Is anyone using 6 B300s with a single AC500? I am curious if you can share some pictures of how you physically stack them. I have been told by Bluetti that you can only stack 2 B300s with an AC500 on top. The cables are too short, so how are people physically stacking and organizing? Does anyone have a share of they are physically organizing their AC500 setup?
@BLUETTI_CARE Is there any plans for longer cables for the AC500 so that batteries actually can sit side by side? I know it is too late for this product, but possibly putting one cable port on either side of the battery, longer cables or even having a cable plug in the back of the unit would surely make the stacking and or placement of batteries much easier for customers.
The sketch comes from the Bluetti manual.
The pictures are my setup. It doesn’t matter how you connect the batteries as long as each battery makes connection with the AC500. Direct or bridged through other batteries.
Thanks for sharing. So bluetti support has told me specifically not to stack more then 2 batteries and the inverter or don’t stack 3 batteries, as the weight can damage the frame of the bottom battery. I thought this was odd because of the drawings in the manual. I currently only have 4 batteries and I bought a rack at Home Depot that allows me to put 2 batteries on the bottom shelf and 2 more on second shed with the inverter on top of the top pair. It looks like in your picture you have them sideways against a wall instead of facing out so to limit how far off the wall they stick out?
My setup has to do with the available space, everything is standing on a well-supported shelf.
The units are about 5 to 10 cm (2 to 4”) away from the wall for ventilation/cooling.
When you plan your setup, keep in mind that for installing new firmware for the batteries (only possible with Bluetooth), each battery has to be connected individually to the AC500.
When Bluetti advises not to stack the units as high as shown in the manual, then most likely somebody experienced some damage already.
I asked this question before I ordered the units and this was their reply:
@kkircher Thanks for your support. Regarding to the request for longer cable for the AC500, we have reported this to the relative department before. You can pay attention to the listing on our website.
I have 4 B300s now, and if/when I buy more I’ll just have a shelf above them to separate the weight. Back in my bohemian (hippy) days some cinder blocks and some 2x16x6’ boards was more than strong enough to support my 2’x6’ salt water aquarium, likely in the +300 lb range.
Yeah, their pic is contrary to their instructions about battery stacking. I guess someone told them to play it safe.
.
I’ve seen the teardown videos, and although aluminum, the frames look pretty hefty.
I only have the AC500 and one battery, but you can see the metal AV cart I use works nicely. I could easily move the AC500 up to the top shelf and put two batteries on the cart, and get a second or third cart for more batteries. This way they’re not stacked on each other too.
I only use the AC500 to power “essential” circuits in my house for those “5 second” power outages. I’m planning on having a whole house Generac installed for those extended power outages as I live in Cape Coral, Florida and we had no power for 10 days during Hurricane Ian. Not going thru that again.
But for now, I can also hook up my little portable generator to the AC500 to feed it if there is a longer power outage, and I’ve got the Bluetti solar panel for a little extra juice too. So… it works for me.
Having a lifelong back injury I find I’m always needing some sort of rolling lift. I’ve had my eye on this for awhile. You’d laugh if you saw me unboxing B300s batteries, (turn box on its side and carefully “roll” each battery out. )
@Raymondjram We don’t recommend doing so. If all b300s are chained in series, there will be much differences in the SOC of each battery. In normal cases, the battery pack near the port will discharge faster.
If you have 3 batteries or more, uneven charging/discharging happens already, regardless how they are connected.
This should be controlled by the software and not by the distance of a battery from the main unit.