Thought I would do some testing on a spare LFP to Charger 1 to AC70. This will be similar for the AC180 & other power stations in the smaller range.
My set up was basic and consisted of; Charger 1 with a short home made input cable, a Pylontech 100Ah LFP deep cycle battery, fitted with a short fused lead (50A), the AC70 and its OEM solar DC input lead. I used a clamp ammeter to check Pylontech battery load/voltage.
As the Pylontech was part discharged and the AC70 was full, I first charged the Pylontech from the AC70 to lower its state of charge to near 60%.
During this test, I also noted something that I was not actually aware of re the AC70. I knew that AC charging rates could be changed thru, Silent - Standard and Turbo modes. What I was not aware of is, theses App settings also affect DC charging input rates.
I set the Charger 1 to 56V (maximum), the Pylontech was near 100% SOC and the AC70 was at 60%.
My 1st test was to connect the Pylontech directly to the solar input of the AC70, without the C1. The charge rate in watts was 108W.
Rather than make this post too large with excessive photographs, I’ll only give results going forward with a couple of screenshots. (Please note, screenshots of the App were modified to remove the serial numbers of my C1 & AC70.)
During all tests the Pylontech showed 13.0 to 13.1V.
A conclusion I came too by varying the C1 voltage when in Silent charge mode, was that set to 33V charge the output was still at 254W. Therefore if you charge a power bank in Silent mode, there is no point in bumping the C1 voltage to maximum. Conversely, if the C1 is set to maximum volts, the power station setting will limit input and not raise the the amp load on the battery or an alternator, which would save constant changing of the C1 parameters.
The above would apply to all of my AC70s, AC180s and AC200P. Smaller power stations with a lower Voc input would still require C1 voltage outputs to be adjusted below their max Voc input.
The other item for me to check - I have an older AC70 & AC180, I don’t know if changing AC charge mode affects the DC mode on these. Perhaps @BLUETTI can confirm. Saves me some effort, lol.
The aim of this post is to highlight, that apart from in vehicle alternator use, the Charger 1 is a safe method of boosting the DC charge rate of a power station from any nominal 12 or 24V battery to expand capacity.
Although I have a 12 to 24V 10A power converter, it gets very hot and care is needed to not place it on a surface that could be damaged. I’m not a big fan of these things.
When it comes to charging a battery, both volts and amps need to be properly regulated. Although the C1 has a variable voltage output, it is regulated and the MPPT charge controller internal to the power station does the rest re charging algorithm of the LFP cells.
An electrical engineering friend of mine tested the same Pylontech I have for capacity. At a discharge of 1A, it recorded in excess of 120Ah (when new) for a 100Ah battery. Mine is over 5 years old and still exceeds 100Ah of capacity. I therefore expect to see at least 1,280Wh additional capacity to the AC70s 768Wh for a total exceeding 2kWh.
For the AC180s 1,152 Wh a total exceeding 2.4kWh.
Are you referring to the fact that setting the charging mode affects the charging power of the solar panels? Depending on the model, some will.
Different modes on different models will not necessarily limit the power of PV charging.
@BLUETTI The reference is; I started charging with the Charger 1 at 33V to get the full 10A input, which theoretically should produce 330W, I only saw 257W. The AC70 AC charging mode was set to Silent.
I then increased the voltage of the C1 output to 40V and then to 56V with no discernable increase in charge rate viewed on the AC70 display.
It was not until I set the charge mode to Standard, that an increased charge rate was noted and a further increase when set to Turbo.
I suppose my first Q is, will my older (over 1 year) AC70 do the same as the new one? and 2. As the AC180 is similar in solar input, will the AC charge setting affect it in the same way?
Or do I need to get all of them out and test this for effect?
@Mandp
Hi Mike,
After confirming with technicians: Charger1 is just a charger, charging power is not controlled by Charger1; you may have turned on the AC70 in silent mode, you can try to turn on the fast charging mode.
Attached: AC70 Maximum Charging Power
AC/AC+PV Maximum Charging Power: (AC+PV input will prioritize the PV input)
@BLUETTI Thanks, you confirm my suspicion that the mode charging of Silent, Standard and Turbo affects the charging rate of both AC and DC inputs.
I should have realised that, when duel input charging from grid and solar, the rate is relative to the charge setting, for a combination to that setting with the only variable being solar priority, topped up by grid.
As my AC180s also have these mode settings the same variable input criteria will apply.
One further Q. My AC200P has a 500W AC charging brick and up to 700W of solar input. I could not find any reference in the Owner Manual to duel charging. My Q being; will the AC200P charge from AC @ 500W at the same time as using the Charger 1 set to its maximum charge rate of 560W for a total input of 1,060W, Safely?
