Hi knowledgeable folks. I’m comparing capacities of the AC 180 with the Elite 100 v2. The AC 180 is 36 Ah while the Elite 100 v2 is 20 Ah. Does that not mean that the AC 180 has around 75% more capacity than the Elite 100? When I use the compare function on the Bluetti site, it shows that the Elite 100 v2 charges/runs devices around 33% more than the AC 180 (i.e. the AC charges a phone 29 times while the Elite charges a phone 52 times). How can that be possible? Thanks for reading.
Not quite, since the nominal voltage is different, the battery capacity is actually just the difference in watt hours. 20AX51.2V= 1024WH and 32VX36A= 1152WH still means just a capacity difference of 1024/1152 or 11.2%. Keep in mind both units have a 90% depth of discharge (921.6 “usable watt hours” vs 1036 “usable watt hours”). The remaining 10% is saved for battery (BMS). Most notably why its 51V battery is to handle the 1000W solar charging better and more efficiently. The discrepancy in the AC inverter charging the phone more has to do with the fact the newer inverter in Elite 100 V2 is more efficient meaning less waste while idle and less power to run appliances. The inverter inside the Bluetti requires so much power to run itself (which it sips from the battery) so you can plug in AC appliances into it. If the AC180 needed say 15W to run the inverter but the Elite 100 V2 only needed 10W, this would equate to the 33% increase in charges, since 10/15 is about 33% more. The advertisement about the Elite 100 V2 charging the phone 33% more is a bit misleading. Let’s be real. Nobody is charging a phone over AC. They would use DC. In that case, the results would favor the AC180 since you’ll get around 85% efficiency on DC side (for both devices) while fast charging a phone over USB C, but since the AC180 has 11% more capacity, you’ll get slightly MORE charges. Assume a newer iPhone is around 18Wh. You’ll consume around 20-25Wh to top off the phone at 85% efficiency, so that’s basically 4 more charges on AC180 since its around 100Wh MORE.
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Thanks for the thoughtful response sealy. I was thinking that Ah was the definitive measure of capacity not Wh. I had it backwards I guess. So would you suggest looking at Wh when assessing battery capacity rather than Ah?
Correct. To give you an example:
- Battery A: 100 Ah at 12V = 100 X 12 or 120Wh
- Battery B: 100 Ah at 24V = 100 X 24 or 240Wh
Same Ah but twice the capacity.
Thanks again. Totally saved me from making some misinformed decisions.
It was a typo. I meant 1200Wh and 2400Wh.