Hello @BLUETTI - let’s review a year of AC300 adventures and what world of possibilities it has offered so far.
#MyAC300afterAyear
Let’s begin with a very quick preview of all our AC300 allowed to accomplish:
We bought this nice little piece of land about two years ago, it had been abandoned for years and required intense cleanup.
We first began some cleanup with manual tools and battery operated gardening tools… you can imagine we didn’t make much progress. Even though my wife seems to be having a great time on that picture, we were really not seeing any progress this way…
But then, as I started to properly look into solar power, mobile solar power to be accurate, Bluetti seemed to be a match made in heaven. Not living far from that piece of land, we’d walk our unit in a cart, brining some much more suitable corded power tools.
Why not petrol? Because we want to dedicate this piece of land to permaculture and beekeeping. Using petrol tools was out of the question here.
That was last summer.
We started with recharging the AC300 / B300 using solar power at home with portable panels (2x100W):
The small portable panels were certainly nice, but we needed something with more kick and decided to buy some roof-grade panels to make it really a viable option - it turned our terrasse into a very DIY-ish solar harvester:
This was only temporary of course, as these panels are meant to belong to our small piece of land.
Speaking of which, with those better suited power tools and the mobile power of AC300, we managed to clear a lot of ground and starting the creation of small mounds to grow our first plants (lavender, bees love it). Bluetti didn’t flinch in spite of feeding and electric tiller, wood chipper, chainsaw, disc trimmer & more, and sometimes multiple tools at the same time!
As Autumun approached, we cleared quite a bit already:
See that dark box in the background?
You can guess, it’s our AC300 helping us claim the land one square meter at a time!
We’re digging those “rooms” and “hallways” in the brambles and dead wood:
Then with more work, we started building a treehouse in a corner of the piece of land - thankfully, the neighbors didn’t mind and enjoyed the idea of finally seeing this abandoned land turn into something.
Woodworking powertools and AC300 were meant for each other:
We first thought of making a simple, small cabin on top of a wooden terrasse. It was easier than we thought… so we decided to create a tiny house up there, duplex style. Having some carpentry & DIY experience helped for sure, but having unlimited power on tap in a place where utility isn’t available made it possible - however, beware, keep the AC300 & B300 units away from the sawdust!
Building was so fun, and surprisingly easy that adding the top floor was a breeze. So we have a terrasse on the ground floor, a first 9m² room on the first floor, and a 6m² on the 2nd floor:
In a matter of 15 days, the first viable version of our tower was ready… it rained on that day so the AC300 was in the tent. Sorry guys, AC300 isn’t weatherproof. We’re very eager to try the new IP65 AC60 by the way!!!
Then came winter… AC300 would be powering my office, a small game development studio, connected to some of the rooftop panels nicely waiting in the garden…
We just needed to get some MC4 wires reach the office:
But who says winter, says snow… behold, the prototype of our solar panel DIY structure… covered in snow.
Of course, AC300 acted as a Solar UPS on those days. This being said, clear winter days would allow us to produce up to 90% of those 3 panel’s design capacity, and effectively powering the office (4 seats); some days, we’d even not need to rely on the grid!
And we’ve even worked on our last video game from the tower, using mobile power only. Laptop batteries would fail due to the 0°C temperature, but not Bluetti’s LiFePO4 chemistry. It wouldn’t flinch!
What stopped our working session, then?
Cold fingertips would!
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As spring returned earlier this year, we restarted clearing the piece of land, this time - with an extended range of tools. During office hours, we’re really off-grid now, turning the two top floors into nice little workspaces:
How do we bring power over there? You guessed of course.
And when night comes, a DC light cord powers up the whole building (directly plugged into the battery’s DC-out to reduce standby power consumption).
In the meantime, we like to joke about our petrol car becoming the first “solar hybrid” of its kind. Can we fit those mobile solar panels, AC300 and B300 in this MK7 Golf?
Answer is yes! Almost, the roof panel can’t fit though:
Now it’s become a mobile toolshed:
We just drive it close to the piece of land and “plug” it into the land’s solar wires;
We’re working on creating the final version of our ground platform for roof-grade solar panels. They’ll connect to the car using a 30m long pair of 6mm² MC4 wires, and the 2.5mm² wiring I’m currently installing plugs itself into the car’s AC300 to the power the piece of land; some kind of two-way relationship between the land and the solar generator!
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We’re also working on a water pumping system, with slow drip and a mist irrigation system.
The plans for summer also involve creating our first beehive and preparing the ground for winter, so we can start growing our first crops next spring!
We still can’t believe how much we accomplished there. One step at a time is getting us there… from brambles to our first steps in permaculture in just a year - and Bluetti’s the one that made it possible!
Hopefully, we’ll share much, much more next summer.
Thanks for reading!
