I'm looking to buy a power station to run our router during power cuts and to power the lights in our shed. I've been looking at Anker 521 and the Jackery 240 V2
I'm looking at the River 3 models from EcoFlow because they have good pass through and 10ms response for UPS functionality. Avoid the River 2 series if pass through is a major requirement - they will partially drain the battery then the fans kick in when it compensates- pretty noisy by all accounts. Bluetti might be an option too. Check them out on Amazon - they have a fair few hefty discounts right now. If you don't need a big boy unit the Anker C300x looks like a cracker. Edit - missed your budget. The River 3 (not the Plus or Max) is around £240 but only does 300w and has a single AC socket.
Do you get a lot of power cuts? How long do they usually last? Might be worth considering a combustion generator.
More frequent with the increase in storms. I've been toying with the idea of getting one for a while and started thinking about it today and low and behold we had a power cut for about an hour. I mean an hour isn't much to worry about of course. My sister lives in Ireland and was without power and water for a week when that big storm hit, she then bought a proper wired into the house generator and that saved her for the second week of no power and the storms are back and she's just lost her summer house. It's going to be of more use out in our shed where my wife's guinea pigs are, to run the 3 lights that are out there without us running two extension cords and having the kitchen window ajar for the duration. The wiring out there was condemned and disconnected.
That sounds like an ideal scenario for adding a solar panel to the mix, so it can charge during the day...
We visit minehead reguarly and can clearly see the power station from the beach especially at night when its all lit up, be there in 2 weeks in fact.
That is definitely on the cards when i can afford to add that. The C300X had me confused as there is a DC and AC version i think. Theres also the solix C300 too.
Do you want an UPS or a portable battery that double as UPS in a pinch? I always wondered, how well does these portable batteries age when always plugged in and treated as UPS? There's a reason dedicated UPS use lead-acid battery because they are happy to sit floating at fully charged.
Also, a UPS running on Lithium batteries is hella expensive. EcoFlow claim to have management software for their units in development, to allow elegant shutdown of computer equipment when running as a UPS. My thoughts: My current UPS is junk and the most suitable UPS will cost me around £150, or I can shell out another £100 and get something that will function as a UPS but also serve as a backup device in an emergency. Down the line I can spend another ~£100 for 100-200W of solar for the power station to extend it's usability even further. Note to those considering Jackery and Anker: some if not most models are restricted to using their own brand solar panels.
Yup you can buy solar shed lighting kits with panel and leisure battery that are cheaper than these battery packs that'd do the job.
The 450w APC UPS I bought was only £60. There’s deals if you shop around. Will charge phones and run lights. I have actually ran a power cable from it to another bank of socket and it is powering all my computing infrastructure (not the actual gaming PC though). It says together they pull just over 100w most of the time. I get your reasoning. In this case, a portable battery is probably best buy, with UPS feature as a bonus, hook it up during a storm, for example.
Anyone know anything about or have experience with Vtoman power stations as they seem to be the most affordable?
I'm thinking of that one too, the deal on the same powered Jackery for £175 has gone now but the Anker still has £50 off, seems the same power though but somewhat dearer.
