I recently changed out my AC300 for the AC500. With the AC300, loads would drop to 150watts and even read 0 for short periods, but since I switched to the AC500, discharge is never less than 400 watts continuously.
This uses all my batteries (4 B300s) every night forcing me to use grid power every night. While it is offsetting my usage, it is disappointing when my AC300 could power my loads for days.
Anyone else have this experience?
400 watts of constant use for 12 hours would use up 4,800 watt-hours of power. You have 4 B300 batteries, each with 3,072 watt-hours of capacity. You should be only using about 37% of your capacity. So, something else is going on with your system. Is it possible you have the UPS mode configured differently on the AC500 than you did on the AC300? Is it switching to utility power at a higher threshold than previously set up?
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Hi @Birvin
Do you mean that your system with the AC500 now draws 400W instead of 150W with the AC300?
For sure the AC500 has a bit more selfconsumption because of the bigger inverter, but it shouldnt be that high. First thing you should do is to update your AC500 and you B300 Units to the latest firmware. Also what @hnymann mentioned regarding the UPS mode is a important thing. Some of the UPS Modes leave the inverter only in a standby instead of turning off. This cause also extra battery drain.
greetings
Erik
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Something is definitely wrong.
I have an AC500 and 6x B300S.
During nighttime it’s using an average of 275W/Hr.
Consumers are: router & boosters, security system with 5 cameras, fridge, freezer and some lights.
@hnymann i have other loads with a peak of 1.2 Kw at times. I’ve overpaneled and get 2.2 Kw solar for about 3 hours a day. I’m using PV priority mode drawing AC at 50%.
With the AC300 the batteries would easily reach 100% and have between 10 -30% by morning keeping me off grid for days (I had a lower SOC then). With the AC500 I rarely reach 100% because of the 450watt constant load and I’m only having to charge from 50% drain.
Load: refrigerator, window AC in storage shed, shallow well pump (currently off), crawlspace dehumidifier, sump pump, lights, TV.
Also, I need to recalibrate the batteries which have a 15-20% discrepancy.
Last year may not have been a good baseline since we had drought conditions and this year has had a lot of rain.
I’ve also realized the dehumidifier is running much more than it used to so I’m trying to troubleshoot if that is due to humidity conditions or a faulty hygrometer keeping the unit continuously on.
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@Bikerwally this could be a load issue, but still seems odd I can’t reach 100% charge from 50%. Once I get back I’ll start eliminating load to see what the unit is doing on its own.
Hi Birvin,
It’s good to know how much power (Watt) your appliances are using. You can use a power plug or a watt meter to measure this.
The AC500 is using around 30 Watt/Hr without anything connected.
Converting DC from the batteries into AC also takes some energy, my guess this would be +10%.
This means if appliances are drawing 1000 W, the AC500 will use 1000+100+30= 1130 W.
@Bluetti, please correct me if I’m wrong.
@Bikerwally The reality is similar to what you estimated.
Because 90% efficiency needs to be taken into account when discharging the machine, the machine will also have a certain amount of self-consumption.
@Birvin Did you manage to solve this issue?
I have the same problem with AC500. I use AC500 when there is no electricity to supply my flat.
Before I used ecoflow with 1800w invertor, and it took less 200-300 watts than ac500.
For example, connect ecoflow to supply the flat, and enable only wifi router. In this case, consumption is ~40 watts.
The same with AC500 and consumption is ~250 watts.
@BLUETTI Is it ok that AC500 consumes around 200 watts itself?
@droid1025
The rated output power of the AC500 is much higher than that of ECOFLOW. When powering low-power devices, the losses will also be correspondingly higher.
However, when powering a 40W router, the losses are much smaller than 250W. You can calculate the specific details using the formula we provided.
@BLUETTI thanks! but there is a formula to calculate charging time, not discharging.
I did some additional testing. I’ve connected power stations to supply the whole flat.
- Most devices are in sleep mode and enable only the router, alarm, etc.
Ecoflow delta(1200 Wh, 1800W) shows a consumption - 260 Wh, and Bluetti ac500 - 487 Wh. So Bluetti consumes 227 W more power than Ecoflow. - Enable microwave additionally
Ecoflow delta - 885 Wh, and Bluetti ac500 - 1042 Wh, Bluetti consumes 157 W more power than Ecoflow.
Why are the differences so significant?
@droid1025 Please note that alternating current, unlike direct current, have different characteristics depending on the type of load and therefore be detected differently by different storage devices with the exact same load.
It is therefore not just a question of actual consumption of the 2 storage systems but especially of how they detect AC energy (if just resistive or also capacitive and inductive).
Furthermore, this must also include the point at which the energy is detected, whether on the secondary, i.e. load side, or on the primary, i.e. battery side (where in addition to the actual consumption, the efficiency coefficient is also included).
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In order to understand the actual efficiency coefficient between the two storage systems, you should load them both to 100% and connect the exact same load to them until 0%, possibly resistive, measuring the power supply time and dividing it by the total capacity.
Or, you should detect the instant load energy with the same external watt meter between the two devices.
@ndwr thanks
Definitely, my measurement is not accurate. The measurement error can be 20% -30% but not 100%.
That’s why, I’m trying to understand why stations show significantly different loads in case of similar usage.
In my opinion, the issues can be in the following:
- Power stations have different algorithms to measure load
- There is a bug in Bluetti firmware
- There is an issue with my ac500 hardware