Charging a portable power station from hard installed panels

[johnbenj]

Has anyone installed a solar transfer switch so the permanent solar panels can be used to power a portable LiPO power station like a Bluetti or Jackery? I have a Victron 100/30 MPPT controller for the house batteries. I am starting to carry a Bluetti AC180 has a built in controller and can be charged from a DC8mm connector.

TIA
John

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[HawaiianFish]

I was wanting to do the same thing to charge my EPropulsion electric outboard motor battery.

 

[dbsea]

I've wondered the same thing, as I have an EcoFlow Delta MAX 1600 that can be charged with an XT60 solar connector (I also have a separate panel for this, but it's cumbersome to set up as it's 220w and quite big / heavy). The thing you need to consider is that depending on your solar setup, the MPPT controller can send up to 30A of current to your house bank (it's also fused). If you intend to install a transfer switch, make sure the wire to your jackery and its input can handle that much power, otherwise you'd need to turn down the charge current on the MPPT controller when you switch it over. This is part of the reason I haven't sorted this out myself yet.. 🙂

 

[Submariner]

Why would you not just get a 12 volt DC adapter to charge it off the house bank? You want the charge rate to be slow so that when the engine is running the ACR's won't see a large voltage drop and isolate. During the day time when the sunshine is out, plug it in via 12 volt. As solar on the boat charges the house bank it'll also charge your portable power station. (if you have a large enough solar array). You probably want to have 270 watts - 400 watts of solar.

Some of those portable power stations offer "fast charging" via the AC plug. Like, 1000 watts so they charge in an hour or two. That would be too much as it's too many watts too fast. But a slow 12 volt DC power adapter most likely wouldn't drain the house battery with solar performing.

The Anker power station 757 is 1229 watt-hours. AC charging is 1000 watts, Solar power charging is 300 watts max (using their solar charging), or their car charger (12 volt DC) is 120 watts max.

In this example, I'd use the car charger for 120 watts max (12 amps), and upgrade my boat's solar array. 270 watt solar panel can produce 20 amps from sunshine. When the sunshine wasn't out, I'd simply unplug it so as to not drain my house bank, unless I was out running the engine and getting a lot of engine charging.

 

[johnbenj]

Why would you not just get a 12 volt DC adapter to charge it off the house bank?

Why?!? Because I overthink things sometimes (all the time) 🙂 :lol: :lol: :lol:

And, I expect that connecting directly to the 320W of solar (by-passing Victron and ACR) will charge the portable faster and more efficiently than the 12V connection.

Here is a specific use case: I want to plug the electric grill into my Bluettie portable and run it while charging the portable directly connected to the 320W of solar. (The Bluettie AC180 can run the grill for ~40 minutes before draining a full 1800Wh)

I do have the 12V DC adapter and will use it will for charging while underway and when the loads on the portable are low.

Thanks,
John

 

[Submariner]

Lemon Drop has a portable Anker power station she used on our SE Alaska trip. It worked quite well for her when we spent a couple nights back to back at anchor. (Several times we’ve done this).

Then we get back to a dock and she would charge it back up.

When underway she would charge it via the car charger to take advantage of engine charging.

She’s still got the factory 160 watt solar panel and PWM controller.

I didn’t have to throw her an extension cord. Lol
She’s held up her own against the Channel Surfing edition.


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[KlaassyC]

I have the Jackery 1500 and use a combination of solar and 12V charging. I tie the Jackery 100W panel to a Bimini or the foredeck and use it while at anchor, then add the 12V charging cord while under way. This has worked really well and I keep the Jackery for powering things like the Dometic fridge, charging devices, etc.


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[dbsea]

This is good insight from Martin as usual 🙂 I have the Ecoflow Delta 1600wh MAX, and the ecoflow 220w solar panel. I toss the solar panel on the bimini when we are at anchor, and it will charge not only my ecoflow, but also the two batteries for my new Anker Everfrost powered freezer/fridge as they both take XT60 solar connection directly. If you haven't looked at this cooler, run and do so! It's been a game changer for us on longer cruises.

 

[Pandion]

Has anyone installed a solar transfer switch so the permanent solar panels can be used to power a portable LiPO power station like a Bluetti or Jackery?

We have an ePropulsion outboard with a battery that's about the same capacity as your Bluetti. I thought about doing what you are considering, but so far, I've found that just charging via the house battery has worked well for us.

We have two 175W solar panels that are each connected to their own MPPT controller. I had considered wiring a switch into one of our panels so that I could charge the ePropulsion off one panel and charge the house bank off the other panel at the same time. Before I committed to that, we cruised for a few months just charging the ePropulsion at 12 volts off of the house bank. ePropulsion makes a solar charger that will accept a 12 volt input from a cigarette lighter plug to MC4 connectors. I made a cord with a downrigger plug on one end and MC4s on the other. When the ePropulsion is not on the dinghy, it's mounted in the cockpit next to the downrigger, so it's easy to plug it in to charge while at anchor or underway.

It would be faster and more efficient to charge directly from the solar panel but in the months when we're typically using our ePropulsion, we generate enough excess power that we can keep the outboard and house batteries charged without issue.

 

[croakz]

I would just connect the Ecoflow direct to whatever batteries the Victron MPPT is charging, via the Ecoflow MC4 to XT60(i) connector.

This is like what I do to use a 48V LIFEPO4 battery to charge an Ecoflow Delta 2 MAX at 1000W. Delta 2 series charge up to 15A. So off a 12v batter that's ~250W. I use a 48V battery here because the Delta 2 MPPT goes up to 60V, and I can max each MPPT (2 on the Delta 2 MAX) at 500W each.

 

[croakz]

Sounds like I'm doing something similar as Pandion. 😀