Rick Dove
27 de julio de 2025
Perfect for my use case
My thoughts going into buying and, so far, two weeks of use of the Ecoflow 3 plus (EC3+) with the 1 KWH auxiliary battery. If you're not familiar with "solar generators", be aware that you'll (conservatively) lose 20 percent getting power into the battery. And for solar, you'll typically only get a maximum of 80 percent of the rated panel output unless you're up high, at high noon, with the panel(s) oriented perfectly, on a bright sunny summer day. AC to battery conversion loss isn't an issue. And it's nice that it charges so fast from house power or a gasoline generator.Then there's the conversion loss from the battery to the AC inverter and the DC outputs. Conservatively figure a 20 percent loss, again. Beware of the AC inverter's idle draw. Shut down the AC outputs when not in use. Or at least let it time out when there's no AC load. Remember, I'm being extra conservative for planning purposes.Carefully determine your use case when you size up how big a system to buy. Mine is to power the kitchen fridge/freezer at night, along with a few light loads, without running the gasoline generator. I'll use the gasoline generator at half draw during the day for topping off the EF3+ when solar can't charge up enough during the next day, while keeping up with the fridge load. And I'm assuming that we'll eat the freezer food down after a few days, and can transfer the remaining refrigerated food into our smaller, much more power-efficient refrigerator (only). After which, we should be able to continue on, solar only, most days.Understand that while the EF3+ can output 1500 watts continuously, it only holds 1024 watt-hours. Meaning, plan on it only being able to operate at 100 watts output for 8 hours (remember, I'm planning a 20 percent output conversion loss). In my case, the additional battery should be able to power my kitchen fridge/freezer (120 watts average) during the "dark hours", with a few LED lights, the cable modem, and a small travel router running.On to the specific likes and nits of the EF3+ with the 1 KWH aux battery. Likes:1) I love that the EC3+ and the aux battery each weigh less than 28 pounds. I can easily carry each separately up 2 floors from our storage room to our top floor with one arm. A 2 KWH unit would weigh over 50 pounds. And I love that it's scalable and more portable when just using the EC3+, alone.2) I love that the EF3+ has two solar inputs. Beware that two large panels in series can exceed the max 60V inputs on the EF3+. And that two panels in parallel can exceed the recommended 15 amps for a long 10-gauge solar cable. Having two inputs makes it easier to have more than 500 watts (up to 1 KW) of solar, using two separate panels into the two inputs.3) The EF3+ is pretty quiet, which is nice with it inside. Not so (or possible) with a gasoline generator. And it's nice to level out my gasoline generator load and not be running it inefficiently with light loads.Nits:1) Two weeks of using it and leaving it idle when I'm not using it, and it still hasn't updated the firmware from V1.0.0.0.2) I have a lot of emergency radio equipment that runs on 12V. But it's more DC than the EC3+ can provide. Not a big deal, since I have separate 12V batteries that I can power it with. But be aware of the DC limit if you need more than 10 amps of DC current.I'll try to update as I think of more things, and I get more use out of it.Ver másVer menos
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