I recently bought one Elite 200V2 and two Elite 100V2 units, primarily because I expected to be able to use these devices for Time Shifting Electricity Usage away from Peak Rate Time Periods (cost = 28.4 Cents per KWh) to Overnight Rate Time period (2.8 Cents per KWh which can be 75 ~ 85% saving depending upon overall efficiency) .
Objective of Time Shifting is to reduce cost of Grid Power Total by reducing or eliminating Grid input during Peak Time rates by shifting Power source to internal battery or external DC input.
I am disappointed with results, but expect this will be temporary.
The EL200V2 almost does this task perfectly and does actually reduce overall Electricity cost as a result. It is very usable, but could use some improvement.
The EL100V2 units both fail miserably and actually increase overall Electricity cost because they fail to charge the battery for at least a portion of the ‘Not Peak’ time setting in the schedule, and continue charging the battery during the ‘Peak’ time setting in the schedule. The EL100V2 cannot be used to reduce electricity cost by time shifting at this time … I expect it will be changed to act like the EL200V2 soon, and we should wait for those firmware updates before using it for TOU - Time shifting.
It seems to me that all of these issues can either be completely fixed with firmware changes, or at least greatly improved.
Also, I have begun to wonder if using the WiFi connection option is causing some of the problem because it appears to rely upon a ‘Cloud Server’ … which will always be unreliable because of the IP Traffic management imposed by the owners of the physical Network infrastructure (at least in Canada). I was hoping that both the Bluetooth and WiFi connections to the Bluetti devices would use ONLY in building communication systems without relying upon public Internet connections that are subject to control by the Public Internet providers … but this does not seem to be the way Bluetti has implemented the WiFi communications. I would like to see this changed to reduce reliance on any Cloud Server except for maintenance, remote service and remote user/owner control.
Objective of Time Shifting is to reduce cost of Grid Power Total by reducing or eliminating Grid input during Peak Time rates by shifting Power source to internal battery or external DC input. And to maximize use of GRID POWER for battery charging during the lowest Rate Time period.
I do NOT have any Solar Panels … ROI for Solar Panels compares very poorly to Overnight Grid Power rate of 2.8 Cents Per KWh. I use the XT60 connector to connect any of these 3:
- 12V LiFePo4 100AH battery, with charger connected through a timer to charge only overnight
- 24V LiFePo2 400AH (4P 100AH) with charger connected through a timer to charge only overnight
- Bluetti Charger 1 sourced from same 24V / 400AH battery bank to EL200V2
I am not suggesting that using PV input is not essential, just that being able to take advantage of changing TOU rates is also a compelling reason to use a POWER Station.
Specific observations from some FAFO activity:
- both EL200V2 and EL100V2 always prioritize PV/DC input regardless of Schedule settings, I would like to be able to adjust this priority in the Customized UPS setting to GRID INPUT during LOW RATE periods and DC Input during HIGH RATE Periods.There is no need to drain the External Battery during LOW RATE time periods and I would like to be able to make this happen without adding another external device (a time controlled switch for the DC Input connection)
- EL200V2 reliably disables GRID INPUT during PEAK periods … Excellent, this what I want to see
- EL200V2 reliably charges internal battery at set rate during OFF PEAK periods … also Excellent
- EL200V2 reliably draws GRID POWER (pass thru) at the same rate as the output load during undefined Time Periods … OK with me, this is like method to support 3 different GRID RATES … which is a good idea IMHO
- EL100V2 battery charging times are unreliable
- EL100V2 Sometimes during OFF PEAK times … NO GRID POWER draw while output load > 10% of capacity (180W) - until internal battery measured SOC drops to low setting of SOC setting
- EL100V2 GRID POWER Draw ~= 10% of output load >10% of capacity (180W ~ 450W) … regardless of TIME SETTING to PEAK or OFF PEAK.
- EL100V2 - Sometimes, haven’t figured out pattern yet … GRID POWER DRAW = OUTPUT POWER, regardless of TIME SETTING to PEAK or OFF PEAK or undefined when actual SOC => SOC setting
- EL100V2 - Sometimes (frequently) … during OFF PEAK times GRID DRAW = OUTPUT POWER + 600W (standard charge rate) but not always for the entire Time Period.
- EL100V2 - Sometimes (not frequently) … during PEAK times GRID DRAW = OUTPUT POWER regardless of actual battery SOC … i.e does not draw from fully charged battery during PEAK Time period.
Result is … EL200V2 does help reduce GRID POWER Total cost, EL100V2 actually increases GRID POWER Total cost.