my pc or not..

Battery level hasn't dropped since charged to full, which I set charge level to 95%.. it charged from 30% to 95% in an hour, so it should have no problem topping up between stage 4 loadshedding stages..

I can now safely say that, the 30ms cutover time on the ecoflow river pro makes zero difference to my pc psu, which happily chugs along without interruption when the power is cut and the ecoflow switches to battery..

 

[Park@82]

Do you have any further insight than Syntech's 'backorder' status as to when the Xiaomi fan will be back in stock?

If I'm going to be waiting months and months I better make another plan.

ETA on more stock is middle of December.

 

[derp90]

ETA on more stock is middle of December.

Thanks! I'll keep monitoring Takealot around that time.

 

[Park@82]

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ETA on more stock is middle of December.

The Xiaomi fans are back in stock if anyone else is interested.