I am in the process of converting a van into my own hotel on wheels and purchased the AC300/B300K/solar package.
My initial experience was a bit alarming. The screen showed 94% charged and when I plugged in a space heater, it drained to 32% in about 10 minutes. Needless to say I was extremely disappointed. I called the 800 number and was told to charge and drain it 3 times. Yesterday was the 3rd time and I recorded the watts/charge/time and would like to know if this is the best it gets or does it get better?
At 6:15 it was at a 98% charge.
I plugged a space heater into it and put the settings to warm my office (a tad bit bigger than the van) to a comfortable temperature. Our building temperature is permanently set to Siberia. It used 916w on average.
At 6:21 I decided to do a few tests to see how many watts it would use on the highest setting. On turbo mode, the heater jumped up to 1448w from 916w. At 6:24, it stabilised to 1441w and the battery was at 92%.
At 6:25 I switched the heater setting back to the original, medium that used 915w and the battery was at 91%.
At 6:28, with the heater still running, I plugged in my hairbrush/blowdryer on the lowest setting and it went to 1591w. Using the highest setting it went to 2056w.
At 6:30 I unplugged the hairbrush/dryer and just left the heater on 911w. The battery was at 87%.
6:35-84%
6:40-81%
6:45-78%
6:55-71%
and finally at 7:34 (a little over an hour) the battery was at 46%
How is this device capable of handling a house?? I kinda feel swindled…
AC300 + B300K is a great choice, but i think you await a bit too much for this setup. You running only one of max 4 supported expansion batterys. One of the B300K have like 2700Wh. This means, you could power a device with 2700W for about a hour.
So see, that the Battery is at 46% while using all your devices that you listed seems fine.
You can run a full house on this unit, but with more than one expansion battery of course.
Hope this helped you to understand the behavior of your unit. Feel free to ask any questions.
Heaters just take a huge load of power. The AC300+B300K can deliver that. Up to 3000 watts continuously. But you need more batteries if you want a longer runtime. And solar recharging for the use of heating will not work. If it’s cold outside it’s probably winter. With low sun power. You won’t get the solar recharging for meaningful heating.
Having said that: I would probably not run heaters off a battery unless I absolutely had to. It’s a bit of a blunt use of power. Use it for your electronics devices and to make a cup of coffee. Then the battery will last much longer.
If you still want to return it, contact your seller. Under EU consumer law you have 14 days to undo a remote (online or phone) purchase. If you are outside of the EU you need to check the rules of your country and your seller.
I would keep it but not use it for heating but for mobile and/or emergency power. These are fine units.
You have to be realistic about how much power we all use everyday, van or house.
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While heaters are not really rated for efficiency, I found that those oil filled electric heaters work reasonable well with my AC500 and 6 B300s batteries. The worst kind are the ones with heating coils and a fan.
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I’ve gotten by for 2 years on my system, running almost the whole house. You do have to plan some things, like running appliances only when the sun it out, using only electric blankets or a full size heating pad at night. I have 3 portable A/Cs for summer. I run 2 during the day, and the one in my bedroom runs only at night.
The AC300 have a built in MPPT (Solar Charger). You can connect it, when its atleast reach 12V
Theoreticly, you can charge a Unit on any AC Charger with the right adapter. I see people charging their powerstations from a EV Charger. A quick google search brings up a issue with some stations when their check for grounding. Since the Powerstations have floating ground and not a real ground, some stations refuse charging.
Maybe someone that actually tried it him/herself should answer this question and share their experiences.