Affiliate Links: The battery SFK-300HP www.sunfunkits.com/product/51/sfk-300hp-300ah-40kw-self-heating-136v-lithium-iron-phosphate-battery?aid=171023231065C&cid=1710232310EB0 Leesky inverter: amzn.to/3RxL9uW ================ CONTACT: bradcagleyt@gmail.com Business/Collaboration only. Please do not contact me for for personal project help, or advice. ================ DISCLAIMER: These videos are documenting my own projects, and experiences. These projects, and activities can be dangerous. Do not try any of this at home, doing so will be at your own risk.
Yikes! $1380 for a 300AH battery? I just bought a 100AH lithium-iron-phosphate battery from Amazon for $180. Would be cheaper to to buy three of mine and run them in parallel than to buy one of yours. And yes, my battery also has a built-in BMS. But no blue tooth.
I've been wondering the same thing so I put a Kill-A-Watt meter on my fridge. A 30" wide French door LG fridge with bottom freezer (similar in style to yours). In 12 days and 21 hours it's used exactly 24 kWatts. That's an hourly watt consumption of ~78 Watts. A high consumption of 945.4 watts and a low of 2.9.
The 945.4 watts was the defrost cycle running. Many defrost timers run about 16 minutes every 16 hours. They vary. The heating element is under the evaporator coils in the back of the freezer compartment. Another thing that I noticed was that my refrigerators and freezers draw less total power in the winter when the garage temperature is about 60F average. I didn't measure them with the Kill-A-Watt meter but the power drain in battery percentage is noticeably less overnight than in the Summer.
@@kimmer6 now I know!! I've had the killawatt on it now for 24 days 4 hours(580 hours). In that time its used 45.44 kWatts. 945.4 continues to be the high. So an average of 78 watts an hour. Not bad at all
On the test, did you connect a charger controller MPPT and a few solar panels? I think in the future you can upgrade to a 24V hybrid inverter or a 48V hybrid inverter "I know is expensive", with a few solar panels to keep the batteries charge up this is so impressive how one single battery and a 12V inverter did an amazing job 😊 I'm studying this in Puerto Rico about solar systems, we usually have the problem a lot every time we have a hurricane power goes out and is days and days without power and I already have PTSD from Maria Hurricane 🙁
I did not connect solar for this test, just wanted to show how long it would last on battery only as some people may just opt to keep a battery around for such situation. I do however have a 48v solar setup installed with 8kw of battery. It runs my crypto mining rigs, but I plan to use it in the event of a grid failure. I hear you on that PTSD, I'm in Texas and when the grid failed due to that crazy winter storm it really opened my eyes that I need to have a backup. We were without power for 3 days in freezing conditions.
@ Coqui Audio I worked for GE and ran a crew in overhauling a Frame 5 24 megawatt gas turbine at the PREPA plant in Mayaguez, PR, in 1980. There were 8 machines in a row. I love PR and felt the hurt from NorCal when Maria slammed into the island. A month later we had devastating wild fires and horrible winds that burned up thousands of homes overnight. I started building backup power units for family and friends after that. Here's the one I built for my college buddy from 1976. Augie has it running up at his cabin right now. Cost about $16K with the batteries being the expensive items. This would be perfect for you. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-GPYg1QZJ24o.html
If concerns are for power outages and you have a chest freezer have plenty of Ice ready to stick in the fridge and keep any extra freezer space in the combo full of ice. I keep all the extra space in the chest freezer full of plastic bottles of ice.
I have the similar new fridge & old fridge I found that older style fridge I unplugged heater element let it frost & let fan circulate cold air on 300 ah chin’s lithium battery it lasted 11 days straight cause as long as the frost build up ( not too much) was there to be circulated compressor didn’t need to kick on as long as the fan was on to keep cold air circulating & I replaced fan with cpu fan which draws .5 milliamperes with new fridge I got a similar endurance like yours of 38hrs I got 750 watt solar panels & mppt controller running my apartment my average bill in summer is 40-60$ a month winter 80+$ heating is a different story since I use gas to heat that goes up to $160 but gotta say you have a decent backup there just keep upgrading every now & then slowly & take care of your family & you’ll be all good.
This is why I keep old fridge on standby when I hear a storm is looming on weather reports I turn on oldie but goodie ol’ faithful let her freeze up turn on cpu fan in wall where freezer compartment & fridge meet to circulate air & soon only thing using power is an led bulb I installed or just get an old ice chest freezer out in shed, garage & set low so it won’t freeze everything to a block & that’s just as good once chest freezer reaches temp shes all good for a long long time, I’ve been prepping since 9-11 did a lot of studying, practicing, trials & errors to help others & myself.
@@sbdr.1241 , I would love to know more details/how to/diy about this cpu fan modification that you made to the refrigerator/freezer and your other associated power outage plans/preps.
These refrigerators have high wattage auto defrost. Disable that and it will run for days. This battery will run a dorm fridge for a week depending on inverter efficiency. A 12 volt fridge would likely run two weeks....maybe three.
My 300ah Ampere Time looks massive compared to that one. I`m having to buy parts each month to build a system. I spent the last of my savings for the battery, 2000w inverter, and 60 amp MPPT charge controller to get started, but need more panels, battery meter, switches, etc etc....and until I begin trying to put it all together I won`t know what else I might need. I wanted it for hurricanes plus to power the small window air conditioner in my camper in Summer to save on my bill. I hope to have it connected to 580w of panels by April. I`mon a small fixed income with no transportation and emergency power is very important. I use a dorm fridge. My 500w approx 560 wh (original Rockpals clone...renamed Bawaut) solar power station runs it 24 hours or longer if the temps aren`t too hot. I use that and a backup 500w that keeps shutting off after 6 hours (?) and two Bluetti EB70 power stations for a 5 cubic ft chest freezer. It runs at least 20-24 hours off one of them. Plus I got 7 more cheap 250 to 300 watt ones for smaller stuff, two 12v rice cookers, and storage. I can dump their charge into the others if needed plus dump the charge of my little power bricks into a few of them using their additional type C charge inputs.
If it's for an RV.. You can use the Renogy 2000-3000 watt inverter\charger\transfer switch.. Then add in the 50amp DC-DC solar\alternator charger.. That way you got three sources of power... It's the cheapest most cost effective way I found so far. As the Inverter\Charger can supply 75 amps DC when on Shore Power..Unplug it. It automatically switches to battery power...Then the Solar kicks in. If you need more Amps just start the Vehicle...
facebook market place, there is almost always some dude who bought a trailer of barely used 300 watt panels at $80 each and then flips half of them in your area for about $140 each give or take. i started out with top dollar brand new panels but once i learned of the used ones and how they normally still performe to spec i started buying them used. even if i have to drag my trailer 4 hours to get a pallets worth of panels for a few kw, its super worth it. most of those dudes will let you test them, so go around 1pm if you can lol. btw i have central air in my home, but have been getting into solar about 3 years ago. everyone said hvac cant be done with solar and batteries in a manner that makes sense cost wise, but i disagree. i love being told no. i bought several window units at first, then i bought small heat pumps. i heated my entire house last year using my heat pumps and mine are the portable type. i bought two of them incase one of them broke, but its a good thing i had two as last winter it got down to 16 below zero lol. anyways i ditched the natural gas for heat, everyone says its the best, but it wasnt for me. the lost of simply having the gas connection was $40 a month and there was a miniinum fee, even if you used no natural gas at all. so for $55 a month i had natural gas. $55 will buy me about 450kwh worth of electricity from the grid. thats 15kwh per day. yes 15,000 watt-hrs per day. we really only need heating and cooling half the year, spring and fall doesnt use hardly any energy. winter can use a good amount, but in summer if its 90f out side day and night and you need it to be 75f and lower, its going to cost you. pretty much all summer i have been using a tiny 5kbti window unit night and day off of my 45kwh battery bank. the bank is so huge is barely notices it and as long as the sun shines every other day i am good. but if it shines all day every day for a week i fire up my heat pumps and really pull that thermal energy down as low as i can to help buffer for the days when its not as sunny. anyways i was bored and thought id share some of my experiences with you
I think if you had a couple of solar panels hooked up you could go with no worries for quite a long time. Definitely would be a game changer during blackouts.
Yes, these are very energy dense, here's the link: www.sunfunkits.com/product/51/sfk-300hp-300ah-40kw-self-heating-136v-lithium-iron-phosphate-battery?aid=171023231065C&cid=1710232310EB0
I'm researching residential vs 12v RV fridge for my motorhome. This video was very helpful. Im hoping if i go with a residential fridge my two 100a lithium batteries could maintain it at least for a 12 hour lay over during travel. Sounds like it should work. Plus i have 400w of solar. What size inverter were you using there?
Could you kindly provide your insight please? I'm an electronics novice and I need to run a LED floodlight that's 240W for 3 hours continuously. What specifications of LiPO4 battery should I purchase? And what other accessories do I need to buy? I'm in Canada. I appreciate any help you can provide.
@@BradCagle I had longish term power outage of about 1 week A combination of a 200ah lithium battery a ecoflow solar generator and a couple of 200 watt solar blankets I had pretty much all the power I needed and had people were I live asking to charge phones 🤣 and laptops People think your odd till the power goes out and your still fine I have a 2000watt Genset to Great combination with the ecoflow as you can fast charge the ecoflow if needed in 1 hour of the Genset though the power outrage was in spring so no issue with sun in Australia
@@MegaRyan123456 Yeah, you never know how difficult it is until the power's off :) We had a 3+ day power outage in a hard Texas freeze, that's what got me moving towards having some off grid power solutions.
My 120 volt Dorm fridge runs for 2 weeks on 300 amps....As it only pulls max 50 watts every 20mins,. Then drops off to 15 watts for 20 mins.. And I don't change my habits either.. I use it as I would on shore power...Why any home depot mini fridge is the way to go...
A fridge/freezer needs a big motor-start current but little motor-run current so in reality they use little power. A fridge/freezer would be easily powered long term by a moderate solar panel.
Great video! Very informative! Would a 200ah LiFePO4 battery and inverter power the refrigerator/freezer? And if so, how long do you think it might power it for?
Maybe, in the future, you could do the same test and use an inverter that produced JUST the power required to run your fridge at its max load. There would be less wasted energy inside the inverter during idle periods as well as providing better efficiency when loaded. I don't know what your plan is during a power outage, but at my house, there won't be no staring inside the fridge with the door open tryin' to remember why I'm lookin' in there. Draping a quilt over the door serves as an additional insulator as well as a deterrent to the "blank stare" scenario. I think that in an emergency it would be prudent to make sure everyone knows that the door gets opened and closed as soon as possible and only when necessary. I'm also quite sure that your fridge won't need to cycle as often as it would normally. The inverter can be cycled manually for a brief period every few hours and the food inside will be in much better condition after 3 or 4 days than it would be if you let it run normally for 2 days and then just sit without running for 2 additional days because the battery is dead.
I got a wetown 1500 1280wh, it runs my new 28cu ft samsung for 12-13 hours, samsung is awesome, if you got an older fridge pre 2010, buy a new one fellow brothers and sisters,
I find it very hard to believe that this little battery can do 300amp hours. After reading about the company I wouldn't have high hopes. They have a lot of negative comments.
I tested it, I got over 314Ah. Here's the video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-AApRh8E4EM8.htmlsi=1MPP1S4pKi0JfzTO&t=1275 I have 3 batteries from SFK, they all work fantastic.
This one is their pre-built model. I did a full review here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-AApRh8E4EM8.html The monitor is SFK's app running on my tablet. It connects to the battery via bluetooth.
just installed my first system, two 12v 100ah power queen batteries, renogy 700w inverter and lion energy 12v 30amp solar charge controller plus 3 lion energy 12v 100watt rigid panels. charged both batteries to full with vevor charger and then connected my full size fridge. everything ran fine for 2 full days. this morning the inverter sounded an alarm and i had to plug fridge into the house. im wondering if the panels couldnt keep up. is there a device i can use to monitor watts coming in from solar panels and batteries state of charge?
the most important part this stuff is quantifying the variables. battery companies know most people dont know how to capacity test their batteries, and will stick weak or under performing cells in the battery, therefore cutting their cost, and shorting the customer. i really wish you would have showed us the ah or wh while doing this test, at least showing us how many watt hours you got out of it at 50% soc. trying to catch the most important part of the data was impossible to catch in this video. you seemed to almost intentialy edit that info out of this video. only once did i see ah in the video. everyone once in a while you would zoom in to see the soc, then start to drift to the right and i thought id get to see the capacity used and you would edit it out or zoom out or the camera was going out of focus or couldnt deal with the contrast of the tablet. it was like you were pranking me this entire time. i mean no offense, but i am shopping around for prebuilt lifepo batteries and stumbled across your video. my concern was how physically small your battery looks compared to the other 300ah batteries i have been looking at. i know your actual objective was more of a shotgun approach of "how many days/hrs can i run the fridge off of this battery. everyone'd fridge is different, and like you said, the more you open the fridge, the more the pump has to run and that pump running is what using the power plus ambient air temps play a role. i thought i'd suggest more data if you do more videos like this, if not no big deal just trying offer some free advice. maybe get a few solar panels you can toss in the yard, or a generator and then you can charge it back up, in worse case scenarios. next on your list should be a backup heat source, lighting is almost too easy. do you plan to leave the battery there next to the fridge, all charged up incase the power goes out? i would almost be tempted to get a bench top psu set it to 14.4v at max amps, maybe 10amps or more if the psu can handle it and walk away. the psu will keep the battery charged, and the battery will keep the food safe to eat. losses would be in the psu at about 10%, and about the same for the inverter, but you would have giant ups for your fridge. maybe even tie the mircro wave into it.
All the batteries I use on this channel get a full review, and capacity test. Here's the full capacity test of this battery ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-AApRh8E4EM8.html
I’m confused. I didn’t understand the need to shut it down because you couldn’t babysit it. Because even if you unplugged it and went to sleep it will still be OK in the morning.
I would not know what time it shut off. So it would be pointless. That's the babysitting I'm talking about. It's me checking every 30 mins to see if it's still going.
lmao, the refrigerator uses a cheap ATmega328 uC microchip and probably something like an analog temperature sensor like the LM35 from Texas Instruments to regulate when it needs to cool the fridge, not even going to mention pwm power regulated cooling which can also be used with MOSFETS. It's funny how people can be so entertained by such simple things these days. I build all my stuff from scratch so I know a thing or two about batteries, microchips and sensors and whatnot. This is elementary/entertaining for me, and it's just funny to see that the fridge is actually has turned off the compressor because the temperature sensor chip is sending a low voltage signal usually middle pin to the uC micro-controller Atmega328. The Atmega then sends out a signal to simply put... a relay.. the relay turns off the power for the compressor.. Which means that the 7 watts is actually the lighting itself. So absolutely no power "current" is flowing to and or from the compressor in the fridge. Cool setup. +1
Hi Brad it's James in the bus, I just got my phone reactivated after almost 2 months. I still have not been able to get any batteries but I have 160 dollars saved up . Have you had any luck finding anyway to help me
Do you have lazy door gapers that stare inside the fridge for 15-20 seconds before closing it? Just wondering what someone could expect if the fridge was opened very conservatively, maybe 6 times a day, twice each meal, to remove and put back everything you need with the door being open for 15 seconds each time. It seems like the overnight hours had such little compressor time that the fridge sat idle 95% of the time. Alternatively if there was an easy way to switch off the inverter for 55 minutes each hour but I bet that would cause the compressor to run more and the inverters idle consumption is quite low. Maybe run the test after everyone is done using the fridge for the day and try to get a full 8 hours of an already chilled fridge sitting for 8 hours without disturbance. Also record the screen of your tablet and review the compressor usage to get an idea of how often it runs. I'm really interested in seeing how much opening the doors eats up wattage. I'd suspect every 15 second door opening is equivalent to 15 minutes of undisturbed idle time when you factor in how much more often the compressor will cycle. The number might be worse for the freezer (or maybe better since yours looks pretty full)