I've got 7 solar power stations, each at 1000 watts, and I'm tired of charging them with my 200 watt solar panels – it just takes too long! I want to invest in a 48V 100Ah LiFePo4 battery since I've seen that it can charge the stations much faster, possibly at around 500 watts. What I'm curious about is how to figure out how many of my power stations I can charge one at a time with this battery before it runs out of juice. Any advice would be appreciated!
4 Answers
Have you thought about how you'll be charging this big battery? You’ll want to ensure your solar panels are able to handle the input. Also, just a heads up, it may be more efficient to stick with a couple of bigger power stations instead of seven smaller ones.
What type of battery charger do you have for Lithium? It sounds like you have a solid plan!
Why not just expand your solar setup? The battery you’re eyeing is pretty pricey, and for the same amount, you could snag a decent setup with over 1000W of solar, which would give you that faster charging straight from the sun.
Exactly what I was thinking!
I’ve got similar portable stations, and setting up multiple panels can be a hassle. I get where you’re coming from!
You can figure out roughly how many power stations you can juice up with your setup. A 48V 100Ah battery is about 3.46KWh, which means if each of your power stations needs around 850Wh, you could likely charge about 4 of them. If you want to charge all 7, you might need a second battery.
My Jackery 1000s are about 1070Wh each, and my EBLs are close to 999Wh.
Sounds like you're almost at the point where you might need an upgrade – at least a second battery!
When you're figuring this out, focus on watt-hours (Wh). Your 48V 100Ah battery gives you about 5120Wh of energy, which is about 5 times the capacity of a single 1000Wh power station. Keep in mind there may be some power losses during charging, so realistically, it’s more like 4.5 times. This means you could charge around 4 power stations if starting from a fully charged battery.
You can actually get more than 4 charges if you start charging before your stations are completely empty, especially from 25% capacity to full! That could bump your total up to almost 6 charges, even factoring in some losses.
Thanks a ton for breaking that down! I never thought about it this way. Sounds like a big improvement over using solar panels!
I actually just sold two smaller units to get a few Jackery 1000 V2s. I'm really focused on keeping things manageable for my wife, especially when I'm not around.