Hi!
I have a smart meter on the outlet that powers my Elite 100 V2, and I have noticed it shows values very different from those shown by both the Bluetti app and the Bluetti screen. They are always lower than those shown by Bluetti. What could this be due to? Bluetti shows 100W and outside it shows 50-57W.
Thank you.
This difference might be because Bluetti uses VA numbers (actual/effective AC energy) where the Watt-meter might use (DC) Watt numbers .
For DC, then ‘Volt x Ampere’ is at all times equal to the energy consumption.
For AC, the calculation is not quite as straightforward, because inductance (and thus phase shifting between volt and ampere) is an integral part of how AC power works.
So a PA (Power Factor) will often be needed when calculating the actual AC Watts (in order to compensate for the phase shift between Volt and Ampere on an AC line).
And perhaps the Watt meter does not include this phase shifting effect, when determining how many AC Watts are being consumed.
‘Volt x Ampere’ still results in Watt, for both DC and AC
But for AC there is often a (varying) time delay between when the Volt and Ampere numbers should be measured - and the resulting Watt should be calculated.
To indicate that this time delay needs to be considered, when determining the actual/resulting Watt of an AC connected device, then an AC device will often use the term ‘VA’ when showing how many Watts the device will typically need/consume.
The simple answer is this - The value your power meter displays, is what the appliance you are powering is using.
The Value on the unit display and App should be the same as each other or very close to that, but it is the amount of power the Elite 100 v2 is actually consuming from its battery to provide that power.
This is the power your device is using, plus the self consumption and the effeciency losses of converting DC battery voltage to AC current. This also applies when converting the 51V battery power to 12V and USB voltages.
This is normal and the better value to use when calculating run time is the Bluetti % over time. 