Hardware quick look and test setup | Cube Tech

Over the past 12 months, I’ve researched solar energy choices for my home and street journeys. If you bounce in, you uncover you will want photo voltaic panels, batteries, PWM or MPPT controllers, inverters, and different parts. When you get all of the components, you get to determine diagrams, join the whole lot after which hope whenever you flip the swap, it doesn’t spark, arc, or begin a fireplace. I’d be a liar if I didn’t say I used to be fairly intimidated by the duty. Fortunately for me and people of you who could be a bit daunted by the job, there are a number of corporations on the market innovating and making issues way more manageable. The primary system we may get our arms on and begin working with is the brand new EcoFlow Energy Package. 

The EcoFlow Energy Package is one in all, if not the primary, plug-n-play modular energy options. The Energy equipment has 4 parts. Nonetheless, it’s possible you’ll solely want two of the 4 to create a profitable system in your wants. You will have the Energy Hub, the battery or batteries, the AC/DC distribution panel, and the console. Let’s take a fast tour of every part after which get to a fast setup of the system.

{Hardware} Fast Look

Energy Hub

The Energy Hub incorporates all of the parts you want inside one field. Contained in the Energy Hub, you’ll discover two MPPT (Most Energy Level Monitoring) photo voltaic cost controllers, a DC-DC battery charger with MPPT, an inverter charger, and a DC-DC step-down converter. 

The surface of the Energy Hub is the place you discover your main connections. On the enter facet of issues, you could have three battery terminals, 1 AC IN terminal that additionally doubles as an enter for his or her EcoFlow Sensible Generator (or your personal generator), 3 Photo voltaic terminals with one of many three photo voltaic terminals doubling as an alternator terminal.

On the output facet of issues, you could have 1 AC out plug (2,400w), 1 AC out distribution plug (2,000w), 1 DC out distribution plug (1600w), and a pair of RJ45 connections. The RJ45 connections are solely to attach the AC/DC Sensible Distribution panel and the Console to the Energy Hub to present you real-time info.

Battery

From there, we are able to transfer to the Batteries. The EcoFLow Energy Package has two battery-size choices. You may get a 2kWh battery or a 5kWh battery. You can’t combine a 2kWh battery and a 5kWh battery to get to, say, 7kWh. You’ll be able to add as much as 3 of the identical dimension. i.e., three 5kWh batteries and get to 15kWh of energy or two 2kWh batteries (really useful you progress to a 5kWh as an alternative of a third 2kWh battery). If the dimensions is a priority, however you want extra energy, then the latter could be higher for some functions. The batteries are expandable, so you can begin with 1 or 2 batteries now and add one other later. You’ll be able to’t add greater than three except you choose up an EcoFlow Sensible House Panel and buy two Energy Kits.

Every battery incorporates its personal BMS (battery administration system) that regulates the whole lot, together with temperature, with an inside heater. The batteries are Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) battery chemistry. They’ve a mean life cycle of three,500 full prices and discharges earlier than they drop to 80% capability. If you happen to absolutely charged and drained it day by day, you wouldn’t see a drop for 9.5 years. Every battery homes a fuse on the highest, an influence button, and a small LCD display for a battery proportion learn out.

These two parts are all you have to rise up and working. Select your battery wants and order it with the Energy Hub, and you’re off to the races. The AC plug on the entrance is a pure sine-wave inverter and places out 2400w. That could be a respectable quantity of energy that you could possibly plug an influence strip into and get a number of use out of in a Van, camper, trailer, and even tiny dwelling.

If you wish to take the PowerKit to the subsequent stage, say in your off-grid cabin or bigger RV, then EcoFlow has you lined with two extra equipment. 

AC/DC Sensible Distribution Panel

First is the AC/DC Sensible Distribution Panel. The SDP takes the AC and DC inputs from the Energy Hub and turns them into circuits very like these discovered in your house’s breaker field. You get six 20A breakers for AC energy and 12 fused DC circuits.

Out of the 12 DC circuits, you get six that may be individually managed remotely from the EcoFlow app or the Console (the subsequent accent merchandise). Every little thing is clearly labeled and thoughtfully positioned so you possibly can simply join the suitable cables. 

Console

The Console is the ultimate non-obligatory add-on, apart from the good generator and photo voltaic panels, which you will wish to think about including. It depends upon your use and desires for the system. Basically the Console is a 7-inch contact display that permits you to management the complete system and see all of the pertinent details about it like enter energy, output energy, time remaining, battery proportion, ect. I’ll dive into {that a} bit extra in a later put up after I get some use put by the system. 

Check Setup

I’m fearful of electrical energy and wiring issues up, but I used to be capable of set this complete factor up on a short lived freestanding wall in about an hour and a half. EcoFlow consists of templates for the Energy Hub, so that you don’t must guess and verify mounting location and measurements. The directions provide you with all of the mounting choices, and each bag, screw, wire, and product is clearly labeled. EcoFlow has executed such a implausible job at taking out the guesswork that so long as you possibly can learn and observe primary security, like don’t flip issues on or plug it right into a wall while you’re engaged on it, then try to be simply nice. I did all of the wiring earlier than connecting the batteries and rapidly fired it up.

As soon as I had all 4 essential parts wired up, I added a 12v DC panel with a number of USB ports and 12v cigarette lighter ports. I additionally wired up an AC energy plug. Connecting these two units took about 45 minutes. Most of that point was me screwing round attempting to make the sq. the precise dimension for the DC panel to be recessed.

My most important studying curve will probably be with a number of the energy settings within the app (switching DC from 12v to 24v) and the fused DC connections. EcoFlow ships the panel with 20A fuses in all 12 slots, they usually ship you loads of substitute fuses of various Amps (5A, 10A, 15A, and 30A). Not figuring out what fuse to make use of for particular DC functions will take some research, however it’s one thing I ought to be taught anyhow. 

My solely error throughout set up was not taking note of the size of the battery cables. Every battery cable is 5 toes lengthy. When organising your system, it would be best to make sure your Energy Hub and batteries are comparatively shut collectively. You’ll be able to see in my video I made that mistake and ended up with a battery sitting on the shelf. I moved the whole lot down and sorted it after the video. Had I received all of it drilled out in a Van or trailer or one thing, I’d have been fairly irritated at myself.

Energy Package Setup Timelapse Video

I didn’t burn down the home, and I haven’t shocked myself. EcoFLow has executed an amazing job on the design and instruction to date with their Energy Kits. Keep tuned as I plan to attach varied units to check the system’s energy output and charging capacity over the subsequent few weeks to see the way it stands as much as some real-world use.

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Final Up to date on September 23, 2022.