Thanks for tips, I bought a stepup 12->24v 250W unit. (< $20) I plugged into my ecoflow 1280w station and with a 100ah battery it does 100 watts without stepup, 195watts with stepup. Thanks again.
One thing that may be beneficial if the specific power station can use a much higher input voltage is finding a boost converter with an output voltage just a bit under (5-10% or so) the max recommended solar input voltage or get one with adjustable output voltage range and just make sure you are not going over the max wattage rating of the boost converter or battery you are connecting to. This will allow higher input wattages for the power stations that support faster solar charging. Many of the portable power stations are limited in charging wattage due to the size of the solar charge controller they use so if they support a higher voltage that can sometimes yield a higher input rate till you hit the max rate of the internal solar charge controller. One other thing to mention about those boost converters is that they tend to want forced air cooling if you drive them much over their rating for any length of time.
Good idea for a low price expansion. Another downside is the low efficiency and the extra cycles put onto the main battery. These small power stations take 15-20% more than rated capacity to charge, even over DC (512Wh capacity takes over 620Wh of input to charge), plus the 12 to 24V boost converter loss of 5-10%. Then you lose another 15-20% from the typical inefficiency of the power station when using the inverter/regulated DC. So if you do the math for something like the Ecoflow River 2 Max with 512Wh and a 1280Wh external battery, you are getting ~415Wh (original output capacity) plus just ~785Wh AC output capacity from dumping the 1280Wh into the unit and taking it out. The loss is much greater than compared to if you just hooked up an inverter to the external battery and used it that way, plus you effectively put 2 extra cycles of wear on the internal battery of the power station by dumping in the 1280Wh.
Inverters aren't 100% efficient either. And you're now going from 12VDC to 120VAC and back to 12VDC. I don't see how that is better than 12 to 24 to 12.
How could you be putting two extra charge cycles in?? lol. Where is all that wasted energy going? When you recharge from solar are you also wasting two extra cycles?
I added a 12 to 24 converter but at 10 amps to my Anker 757. I wired it into my larger solar bank system. Works great and chargers about 220 watts. Great video.
I simply have my Power Queen 12v 200ah battery with a NOCO connector on it and charge my EcoFlow Delta 2 plugged into the 12v cigarette to xt60 at slightly over 100w. A trickle charging under load is said to extend your LifePo4 life.
You think this configuration would work for EF River 2 Pro. I was thinking 200ah would make it a beast in my small camper van. I didn’t to to lug around my heavier delta 2 max
Thanks for your input. ( Pun Intended) Helpful video for apartment dwellers like myself that might lose grid power and have no yard to utilize my Solar Panels.
I've seen another channel where they combined 2 step up converters (12-36v, 5a) in parallel to achieve 36v at 10 amps to get 360 watts! Perfect for larger power stations like my Ecoflow Delta Max 😀
yea i was watching that vid also he also added a fan and fuse holder ...I found a 12v 48v 10a hoping to get 480 as advertised on the units info amazon has them
@@si12volt1 I was looking for something like that on amazon and the only thing I found close was 12v to 24v @ 20 amps - that is good but my solar input only allows 12 amp and 60v max .
The advantage of the more expensive add on units the much higher watt throughput. If you don't need the max wattage for extended periods of time I could see this method working out okay. If you need to run high drain loads , it won't help much. If you run any kind of heating load very long it will show up quickly. If all you are running is led lighting and small electronic rechargers, this will work well.
I like the idea of this type of addition because I can keep the power station topped up at night then charge the secondary battery with solar any time the power usage is light
The main advantage of the expansion battery on units that support them is that they are also charged off the same internal charger and solar panels. This idea is fine if you only need power to flow in 1 direction, otherwise you will need some method of charging the external battery either with seperate solar panels and an MPPT charge controller or some other external battery charger. I suppose you could connect a wall powered lifepo4 battery charger into the power station to keep the external battery charged up using the a/c output of the power station, or some sort of dc-dc charger that is under 10a running out of the cigarette lighter adapter on the power station. I might have to play with that and see what happens.
This has been what I’ve been considering doing but haven’t found much information about it. Charging the expansion battery with a battery charger plugged into my power station that is plugged into the car cig charger. It seems like it would work but it’s hard to say. I do drive a lot too so even if it were slow charging I would be ok with it. I’m going to try it pretty soon. If you’ve tried it let me know what you’ve found please.
@@albes83 Yes, the mppt+solar panel(s) works just fine. My other idea of using an AC battery charger plugged into the power station works too but that method is very inefficient. having a separate mppt and solar panel works great though. It's just keeping the separate battery charged up, and the charging is all DC to DC so it's quite efficient. Its basically the exact same thing as any DIY power system to charge the external battery.
Nice idea. I’ve been planning to get a 24v-12v stepdown converter on a 100w solar panel output to run my fridge by the pool this summer. Maybe you could do a video running things off a solar panel with a converter instead of a battery. I know I’d be interested.
An mppt solar charge controller is basically a smart DC to DC converter which will do exactly what you are asking. Or go for a pwm controller if you want cheaper (£10 or so) but at a risk of less efficiency. The cheap pwm ones typically don't even need a battery.
Thanks for the honest information and review. I actually asked some of the power station manufacturers if this could be done and the representative said no. It did not make sense so thanks for dispelling that myth. QUESTION; Do they make a 12 volt to 48 volts? If so, it would charge faster I assume? I plan on an Anker 2000, will it work?
I have an EB3A that i connect via cig lighter cable to 2 100ah AGM in parallel. They are charged via 300w of solar. Dont have a heavy load on the EB3A yet, but I'm optimistic. My pellet stove draws about 150w, and the AGMs will run it all night.
Thank you for your video, I have followed this path. While I was experimenting with my Ecoflow power stations and a Power Queen 100Ah battery, I built 2 10AWG cables from the battery to the Ecoflow unit. One cable had the regular yellow XT60 female connector, the second cable uses a XT60i orange female connector. The XT60 cable consistently delivered 102-105 watts to both the Delta Mini and River 2 Pro The XT60i cable delivered 168 watts to both units. I hope this helps, thank you very much.
Your connection was directly from that battery to the River 2 Pro without the transformer? So this acts like "Pass Through" charging. As long as the output from the main battery doesn't exceed the incoming power, the main battery "remains" charged except for inverter loss? (YES...l'm a "Newbie")
@@reese9276 Hi, the connection is directly from the battery to the Ecoflow units without a transformer, it is pass-through. I have tried a 12v-24v step up transformer and that yields better results but I'm always concerned about the heat buildup in the transformer, even of the transformer is rated for 20Amps. To avoid the power loss issues, my 12v batteries are configured for 24v output and also bought a 24v-50Ah QWW battery that offers excellent performance, I always use the XT60i connector. I hope this helps!
XT60i connectors not the a xt60 but the xt60i like the one that comes with the Delta max for solar hook up and others units have an additional pin that would give more wattage into your eco flow unit from what I'm told I'm about to do a similar setup as this with possibly a 12v 48v 10a step up to hopefully get 480w input I hear these step up units can run hot
Great video! Looking forward to using this technique with my Pecron E600 that’s currently in the mail! As you know it has a 1200 watt inverter but only a 600 watt battery. Adding a second battery might be ideal! So I guess I pickup a charge controller to harvest from my Pecron 300 solar panel (also in the mail) and use a voltage step-up to dump into the E600. Thanks!
The first thing I thought of that you didn't mention was that if the power bank supports charging from 11v up why even use the converter? Just connect the battery as is. I've done that with my ups and it works fine. In fact the ups even charges the external battery when connected to the mains.
Agreed. Just connect the battery to the DC input and the time remaining jumps up due to the extra battery. That way you eliminate any power loss from the step- up device.
The intelligent power stations will limit the 12V input because they have to assume the voltage is coming from a cigarette adapter like in your vehicle which are limited to 10amps. This would charge the power station very slowly at around 120 watts. If the voltage is “boosted” to 24volts or any higher voltage battery is used, the power station will sense the input and assume it is something like a solar panel and increase the allowed input current so you will charge the station much more quickly.
@@MichaelAngeloTechthis depends on the system. I have a jackery and all dc inputs are the same. It guesses by the incoming watts what the source is and lights up the icon. It doesn’t regulate car adaptor vs solar etc…. I know this because I used a dc to dc to increase car charging.
Excellent, informative video. Unfortunately the ONE power station you said might not be a good option for this is the Eb3a . . . the one I have. LOL Looks like I'll need to find another way to increase capacity. Again, great video. Thanks.
@@justinvardas8654 not really. But I do have a separate battery and solar panel. So I can get more power . . . just not in combination with the Bluetti.
@puffyd58 I think I’ll end up trying the combination of an 8mm barrel plug pigtail connected to ring terminals to the expansion battery. No step up/boost converter for me though. I’m ok with the slower charge. My biggest concern was charging the expansion battery without “shore power”. I’m going to try the method recommended by reeway outdoors and plug a battery charger into the AC on my eb3a going to the expansion battery. I’m in the city so solar isn’t really an option for me. The way i described seems pretty simple with minimal DIY setup. We shall see
My Baldr power station has an MPPT controller built in to it. It limits input wattage to 65 watts. This is a great alternative to buying expensive add on battery’s. Thanks for the info.
I don't think most power stations would charge the expansion battery. It would require connecting either a 120 volt charger or a 12 volt charge controller. 12 volt charge controller assumes the power station has 12 volt output.
A DIY to make a similar expansion battery to a Ecoflow, Bluette or Pecron, would be nice, all in one box that has similar capabilities to theirs and you can use it for multiple solar generators to recharge them, and recharge the battery somehow using the solar generator in some way.
Nice video I think the idea of a battery charging another battery (power station) isn’t genius enough because you’re depleting the cycle counts of the two batteries in a redundant move. The best approach should be connecting an inverter into the extended battery and into ac input of Eb3a this will allow UPS of Eb3a to draw directly from the extended battery and later on from Bluetti itself this will maximize the usage of both batteries instead of depleting one to charge to other. I hope you would make a video showing and proving this idea
Wow! Thanks for the tip. I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to try this, but it doesn't look too hard....For others not as poor as me, the delta 2 with the extra battery is only $1049 until July 54th.
I get 160w into my EB3A using this method, and the I used source is a cheap power station. I did have to put the EB3A in standard charge mode and the noise is the fan that comes on.
For that voltage and amount of power, the step-up converter is pretty much unnecessary. A device that can charge from a 12V (nominal) automotive cigar lighter socket will accept the LiFePO4 battery voltage as-is. And because most lighter circuits are fused to 10A, a transfer rate of 120W or more is possible without an efficiency-robbing DC-DC converter. Case in point, I used an Ecoflow River to provide backup power to some essential equipment, a load of about 100W, in case of a power outage. With the DC input set to be used with the included cigar lighter cord, the unit charged at a rate of 120W from a standard LiFePO4 "12V" battery. Setting the DC input to "Solar" and allowing fast charging effectively doubled that rate. Note that I was using custom cables rated for 30A, not the included car charger cord.
So with 12v Battery you need that converter . What happens if you use 24V 100Ah battery, do you need any devises in between battery and power station to regulate Amps or V, or you just plug it straight to battery?(I got vtoman jump 1800)
Great video, is it possible to use 2 12v lithium batteries in series to get 24v and no longer need the step up converter and at the same time increase the capacity even more?
I like this idea, would this work with 2 100ah battery, and let's say I want to charge the other way around , let say my power station is full , and want to top up my auxiliary battery, what would be the best way ...smart battery charger plug into the AC of the power station? Thinking to get the ac200p and add 2 of these 100 ah lithium.. any ideas would be great ...
i would of liked to see how much the power stations input wattage was without the step up converter. im guessing the river 2 is going to be about the same.
😅that's a great idea. The fact is that I know nothing about batteries....so my question is; how can I recharge the expansive batterie? Thank you for your answers.
Just curious, but why wouldn't you just connect the 12v LiFePO4 directly to the XT-60i (for example) solar input on the Ecoflow (12.8v typical on these are well within the 11-60V)? Other than getting better charging watts from the higher voltage at 24V (or even 36-60V would be better), it should still charge quite well at around the 180W you are getting out of that boost converter (make SURE you use the ORANGE colored solar input XT-60i so it doesn't clamp you at the "car charger" 7A max). It would be much better to simply put 2 or 3 of these batteries in series to charge and get the full 500W (for the Ecoflow Delta 2) at any voltage >33v (other chargers may have a higher MPPT max current that could benefit more from 48v). Honestly, these DC boost converters tend to waste a lot of switching power in heat and even putting just two batteries in series (to operate at 24V) would be dramatically more efficient and faster on charging current and avoid one more complication. ?
@@ursodermatt8809Understood, but 12v @ the 15A of XT-60i is 180W, which is much more than the 125-150W from the boost converter (plus you lose soo much in heat doing the boost). And just putting two 12v batteries in series (or better 3 or a 48v server rack battery) would easily be far more current than those DC-DC boost and much much more efficient. That was all I simply don't understand why folks are spending money on very limited and inefficient converters when they could do it simpler.
You are exactly correct. Much easier and cheaper do away with Just a cable with XT-60i to 12v-100Ah lithium lifepo4 battery is all you need ! No 12-24 booster needed at all. I have tested it last night. The Ecoflow Delta 2 would automatically takes a constant 15 amp incoming my was 173 out of 205watts( with 84% efficiency) with no heat loss but use 10 AWG will eliminate the heat loss and voltage drop from 12 awg Ecoflow cable.
A few comments say hook up 2 batteries in series and on the ecoflow should get 360 watts, right? What about 3 batteries in series for 36v and get full 500w into delta 2?
Relatively cheap and easy expansion, thanks for the tip! One question though: How do you prevent the LFP battery from being fully emptied? The (solar) input port on the power station will allow current coming in until the voltage drops to below minimum, but with the step-up converter that results in
This setup relies on the battery's BMS to cutoff discharge at the appropriate voltage. Some of these batteries even have Bluetooth and a mobile app that gives you some control over that cutoff threshold. But even without that, the standard BMS protection is usually just fine.
@@ReeWrayOutdoors Even though BMS will protect the battery, you'll need to 'kickstart' it to come back online. Is there no relay that can switch of just before BMS does?
yes, there's definitely a weird noise when charging the EB3A. Also the smell of something burning inside so I had to stop after about 3 minutes. I'm not using a 12v-24v converter. This doesn't happen when I charge other power station.
I have an eb3a too and haven’t tried this but I’m glad you can confirm that. I wonder if it would have any problem just charging straight off the expansion battery or if it’s the step up converter that’s the issue?
@justinvardas8654 that weird sound was from the EB3A's fan. I've gotten used to it and has since charged my EB3A with a 12V battery when solar is not available. My EB3A still works and has no issues up to this point.
Why not just run right off the battery as a 12.v car charger? Even with voltage sag, the mppt should compensate and continue to charge. Why introduce an additional loss with the buck/boost?
Correct me if I am wrong. Your LifePO4 battery should have a floating voltage of 14.4V and powerstations usually require an input voltage of between 12V and 30V, so the DC-DC regulator should be something like this '8-40V to 13.8V 25A', as it slightly reduces the LifePO4 battery voltage to match the input voltage range of your powerstation. The DC-DC regulator you are using does not seem suitable.
These are a DC-AC-DC inverter that takes a DC power and chops it up and then back to DC out. I expect on the power station is this device does not make a pure sine wave but modified sign wave that can cause issues.
Wouldn’t an inverter be a better solution? Not sure how the efficiency of DC➡️AC➡️DC compares to this but would let you do much higher wattage. There are decent quality 500 watt PSW inverters for $60.
Any reason you can think of to not buy an inverter and pass through charge via AC? Still has a benefit over still expensive expansion batteries, or for power stations without expansion options, and it is modular.
Hello, Happy New Year to you and your family. You have a great show and I enjoy everyone of them. Did you happen to try the diy expansion (12 to 24v) battery with any of the “ToGo” power stations? Great idea by the way!!
The ecoflow river’s battery expansion pack will both charge and discharge via the ecoflow. Everything I’ve seen with these addon is that they’re not automatically recharging, as with an internal addon battery. Is it possible to set it up so the river will charge the external when it’s attached to A/C, and discharge it when A/C is not connected?
I recently acquired a Pecron E2000 (LiFePo) and was looking at the larger Power Queen as an option for expansion instead of Pecrons new purpose made expansion batteries. It seems they still need to work out some glitches when using more than one of their batteries in series. Pecron has a dedicated, but somewhat proprietary connector for its expansion cable. Would really be interested in getting another set of eyes on a potential solution.
Is it possible to charge both the generator and the extra battery with the solar panel at the same time, while the extra battery is connected to the generator? I am trying to have a better picture of how this system can work fluently.
Would any of the power units take a charge directly from the 12V battery at a full 100A charge rate? What if you substituted a (higher priced) 24V PowerQueen battery and forego the step-up convertor? I would like to have longer run-time (at rated output) (something that the external vendor units provide. However, what you have set up is amazing and very useful. Thanks!
Most of the MPPT solar chargers are limited on power. The Ecoflow Delta 2, for example, is limited to a max of 500W (even though it is also rated at 60V @ 15A max, you are ALSO limited to 500W, not the 900W that 60v/15A would suggest).
Instead of going through the process of getting a step up converter, if you got a 24 volt 50AH battery you could probably get more power through without the loss of the efficiency and still be around the same price
As always you create very informative and educational reviews on your channel and I bought the Vtoman Flashpeed 1500 thanks to your reviews as wells as the BougeRv 37 qt fridge , so my questions are the following. Can you use this step up with the Vtoman Fashspeed 1500 ? And what voltage on solar panels besides the 48v can be used to charge the unit?
Thanks for the video, I have a bluetti eb55 with a 200 watts solar panel , I would like on day time ,to charge my lithium 12 volt battery, to use it as a backup
You certainly can. I have this setup. You can bypass the booster, no problem. Plus you can always combine two 12V 50ah & get 24 (actually bit more, like 25.6 Volts) should you need the extra boost. I rather have two batteries, cheaper too for some reason, at 50ah than 100ah with a booster. Food for thought.
If I have a fossibot f800 powerstation. How can I connect my Lifepo4 100A battery to it to increase the total capacity of the Powerstation? To have solar panels connected to charge both my Powerstation and Lifepo4 battery at the same time. As far as I understand, your method is based on the fact that the external battery feeds it through the 12vto24v adapter inside the solar panel port. Then it's better to make a connection. Solar panels to MPPT to Lifepo4 to 12vto24v adapter to Powerstation. I think there will be big power losses, but all the batteries in the circuit will be charged.
VTOMAN - Can you use the battery expander and have the solar panel plugged in, in other words could you attach that battery to the battery expander connection while the solar panel connection is in the input socket you've shown?
so if all of those power stations had a minimum of 12 volts do you really need the step up converter to 24 volts? And if you have 2 of those 12.8 volt batteries and you run them in series that would work as well right? or one 24 volt battery would work just as well?
Efficiency claims on most of these units are around 95% which is probably close to correct from 20-95% load. It is hard to tell for sure without putting a few through some testing.
Main downside is that it can't charge along with the power station. So you always need to fumble and reconnect to a different charger (extra cost, effort).
I have a 12v lithium ion phosphate battery and just with wiring and no step up, I can get 78 watts into my powerstation which has a 24v battery system inside. Just an fyi if going camping and trying to avoid all the extra pieces like a step up converter.
Since you have a Vtoman Jump 1000 that uses this "same" VT60 connector for their external battery, have your tried to input the Jump 1000 external battery jack using the XT60 connector and see if you are able to use your own battery - 25.8 Volts - input to the Jump???? Thanks in advance for your testing this theory....
Interesting idea. I'm currently trying to decide if I want to get the expansion battery for my Vtomam 1500Wh battery, or use my 500wh Blueitti to top, it off if/when I need to, since my 500wh battery can be charged easier while driving or via solar panels. My usage is either 3/4 day weekend road trips, and in the future, maybe 5/6 day trips/car camping.
Old, I know, but you can run a small (500-1000w)12v-120v inverter off your 12v battery and charge it through the built-in charger. A little inefficient, but way cheaper than an add-on battery module.
I came across this while thinking of a UPS for my home server and finding out how expensive things from APC are while comparing capacity while a portable power station can double as a camping powerbank, a APC does not suit for that. Any idea of how to also combine the charging part of the expansion battery?
Wondering if there's a hack to connect a battery directly into the Bluetti battery port? That way we could charge the supplemental battery through solar and still boost our capacity without having to juggle wires.
could you use two back up 12v Batteries connected to that step up converter? trying to maximize keeping a portable fridge going and some small fans while camping. but also this seems like alot less wires needed to be made then other DIY power stations
i bought a vtoman 1400 for my daughter because of your recommendations the additional battery is more than the unit why do i need to step up the voltage can't i just Y the extra battery into the solar input .
I wonder if there is any way to connect this battery through the battery expansion connectors (P090D) on my bluetti power station, so that the power station charges this battery as if it were its built-in battery?
So if the minimum input of your solar generator is 11v, and you have a 12.8v lifepo4 battery, help me understand why a step up converter to 24v is needed? Couldn’t one just eliminate the step up converter? What am I missing?
If you were to wire 2 12 volt batteries in series and then plug that 24 volts into the power station the power station will give you the maximum mppt watts if it's limited it's 500 watts for your mppt controller input it will give you 500 watts If your power stations maximum mppt input is 200 watts you're only going to get 200 watts, the thing is you're getting 24 volts that it thinks it's coming from solar but you have more amps then the mppt controller is set for so it chokes it down to however many amps it's supposed to take, of course if you have a 24 Volt battery it makes life more simple LOL.
Wow. That's interesting to know. Just one question. Can I recharge this battery as well with any of my solar stations? 🤔 Thank you so much for all you do. Hugs from Spain
You can. The best way though is to get a LiFePO4 charger and plug it direct into your power station. This will ensure that your LiFePO4 battery can be charged fully (provided your Power Station has sufficient capacity) and is not over-charged. I'm actually starting work on a DIY video soon to show how you can build an inexpensive 'DC module' to attach to any 12V/24V battery and directly power DC devices (USB and 12V car connector) as well as add solar charging direct to your battery. Stay tuned for that. :)
Might it be even better to boost battery to 48 V at 10 A (480 W) since many power stations have a 10 A solar input limit? For example, Daygreen booster at Amazon or others for $100. Do still need to recharge the Li battery and need a power source to do that. Couldn’t that power source be used instead to charge the power station directly? This approach seems less expensive than a larger power station or it’s add on battery. But the Li battery is $100, the V boost is $100 and the Li recharge is also $100 so $500 total?
I have a Bluetti EB70 currently charged by a 200w Renogy panel for my small van project. I want to do this expansion with at least a 50ah battery. Can I run the solar panel to mppt to battery then step up convert to power station?
Another fast way I have found is if you are charging it off the alternator in your car buy the cheapest pure sine wave inverter up to 2000w and charge the whole thing in a hour
Does this work in reverse then? If it's connected to my EcoFlow Delta 2 will the Power Queen battery charge as I charge the EcoFlow or is it a one-way street?
Do you think the EB3A was making that noise because it was already 99% charged? Would it be possible to run it down some and them try the booster and report back. I have two of those Bluetti power banks and two 100ah LiFePO4 batteries and I would buy a booster if I thought it would work. It broke my heart a little when you excluded the EB3A from the mix, since that's the ones I have. Great content.
Ok...so the buzz I heard on the EB3A was not due to the SOC being 99%. I got the same buzz when I tried it at only 75% SOC. Still not sure why that is. I DID also try the (easier) option of using a 12V socket wired to the battery and then using the car charger cable to charge it at about 80Watts, and that seems to work and produces no concerning buzz noise from the EB3A. Here's basically what I used (came with the BougeRV Self-Heating Battery): amzn.to/3Cw6hN0
@@ReeWrayOutdoors Thanks so much for following up on that. I may go ahead and buy the boost converter for my two power packs. If I do, I will report back on whether I get the buzz or not. The boost converter is cheap enough and I expect that at some time I'll get a larger power pack and can use it with that.
@@ReeWrayOutdoors I ended up doing the same thing, except I bought a 2 pack of 8 mm male plugs and added ring connectors to the wires to attach the battery.
