Wondering options for wiring up for car charging. Can I wire directly to alternator somehow? Or is best way to just run a long wire to cigarette lighter? How long a run can that be? Does it pull juice from car battery when car is off or can it drain my car battery? Thanks in advance!
Can’t answer the best way to hook up, but I never leave my ac200p connected to car once it is charged up. I not willing to take a chance on a dead car battery. good luck. Seems like a cigarette port would be the easiest with Bluetti supplied adapters.
If you connect to the cigarette lighter socket in your vehicle with the supplied cord the socket may or may not be live without the key on. If the socket is live with the key in the off position, then you will continue to charge which may drain your battery. Most vehicle sockets turn on and off with the key and if that is the case each time you turn the vehicle off, charging will stop with no additional vehicle battery drain. You can buy an extension cable for the car charge connector, but I do not recommend because you have an additional connection that may work loose or heat up. In any case you are limited to a rate of charge at approx. 100 watts no matter the method of connection.
If you have a long run (20 feet) then you can run some 10 gauge wires directly from your battery that terminate with an XT90 connector that would then connect to your AC200. This method would charge all the time unless you put a switch somewhere in the vehicle or you could simple unplug the XT90 connector when you no longer wanted to charge.
Okay, is the 100 watt limit only for the car charger correct as the solar is higher? Can I switch to the solar port to increase the charging rate if needed from the vehicle?
Leah
Car charging limit is approx. 100 watts. Solar limit is 700 watts. But…the minimum voltage to solar charge is 35 volts. Since your vehicle operates at 12 to 14.5 volts no charging would occur during vehicle operation if switched to solar since you would only have 1/3 of the necessary voltage for solar charging to begin.