Powerbank - does this make sense?

[cliffm]

Has anyone found a sufficiently robust power bank to trust near salt water? The Bluetti AC240 (Pioneer 150) is IP65 rated, but is 72lbs and rather large! I'd like something I could store outside the cabin, either in the cabinet below the icebox on my Cutwater 28 or below that cabinet's floor where the generator usually goes. The AC60 is also IP65, but with only a 600W inverter it has limited options to operate as an anchored shore power solution and operate a DC fridge/freezer.

In salt environments have people gotten away with a power station with simple covers on the AC and other output ports?

We just purchased a Bluetti elite 200v2 as it is a compact size and 2600W, and I believe will fit under the cockpit shelf/seat when needed as shore power supplement. It's 53lbs

 

[DDean]

Quick update on the Bluetti Elite 200 V2 for those interested in this new unit. We went out with it for the first time last weekend.

It fits perfectly under the corner cockpit seat.

I ran the grill by connecting the boat to the Bluetti and powering the boat via Shorepower. The most the grill could get out of it was 1250watts using a 5-15 nema to shorepower. Seems like 10Amps to me and definitely well below full grill power (1800w). I was able to pull 15Amps for other devices so I’m not sure what’s happening with the grill - perhaps the next increment up in power exceeded 15A? Next time I’ll plug the grill directly into the Bluetti and see if it’s different, to eliminate the boat from the equation. Took awhile to cook dinner!

Charging the Bluetti via the Bluetti car DC cigarette lighter plugged into the cave was at 105w at 13V and didn’t appear impacted by engine RPM, probably because it’s coming off the house bank. It was the same with the engine off. It will take forever to charge the Bluetti at that rate - it’s helpful but we will have to find a more direct solar strategy to charge the Bluetti on the boat if we need that.

I can’t find a 5-20p to L5-30r cord longer than 2feet in Canada, or that will ship to Canada. I probably need that to pull 20Amps. I’m using our full stock shorepower cord plus 15amp connector for now. Want to solve this.

Charging the boat back up to 100% via the Bluetti was fast - I think it charged up at 15A and we were back at 100% before we knew it. It struck me that charging via shorepower avoids the super slow trickle for the top 20% capacity the alternator provides, and one could use even a small power bank to top up that extra 20% while out - for those of us with AGMs that top 20% takes a long time to recharge via motoring and it’s roughly 40% of our usable power in an R27NW. Maybe there’s a combination strategy of using the engine alternator to charge up to 80% and a smaller power bank for the remainder.

I’m increasing our boat solar to around 400W with a Victron 100/30 soon. I suspect that much of the time that will keep the boat at net neutral power each day and the Bluetti will became a means to the grill and coffee and perhaps warm water (hot water would drain it), and to store excess solar when the house is already at 100%. I might be able to keep the Bluetti charged up via the house bank using that 100w cigarette if it’s in there all the time.

But I wish that there was a solar controller with switchable outputs - one to charge the house bank and one that I could hook into the Bluetti when I want to do that. Going through the 100w cigarette port is wasteful wHen the house bank is at 100% and solar is pumping it out.

 

[Pandion]

But I wish that there was a solar controller with switchable outputs - one to charge the house bank and one that I could hook into the Bluetti when I want to do that. Going through the 100w cigarette port is wasteful wHen the house bank is at 100% and solar is pumping it out.

I'm not all that familiar with Bluetti, but I think that the unit contains a solar controller and is designed to take direct input from solar panels via MC4 connectors.

If you're going to update your solar to 400W, have you considered installing a two-way switch between your panel(s) and your solar controller? That would allow you to feed your solar panel output to your solar controller to charge your AGM house bank or to route the solar panel output directly to your Bluetti (assuming it will accept that much input). It's not a "hands off" solution but would accomplish your goal.

Another option could be to use a DC-DC charger such as a Victron XS (which can bypass the charging profile and be run as a constant voltage power supply) between your AGM battery and your Bluetti. Not quite as efficient but those units are highly configurable and could be programmed to mimic a solar panel output through the MC4 connectors.

 

[DDean]

That’s a great idea thank you. It might be a bit above my pay grade to install such a thing but I’m going to look into it as you are exactly right, these power banks have controllers built in. Mine uses an XT60 input