We live in the suburbs & a power company gas & electric account along with a full roof-top solar system. I purchased a Bluetti AC200P about 15 months ago. The Bluetti was acquired to generate a little additional power & to have enough power storage to keep two refrigerators going should we experience a home power interruption. (Here in northern California, our power provider tells us to expect a few power interruptions each year.)
I designed & built a solar panel platform in our backyard. I had problems when I purchased two used 260W solar panels. Having failed to understand the high voltage requirements of the Bluetti, the set up limped along achieving a maximum of only about 110W peak charging. I was just not generating enough power for the system to meet my needs.
I did more research & replaced those used panels with two brand new 330W solar panels that a solar contractor had left over from a full-house solar installation. I was very fortunate to get those for $100 each and, together they deliver about 90V.
By February 2024, I had the system up and running. As we’ve moved into Spring, my solar panels are generating an average of about 500W from 11AM to 4:30PM. I expect it will increase to about 600W by mid Summer. The Bluetti can store about 2000W. But by using the power while the Bluetti is charging, we’re realizing about 4000W of usable electricity each day.
We start the day with the Bluetti down to around 15%. The sun comes up & the Bluetti turns itself on. I plug our two refrigerators into the Bluetti at about 9:00AM. By about 11:30AM the Bluetti has increased to about 25% capacity and charging at close to 500W. From about noon until 3:30PM we put on a heavy load: We run the dishwasher, the clothes washer, or use the power to vacuum or cook.
After 3:30 PM we just use the Bluetti to run the refrigerators. The Bluetti continues to charge & by 4:30PM the Bluetti is at 100% capacity even though we’ve been consuming power. It continues to run the two refrigerators through the evening. I switch them to house power when I go to bed and, by then, the Bluetti is down to about 20%.
The cycle repeats the next day. While the process sounds complicated, it’s not. It takes just a few seconds 3X a day to move a power cord to the Bluetti or back to house power. Our power company charges about 50c per KW so, we’re saving about $4.00 per day on our power bill. That may not seem earthshaking, but it adds up.
Bottom line, the Bluetti is as reliable as sunrise and it does exactly what we’d hoped it would do … maybe even a bit better than we’d hoped. Where my neighbors worry about power outages or buy wall-mounted batteries that cost about $12K, we found a solution that cost a small fraction of that. And, our system will pay for itself in just two or three of years.
