Off Grid Portable Power Stations

[Captain Yoghurtpot]

Good Morning.
I know this has been discussed previously about various makes, but I was informed of this particular piece of kit yesterday by my son in law, who is purchasing this via his work for when working on sites whilst project managing major event structures in the entertainment game.
Just thought this might be of interest to us Motorhomers as another alternative for off-grid power.
I must state that I have NO affiliation to this company or their products, but just thought it looked very interesting.
Hope the web address works............

www.anker.com/uk/a1780

Cheers.

 

[Newfie]

I bought the smaller version came with 2 100w solar panels £1359.99 from costco

Anker 757 PowerHouse - 1229Wh | 1500W

With free gift included! Long-Lasting Portable Power Station With a 10-Year Lifespan: With our proprietary long-lasting technology InfiniPower™, combined with LiFePO4 batteries, ultra-durable electronic components, a smart temperature control system that monitors temperature up to 100 times per...

www.anker.com

 

[headlight]

Cush £2200 ?

 

[Cush]

Cush £2200 ?

About 18. Should have said pipe dream more than a plan but a sensible option for me with my storage challenges.

 

[headlight]

Cush Couldn't you go lithium leisure battery/batteries, solar etc for less than that ?

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Cush]

Cush Couldn't you go lithium leisure battery/batteries, solar etc for less than that ?

Probably cheaper if I was certain I was keeping the van and had solar in storage. Under cover and no ehu. Cheapest option would be a petrol geny. Jane other uses for it to in the shed and on the boat.

 

[headlight]

Lithium has very low self discharge and can be drained really low. I would have thought they would be fine in storage with no charging for several months.

 

[Gromett]

Good Morning.
I know this has been discussed previously about various makes, but I was informed of this particular piece of kit yesterday by my son in law, who is purchasing this via his work for when working on sites whilst project managing major event structures in the entertainment game.
Just thought this might be of interest to us Motorhomers as another alternative for off-grid power.
I must state that I have NO affiliation to this company or their products, but just thought it looked very interesting.
Hope the web address works............

www.anker.com/uk/a1780

Cheers.

After the EUFI scandal (same company) I won't be sending any more money Ankers way. Shame really as I have had them top of my list for quality products for almost 2 decades.

 

[Cush]

Und

Lithium has very low self discharge and can be drained really low. I would have thought they would be fine in storage with no charging for several months.

Understood and it likes to sit at partial full but not sure want to invest in the infrastructure in current van.

 

[Captain Yoghurtpot]

I’m considering an Anker because….
van is 2003, would need a charger upgrade (£360 ish) B2B (£150 ish) inverter (£2 - 300) lithium battery and professional fitting.
My storage has no ehu so I could charge it up and plug the van in every couple of weeks to keep the Pb acids topped up.

it’s still my first van (not my 3rd ) so an anker would be easy to move across should I change.
I also have a load of solar that it would be nice to be able to use to charge the anker but that needs a bit more research.

It might be best to charge it off the current 12v system? Also need to find out if the unit can operate when on its side (it’s a space thing). thinking about the 767.

Anyway. Following this thread with interest.
Cush

Me too Cush.
Seems our vans are possibly of a similar vintage and set up.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Captain Yoghurtpot]

After the EUFI scandal (same company) I won't be sending any more money Ankers way. Shame really as I have had them top of my list for quality products for almost 2 decades.

What is the EUFI scandal please?

 

[Gromett]

What is the EUFI scandal please?

Should have been EUFY sorry. Anker/Eufy lied about their cameras uploading to the cloud. They allowed anyone to access cameras remotely amongst other problems. They denied there was a problem and bad mouthed the security researcher to discredit him. It left a seriously bad taste in my mouth as they had previously been a very reputable company with a high quality products. Due to the lies I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole.

It took a sustained campaign by the tech press to make them back down and admit they lied. They are now trying to recover. But the same management is still in place so I just don't trust them.

Google "Eufy Scandal" and you will get loads of different articles. There is no single article that covers the entire time line that I was able to quickly find but this will give you an overview.

Eufy Finally Admits Its 'Local' Cameras Were Sending Unencrypted Streams, Claims It Will Do Better

The security camera company’s parent Anker promised all video stream requests will be E2E encrypted, and that every Eufy camera will be WebRTC-enabled.

gizmodo.com

Anker’s Eufy breaks its silence on security cam security

But we still don’t know what’s actually encrypted

www.theverge.com

 

[Pausim]

What is the EUFI scandal please?

Why Anker’s Eufy Cameras Upload Scandal Shows the Dangers of Home Automation

The whole eufy camera debacle raises a good point; even if you choose a reliable brand, how do you know your security cameras won’t leak data, or worse, be hacked to spy on you?

www.lifewire.com

 

[Gromett]

Why Anker’s Eufy Cameras Upload Scandal Shows the Dangers of Home Automation

The whole eufy camera debacle raises a good point; even if you choose a reliable brand, how do you know your security cameras won’t leak data, or worse, be hacked to spy on you?

www.lifewire.com

I disagree strongly with one of the statements this article makes, also this article was published fairly early on in the scandal.

This is the bit I disagree with.

The problem is that the company claimed that nothing was stored in the cloud but then proceeded to store stuff in the cloud. If they hadn't made the claim then the article would be correct in that it was a non story.
But it was worse that what they said. They were using AI to create facial recognition IDs so they could recognise a person and tag them. If this information was just stored locally then again no issue, but does anyone believe them now the trust is blown?

 

[Gromett]

Here is why I think this is relevant.

If someone now complains that one of these battery packs burned their van down. Anker denies it saying there is no way for this to happen. But then more start burning. Who do you believe? The trust is gone. Will Anker do the right thing and put it right or take 2 months again before being forced to admit fault?

Trust is hard to earn and easily thrown away...

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Captain Yoghurtpot]

Here is why I think this is relevant.

If someone now complains that one of these battery packs burned their van down. Anker denies it saying there is no way for this to happen. But then more start burning. Who do you believe? The trust is gone. Will Anker do the right thing and put it right or take 2 months again before being forced to admit fault?

Trust is hard to earn and easily thrown away...

Its a bit like Boris and his " non- denial, denials" over parties etc.
TBH, I think we can look FAR to deeply into stuff that we just cannot control any more.
The only way I think we can be absolved from any form of following, monitoring, being on cctv, facialy recognised, free from banking scams, free from every " knock-off Nigel" and their dodgy wares etc etc, is to be dead!
And I don't plan on doing that any time soon.
So they can look at my ugly fizzog as much as they like, send me crap feeds of stuff I do not want, purchased with money I don't have, for people I don't like, because no matter how stressed up I could get over this, I just can't beat them!
World we now live I'm afraid.
Big brother IS out there.

 

[Captain Yoghurtpot]

They might be low wattage but will still draw quite a lot on starting so you need to spec your inverter accordingly and it's going to draw quite a lot out of the battery. I think if you want the mains electric appliances off grid you're going to need more than the sort of system we have. The calculation if you're thinking of swapping the MH soon is cost to upgrade per night off grid before swapping it could be cheaper to eat out!. In our case we have decided the cost per night to use mains electric appliances isn't worth it that doesn't mean everyone will be the same. If you buy the portable power supply then fit a pretty comprehensive solar system on the next van I'm not sure what a secondhand portable power supply would sell for if that's what you decide to do.

I would not be selling it on after the new van,because as a family we also camp, and it would be brilliant for that, so it would be purchased to use long term, initially for our existing van short term.
But I get your thoughts.

 

[RM_Marine]

I've got a 757 and two solar panels that I got from costco for £1189 and I have to admit when I use it in the van, I use electricity like I'm at home.

I do have two 100Ah L36-EFB Yuasa batteris in the motoerhome all ready and they work great but to help and enable me to have 240v I've got the 757 and that gives me other 4 days off grid without using the solar.

It does only take 70mins to charge from dead to full on 240v, I'm going to gove it to mum and dad and buy the 767 for myself as we still go camping and away in the transporter regularly and I want a bit more power.

I would of got lithium if we didn't camp and stop going places that's the motorhome can't get to but I can't see that happening anytime soon

 

[herald_400rl]

We have 6 Anker 555's at work, they will charge an average plum dead laptop 14 times from one charge.
1Kw output maybe a bit low for some but we needed them to be manageable. We velcro'd 2 x 4 gang extensions to it with short 0.5m leads so they can be better utilised by many attendees at once.

 

[TerryReis]

I have recently purchased an Anker 555, very impressed with it. Will change my bikes. List price £1099.00 - £400.00 current discount = £699.00 so not so spendy. I'll will buy another, the current discounts end 07/06/2023. No need for inverters and rewiring and I can swap it between the motorhome (when it arrives) and the caravan. Some good discounts running on their website currently https://www.anker.com/uk/collections/portable-power-stations?ref=naviMenu_pps.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[peterc10]

As some may know, or not, I have an older van of 2000 vintage.
I have no solar, 1 lead acid leisure battery, 1 cab battery and a 3 way fridge plus gas only boiler and 12v LED lights.
The electrics work as should do, and when away we are mostly on EHU, but we would love to do more with sites without EHU, and my current leisure battery is not sufficient.
I also have no room to fit a second battery.
Solar, whilst an envious option I would love, is not an option.
The apparent fitting and subsequent reconfiguration of chargers, replacing and uprating cables, fitting panels, installing Inverters etc etc and then getting it all fitted , by a proffesional installer is not only cost prohibitive ( to me , c.4k?), but also perhaps not a great idea on a van we are thinking of changing in the next year or two, as non of these fitted costs would possibly not be recoverable, even in a strong second-hand market.
I am hoping our next van will have such refinements already fitted, but of course that will be a cost/ affordability exercise.
I just thought that for now, although not cheap, this piece of kit might be an alternative solution for myself, and possibly others with whatever set-up, in the interim, but also would be good as a back up supply at home in a domestic capacity.

Some of the things you cannot afford, may not be needed. For example, you only need an inverter is you want to run 240v appliances. We have managed by using 12v adaptors for almost everything we use in the motorhome including TV, phones, ipad, computer, electric toothbrush, torches etc. The only reason we got an inverter was to run my wife's hair dryer. You can buy a 100 - 120Ah lithium battery, a 200W solar panel and regulator, a new 240v charger with lithium profile and a B2B for under £1,000. Not sure how much it would all cost to fit because I fitted my own with lots of help on the forum and I am no spring chicken. But I guess it should be no more than another £1,000k if you use a local travelling motorhome fitter.