Solar Generators Are a Clean & Efficient Source of Energy
The sun is a renewable energy source, and the cost of recharging the generator is free. This makes solar generators—like the Titan solar generator—a great way to offset your energy consumption at home or the office.
Solar generators are easy to install and maintain. They are typically designed to be weatherproof, and many modern models come with built-in battery packs that can be recharged via direct sunlight. This makes them an excellent choice for emergencies and a reliable energy source during outages or power cuts.
Solar generators are also maintenance-free and require no additional fuel or resources. The generator will continuously produce energy if it receives direct sunlight. They are also much quieter than traditional generators and have very low emissions.
Finally, solar generators are a great way to reduce your carbon footprint and do your part to protect the environment. With solar energy being a renewable resource, there is no need to worry about running out of fuel or resources. Additionally, solar generators are much more efficient than traditional generators, resulting in more energy produced per unit of energy consumed.
Is A Solar Generator Right For You?
Solar generators are popular and reliable power sources, offering numerous features and benefits. These generators are designed to provide an easy, efficient, and continuous power supply, making them ideal for anyone who needs to stay connected and powered up. The Titan generator is an excellent choice whether you’re camping, working outdoors, or want to keep your lights on during a power outage.
The Titan solar generator is known for its reliable and durable build, making it an excellent option for a high-quality system. In addition, it is designed with a powerful engine capable of providing up to 10,000 watts of power, making it suitable for powering up various things. It also runs on gasoline or diesel fuel, allowing users to choose the energy best suited for their needs.
The Titan generator is also known for its high-efficiency design. It is equipped with a smart control system that adjusts the fuel consumption to meet the demand, resulting in cost and energy savings. Furthermore, the generator features an advanced alternator that helps distribute solar power evenly, maximizing its performance and efficiency.
No other product has the fantastic and efficient features that Titan offers. You can enjoy your Titan system every time with the assurance of having it charged. This means you can use it 24 hours a day if you correctly measure your power input and output.
The Titan generator is excellent for reliable, efficient, and cost-effective power. It is designed with intelligent features that make it suitable for various applications and easy to operate. So whether you’re looking for a power source for your home, office, or outdoor activities, the Titan generator is a great choice.
What Can the Titan Solar Generator Power?
For those looking for a reliable and efficient energy source when camping or off-grid, the Titan Solar Generator is a great choice. With 1500 watts of solar energy, it provides enough power to run various appliances and devices.
This generator can power all electronics, from fridges and freezers to water pumps, vacuum cleaners, power tools, and more. One of the most impressive uses is running a small air conditioner during the day to keep cool.
In addition, it’s possible to add a second battery to the generator to take advantage of even more power. This way, you can be sure of a reliable and consistent energy source, no matter the circumstances.
Overall, the Titan Solar Generator is an excellent choice for anyone looking for an efficient and reliable power source when camping, off-grid, or during a power outage. With enough power to run a range of appliances and devices, it’s the perfect choice for anyone who needs a reliable energy source.
Conclusion
Solar energy is a clean and green energy source that is renewable and non-maintenance, making it one of the most appealing energy sources available. Solar energy is not dependent on other energy sources, making it a more reliable power source. Additionally, it is much safer than other forms of power, such as nuclear energy, as there is no risk of radiation or other forms of contamination. Solar energy is also more cost-effective than other energy sources, as it does not require ongoing costs for maintenance or fuel. These advantages make solar energy an attractive option for powering homes and businesses.
Contact Powered Portable Solar today to learn more about Titan and other solar generators, and to get started on the path to sustainable, off-the-grid living.
Nearly no one has heard about the Hysolis MPS3K solar generator that has been on the market for quite a while. And even more, hardly anyone has had a solid review on the MPS3K. It is a direct competitor to what has been considered the reigning champion, the Titan. The other main competitors are the Bluetti AC300 and the EcoFlow Delta Pro solar generators.
How does the MPS3K compare to these other strong solar power stations? Does the Hysolis MPS3K have enough power and expandability to be able to run all essential equipment during a blackout or emergency? It definitely looks like it can, but let’s find out for sure.
It should be said upfront that this is definitely a very good unit and is extremely powerful. In many cases much more powerful than other solar generators. But that comes at a cost, and not a financial cost. It comes at a cost of convenience. Not only is it a heavy unit, but it is less user-friendly than other solar generators. For some people that is a good thing because they don’t like the bells and whistles of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, wireless apps, and firmware updates.
So how does it compare directly to the other units on the market? It’s definitely top of the list. The MPS3K is up there with the Titan, Delta Pro, and AC300. Here is how they stack up against each other:
Base Battery Capacity: MPS3K 4,500wh | Titan 2,000wh | Delta Pro 3,600wh | AC300 3,072wh
Max Battery Expansion Capacity: MPS3K 27,000wh | Titan 270,000wh | Delta Pro 10,800wh | AC300 12,288wh
Base Solar Input: MPS3K 1,500w | Titan 2,000w | Delta Pro 1,600w | AC300 2,400w
Expanded Max Solar Input: MPS3K 3,900w | Titan 2,000w | Delta Pro 1,600w | AC300 3,000w
Customer Service: MPS3K, Very Good | Titan, Good | Delta Pro, Good | AC300, Very Poor
Base Price (Varies): MPS3K $3,595 | Titan $3,395 | Delta Pro $3,599 | AC300 $3,699
Price Per Unit Wattage: MPS3K $0.97 | Titan $1.51 | Delta Pro $1.42 | AC300 $1.84
The price of the MPS3K alone is amazing since you get nearly all the same main benefits of the other solar generators, but the MPS3K is below one dollar for the price per unit wattage. The price per unit wattage is a combination of comparing the inverter, battery, and solar input. Too often units are only measured against the battery, but that’s only one key feature of a solar generator which is why I compare them against those three features. For the features you get, it’s literally twice as good as the AC300.
In terms of how it compares to all of these other Heavycap units, it’s pretty much a winner in nearly every way. The 3,000w inverter is plenty strong. It doesn’t have the best maximum battery expandability but it’s extremely rare anyone ever has more than 10,000wh of battery. And it is unparalleled in solar input when expanded with extra batteries. And for that price, it’s basically unbeatable.
The Hysolis MPS3K has a powerful 3,000 pure sine wave inverter. It has been found by nearly all solar generator users that 3,000 watts of output power is plenty for most people’s needs. It will only do 120v power, it cannot connect to another MPS3K in order to make 240v power. That will be a feature of the Hysolis Apollo which will be the big brother to the MPS3K.
3,000w of output capacity is plenty to run fridges, freezers, portable/window A/C units, lights, fans, microwaves, toasters, coffee makers, TV, Wi-Fi, and much more. It has the same size inverter as the Titan solar generator which has proven to be a very powerful solar generator for years. The Bluetti AC300 also has the same inverter capacity. The only solar generator of the same class that has a larger inverter is the EcoFlow Delta Pro with an inverter output capacity of 3,600w. In my many years of using solar generators, 3,000w has always been enough for everything I need it to do, so it’s not a problem that it’s not the largest inverter in the industry for Heavycap power stations.
It can surge up to 6,000w for those large inductive loads that are often found with heavy-duty power tools such as chop saws, air compressors, and electric drills.
The Hysolis MPS3K has four 120v (Nema 5-15R) house-style outlets. It also has one RV plug (TT-30R) that is rated to output up to 25a continuously. It includes a 12v DC cigarette lighter plug as well as multiple USB charging ports.
Battery
The Hysolis MPS3K uses an extremely large battery pack made out of Lithium NMC batteries. It has a total internal battery capacity of 4,500wh which is the largest of any solar generator’s internal battery capacity currently on the market. Because it has a 4,500wh battery and the inverter is 3,000w it is literally impossible to drain this battery faster than a .67 C rate.
A .67 C rate means that even if the max output was being used on the Hysolis MPS3K it wouldn’t hurt the battery. It means the battery can never be drained really hard which greatly increases the life cycles to help it last longer. It easily has 2,000 life cycles even though it’s a Lithium NMC battery.
Typically, Lithium NMC batteries do not have great life cycles and that is one of their biggest drawbacks. But they are much lighter than LiFePo4 batteries which makes them more portable. LiFePo4 batteries are heavier than Lithium NMC but have many more life cycles. Since the MPS3Ks battery is so large, it can easily handle many years of non-stop use and not degrade as fast.
It is a 44v system which is basically the same as a 48v battery system which is considered to be the most efficient way to use batteries when converting to AC 120v power. It’s much easier to convert 44v power to 120v power than 12v power to 120v power. Most batteries on the market are made in 12v which means it takes a lot thicker cabling and much more work for the inverter to get 120v. Having a higher battery voltage means you have a higher inverter efficiency which leads to getting more power out of the battery than a lower voltage battery.
But that’s not even the best part! The MPS3K can easily add five more batteries of 4,500wh each. That means it can easily get up to 27,000wh of total battery capacity! That’s massive! In my experience, that is easily enough power to run emergency essential items such as a fridge, freezer, lights, fans, and other appliances/devices for 4+ days even without any solar panels connected.
To add the extra Hysolis MPS3K expansion batteries is as simple as making sure the batteries are within 3v of each other, turning off the breaker for the batteries, connecting the new batteries, connecting the communication wire, changing the connection toggles on each unit (as shown in theuser manual), hold the reset buttons on each unit and then turn on the breakers. And just like that it’s easy to go from 4,500wh to 9,000wh or up to 27,000wh depending on how many batteries are added.
To put that into perspective, having 27,000wh of total battery capacity is nearly the same as having 13 additional Titan expansion batteries attached to a Titan ($18,135 in batteries). The Delta Pro can only expand up to 10,800wh of battery capacity ($5,398 in batteries) at its maximum for a single Delta Pro unit. Not even the Bluetti AC300 can expand as high as the Hysolis MPS3K. The AC300 can expand up to 12,288wh of maxed-out battery capacity ($6,297 in batteries) for a single AC300 unit. The MPS3K maxes out at 27,000wh whereas the Titan can expand to as many batteries as are needed. But from my experience, it is rare for most people to go above 10,000wh.
A Hysolis MPS3K expansion battery is only $2,860 per battery. For a total of $14,300 for five extra batteries, the system will have more storage capacity than any other competitor. This is incredible, less cost per watt-hour, and more capacity, that’s a true win/win.
But it still gets better. The Hysolis MPS3k reviews as one of the very top-recommended units for 120v power because of how fast it can recharge from solar and wall charging. The standard wall charging speed is 1,000w which is quite fast. The only unit that has a faster wall charger is the Delta Pro at a max of 1,800w. All of the other solar generators have slow-wall chargers.
The big benefit to having a really fast wall charger is being able to fully recharge the system quickly off of a gas generator. I personally use a propane/gasoline generator as a backup to my solar generators. In the event of really bad weather or other issues where I cannot get a good charge from solar panels, I can recharge the system in under 5 hours from 0% to 100% using the wall charger. And because the battery is 4,500wh it won’t charge it too fast which would reduce the life cycle.
When it comes to solar charging it has an impressive 1,500w solar input through an MPPT charge controller. The charge parameter is 60-150v and 30a. Very similar to the Titan’s solar input of 35-145v and 30a. That means it’s extremely easy to over-panel the Hysolis MPS3K solar generator. It’s easy to connect as much as 2,000w or more in solar panels to the unit so that it is making full power earlier in the morning and later into the afternoon. That is the power over-paneling, it increases the number of solar peak hours in a day to more than 5 hours. This makes it much easier to get a full charge even when weather conditions are not very good.
But wait, there is more! Not only does the MPS3K have a 1,500w MPPT charge controller which is great on its own. But it’s possible to add up to 2,400w of solar panels to each expansion battery! This is unheard of at this level. The Bluetti AC300 batteries are able to add 200w of solar to each battery, but that doesn’t even come close to the 2,400w that can go into the MPS3K Expansion batteries.
That means that with one expansion battery the MPS3K can have a total of 3,900w going into it from solar. You can only add one additional MPPT charge controller because when you add multiple batteries you use those ports to expand. So once more batteries are added there’s only one extra port for another charge controller. The only requirement is to get the Hysolis MPPT charge controller for each battery. The Titan has had the largest solar input of any system for many years at 2,000w of solar input. That has now been very excessively beaten with the MPS3K’s capability to add more solar to each battery.
The Hysolis MPS3K has a great solar input on its own, not to mention adding more power to each expansion battery is incredible.
It also does have the ability to charge from a 12v DC outlet such as a cigarette lighter port but since those can only put out up to 120w maximum it is unlikely that anyone would want to recharge their MPS3K using a 12v DC outlet.
Pros
The Hysolis MPS3K inverter is plenty strong for everything it needs to do. The battery capacity is good on its own, but then still has the ability to add quite a bit of battery capacity. The solar input is incredible. 1,500w of solar input is plenty for this system cause then it can be charged in just 3 hours but adding even more solar with the extra batteries is a massive advantage that no other system on the market has.
The setup and user experience are definitely the hardest parts of the MPS3K. It looks very basic, doesn’t have a ton of info to give out, and putting it together with extra batteries takes a close look at the user manual. When it’s been done once it all makes sense. But doing it the first time to set it up takes a little patience for sure.
It’s also very heavy, at 121lbs, this is a tough one to move around with just one person. It is 100% recommended to get the moving cart option with this unit because it will make life much easier to move it around.
Conclusion
The Hysolis MPS3K beats all of the other Heavycap-sized solar generators in most ways. It has a very strong inverter, massive battery expandability, a massive solar input capability, and an amazing price.
I don’t know that at this time it can be beaten. For so long the Titan was the king, is that still the case? It’s debatable, but pretty much yes it beats it! The MPS3K absolutely gives it a serious run for the money.
What I know for sure is that should be taken very seriously when looking at backup power. And before a blackout, hurricane, flood, fire, or any other major issue arises, you want this unit in the garage ready to go for all of your backup power needs. I would not wait until it’s too late to get this because we never know what the supply chain issues will bring next.
There is no question that most people who are looking into powerful solar generators are considering the Bluetti AC300. On paper, it looks absolutely incredible. Its expandability is great, it can make 240v power, it can be monitored wirelessly, and even has really long-lasting LiFePo4 battery cells.
Then why is it that I do not recommend this power station? That’s a great question and I will explain why here in this full review. But if you’re looking for a short answer, I’ll save you some time.
The main reasons I do not like the Bluetti AC300 solar generatorare first the idle power consumption rate, the screen has multiple issues, and the efficiency varies greatly between units.
But is it all bad? Definitely not. There are many great features like a powerful inverter, expandable batteries, a true UPS setting, and really good solar input. But is that enough to make it a considerable option? Only you can make that decision. For me though, not so much. Let me explain.
The Bluetti AC300 has a 3,000w pure sine wave inverter that is capable of surging up to 6,000w. An inverter of that size is plenty powerful for nearly everyone’s needs for back up power supply. Even for a 30a service RV, van or small off-grid cabin 3,000w of continuous output is plenty to run all the essentials minus a 240v well pump.
The Bluetti AC300 solar generator can link two units together and make 240v power which then allows it to run things like well pumps and electric dryers. No solar generator can do central A/C so the AC300 is exempt from having that as a downside. But having 240v power and 6,000w of continuous output power is very good for small off-grid living or for emergency power.
Having the ability to make 240v power and using that in conjunction with a transfer/interlock switch means you don’t have to run extension cords to every room, fridge, freezer, and device you want to run which makes life less of a hassle when the power is out. You’ll need an electrician to install the transfer switch but that is a very simple task for nearly any electrician and isn’t overly expensive either.
Whether it’s running a fridge and a couple of freezers or powering up a shop to run a miter saw and a table saw, the Bluetti AC300 can absolutely do it. But is it still good enough?
The biggest issue that no one seems to be talking about with the Bluetti AC300 in any reviews is the idle power consumption rate. IPCR is how much power an inverter uses to simply be turned on. You can think of it as turning on your car on and being in park. The engine is running, which means it’s using gasoline, but you’re not going anywhere.
On the Bluetti AC300 it has an IPCR of about 64 watts. Other solar generators of similar size in this comparison chart have a much lower IPCR. For example, the Delta Pro, a main competitor to the AC300, only uses about 13 watts when turned on. That means the AC300 is using about 5x the amount of power just to have the inverter running but not even doing anything. Also keep in mind, if you turn on the Bluetooth receiver to use with the app, the IPCR goes up to nearly 100w! That’s a lot of draining.
In a 24 hour period, the Bluetti AC300 will consume about 1,536wh of battery capacity. That’s about 50% of the overall battery capacity on the AC300. It’s used up, for no good reason. Now on the plus side, the AC300 has an auto shut off function where if it’s not running anything for about 8 hours it will just shut off. In those 8 hours will use up 512wh of the battery, about 17% of it. But the bigger issue is, that many people need to run things like a sump pump, which only turns on when water fills a tank in the ground and then the pump pushes that water out to the city or septic system. They sometimes don’t run all day, or for long periods of time until they get filled up. This is just one example, but many items don’t constantly run which means the AC300 could turn off, and then there’s sewage back filling in the basement and there’s a much bigger mess to deal with. That would only happen if the tank got filled and the AC300 was off, not running that pump. But, if it’s happened once, it can happen again.
The second big issue with the inverter is the efficiency. All inverters do for the most part is convert battery energy to usable energy for your devices. Because there is a voltage change in doing that, there is an efficiency power loss. Meaning if you have 100wh of battery, you may only get to use 90wh of it, because the other 10wh were just burned up in the form of heat to convert from one voltage to another.
The Bluetti AC300’s inverter efficiency has varied greatly according to multiple reviews and posts on forums. One person will get 87% efficiency out of their unit, and another person will get 72% efficiency. That’s a massive spread. 87% is quite good for most systems, but 72% is quite bad. How do you know which one you’re going to get? Will Prowse in his own review got a higher number than the review done by Tom from HoboTech which was as low as 72%. This causes major concerns since you could be getting a poor-quality unit and not even know it. It’s basically a lottery system if you get a good unit. That’s quite the risk.
The batteries that go with the AC300 are called B300 batteries. They are quite nice on the AC300 because they are high-grade LiFePo4 or Lithium Iron Phosphate. They last a very long time but are a bit heavier than Lithium NMC/Lithium Ion. But the LiFePo4 batteries for the AC300 are rated to 3,500 lifecycles which is very impressive. That means it can go from fully charged to empty and then fully charged again once a day for 10 years before the batteries have any noticeable degradation. After doing that for 10 years straight, which no one does, the batteries will be 80% efficient. Meaning they’ll have 80% of the original usable capacity from when they were new.
But there have been multiple reports now in reviews of people saying they found out one or more of the cells in their B300 have gone bad. How is the average Joe who isn’t an electrical engineer or who doesn’t play with solar stuff all of the time going to know that their battery is faulty? They probably will never know. And then sometime, maybe even years down the road when they need it the most that battery may just stop working all together. That’s a big concern for most people.
The Bluetti AC300 requires you to use proprietary Bluetti batteries. EcoFlow does the same thing with their Delta Pro and other systems. The Titan is the only solar generator where you can use any other battery with it as long as it’s a 24v battery which makes sense.
Each B300 battery is 3,074wh in capacity. There is no battery built into the inverter of the AC300. So if you get just an AC300, it will come with one battery that attaches to the inverter with a heavy duty cable. But each AC300 can have up to four B300 batteries connected to it for a total battery capacity of 12,296wh which is quite large. And even better yet, if two AC300 units are linked together for 240v power, you’re able to have 4 batteries on each system which maxes the total battery capacity to 24,592wh which is absolutely incredible. The expandability of the batteries is extremely impressive.
The Delta Pro can have two extra batteries per unit which makes its maxed our setup with two Delta Pros capable of having 21,600wh of batteries capacity all connected together. So the Bluetti AC300 definitely wins in that area, but we have to keep in mind that a lot of excess power from the batteries simply gets burned off just by using the AC300 so it may not actually have much more usable power than a Delta Pro.
Also, by comparison, the Titan can have up to 270,000wh of battery capacity connected. Not that anyone would ever do that, but it’s so much easier to add batteries to the Titan as far as having a large capacity than any other unit so far. And the Titan can use more Titan batteries, or other brands of batteries.
Out of all the other solar generators in the heavycap and ultracap size categories, the Bluetti AC300 has some of the best solar charging rates out there. Each AC300 can input up to 2,400w of solar into it. This part is a little confusing because there is only one solar input port. But the Bluetti AC300 has a nifty adapter than has two MC4 connections built into it. The single solar input plug in reality has two inputs built into it. This is a great way they saved space and kept things simple for users.
There are two MPPT charge controllers inside and each one is rated to work from 12-150v and up to 12a to get a total of 1,200w into each one. That is how it gets 2,400w of solar input. This is something that would’ve been incredible in the Delta Pro because it only has one solar input maxed at 1,600w but that’s still quite a bit of solar input for the Delta Pro.
It’s pretty easy to get 1,200w connected to the AC300 but because of it’s really low 12a parameter, it’s difficult to get a good over-paneled setup on it. It’s definitely possible, but just keep in mind over-paneling isn’t great. For example if you were using 100w panels, each solar panel is going to put out about 20v and 6a. That means I can connect seven 100w panels together to be at 140v and 5a with a total input of 700w. Then I can double that and connect that to the unit for 1,400w connected to a single charge controller. Then double that again for a total of 28, 100w solar panels for 2,800w of solar input. I am able to over-panel the system in that way but it’s only over-paneled by 400w which isn’t huge.
One of the extra cool features though is that it’s possible to add an additional 200w of solar going into each battery that’s added to the system in order to maximize the solar input and increase the charge speed. That’s a cool feature that only the Hysolis MPS3K has been able to do in the past.
By the way, make sure if you’re using the two solar inputs to change the settings on the screen to PV charging on both solar input ports, as well as turn off “PV Parallel Enable” so if one set of panels is a different voltage than the other, the unit will continue to charge from solar. Many people were not getting a good charge from their solar panels according to different reviews and that’s how you should be able to fix it.
The wall charging speed is programmable which is a really nice feature. If you need to charge it up really fast, you can change it to 15a for a normal house wall outlet. If you want to trickle charge the system, you can go as low as 1a charge speed. If you have a high-speed charging outlet like a 30a outlet you can go up to 30a charging speed for the AC300 which is incredible, but those plugs are extremely rare and nearly no one will ever get to use that feature.
If you’re really in a rush to charge, the AC300 can be charged with both AC (wall outlet) power and solar power at the exact same time. And of course, it has pass-through charging meaning you can charge the system and use it at the same time.
Things to Know About
The battery expansion cables are a big hassle for pretty much everyone. Nearly every review out there mentions that they don’t like the big bulky and unwieldy cables for the batteries.
There are a lot of outlets on the Bluetti AC300 which makes it very versatile. It has a 12v 20a cigarette lighter DC port as well as a 24v 10a cigarette lighter port. Six 120v 20a oultets (house outlets) and one 120v 25a TT-30 RV plug to run your RV off of. There are a number of USB ports as well for mobile devices and even two wireless charging pads on the top of the unit.
It does have a car charger that you can charge up the AC300 from a cigarette lighter port in your car, but it only charges around 120w at the most which means it’s a very slow trickle charge and no one uses those DC charging ports hardly anymore.
Pros
There are some really big wins for the Bluetti AC300. It has a powerful inverter:
Powerful 3,000w Pure Sine Wave inverter.
240v Capable for running nearly the whole house.
3,500 cycles on the LiFePo4 batteries.
UPS setting to supply immediate backup power for essential devices.
A large 2,400w solar input through two MPPT charge controllers.
Pass-through charging to run equipment while the unit is charging.
Dual charging from solar and wall power at the same time.
The batteries are separate from the inverter, so it makes the more portable
It has a Bluetooth and Wi-Fi app.
Cons
Extremely high idle power consumption rate, pretty much a deal breaker.
Any load under 100w will not show up on the screen.
The screen has a harsh viewing angle, you have to be right in front of it to be able to read it.
There are so many settings and options on the screen it can be confusing.
The inverter efficiency varies greatly, another deal breaker.
Most reviews dislike the dust covers on the outlets and the large battery cables.
The 240v power hub has had issues in the past and they are nearly never in stock.
The customer service is horrible. I have never received an email back for any question. I have never had my phone call answered. And their voicemail box is full. Basically, if you have the system, and something comes up, you’re on your own. Another deal breaker.
Would I recommend this unit to anyone? Sadly, no. The issues that are built into this system are way too big. Not having reliable efficiency, the unit draining on its own really fast, and no one to help support me from customer service are major deal breakers. Just one of those items is enough to be a deal breaker and so the fact that there are three major issues like that means it’s definitely a no-go unit.
In essence, it’s a really good but worthless unit. It has many great features, but the bad features outweigh the good features.
What would I recommend? There are three units I’d recommend over the AC300:
The first would be the EcoFlow Delta Pro because it has a good price for what you get, can do 240v power, is expandable and has pretty decent solar input. Also, their customer service is great and the units are efficient and have a low idle power consumption rate.
If I don’t absolutely need 240v power to run something like a well or to run the outlets and light switches in my house, I’d for sure go with the Titan. The Titan has the same sized inverter at 3,000w, has a similar 2,000w solar input but has massive battery expandability and doesn’t even require proprietary batteries to expand the system. They are tried and true, I have two Titans, one of them has been running my off-grid cabin non-stop for over 2 and a half years without any issues. It’s hard to beat a track record like that. But the Titan will not do 240v power.
If not the Delta Pro or the Titan, then I would absolutely go with the MPS3K. It’s a very basic and not-so-user-friendly unit but it works extremely well. Once it’s set up, it’s very easy to run. It too has a 3,000w inverter but has a 4,500wh battery and 1,500w of solar input. But if you get the expansion battery for the MPS3K it adds another 4,500wh of battery and you can add another charge controller to that battery and add another 2,400w of solar input for a total of 3,900w of solar input which is ridiculously powerful. It is also a better bang for the buck than the Titan and Delta Pro, but the MPS3K will not do 240v power either.
In the end, the reviews speak for themselves about the Bluetti AC300. It’s great on paper, but not so great in person. And that’s really too bad. These other units will serve people very well as they have served me personally very well too.
Introducing the all-powerful, industry revolutionizing, and mind-blowing Hysolis Apollo. Truly, we have never seen a solar generator or power station like this one before. Similarly, to how the Titan revolutionized the solar generator industry, the Apollo is now doing it too.
If you’re looking for a super-powerful, do anything, go-anywhere type of solar generator, this is it.
The Greek God Apollo was capable of protecting people from evil, healing people from disease and illness could see the future, and was extremely powerful in battle. The name for this solar generator is very appropriately given.
A big disclaimer up front, this article has not been sponsored in any way, shape or form. And also, as another disclaimer, this product will not be available for delivery until November 1, 2022. There will be a pre-order for 500 units only. If you go through this article and feel this is the system for you, then do not hesitate to grab it because you do not want to be kept waiting for this one.
For a quick view of the Hysolis Apollo, it will have a 3,000w inverter, 5,376wh internal removable battery, 4,000w of solar charging capability, 6,500 cycles on the LiFePo4 battery, 240v capable, extremely expandable, and an AC input charge speed that is programable up to 3,000w! This shouldn’t have been named the Apollo, it should’ve been named “The Beast!”
And the price, it’s extremely good for everything included, read through the see all the info.
The Hysolis Apollo will quite literally be capable of running anything, as long as you build it to the necessary size. The vast majority of people have found that a 3,000w inverter is plenty strong enough to run their equipment, and that is why the Apollo has a 3,000w pure sine wave inverter with a 6,000w peak. That is for 120v power only, but the Apollo can attach two units together to make 240v power and have a 6,000w inverter continuous output rating and 12,000w peak.
Not only that, but the inverter efficiency rating is 94% which is unheard of. A good quality inverter has 85-90% efficiency. This means that you get nearly 100% of all the battery capacity to use. Many other brands like the Jackery, Pecron, Inergy, and others have inverters with even lower efficiency ratings.
But that’s not even the most impressive part. The EcoFlow Delta Pro has a 3,600w inverter and can put two Delta Pro units together to make 7,200w of output power in 240v. The Apollo can do much more. It has the unique ability to attach up to nice Apollo units together. With nine units it will still be making 240v power but have the output capacity of 27,000 watts of continuous power and 54,000 watts of peak output power.
No other system has been able to connect more than two units together to have superior output capacity. This is literally fully capable of running an entire house without any issues.
For AC power outlets it has six 120v house style outlets (NEMA 5-15) and can push out up to 25a (3,000w) between them all. A single plug will max out at 15 amps which is normal. It also has one 30a style RV plug (TT-30R) that will output up to 25a (120v x 25a = 3,000w).
For 12v DC power outlets, there is one cigarette lighter style plug rated to 15a. There are three USB A fast-charging outlets and one USB C PD60w port. The Apollo includes two 5521 barrel ports. But one DC plug that is not common on other solar generators is the 30a output plug to run heavy equipment like HAM radios and other vital DC equipment.
The Apollo doesn’t mind if you’re running just a fridge, freezer, lights, fans, and kitchen appliances or if you want to run a well pump, electric dryer, central air conditioner, welder, and everything else. If you want to run those things, you just have to build the system big enough to do it.
But how long will it run your equipment?
How Much Battery Storage?
The Apollo has an internal battery made from rectangular LiFePo4 cells connected to make 51v, which are considered the highest quality of all the different lithium battery types and styles. Other systems like the Bluetti AC300 and Bluetti EP500 use cylindrical LiFePo4 cells which are definitely good, but rectangular cells are better.
The Apollos internal battery is 5,376wh of capacity. With 94% inverter efficiency you’ll be able to get 5,050wh of total output for running AC-powered equipment (anything that uses a normal house-style wall outlet).
The Apollo internal battery can be easily removed by the end-user with just a screwdriver. This is great in case the battery needs to be replaced many years down the road from now. It is also a huge advantage if the unit ever does have to get shipped back for warranty work the battery can be removed to greatly reduce the weight for shipping and ease of transportation. The internal battery is about 60lbs and each external battery is about 65lbs.
As mentioned at the beginning, the Apollo is extremely expandable. Not only can up to nine Apollos be connected together to make excessive power, but each Apollo unit can also have up to eight batteries attached to it. Each Apollo can have a maximum of 48,348wh of the battery all connected together. That’s the main internal battery plus eight external batteries for over 48kwh of battery.
At my home, which uses propane for everything heat-related, my entire family and extended family together use an average of 20kwh per day. Maxing out the batteries on just one Apollo would give us 2.5 days of non-stop power. That’s incredible.
I will have at minimum two Apollos to make 240v power for my house which means I can have up to 96,696wh of battery. If maxed out that would give me 5 days of non-stop normal power usage. That’s without using solar panels.
If someone decided to put nine Apollos together with each one maxed out with batteries, the total battery capacity would be 435,132wh. I doubt anyone will ever do that but that’s enough power to run my house just like normal for over 21 days non-stop.
All of those numbers are based on my average daily use, not emergency essential power use, which is 10,000wh at a max per day.
The Apollo expansion batteries all link together with a heavy-duty cable and can all be stacked together in one stack can be in two stacks or all side by side. This gives so much flexibility with where it can go. Especially when using the Apollo in an RV it’ll be very easy to store the main unit and batteries in different configurations.
But with all of that battery capacity, how can they all be recharged?
The Apollo so far has not ceased to amaze us. Will the recharge capability let us down? Definitely not.
The Apollo solar generator has a built-in MPPT charge controller capable of charging up to 4,000w of solar to recharge the batteries! The biggest solar charger of any solar generator so far has been the Titan with 2,000w of solar input. The Apollo is now doubling that.
The MPPT charge parameter is 120-500v and 80a. That highest voltage solar input of any other system has been the EcoFlow Delta Pro with a max solar input of 150v and the Apollo demolishes that. The only tricky part with the Apollo is getting at least 120v connected. That is perfectly fine since no one will realistically connect just 500w of solar to this unit. At the minimum, it will recommend having no less than 1,000w of solar panels connected to it.
With such a large charge parameter the Apollo will be able to charge with any solar panel out there and be configurable in many different ways to charge quickly and efficiently. Also, it will be easy to over-panel the system if someone wants to do that, but likely not. Keep reading to see why.
Volts are easy to send over long distances, amps are not. By having such a high voltage range, it will allow people to connect up to two dozen or so solar panels directly to each other making it very easy to set up the solar panels.
With 4,000w of solar input, it is possible to get up to 20,000wh of battery recharged per Apollo each day since there are an average of five solar peak hours per day. Does this mean the Apollo can only charge itself and up to three external batteries? Nope, they thought of that issue too.
Each expansion can have its own MPPT charge controller attached to it. Each battery can have up to 2,400w of solar panels recharging it in addition to the main solar charge controller inside the Apollo. A single Apollo with one extra battery can have up to 6,400w of solar recharging it. Again, this is incredible!
This makes the Apollo the most expandable solar generator ever created. It won’t matter if a new solar generator comes out in a few years with cooler features, because the Apollo will last decades of full-time operation since each battery has 6,500 cycles.
It can charge from a wall charger as well and the wall charging speed is programmable all the way up to 3,000w. Wall charging and solar charging can also be done together at the same time. This would also be applicable when there is no grid power and it’s very cloudy. You can use a gas generator to recharge the entire system quickly along with the solar panels.
How Do Other Units Compare?
There are multiple solar generators that have some similarities but let’s define these in one easy-to-see comparison. The comparisons listed below will be based on 240v configurations, meaning two units.
Inverter: Apollo 6,000w | Delta Pro 7,200w | AC300 6,000w
Base Battery Capacity: Apollo 10,744wh | Delta Pro 7,200wh | AC300 6,144wh
Max Expanded Battery Capacity: Apollo 96,696wh | Delta Pro 21,800wh | AC300 24,576wh
Base Solar Input: Apollo 4,000w | Delta Pro 3,200w | AC300 4,800w
Max Expanded Solar Input: Apollo 46,400w | Delta Pro 3,200w | AC300 4,800w
Price (2 units): Apollo $9,390 | Delta Pro $7,198 | $7,398
Price per Unit Wattage: Apollo $1.20/w | Delta Pro: $1.42/w | $1.33/w
As you can see with how these different specs stack up against each other that the Hsyolis Apollo is the best bang for the buck. Once everything is factored in from the inverter capacity, battery capacity, solar input capacity, and the expandability of each unit, the Hysolis Apollo wins by quite a bit.
As we can tell from this review, the Hysolis Apollo is an extremely powerful system. It is unrivaled in terms of power output, input, and expandability. It is very well priced for everything that is included. The Apollo can literally run an entire house, RV, cabin, van, or anything along those lines just by building it up to meet your needs.
One neat feature is that the screen is removable from the Apollo. It can reach up to 60ft away from the main unit and still read out what’s going on. It has a simple yet beautiful looking screen. The Delta Pro has a wireless screen that can be added for an additional $99 but the Apollo’s screen is already wireless, for no extra fee.
The Apollo will also have a phone app so that you can leave the screen on the main unit and monitor everything through your phone easily.
All of the standard safety features are included such as short circuit protection, high voltage protection, and low voltage protection and can even be used as a UPS (uninterrupted power supply) so it will continue to run all your equipment immediately after the power goes out.
The inverter size is just right, the battery is huge, and the solar input is unmatched anywhere. It even has an eco-mode to save even more energy.
The customer service with Hysolis has been top-notch. Having spoken directly with the owner of the Hysolis, he said they are actively looking for more support staff members, here in the USA, so that when someone calls in, they can speak to someone who knows exactly what they’re talking about. Fingers crossed they keep up with customer service because it has been so great.
Cons
Obviously, the weight is a big concern for the Hysolis Apollo. Each battery is 65lbs which is definitely on the heavy side, but it doesn’t even come close to the Delta Pro expansion battery at 84lbs. The Bluetti AC300s battery is 80lbs. And the Apollo batteries have far more energy packed into them than the other brands.
That’s pretty much it, no other cons. The Apollo will have a rolling cart just for it to make it easy to move it across flat surfaces. The only difficulty will be getting it out of the box and going up/down stairs.
I don’t know of any other system that has the matched capability of the Hysolis Apollo as you can tell from this review. Since I have personally been in the solar generator industry for many years and have talked with tens of thousands of people about systems, I can tell that the Hysolis Apollo is going to truly change the solar generator world.
I am extremely excited to get my first two Apollos, each with one extra battery. That’ll be how I start off. After that, I will keep expanding it so it continues to meet my needs for my home, cabin, RV, and any other situation that arises.
For many years the Titan has been unrivaled as the best solar generator available. It is in the homes of thousands of people helping to back up their emergency essentials with ease. But is there a new “kit” on the block with the Delta Pro power station? It has very similar features to the Titan with some minor and some major differences. In this review we’ll see exactly what those small and big differences are so it’s easy for you to know if either of these units is the one you want.
In the end, both systems are very good and anyone who has one or the other will be pretty well set when it comes to backup power for running fridges, freezers, medical equipment, lights, fans, kitchen appliances, tools, and more. But for some people, they may need that one little difference that one unit has and the other one doesn’t.
Max Battery Expandability: Titan 270,000wh | Delta Pro 21,600wh
Standard Solar Input: Titan 2,000w | Delta Pro 1,600w
Max Solar Input: Titan 2,000w | Delta Pro 3,200w
Lifecycles: Titan 2,000 | Delta Pro 3,500
Weight: Titan 66lbs | Delta Pro 100lbs
Over-panel Capability: Titan Easy | Delta Pro Semi-hard
Base Price: Titan $3,395 | Delta Pro $3,599
What Can They Power?
There are multiple things to consider when it comes to the output capacity of solar generators. Both the Titan and the Delta Pro have pure sine wave inverters that are very powerful. Before the Titan was launched in August of 2019 there was basically no other solar generator that had a powerful inverter, and the Titan fixed that. But when the Delta Pro launched in the winter of 2021, it surpassed the Titans inverter by just a little bit.
The Titan’s inverter is 3,000w output and a 6,000w peak. The Delta Pros inverter is 3,600w output and 7,200w peak. The real question is, will 3,000w be enough for everything you need to run and if it is, then wouldn’t 3,600w output be overkill and unnecessary?
Having been in the solar generator industry since its inception and having talked with literally tens of thousands of people about solar generators, I have never once met anyone that said that 3,000w of continuous output was not enough for their needs.
But what are people’s most common needs? Typically to run one or two fridges, one or two freezers, TV, Wi-Fi, a few lights, a fan or two, chargers for mobile devices, and often times medical equipment. More than 90% of people are running those types of items. So in that case, the Titan would be enough, and so would the Delta Pro since they both can run all of that with no problem.
But the one item that is often mentioned and is a very important item, is the well pump. Many people are looking to run water into their houses with ease when the power is out. This is where the Titan is not capable of running because the vast majority of well pumps are 240v power and the Titan can only do 120v power. Whereas the Delta Pro is capable of running 240v power as long as you have two Delta Pros and the 240v connection hub.
As long as the well pump doesn’t use more than 240v and 30a to run continuously, then the Delta Pro can easily run it. Most well pumps use 240v and 5a to 10a to run continuously depending on their size. The next big issue is how do you connect the Delta Pros to your well pump since it’s hard-wired into the house? In that case, you either need the EcoFlow Smart Home Panel, or your own transfer switch and adapters to connect to the 240v connection hub. But if you do that, then you can run your well pump.
Which solar generator is better, the Titan or the Delta Pro? The answer is “it depends.” Do you absolutely need 240v power? Then you need the Delta Pro. If you don’t need 240v power, then likely the Titan is a better option since it can expand to higher battery capacity and has a better solar input. But let’s define those parameters as well.
To be very clear, the battery capacity that you need is specific to you. Everyone’s needs differ from each other. One person may only need 2,000wh to get through a night of just running their fridge and charging their phone. Someone else may need 10,000wh because they have a medical condition and have to run a window unit A/C all night and all day non-stop. Either way, both systems have large battery expansion capabilities but that also comes at a price.
The Titan is really two pieces put together into one unit. The top section, referred to as the “power module,” contains an inverter, two charge controllers, step up and step down voltage devices, safety measures, fans, and so on. The power module is the brain of the whole system. In order for it to operate appropriately, it needs a heart, which is the battery. A Titan is one power module combined with at least one Titan battery. Technically speaking the Titan is capable of having up to 135 Titan batteries attached to it, but obviously, no one would do that.
But one unique feature of the Titan, that no other solar generator anywhere has, is the ability to use non-Titan branded batteries. The external batteries must be 24v and it is only recommended to use lithium-type batteries, but even still, that’s a very unique feature. Also, the Titan was the first solar generator to incorporate stackable batteries that link together to share their energy. The Titan batteries are Lithium NMC with 2,000 cycles (plenty for anyone).
The Delta Pro, on the other hand, must use EcoFlow proprietary expansion batteries, and each Delta Pro can have a maximum of two expansion batteries. Each battery is 3,600wh which is plenty of energy storage. At a maximum, there can be two Delta Pros linked together, and have a total of four batteries between the two units, for a max battery capacity of 21,600wh.
Which solar generator is better? Well again, it depends. Do you need or want the ability to use non-brand-specific batteries to add to your system in an emergency? Or do you love the stacking ability of the batteries to seamlessly join together? Then the Titan is the best option. Or do you want longer lifecycles on the Delta Pro batteries but be limited to how many batteries can be joined together and have all of the modern technology for monitoring them and auto-balancing them? Then the Delta Pro is the best. Once again, it depends on your preferences and needs for what you want to do with the power stations.
Recharging
In the end, a solar generator, just like a gas generator, is only good if it has enough fuel to run all of your equipment. This includes charging from solar panels as well as recharging from the wall at home or from a gas generator when the grid is down, and the weather is bad.
The Titan comes with a standard wall charging brick that is capable of charging at about 350w. With that standard charger alone, it takes about 6 hours to recharge a single Titan battery from 0% up to 100%. But it is also easy to upgrade that wall charging brick to a fast charger that charges at about 650w which brings down the charge time for a single battery to about 3 hours. And the Titan can use up to two wall chargers at the same time, so the fastest charge speed is about 1,300w which can charge a single battery in less than 2 hours. But to get those fast wall chargers do cost extra.
The Delta Pro has a very simple wall charging cable that does not have a large power adapter brick on it. This keeps the charging cables light, small, and easy to store because it’s just a cable, nothing else. On the back of the Delta Pro where the charging ports are, there is a small toggle that allows the user to switch between slow charging and fast charging. Slow charging speed is about 300w and fast charging is about 1800w. That means on slow it will take about 12 hours to charge and on fast only about 2 hours to charge from a wall outlet. And the charge speed can be customized within the phone app for both settings. There is no extra fee for fast charging, it is free and built into the Delta Pro.
In terms of charging from a wall outlet, the Delta Pro definitely wins. But is it the best option for off-grid charging from solar panels?
The Titan has the largest solar input capability among these two units. It has two MPPT charge controllers and each one will let in 1,000w at a time. This gives the Titan 2,000w of solar input which is very impressive. One of the best features of the Titan is it can easily be over-paneled, meaning it can have more than 2,000w of solar panels connected. The charge parameter is 35-145v and 30a per charge controller.
Why is over-paneling such a good thing? In the USA there are an average of five solar peak hours per day. That means for five hours a day the solar panels will make their max solar output. Usually from about 10am to 3pm. If you have 2,000w of solar panels connected, you can make about 10,000wh of energy in those five hours. But if you are over-paneled, then you will begin making the max solar input earlier in the morning and later into the afternoon. This allows you to have anywhere from 6 to 10 solar peak hours per day depending on the time of the year and how many solar panels you connect.
A single Delta Pro can input up to 1,600w from solar through its single MPPT charge controller. The charge parameter is 11-150v and 15a. Because the amps are much lower than the 30a on the Titan it is much harder to over-panel the Delta Pro. It is still possible, but the best-case scenario with our 200w solar panels we have seen that the Delta Pro can over-panel up to 2,400w per unit. You can get twice the solar input with another Delta Pro, but then you have twice as much battery to recharge, so it doesn’t really increase the recharge speed.
In terms of having a single solar generator, Titan definitely wins the solar charging portion of this comparison. But if you have two Delta Pros, you can technically exceed the Titan’s recharge rate but also can’t over-panel as much as you can with the Titan.
Which unit is best? I think they are pretty much equal. The only big advantage the Delta Pro has over the Titan is the ability to put two units together and make 240v power. The Delta Pro’s more powerful inverter is a very small win over the Titan since the vast majority of people never go over 3,000w of continuous draw off of their inverter. The Titan has better battery expandability than the Delta Pro and doesn’t even require proprietary batteries which is a massive win over the Delta Pro. As far as solar goes, they’re nearly the same solar input with the Titan beating the Delta Pro when compared to a single Delta Pro unit.
As far as customer service goes, they’re pretty much equal. If you purchase either unit from Powered Portable Solar then you’re given extra customer service and support by Americans located here in the USA who know the ins and outs of these systems and what will work best for your situation. If you need additional help deciding which unit is best for your situation, contact us and we’ll be happy to help.
Personally, I have two Titans, and I have two Delta Pros, I like both models a lot. One Titan runs my off-grid cabin 100% of the time year-round, the other runs my RV on long trips with my family, and even runs our A/C unit with no problem. My two Delta Pros are set up in a 240v configuration at home for when the grid power goes out, and I run my whole house with no problem. They each serve their purpose and I have been very pleased with purchasing both of them.
In the end, only you can truly decide what is best for you, but we’re always here to help too.
Newer and more powerful solar generators and power stations are constantly coming out. This is wonderful news! The industry is catching up to what people want in an emergency backup power option.
The EcoFlow Delta Pro is one of those systems that has brought to the market things that we’ve never had before. 240v capability, auto transfer switch, charging from EV stations super-fast, and much more. We’ll go over all of those things here in this full review of the Delta Pro in a 120v and 240v configuration.
Are you looking to run your well pump, keep all of the food in the fridge and freezer cold, and even run some air conditioning during the extreme heat of the summer? The EcoFlow Delta Pro is fully capable of accomplishing this. But is it the right system for you to go with? Does it perform better than the Bluetti AC300? Will it outpower anything that the Renogy Lycan Power Box 5000 can do? By the end of this review, we’ll know for sure.
The Delta Pro launched in early 2022, and when it launched it officially became the most powerful system on the market in terms of how much power it can continuously output. Using a pure sine wave inverter and a full 120v and 30a of power output, the Delta Pro can push out 3,600w non-stop for as long as the batteries and solar can last.
It is full of all the necessary outlets to run without any issues. With 4 house-style outlets (Nema 5-15R) to run appliances like fridges, freezers, lights, fans, chargers, microwaves, toasters, coffee makers, TVs, Wi-Fi, security systems, and much more. It is easy to run a power strip off of those 4 outlets as well if there are a lot of things you need to run. Each outlet is rated to push out up to 20a but cannot do more than 30a total from all of the outlets combined which is normal. 20a out of a single outlet is impressive and is the highest rated output for any Heavycap or Ultracap solar generator on the market.
It has a 30a RV plug (TT-30R) that is rated to a true 30a output. The Titan, MPS3K, and AC300 all have the same plug but are only rated to 25a output. Do you need 30a of real output? Probably not, but if you need it, it’s good to have it. Having run my Titan solar generator in my RV for over 2 years now I’ve never had a problem with having a 3,000w inverter.
Some would say that the 3,600w inverter is overkill and not necessary since most people have been very happy with 3,000w of output from other solar generators. But if you can have more power potential, why not have it?
It has four USB-A charging ports and two 100w USB-C ports for extra fast power to compatible devices. The DC outlets are pretty standard with one 12v/10a DC cigarette lighter style port and two 12v/3a 5521 ports. But there is now a 12v/30a Anderson Powerpole port which will be very good for people who need a lot of DC power for running things like HAM radios.
The inverter will peak at 7,200w which makes it capable of running heavier equipment like air compressors, chop saws, and water pumps that have a really high starting wattage. Keep in mind that as a single Delta Pro unit, it cannot run a 240v well pump or any other 240v appliance. For that, two Delta Pros and a 240v Connection Hub are required.
It is possible to connect a single Delta Pro to an electrical panel but it will only supply power to one side of the electrical panel and only 120v power. Do not turn on any of the 240v breakers when only one Delta Pro is connected or it could cause damage to the device that uses 240v power and possibly the Delta Pro as well. I found for my electrical panel when I connect just one Delta Pro to my transfer switch that the right side of my panel has power and my left side does not.
This is hands down the best feature about the EcoFlow Delta Pro is that you can link two units together with the 240v Connection Hub and supply 240v power. Using the connection hub there is the option to use the L14-30R port and power something directly such as an electric dryer. Or it’s possible to take that and run it to a transfer switch and power an entire electrical panel up to 30a output at 240v.
When two Delta Pros are connected together, they can supply up to 7,200w of output power constantly through the large 4-prong plug on the 240v connection hub.
I personally chose to use my home transfer switch and use the proper cables to get my two Delta Pros connected to my household electrical panel. Keep in mind that it’s not possible to run any 240v equipment above 30a. Volts x Amps = Watts. 240v x 30a = 7,200w. Or it’s capable of still pushing out 120v and 30a from each unit which would total 120v and 60a for the 7,200w output.
I find it easiest to use the transfer switch, so I do not have to run extension cords anywhere around the house. This is how I run my well pump and have water throughout my entire house just like normal.
The way it works is that within an electrical panel there are two sides of breakers. Each side carries 120v of power. Where there are 240v breakers you’ll typically see two of the breakers joined together to make the 240v power. That’s because one breaker is touching the left side of the electrical panel and the second breaker is touching the right side of the electrical panel, therefore making 240v power.
By running 240v power to the electrical panel I am able to run everything in my house without any issues including my electric dryer. But since I have a propane dryer and an electric dryer, I don’t use the electric dryer when using the Delta Pros because it consumes 5,800w to run! That’s a ton of power. The best option is to use a clothesline.
I do not have central air conditioning and have found that most central air conditioners use at least 50a to run which means even a double Delta Pro setup in 240v will still not run central air conditioners. Window and portable air conditioners are definitely possible with either just one or two Delta Pros.
One thing that nearly no one considers with solar generators is the “idle power consumption rate.” This is how much power is being used just to have the inverter (AC power) turned on while not running any equipment. The Delta Pro will automatically turn off after 12 hours of no AC power being drawn unless you change that setting within the app.
This is a big deal because if the unit is turned on but not running anything, it will steadily drain the battery. The EcoFlow Delta Pro has a phenomenally low idle power consumption rate of just 14w. This is similar to the Titan solar generator which varies but is around the same. For the Delta Pro, if it were turned on for 24 hours and not running anything, it would consume 336wh which is about 9% of the internal battery capacity.
But the big reason the Delta Pro is the preferred unit between it and the Bluetti AC300 is that the AC300 has an idle power consumption rate of 63 watts! The AC300’s battery, the B300, has a capacity of 3,072wh. And if put through the same condition of being left on for 24 hours while not running any equipment, it would consume 1,512wh total. That is 49% of the battery! The Delta Pro’s inverter is much more efficient and uses 5x less power than the Bluetti AC300. That is why it is the preferred choice between those two units.
Batteries and Expansion
The Delta Pro has a built-in battery of capacity of 3,600wh using LifePo4 cells. Using LiFePo4 cells greatly increases the weight of a Delta Pro to 100lbs. but it gives the solar generator a lot more life cycles. By using LiFePo4 instead of lighter Lithium NMC the Delta Pro will have at least 3,500 cycles before it reaches 80% efficiency. That’s basically 10 years of non-stop use before the battery reaches the 80% efficiency level.
The Delta Pro is capable of adding up to two Delta Pro Expansion Batteries. Each expansion battery also is 3,600wh of capacity. This gives a single Delta Pro with two batteries a grand total of 10,800wh of battery capacity! That is a lot of battery for anyone. To compare to the Titan solar generator, it would take 5 Titan expansion batteries to have a similar battery capacity.
When you have two Delta Pros you can have two batteries on each unit which means the grand total battery capacity maxes out at 21,600wh. For most people just running household essentials during power outages and emergencies will supply 3+ days of non-stop power just from the batteries without solar panels connected. If more equipment is run, then obviously that time goes down.
Each expansion battery uses the same LiFePo4 battery and connects directly to the back of the Delta Pro solar generator.
One of the greatest benefits of using the EcoFlow Delta Pro expansion batteries is that they do not need to be balanced or be at the same voltage as the main battery when connecting them together. Regardless of the state of charge of the main unit and external batteries, you simply connect them together, and the unit will auto-balance the entire system.
When there are two Delta Pros together for 240v power, the two Delta Pros will work independently of each other. If one has more battery than the other, it will not charge the one with less battery percentage.
Recharging
The EcoFlow Delta Pro can charge in multiple ways including wall charging, solar, car, and even electric vehicle charging stations.
When using the wall charger there is a switch on the back of the Delta Pro that allows you to select between slow charging and fast charging. The slow charger will charge the Delta Pro and any attached batteries at a rate of 400w total. When using the fast mode, it will charge up to 1,800w total. Some people prefer to slow charge because it is easier on the batteries and can help increase the life cycles. I personally prefer the fast mode.
If you want to go really fast, then use a 240v EV charger. On the front right side of the Delta Pro, there is a charging port called the Infinity port. You need the special EV Charging Adapter, but it will allow you to take the Delta Pro to an EV charging station and charge at a rate of 3,400w. This is called “level 2” charging and can be done at home with your own EV charger or at an EV charging station.
This makes it a very viable option to use the Delta Pro within a Van or an RV because it can be changed so quickly while on the road if the weather is bad or there are not enough solar panels to fully recharge the system each day.
When it comes to charging from solar, this is likely the weakest part of the Delta Pro. It has an MPPT charge controller that is very high quality and capable of inputting up to 1,600w of solar into the battery. But the charge parameter that is built into the MPPT charge controller is what makes it hard to reach having 1,600w of solar panels connected.
The charge parameter is 11-150v and 15a. It’s okay to have more than 15amps in solar panels connected but you never want to exceed 150v. In fact, it’s best to not exceed 130v it at all possible. If you exceed the recommended voltage, you will burn out the charge controller and have to send the unit it, and have a new one installed, and that’s not covered under the warranty.
The reason this is the weakest point of the Delta Pro is it’s hard to attach 1,600w of panels and stay within the charge parameter. For example, the EcoFlow 400w folding solar panel should be a perfect fit because if you have four of those solar panels there’ll be 1,600w in solar connected. When connecting solar panels, the most important specs to pay attention to on the sticker is the VOC (open circuit voltage) and the ISC (short circuit current). The VOC is the most voltage the panel can make, and ISC is the most amperage the panel can make.
When solar panels are connected in series, the total voltage goes up with each panel connected, but the total amperage stays the same. On the EcoFlow 400w folding solar panel the VOC is 48v, and the ISC is 11a. If four of those panels are connected in series, the total voltage connected would be 192v which would absolutely burn out the charge controller and ruin it. At most, only 3 of those can be connected and they would be at a total of 144v which is still above the recommended 130v.
That means to use those solar panels the only option is to have two groups of two for a series/parallel combo. The total voltage with four of those solar panels would be 96v and the total amps would be 22a. But since the charge controller can’t use amps higher than 15a, each solar panel cannot produce a full 400w of power, which means it can’t push in 1,600w into the Delta Pro.
With the high-quality Rigid 100 solar panels, their VOC is 21.59v and the ISC is 5.48a, it’s possible to get 1,800w of solar panels connected. There would be three groups with six solar panels in each group. This would be a series/parallel combo connection but does give the ability to over-panel just a little bit. But it’s barely reaching the full 1,600w rated capacity.
The Rigid 200 solar panels have performed the best in all of my testing, and we have successfully connected up to 2,400w of solar panels to each Delta Pro so they are over-paneled as much as possible. This makes it possible to get more than the average 5 solar peak hours in a day.
Well the AC300 we know is inferior to the Delta Pro simply for the fact that the AC300 will burn battery power just by being turned on. The AC300 can do 240v power as well and can add a little more battery capacity and even more solar capacity, but that is basically negated by the fact that the energy is just burned off due to the unit being on. It really is a big killer for the AC300 that it uses so much power just to be turned on. It’s almost not worth getting the AC300 unless the extra batteries and solar are added just to help offset that idle power consumption.
The Renogy Lycan Power Box 5000 is a similar system with a 3,500w inverter, 4,800wh battery, and a massive 4,400w of solar input capacity. But it cannot do 240v power. And after reviewing the Renogy Lycan Power Box 5000 it appears to be impossible to get more than about 2,000w of solar to really go into the power station. So there seems to be some misinformation being reviewed and spread with the Lycan. Not to mention that the Lycan weighs 264lbs before adding extra batteries. So in my opinion, I feel the Delta Pro has many factors that are better than the Renogy Lycan.
The Titan solar generator is a very similar system with a 3,000w inverter, 2,000wh batteries that can be expanded to any capacity, and 2,000w of solar input. If a single Titan and a single Delta Pro were compared side by side, they’re pretty similar. A Titan would need one extra battery to be close to the same amount of battery capacity as a single Delta Pro. I’d say the biggest advantage the Delta Pro has over the Titan is its ability to expand more than the Titan. The Titan cannot make 240v power and when two Delta Pros are put together, they can easily have over 3,600w of solar connected which beats the Titan’s 2,000w of solar input capacity. The other huge advantage is that the Titan is perpetually in a backorder of about 8 weeks on average whereas the Delta Pro is usually in stock and ready to ship.
Pros and X-Factors
What sets the Delta Pro apart from the other solar generators on the market is its ability to make 240v power and connect to a house through a transfer switch. It’s also possible to use the EcoFlow Home Smart Panel which is like a transfer switch but will automatically transfer power from the Delta Pros to the house when the power goes out.
The Delta Pro is one of the fastest charging power stations from a wall charger, and also from an EV charger. The batteries will hold a charge for up to a year.
The EcoFlow App is a wonderful bonus to use with the Delta Pro. Once the Delta Pro is powered on, it’s recommended to connect it to the local Wi-Fi and then update the firmware to make sure it performs at its best. But in addition to that, once it’s connected to Wi-Fi it can be monitored from your phone regardless of where you are. You do not have to be at home or close to the unit to monitor if it’s connected to Wi-Fi. Within the app, you can also see how much power is coming in from the solar panels, how much power is going out, turn on and off outlets, change charge settings, and much more. The app is very easy to use and a huge bonus for Delta Pro and all the EcoFlow solar generators.
The ability to add batteries is a big bonus since it’s a very large battery capacity when maxed out.
There’s a 2-year manufacturer warranty to make sure you’re covered if anything stops working randomly. As long as the firmware is updated, there shouldn’t be any issues.
Cons & Issues
Many people have an interest in keeping this in the back of their EV (electric vehicle) in order to recharge their EV battery to get a little further. The Delta Pro cannot recharge an EV. There is technically a way to do it, but it is not recommended, and it will void the warranty on the Delta Pro. Some people don’t need EV charging so it may not be an issue for you.
Customer service has been mentioned many times on forums and groups stating that it’s lacking in help. Many people have called in for what they felt was a simple issue that should have a simple solution and no solution could be found with help from customer service. That and it doesn’t appear that their customer service team is located in the USA which gives a lack of faith to many people. For example, the customer service team insists that it’s impossible to run 240v power to a house using a standard transfer switch. They insist the EcoFlow Smart Home Panel is required, but many others and I have powered our houses without the Smart Home Panel. Whether this is a push to sell those units or not is debatable.
The expansion batteries must be EcoFlow’s expansion batteries. You cannot use other branded batteries. This isn’t a huge deal breaker because they have many great features like auto-balancing but it would be nice to have the ability to use other batteries. The Titan solar generator is the only unit capable of using other brands of batteries with the Titan.
It’s heavy, each Delta Pro is 100lbs. and each battery is 84lbs. But they do have built-in telescoping handles and wheels which do make a big difference on flat surfaces.
There are many pros and cons to the EcoFlow Delta Pro system that I have covered in this full review. Personally, I really love this system. Is it the “end-all-be-all” of all solar generators? Probably not. But the ability to have 240v power and run my house comfortably for many days on end is something that’s hard to put a price on. I have personally run my house for four days straight with just 2,520w of solar panels connected which wasn’t even the max solar I could connect.
Anyone looking to make themselves and their families very comfortable during power outages should seriously look at the EcoFlow Delta Pro. And if you’re truly interested in it, you should order it sooner than later because we never know what new supply chain issues may arise.
I love mine and am 100% sure you will love yours too.
The newest system to come to the solar generator and power station world is the BigBlue CellPowa 2500. It launched on April 19, 2022 on Kickstarter with some amazing deals. But is it worth getting the CellPowa 2500 or should you consider something else? Is it reliable, can it charge up quickly, will it run all the necessary equipment? All of that will be revealed here as you read on. Keep in mind that this review is based on a prototype unit that will have some minor flaws worked out by the time the units are shipping, according to the manufacturer.
Inverter
The BigBlue CellPowa 2500 comes with a large pure sine wave inverter that is rated to run continuously none stop at 2,500 watts of draw. That is a maximum draw of 20.8amps from a single outlet which is much more than you’d get anything to run off of a typical house outlet. This means that anything that you can run out of a house outlet will run off of the CellPowa 2500.
It peaks at 5,000w of surge capacity which is always good to see the surge wattage be rated to at least double of what the continuous running wattage is rated to on a unit. Since it is a pure sine wave inverter you can safely run any type of equipment you’d normally use at home. Modified sine wave units are the ones you want to stay away from.
One of the major downsides of the CellPowa 2500 is the inverter efficiency. Doing a couple of different tests it was discovered that the average efficiency of the solar generator is only about 77%. That is not horrible but it’s also not great. Typically we like to see at least 80% efficiency. Ideally, we want around 85% to 90% efficiency out of a solar generator so we know we’re able to use the most amount of power from the battery.
What does this mean? Let’s say you’re running a 1,000w load off of an inverter and the inverter was 100% efficient. They never are but just to better understand this we’ll say it’s 100% efficient. That means that after one hour of running 1,000w off of the inverter you will have used 1,000wh off of the battery. But if the inverter is only 77% efficient, and you’re running a 1,000w load for one hour, you’ll have actually consumed 1,298wh off of the battery because the unit had to use more power from the battery to cover the lack of efficiency. If the inverter were 50% efficient it would use 2,000wh running a 1,000w load for one hour.
You really want a more efficient inverter because then you can use more of the actual capacity of the battery. This is not necessarily a deal-breaker but it’s definitely not great to have only 77% efficiency.
Battery
The BigBlue CellPowa 2500 has a 1,843wh LiFePo4 (Lithium Iron Phosphate) battery installed inside the unit. It is not a serviceable battery which is fine and it likely will never need to be serviced since it doesn’t off-gas and has over 3,500 cycles. This means you could drain and recharge the battery once per day for 3,500 days (nearly 10 years) and after that time the battery will still be 80% as efficient as it was on day one.
LiFePo4 batteries are extremely nice because of how long they last but it does increase the weight of the unit significantly. Weighing in at a whopping 56lbs, this power station is a bit hard to move around. Although not nearly as heavy as some solar generators, it’s portable but still quite heavy.
With the inverter being 77% efficient you’ll have a usable watt-hour capacity of 1,419wh. That means you could run a 140w load for 10 hours on just the battery. An average household fridge will use roughly 80 to 100wh per hour of use. That means the CellPowa 2500 will run an average household fridge for about 14-18 hours with no solar or wall charging help which is quite good. If you were to use this in an emergency, you could realistically run a fridge for many days if you added solar panels to this unit.
One of the neatest features that include the inverter and battery working well together is the UPS feature. The uninterruptable power supply feature means that you could have the CellPowa 2500 plugged into the wall at your home charging and staying at 100% capacity while having something like a refrigerator plugged into it. Then if the power cuts off to your house the CellPowa 2500 will immediately become the power source for the fridge without causing any fluctuation in the operation of the fridge. So if you’re away on a trip and the power goes out, your fridge won’t stop working and will keep your food cold for quite some time. This gives you the chance to save a lot of your food in the event of a major power outage.
There are 3 ways to charge up the BigBlue CellPowa 2500 solar generator. It will charge at 1,200w from the wall charger, 1,200w from solar input, and 102w from the DC car charger.
The AC wall charger is wonderful because it is only a standard charging cable. The typical US house outlet is called a NEMA 15P, basically meaning it’s rated to 15a and it’s a Plug, hence 15P. The AC charging port on the CellPowa 2500 uses a typical C13 plug which is a very common power plug for household items. The unit comes with a NEMA 15P to C13 cable and if you wanted to get a longer cable or backup cable they are very inexpensive and very common to find at electronic stores.
To charge the CellPowa 2500 from a car outlet while driving around will take 18 hours. It’s nice that it comes with that option but I don’t see very many people using that option in real-world use. It charges at only about 9a or around 102 watts. It’s nice to have this feature but isn’t a big deal anymore.
Solar charging is what we feel is the most important because it is the equivalent of having more fuel for a gas generator. If the power is out, solar is the main way to get more power and get the battery charged back up again. Luckily the BigBlue CellPowa 2500 has a 1,200w MMPT charge controller that is rated to take power from 12-65v and 25a. The big downside is how you get to 1,200w input
There are three 8mm/DC7909 solar input ports. The idea is to connect two 200w panels into each port for a total of 1,200w. The big downside to this is cable management. This is probably one of the biggest flaws of the entire system. If you want your CellPowa 2500 to be indoors where you can use it, and you need your solar panels 100ft away in a clear area where they can get the best sunlight, you’ll need 3 sets of 100ft cables to make it work. Because of the 3 input ports, it makes it difficult to keep things tidy while charging with solar.
Outlets
The BigBlue CellPowa 2500 is capable of running a lot of equipment at the same time. It has six 120v NEMA 15 plugs just like you find on the wall outlets in houses. But it also has two 18w USB-A ports, two 45w USB-C ports, and two 100w PD USB-C ports for extra fast charging of USB-C devices. It also has one typical DC cigarette lighter port rated to 10a as well as two 5.5×2.1mm barrel ports.
Having all of these outlets and ports makes it very easy to be charging multiple phones, tablets, laptops, fridges, freezers, and so on all at the same time. And it can be charged from either the wall charger or the solar input at the same time that equipment running off of the unit.
Extra Features
A neat feature that is becoming much more common on solar generators and power stations is a Bluetooth App to control and monitor the BigBlue CellPowa 2500 with. It’s not fully functional at this stage of development but BigBlue ensures it will be very nice to use once the main units are shipping out from their Kickstarter campaign.
One very unique feature that we have never heard of before in a solar generator is a special SOS GPS feature. The CellPowa 2500 has a unique button for help. There is a GPS located inside of the unit and in case of an emergency you can activate the SOS beacon which will alert local authorities, search and rescue, forest rangers or whoever is the response team to come find your location. This is a very neat feature but is still unclear if the GPS option can be toggled off when you don’t want it to be activated. In a situation like that, it seems like it should be possible to turn the GPS on, then send out the SOS so that you’re not being tracked by BigBlue everywhere you go.
It does come with a color touch screen which helps give it a modern look similar to the Bluetti AC200P units. However, the majority of the screen is filled with the battery percentage. The input and output wattage readings are in the bottom right corner of the screen and are very small and hard to read. You must be right next to the unit to see what that info is. The AC and DC power options are turned on and off with the touch screen, so the downside is if the screen dies for any reason, the entire unit is inoperable.
It comes with an 18-month limited warranty but it’s unclear as to what’s included in the limited warranty. It’s typical for warranties to cover any manufacturing defects so it’s safe to assume that is what is included in the 18-month period.
One feature that some people will like and others will dislike is that cooling fans are always operating when the unit is turned on. This means if you’re not running a load and no heat is being generated, the fans are running. Also if you’re running a heavy load and the unit making lots of heat, it’s being cooled very well. The downside is that when the fans are always running unnecessarily, they are using up power for no reason. Units like the Titan solar generator have a heat sensor that tells the fans when to turn on, turn onto turbo speed, and turn off based on what’s happening inside the unit and how it needs to cool. We can only hope that BigBlue will update this feature as the finished units ship out.
Conclusion
The BigBlue CellPowa 2500 seems like a pretty decent unit. For average use to use during an emergency it has a large enough inverter to power essential items and a large enough battery to get through the night while running that essential equipment. The solar input is high enough to recharge the entire system in a little under 3 hours which means that it can easily be recharged and run essential equipment during the day.
The inverter efficiency is a bit concerning and the fact that 3 sets of solar panels with dedicated cables have to be used to reach the 1,200w solar input is a bummer too. Once we get one of these units in hand we will be able to test if the CellPowa 2500 can be over-paneled and see how well it can run an RV, cabin, and home backup items.
If you feel this unit fits your needs then we highly recommend you go to their Kickstarter campaign and get this unit while it’s greatly discounted. If you’re unsure, then we recommend you wait and see how the finished unit turns out and see if it’ll work for you.
fountain pen lying on ” Emergency Preparedness Checklist ” form
Emergency preparedness is a tough business to get into, and it can be a tricky ordeal trying to figure out which preparedness supplies are the best choice for you. Thankfully, we’ve got the expertise and experience to help guide you through the decision! In this article, we’ll be taking a look at 5 of the best portable solar generators on the market. We’ll review and rank each one in an effort to try and figure out which solar generator provides customers with the absolute best value for their hard-earned dollar!
What Are Portable Solar Generators?
Portable solar generators are pieces of equipment that can generate electricity from the sunlight. They have become increasingly popular for a number of reasons. They can help you in a natural disaster, such as a hurricane, flood, tornado, or harsh storm. As well, they can aid in power outages and EMP attacks that might knock out the traditional power grid.
There are numerous things you’ll want to keep an eye out for when determining the best portable solar generator for your needs. These include:
Battery Capacity
The capacity of the battery dictates how much power the generator can hold. It is generally measured in “kWh“, or watt-hours. The bigger the battery is, the more energy that the solar generator will be able to hold. However, how much energy you are able to utilize at a time is going to be determined by the inverter size, and how long it takes to fill the battery will be determined by the generator’s charging speed. Because of this, battery capacity is only one single determining factor in the overall power of a solar generator.
Portability
People generally want their solar generators to be as portable as possible. The best generators strive to offer a balance between portability and power. The more powerful a generator is, the heavier it typically is. Because of this, the generator on this list that we consider the best also weighs a lot but can be split apart to still be portable.
Inverter Size
The inverter size determines how much energy can be drawn from the battery of the solar generator. As established, a large battery capacity requires a large inverter size if you wish to get the most out of your solar generator. The inverter size is measured in watts, determining the wattage of the solar generator.
Number and Style of Plugs
The number of plugs featured on the generator may seem straightforward, but the style of plugs can be incredibly important, as well. These can include traditional wall outlets, as well as other types of plugs, such as USB outlets.
Expandability
Solar generators may often feature the ability to be expanded in terms of their solar reception and their battery capacity. Increased solar input can improve how fast a generator’s battery may be charged until it’s full, while increased battery capacity can determine how much of a charge the generator can hold before it’s full.
Life Cycle
The life cycle that a solar generator has determines how many times a battery can be charged and ran through its entire capacity. In other words, it’s how many full charges a battery can hold before it reaches 80% efficiency.
Charging Speed
Charging speed determines how fast the battery of a solar generator can be charged, which is pretty important when it comes to solar generators. Since the sun is only shining at its optimal capacity for around 5 hours on an average day, you’re typically only going to have around 5 hours of optimal charge time to charge your solar generator’s battery. Because of this, you’ll want your generator’s battery to be able to charge fully in well under 5 hours. Typically, you’ll want to find a generator that can reach a full charge in around 2 to 3 hours.
Other Features
There are numerous other features that a generator may have, including the ability to charge through a carport or a 30amp cable to plug into an RV. These other features may not be important to everyone but will make a crucial difference to some when making the decision about which solar generator is right for them.
The 5 Best Solar Generators
Now that we know a little bit more about what to look for in a solar generator, let’s start comparing some of the many options available. There is a wide range of generators available from a variety of manufacturers, but some stand well above others when it comes to their quality and lifespan. Thankfully, we’ve gone over 5 of the most revered solar generators on the market to determine which one we think is the absolute best.
#1 Point Zero Titan
Capacity (Wh): 2,000
Life Cycle: 2,000
Continuous (W): 3,000
Fastest Solar Charge: 1 hour
Weight (lbs.): 66
The Titanis made by Point Zero and supported by Powered Portable Solar, which is an incredibly reputable company when it comes to preparedness and survival supplies. They’ve made plenty of solar generators in the past, but the Titan blows all previous models out of the water. The Titan utilizes all of Point Zero’s knowledge of portable power in one impressive package.
Battery Capacity
The battery the Titan comes equipped with is a 2,000wh lithium-ion battery that is both incredibly powerful and relatively light when its capacity is taken into consideration. One thing that sets this battery apart from other 2,000wh batteries on the market is that it can truly utilize all 2,000wh. This is because the usable capacity of the Titan’s battery is closer to 97%, as compared to the traditional 90-80% that is found in comparable batteries.
Portability
The Titan is a fantastic and incredibly powerful solar generator, but it’s also heavy. At 65lb when one battery is attached, the Titan certainly lives up to its name. It is the heaviest generator on this list, but this fact is abated when you realize that it can come apart in two pieces. Yes, the Titan is, in fact, two separate pieces, with each piece only weighing 33lb.
Inverter Size
The Titan certainly exceeds expectations when it comes to the size of its inverter. Whereas traditional portable solar generators will feature inverter capacities of around 1,500W, the Titan features an inverter with a capacity of 3,000W. While 1,500W is fine for basic needs, it prevents the use of heavy equipment. Thankfully, the 3,000W inverter found in the battery of the Titan doesn’t have this problem. If you’re looking to get maximum power out of your solar generator, the Titan is an excellent choice.
Amount and Style of Plugs
All the power in the world means nothing without the means to use it, which makes the number of plugs another incredibly important feature to look out for in a solar generator. Thankfully, the Titan doesn’t skimp when it comes to plugs. It features 6 wall outlets, 4 DC plugs, and various USB options, including USB-C. It also includes a 30amp style RV plug that puts out more power than any other unit that has an RV plug. The Titan can push a full 25amps through the RV plug continuously.
Expandability
The Titan can be expanded in terms of both battery capacity and solar reception with added batteries and solar panels respectively. It’s battery capacity can be expanded upon with additional lithium-ion batteries, and there is no limit to the amount you can add on with this method. As the battery power is expanded, additional solar panels can be added to ensure that the generator isn’t taking too long to charge
Life Cycle
The Titan’s lithium-ion battery has a life of 2,000 full cycles, which is incredibly impressive.
Charging Speed
The charging speed of the Titan is determined by the amount of panels that have been attached. The Titan can have anywhere from 500w to 4,000w attached. With 500w it will recharge in about 4 hours, and with 4,000w it will charge in 1 hour. The charge controllers max out at 2,000w max solar input. However, an additional 500W from the smaller Titan 500 Kit can be added via additional panels, decreasing that time to only 2 hours. Whether your Titan is charging with additional solar panels or not, it will be able to charge well within the 5-hour time traditionally allotted for optimal sunlight.
The Titan can also be charged via a carport, but a full charge with this method will generally take around 17 hours due to the decreased power of the average carport. Car charging can be used in tandem with solar charging to maximize the efficiency of a charge, which is a pretty unique feature amongst solar generators.
Other Features
The Titan is the only solar generator on this list that comes with a 30amp RV plug. This means that you can run your RV off of your Titan without any extra hook-ups.
Conclusion
The Titan is arguably the preeminent solar generator on the market. This is an incredible portable solar generator that is certainly the best choice on the market when it comes to solar generators available today. The only caveats to the Titan are its hefty weight and size.
The Bluetti AC200P is another solar generator, this time from Maxoak. While Maxoak may not carry the same prestige as Point Zero, they put together an admirable product with the Bluetti AC200P. For those who can’t spring for the Titan, or who simply have more modest needs, the Bluetti should serve you greatly.
Battery Capacity
The Bluetti’s battery has a 2,000Wh capacity, the same as the Titan. As mentioned before, however, the Titan has a slightly higher usable capacity.
Portability
The Bluetti weighs a little bit less than the Titan overall, but it can’t be separated into two parts for increased portability. That means that although the Bluetti may weigh only 63lbs, it still weighs a good deal more than each individual 33lb part of the Titan. So the Titan, despite its increased size and power, is still a better portable option than the Bluetti AC200P.
Inverter Size
A pure sine wave inverter is used on the Bluetti, and it can crank out 2,000W of continuous power and 2,500W for a period of up to 2 minutes. While this isn’t quite as impressive as the Titan’s 3,000W, it’s still admirable in its own right.
Amount and Style of Plugs
Six wall outlet plugs are featured on the Bluetti, as well as 4 USB-A ports and 1 USB-C port. It also features a standard DC port, as well as two 5521-barrel ports that are rated at 3a. An additional feature included on the Bluetti is a couple of 15w wireless charging pads that will allow you to charge your phone without even having to plug it in, so long as your phone feature wireless compatibility.
Expandability
In terms of expansion, the solar input of the Bluetti AC200P cannot be expanded, and the battery capacity can’t. The nonexistent expansion capabilities of the battery make solar expansion less useful than on the Titan, but it can still allow you to get maximum charging power from whatever sunlight you can manage to get in the day.
Life Cycle
The Bluetti has a life of 2,500 cycles, which is fantastic.
Charging Speed
The Bluetti features a standard 700W in solar input. It can be over-paneled up to 1,400w but won’t let more than 700w at a time. This allows the battery to be charged in a little under three hours in most situations. As with the Titan, the Bluetti can charge from multiple places at once. You can charge the Bluetti from the wall and through the solar panels simultaneously, decreasing the amount of time it takes for the machine to reach a full charge. However, be sure to keep in mind that the battery takes 20 hours to reach a full charge when it’s being charged through a carport.
Conclusion
The Bluetti is a solar generator with a lot of pros, but it doesn’t quite live up to the Titan. If you can’t afford the Titan, the Bluetti is a great runner-up that provides an incredible amount of power in relation to its price and size.
#3 Jackery Explorer 2000
Capacity (Wh): 2,060
Life Cycle: 500
Continuous (W): 2,200
Fastest Solar Charge: 3.9 hours
Weight (lb): 43
The Explorer 2000 comes from Jackery, and it is the most impressive solar generator that the company has made thus far. Still, it is no match for the Titan or even the Bluetti. Despite this, it has a slight advantage in being lightweight and more inexpensive.
Battery Capacity
The Explorer 2000 has a battery with a capacity of 2,060Wh. Once again, remember that the Titan’s battery has a slightly increased usable capacity when compared to the completion, meaning the Explorer 2000’s battery still doesn’t quite match it in terms of pure usable capacity.
Portability
Jackery’s Explorer 2000 weighs 43lb, making it less heavy than the Bluetti, but still heavier than each separate piece of the Titan.
Inverter Size
In terms of inverter size, the Explorer 2000 offers 2,200W of output continuously. It utilizes a pure sine wave inverter, the same as the Bluetti. Still, it’s no match for the incredible power of the Titan. While you will get plenty of use with general appliances, you’ll have a harder time powering heavier equipment.
Life Cycle
Where the battery of the Explorer 2000 really fails in comparison to the batteries of the previous two entries is in terms of its life cycles. The battery of the Explorer 2000 has a life of only 500 cycles, meaning it ranks incredibly poorly when compared to the life cycles of the prior two. The battery only lasts ¼ as long as the Titan batteries.
Amount and Style of Plugs
In terms of plugs, the Explorer 2000 features four wall outlets, enough to run a modest amount of appliances. It also features a number of other plugs, including a 60W USB-C port, a 12W USB-A port, and an 18w USB-A port. In addition, there is a traditional DC port.
Charging Speed
The Explorer 2000 is advertised with a slightly deceptive solar reception rate, saying it can take in 800W of solar power. However, it’s taking in closer to 500W in practice. Because of this, the unit takes around 4 hours to charge until the battery is full.
Conclusion
Although the Explorer 2000 isn’t quite as impressive as the previous two entries on this list, it may serve some buyers nicely. If your energy requirements are going to be modest such as in a Van, it may be a nice buy. However, those looking for the absolute best choice should still go with the Titan, or the Bluetti if they can’t afford it.
The Safari ME comes from Lion Energy, which is a fairly new company when it comes to preparedness supplies. If the Safari ME is the best they have to offer, then the company still has a ways to go before they’re ranking alongside Titan. However, the Safari ME still has some tricks up its sleeves.
Battery Capacity
In terms of battery capacity, the Safari ME fails to excite with its 922Wh lithium iron battery. This is notably smaller than the capacities of the batteries feature in the three previous entries on this list. As such, the Safari ME is only going to good for incredibly modest energy needs.
Portability
Despite its decreased battery capacity, the Safari ME also fails to impress when it comes to portability. At least, in any significant terms when compared to its predecessors on this list. It weighs 45lb, meaning it’s not even the lightest entry without taking into account the 33-pound halves of the Titan.
Inverter Size
The Safari ME has a 2000W pure sine wave inverter, as well as a surge capacity that can reach 4000W. 2000W of continuous power is nothing to laugh at but remember that the battery’s smaller capacity means this kind of output can only be generated for a very small amount of time. In fact, a full charge without the battery expansion can only generate about 30 minutes worth of 2,000W power. Even with the battery expansion, it would only last for around 90 minutes. The Safari ME is worth looking at if you get the extra battery pack.
Amount and Style of Plugs
Sadly, the Safari ME only comes with two 120v wall outlets. However, it also includes 2 USB-A and USB-C ports, as well as a traditional DC port.
Expandability
The Safari ME does have an optional battery expansion that can be purchased separately. However, it weighs as much as the generator itself, and adds over 3 hours to the time it takes for the generator to charge. Given that the 600W solar input can’t be increased, this makes battery expansion for the Safari ME a bit of a tough sell.
Life Cycle
As previously stated, the Safari ME has a lithium iron battery, as compared to the previous generators’ lithium-ion batteries. Despite the decreased capacity of the battery, it has a slightly longer lifespan than some of the competition. The battery of the Safari ME has a life of 2,500 cycles, while its battery expansion is good for 3,500 cycles. So, although the Safari ME only offers modest power, its long lifespan makes it a good choice for those with minimal energy needs.
Charging Speed
The Safari ME has a maximum solar input power of 600W, meaning you aren’t going to be able to utilize a lot of the given sunlight in a day. However, the smaller capacity of the battery means that you’re still going to be able to charge your generator until the battery is full in less than two hours. The Safari ME can also be charged through a wall charger. Sadly, the Safari ME can’t be charged through the wall or the car.
Final Thoughts
Despite its interesting lithium iron battery, the Safari ME fails to impress in any significant terms in comparison to the previous three entries on the list. In fact, it can be considered a significant drop in value when compared to even the Jackery Explorer 2000.
#5 Inergy Flex 1500
Capacity (Wh): 1,069
Life Cycle: 2,000
Continuous (W): 1,500
Fastest Solar Charge: 1 hours
Weight (lb): 30
The Flex 1500 from Inergy is another model that doesn’t quite hold a candle to the Bluetti or the Titan.
Battery Capacity
The Flex 1500’s battery features a minuscule capacity of 1,069kWh. However, unlike on the Safari ME, this is just a traditional lithium-ion battery. The only benefit is that the Flex 1500’s battery can be removed and add more batteries if desired.
Portability
One benefit that the Flex 1500 has over a lot of the competition is its portability. The generator itself only weighs 30lb. Given that the battery can be detached, this means that the unit can be separated into two pieces, weighing only about 15lb each. Even the full Flex 1500 weighs less than each individual half of the Titan, meaning this is by far the most portable and lightweight option on this list. But that comes at a great cost.
Inverter Size
The Flex 1500 gets its name from its 1,500W inverter, which is fairly middle-of-the-road when compared to the generator’s competition on this list. While it isn’t quite as small as the 1,000W inverter on the Bluetti EB240, it is a far cry from the 3,000W inverter of the altogether superior Titan.
Expandability
The detachable battery makes it possible for more batteries to be added, expanding the generator’s overall capacity.
Amount and Style of Plugs
Although the Flex 1500 certainly isn’t the most impressive specimen, it has a fairly hefty amount of plugs to offer its users. It has 6 wall outlets, 2 DC ports, and 2 USB-A and USB-C ports.
Life Cycle
The Flex 1500’s battery is claimed to have about 2,000 cycles but also has been rumored to only have 500.
Charging Speed
The Flex 1500 can handle 400W of solar input, allowing its meager battery to be charged in just a little over 2 hours with just the base battery. One unique feature to the Flexx 1500 is you can add more charge controllers in order to charge even faster when more batteries are added.
Final Thoughts
While the Flex 1500 is certainly the most portable when it comes to solar generators on this list, it is nowhere near as impressive as the Titan or the Bluetti. In pretty much every way, it is the least powerful entry on this list and should only be purchased by those with the most minimal energy needs and budgets.
In pretty much every way, the Titan is the ultimate portable solar generator if what you’re looking for is pure power generation with an impressive battery capacity and a large inverter size. The Titan is also the best bang for the buck. With all its features it has the lowest cost for what you get.
Ranking the Rest
If the Titan is out of your price range, the Bluetti provides a package that is slightly more affordable, and only a bit less impressive. The other three all feature their own unique advantages, from the lithium-iron battery of the Safari ME to the incredibly manageable weight of the Flex 1500. No matter what your needs are, there’s going to be a portable solar generator out there that has exactly what you’re looking for! If you’re looking for the best of the best, go with the Titan.
There are many different companies and brands that have started to push out different solar generators and power stations. Solar generators are simply becoming more popular and as well more powerful. Pecronhas been around for many years and has had many different products that they’ve launched over that time.
The Pecron Q3000S solar generator power station is their biggest unit they’ve released so far and has quite an impressive battery capacity. In fact, it has one of the largest battery capacities of any solar generator in terms of base-sized batteries, or in other words, the standard battery size that comes in the unit.
In this full review of the Pecron Q3000S we will go through all the specs and find out if this is a unit worth looking into.
Battery
Featuring a 3,024wh Lithium NMC (lithium-ion) battery the Pecron Q3000S can run quite a bit of equipment for a long time. For example, a typical home fridge will use about 80-100wh per hour of normal use. That means the Pecron Q3000S can run a standard home fridge for approximately 30 to 40 hours without stop and not needing any solar power. That’s incredible.
And because it is a 24v system, not a typical 12v system it will be a bit more efficient than normal solar generators that use 12v battery configurations. This is one of the big features that everyone has loved in their Titan solar generator since the Titan was the first unit to use 24v instead of 12v in the market.
For some reason though, the battery inside the Pecron Q3000s is truly only capable of pushing out about 1,700w off of it continuously before it begins to have issues. That’s not very good since the inverter is rated to 2,000w continuous output. Although many people have not had any issues with it only being able to push out 1,700w continuously because most people aren’t using 1,700w continuously.
The Pecron Q3000S battery will last longer than most solar generator batteries since it’s rated to last up to 1,000 lifecycles before it reaches 80% efficiency. That just means that after it’s been fully drained and recharged 1,000 times the battery will have about 80% capacity left in it. At that point, it will no longer be a 3,024wh battery but basically a 2,420wh battery. Either way, most people don’t use these to live off of full time and so it will take years if not decades to reach that point.
The battery will stay charged for up to 6 months but after that, it needs to be plugged in and recharged. There is no way to add more batteries to the Pecron Q3000S.
Inverter
As mentioned before the Pecron Q3000S has a 2,000w inverter that is rated to surge up to 4,000w if necessary. It is a pure sine wave which means it is capable of running any type of electronic or device just like you can at home off of the power grid.
Even though it has a 2,000w pure sine wave inverter, the battery doesn’t seem to be strong enough to keep up with the 2,000w demand as previously mentioned. It should be considered a 1,700w output unit since that’s all the battery can muster up when needed.
It’s not as bad as the Inergy Apex which has a 1,500w inverter but can only push out 800w non-stop until the battery is depleted. That’s basically a 50% reduction in power usage from what is advertised. But Inergy is releasing their new solar generator called the “Flex” and they now say that the 1,500w inverter will push out 1,500w continuously until the battery reaches 20%. Needless to say, Pecron has done a better job than Inergy in that regard of matching the right battery to the inverter.
Still, nothing beats the long-proven Titan with its 3,000w inverter that can truly push out 3,000 until the batteries are empty. Not to mention that the Titan has 2,000 cycles per battery which are twice as many as the Pecron Q3000S.
Charging
One of the most important features of a solar generator is the ability to recharge quickly. Most often, solar generators are compared to gas generators. During an emergency, a gas generator uses a lot of fuel and there are often fuel shortages during emergencies. But if you have fuel on hand then refueling the gas generator only takes a minute or two to fill up the gas tank. This is why a solar generator needs to be able to recharge quickly since people are depending on it every day that the power is out during an emergency. That or they’re using it for power while camping, RVing, or doing some large activity.
The Pecron Q3000S sadly does not have a fast solar rechargeability. It doesn’t even have an MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking) charge controller which is pretty basic these days. It has a PWM (older tech) charge controller and has a charge parameter of 30-40v & 10a. The voltage rating is quite slim which makes it really hard to find solar panels that fit within that charge parameter.
Either way, once you find a solar panel configuration that will fit that charge parameter you will still be maxed out to 300w of solar input. Sadly, since PWM charge controllers are not very efficient it’s next to impossible to get the full 300w of solar power to go in. Either way, it’s rated to 300w solar input.
Since the battery is just over 3,000wh and the solar input is 300w, the best charge time possible is 10 hours. That is a minimum of two days to recharge by solar panels while not running anything off of the Pecron Q3000S. It’ll take two days because there are 5 solar peak hours per day on average in the USA. That means the Pecron Q3000S is capable of making up to 1,500wh of battery capacity per day.
This is the biggest shortcoming of the Pecron Q3000S since it cannot recharge quickly. That means that because it has a large battery it is a good option to have a battery pack that can run essentials for a day or more, but beyond that, it’ll be hard.
If the power is out for 3 days, the Pecron Q3000S will have run out of power long before then. The only saving grace is that most people won’t drain a 3,024wh battery down every single day if they’re just running a fridge at home. This means if they can get 300w of solar input then they can stretch the battery to last a few days which may be enough to get them through the blackout.
This is why so many people prefer the Titan solar generator because it has 2,000w of solar input. It can be fully recharged within a few hours tops while still running lots of equipment. Meaning that it can last for months on end if necessary which is great for people preparing for long-term camping, RV life, or long-term power outage like an EMP.
Since the Pecron Q3000S uses a not-so-common aviation connector, it’ll be a little trick to replace the solar charging adapter if it’s ever lost.
Outlets
The Pecron Q3000S is a simple system in terms of outlets in that it has three 110v AC outlets like what people use at home. You can run a fridge, freezer, microwave, toaster, coffee machine, CPAP machine, small A/C unit, hairdryer, or whatever you want on those plugs since they can push out 1,700w nonstop. Of course, you can only do that as long as the battery lasts.
With one cigarette lighter, 12v DC plug and two USB A plugs it’s easy to run basic electronics as well and recharge tablets, phones, and small electronics. There are no fast charging USB C plugs for newer electronics that have the extra fast charging capability.
No 30a RV plug is included either since this system is not designed for RVs nor would I recommend it be used for RVs since it can’t recharge quickly from solar panels. Weighing in at 62lbs it’ll be quite the beast to take inside the RV and put somewhere easily too.
Pricing
To compare all solar generators to each other fairly I came up with a special way to break down the total watts, watt-hours, and cost of the three most important parts of a solar generator. The three parts are battery capacity, inverter output, and solar input. All three of those specs divided by the total cost of the unit gives us a “unit wattage” price.
The Pecron Q3000S costs about $2,199 typically but sometimes there are coupons but not too often. When we take the $2,199 price tag and divide that into those important specs we get a total price of $3.05/unit wattage. That may not sound like a lot at first but when you compare it to the #1 rated the best price per unit wattage solar generator, it sounds bad.
The Titan is the #1 unit for its capability as well as its price. The Titan breaks down to be only $1.33/unit wattage. That’s 57% cheaper for what you get than the Pecron Q3000S! Needless to say, I don’t think the Pecron Q3000S is truly a highly recommended unit because you’ll end up paying A LOT more than you would for something like a Titan which is far stronger.
At minimum that second-best solar generator currently is the Bluetti AC200P and that breaks down to $1.58/unit wattage and is very comparable to the Pecron Q3000S. The AC200P has a 2,000wh battery, 2,000w inverter, and 700w solar input. It has a smaller battery, to begin with, but works much better than the Pecron Q3000S.
Conclusion
There are definitely better options than the Pecron Q3000S. Just by this review and looking at many other reviews, it’s easy to see that it is a decent unit, but nothing amazing. The only great thing about the Pecron Q3000S is that is has a very large battery, to begin with so it will last quite sometime before needing a charge, depending on what is being run off of it.
I would definitely spend just a little bit more and have far more options and capabilities with the Titan solar generator over the Pecron Q3000S.
Since Pecron has been around for such a long time I am sure they will release new units over the years and maybe they will eventually catch on to what people really want and need. But for now, they’re still a bit behind.
MAXOAK has been working extremely hard to bring out some incredible power station/solar generators. They have been pushing the limits of what is capable of these units and have truly become one of the absolute top power station companies.
Their Bluetti EP500 power station has received a lot of attention ever since they launched on Kickstarter. There are a few Bluetti EP500 reviews out there that have done a good job of showing the specs off, but I want to truly dive into this power station and see how good it really is.
Is it better than the tried-and-true Titan solar generator? Will it truly run a whole house during an emergency? Can it be used to live permanently off-grid? Can I use it with my RV? All of these questions and more will be answered in this Bluetti EP500 review.
Battery
First things first we need to know exactly where it is pulling all its power from and that is the huge battery pack. Bluetti has transitioned most of its focus to using LiFePo4 (Lithium Iron Phosphate) batteries because of their long cycles and stable shelf life. But that comes at a cost of some serious weight.
The Bluetti EP500 has an incredible built-in battery capacity of 5,100wh. The only other unit currently on the market that has a larger built-in battery capacity is the Goal Zero Yeti 6000X. There are many other units that have expandable battery systems like the Titan solar generator but the Bluetti EP500 comes standard with 5,100wh.
Not only that, but the EP500 has an incredible 6,000 cycle rating! That means if you did one cycle every day (drain from 100% down to 0% then back up to 100%) it would last over 16 years before it reached 80% efficiency. That alone is something they can seriously brag about. Basically, it means that you will never have to worry about replacing the batteries in the Bluetti EP500. They’re going to last longer than you need to worry about.
Besides having a huge built-in battery capacity, the Bluetti EP500 is capable of connecting to a second Bluetti EP500 unit and combing their overall battery capacity. I’ll go over more of this in detail in the “expandability” section below.
The downside to having such a large battery capacity is the weight. This is not a portable unit by any means. This is meant to be wheeled into place, left there, and used as needed. It is not going to be easy to move this into an RV, van, cabin, or anywhere for that matter. Weighing in at 167lbs this unit will take at least two people to move around. It comes with wheels that are removable once it’s in the permanent location you want it but it doesn’t roll easily unless it’s on a hard floor or a very thin carpet like commercial office carpet.
That is the biggest downside to having this big of a battery is you lose the ability to keep it portable. This means bringing it with you in a “bug-out” scenario is going to be difficult. That is why I love the modularity of the Titan solar generator. Since the Titan battery stack on each other and can be disconnected from each other at only 35lbs each, it still keeps it portable. I can easily keep three Titan batteries on my Titan solar generator, which is 6,000wh, and in a pinch or bug-out situation take all the pieces with me to wherever I’m bugging out to. That is one feature that is still unbeaten by the Titan is its ability to be expanded to any size and still be easily broken down and transportable.
Inverter
The inverter on the Bluetti EP500 left me wanting a bit more out of it. The EP500 has a very high-quality 2,000w continuous output pure sine wave inverter. 2,000w is plenty for most people for emergency situations because most people will be using things like their fridge, freezer, lights, fans, CPAPs, laundry machine, etc.
I did expect a larger inverter capacity for having such a large battery bank. 2,000w is plenty strong enough to run anything that can run out of a normal house outlet including heavy-duty 110v equipment. The Bluetti EP500 Pro has a 3,000w inverter which feels like a better fit for a 5,100wh battery.
The Bluetti EP500 has an amazingly high peak of 4,800w which means it’s truly capable of running heavy equipment. It is fully capable of running 2,000w continuously until it is completely depleted from the battery which some other units cannot run their full inverter continuous load until empty like the Inergy Flex. The Inergy Flex is only capable of running its full 1,500w load until the battery reaches 20%.
When two Bluetti EP500 units are paired together they combine their total inverter capacity and it increases to 4,000w output which is large enough to run some people’s houses. If a house uses a lot of natural gas or propane for all the heat sources included central heating, cooking, water heater, and so on then a 4,000w inverter is generally enough to run the house like normal. The next limit would be using central air. That may be possible with a 4,000w inverter but central A/C will very quickly drain the batteries and you would be able to run anything else at the same time most likely.
That all being said, 4,000w of inverter capacity is huge. It’s completely capable of running all emergency power necessities quite easily at the same time. Even a well pump. That is really the biggest benefit of the Bluetti EP500 double unit system is that it is truly capable of running a well pump up to about 2hp. Of course, you’ll still need a 220v transfer switch installed but that will be incredible to run a whole house with the Bluetti EP500.
The charging capability on the MAXOAK Bluetti EP500 is quite good for the size. It can be charged in as little as 4 hours and 15 minutes. It uses a single MPPT charge controller that has a charge parameter of 55-145v and 20a.
Having a large charge parameter like this allows the Bluetti EP500 to be charged with panels that are set up in series, parallel, or series/parallel combo. As long as the charge parameters aren’t exceeded the Bluetti EP500 will allow up to 1,200w of solar power to come in. That’s twice as fast as MAXOAK’s previous model the Bluetti AC200P which had 700w of solar input.
With it being able to take in 1,200w of solar power it recharges fast enough to be charged in a single day. Since there are an average of five solar peak hours each day in the USA a solar generator must be able to charge in five hours or less to be any good. The only concern this brings up is if anything else is being run at the same time while recharging.
1,200w of solar input is truly incredible. The Titan solar generator can do 2,000w of solar input but 1,200w is definitely good. However, if you’re running a fridge, freezer, and a fan all day long that will consume about 250w per hour run. That means there would be a net of 950w going into the battery all day long while still running that necessary equipment. We get that by taking 1,200w solar input minus 250w output which equals 950w (1,200 – 250 = 950).
If the EP500 is at 0% and then you start recharging it at 1,200w while running that equipment you’ll be gaining 950wh/hr run. The total battery capacity is 5,100wh. That means 5,100wh ÷ 950w/hr = 5.36hrs to get fully charged. In reality, it would still get fully charged even though it’s slightly more than 5 hours. But if more than that needs to be run all day long, it will prolong the charge time and can lead to not getting a full charge.
That all being said, even if the EP500 is at a 50% state of charge when night comes, 50% battery capacity is enough to continue to run the fridge and freezer all night long without any issues. It is simply important to note that it doesn’t take much to keep the EP500 from reaching outside of that 5-hour charge window which can make it difficult to have a full battery by nightfall. This is true of any unit that doesn’t have a large enough charge controller to match the size of the battery. The EP500 doesn’t have that issue though, as long as not a ton of equipment is run during the day.
The Bluetti EP500 charges about 550w from the wall outlet and can be used simultaneously with the solar charger. That can get up to 1,750w of total charge going into the EP500 which is incredibly fast. If you need to charge this unit in a hurry, you can use the wall charger and solar charger at the same time. You can also use a gas generator and plug the EP500’s wall charger into that and recharge the system in a pinch.
There’s one neat trick that can be done to get upwards of 1,700w of solar input. You can get 600w in solar panels, an MPPT charge controller rated to at least 600w, and a pure sine wave inverter rated to at least 750w. Connect the solar panels to the charge controller, then the charge controller to the inverter, then the inverter to the wall charging cable of the EP500, then that cable to the EP500 wall charging port. You would be hijacking the AC input port but would be using solar panels to supply the power. That means during a grid down situation you could get about 1,700w of power going in without needing a wall outlet or gas generator. Then the EP500 could be charged in 3 hours flat. I don’t recommend that for anyone who isn’t familiar with electricity.
There is no 12v car charger option for the EP500. The Bluetti EP500 is not intended to be charged from a car alternator or DC cigarette lighter port. They do not plan on adding this option either. Because of its weight, they do not feel that is a good option for charging. Generally, car chargers for solar generators/power stations will put out about 120w. It would take over 42 hours to recharge the EP500 using a car charger that way. That’s longer than it takes to drive from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean in the USA.
The expandability of the Bluetti EP500 is really where it shines. What MAXOAKis truly bringing to market is the ability to make 220/240v power off of a solar and lithium-based power station. This gives people the option to run well pumps, dryer machines, whole houses through transfer switches, and more. This is an incredible feature that was supposed to be available with the Titan solar generator but didn’t make it to market in time for when the Titan launched. In this regard, the Bluetti EP500 is the absolute best. It’s the best solar generator capable of 220v power. Which for some people is a necessity, but for most, it’s not. There is no doubt that this is an absolute game-changer to the industry though and for that they deserve applause.
The Bluetti EP500 is capable of putting out 220v power using a special adapter cable that goes between two EP500 units and then it adds an additional power strip box that has a 220v 40a plug on it. This is where the inverter is just slightly too small since 4,000w truly is good but not enough to go permanently off-grid with for a normal family home. A 6,000w inverter would be enough to run a normal family home permanently.
When two EP500 units are put together you get 10,200wh of total battery capacity, 4,000w of inverter capacity, and 9,600 inverter peak capacity. This is a seriously strong power station.
X-Factor
The ability to tie two EP500 power stations together is the biggest x-factor for this unit. It will also have an app for smartphones so that it can be monitored and controlled from your handheld device easily.
Having 6,000 cycles is unheard of. Even the Battleborn LiFePo4 batteries don’t have 6,000 cycles on them and buying four of the Battleborn batteries is about the same cost as buying one EP500 and would have about the same battery capacity.
MAXOAK claims they have a special UPS feature but truly any solar generator or power station can be used as a UPS. All that is required is to plug your fridge, TV, or whatever device into the solar generator, then have the wall charger plugged in and always charging the solar generator. Then if the power goes out the solar generator will stop getting charged from the wall, but will still be supplying power to whatever device is being used.
Not all solar generators can do this because some have an auto-off feature that will happen if the unit doesn’t get charged or discharged for more than a few minutes. For example, say a fridge is plugged into a solar generator but isn’t running for 15 minutes because fridges turn on and off as needed to stay cool. During that 15 minute window when the fridge isn’t pulling any power, and the solar generator is 100% full-on battery, the system will think it doesn’t need to be turned on and so it will automatically turn off to conserve power.
The Titan is capable of being used as a UPS (uninterrupted power supply) as well since it doesn’t have the auto-off feature. The Bluetti EB240, EB150, and AC50s have the auto-off feature built into them.
The Bluetti EP500 does include a 100w USB C PD port that can charge devices at 100w output which very few other solar generators or power stations have.
Weakness
The only true weakness of this unit is its heavyweight. It’s nearly impossible to move unless there are at least two people moving it. Even still, it’s over 80lbs per person when lifting it with two people. 80lbs is seriously heavy for most people. That shouldn’t scare people away because most people will set this unit for wherever they need it to be during an emergency and leave it there.
The Titan is the only unit currently on the market that has a seriously large capacity in terms of batteries, inverter, and solar but can be broken down into small sections and transported easily. The Bluetti EP500 is more for permanent use.
Pricing
While the Bluetti EP500 is still available on Kickstarter it has an incredibly low price of only $2,799 which is unheard of for what you get. It is always important to do an apples-to-apples comparison of other power stations and solar generators so everyone knows what they are truly getting.
The best way to determine that is by comparing the top 3 features of any power station: battery capacity, inverter output, and solar input. Taking those features into account and comparing it to the price, the Bluetti EP500 comes down to a total “unit wattage” cost of only $1.43/unit wattage. That is a very good price for the Kickstarter early beard special price of $2,799. Once Kickstarter is no longer available it will be bumped up to $3,999 for the EP500 which will bring the total cost up to $2.04/unit wattage which is okay.
The Titan solar generator has a total of $1.33/unit wattage price. Currently, that is the lowest price for all the features included at only $2,995.
At least while the Kickstarter campaign is going the EP500 is at an extremely competitive price and should seriously be considered as one of the best solar generator/power stations out there. Delivery is expected to be in August of 2020 so there is a bit of a wait time. It’s not uncommon for Kickstarter campaigns to get pushed back either but MAXOAK has generally done a great job of getting units out pretty quick.
After reviewing the MAXOAK Bluetti EP500 it is easy to see that it is a very good unit. Absolutely one of the best that have ever come to market. Its ability to make 220/240v power is incredible. It could use a slightly bigger inverter to match the large battery capacity better but 2,000w is still very good.
The solar input is double to the next best solar generator or power station and will recharge the Bluetti EP500 quickly each day. With such a large battery capacity, this will easily run essentials for at least two days in most people’s homes.
This is definitely an incredible unit and many people should consider getting it.
The sun is a renewable energy source, and the cost of recharging the generator is free. This makes solar generators—like the Titan solar generator—a great way to offset your energy consumption at home or the office.
Solar generators are popular and reliable power sources, offering numerous features and benefits. These generators are designed to provide an easy, efficient, and continuous power supply, making them ideal for anyone who needs to stay connected and powered up. The Titan generator is an excellent choice whether you’re camping, working outdoors, or want to keep your lights on during a power outage.
For those looking for a reliable and efficient energy source when camping or off-grid, the Titan Solar Generator is a great choice. With 1500 watts of solar energy, it provides enough power to run various appliances and devices.
Nearly no one has heard about the Hysolis MPS3K solar generator that has been on the market for quite a while. And even more, hardly anyone has had a solid review on the MPS3K. It is a direct competitor to what has been considered the reigning champion, the Titan. The other main competitors are the Bluetti AC300 and the EcoFlow Delta Pro solar generators.
The Titan is really two pieces put together into one unit. The top section, referred to as the “power module,” contains an inverter, two charge controllers, step up and step down voltage devices, safety measures, fans, and so on. The power module is the brain of the whole system. In order for it to operate appropriately, it needs a heart, which is the battery. A Titan is one power module combined with at least one Titan battery. Technically speaking the Titan is capable of having up to 135 Titan batteries attached to it, but obviously, no one would do that./solar-panel-photovoltaic-installation-on-a-roof--alternative-electricity-source-884806548-5c5b67b9c9e77c000156659b.jpg)
The newest system to come to the solar generator and power station world is the 
LiFePo4 batteries are extremely nice because of how long they last but it does increase the weight of the unit significantly. Weighing in at a whopping 56lbs, this power station is a bit hard to move around. Although not nearly as heavy as some solar generators, it’s portable but still quite heavy.
downside is how you get to 1,200w input
One very unique feature that we have never heard of before in a solar generator is a special SOS GPS feature. The CellPowa 2500 has a unique button for help. There is a GPS located inside of the unit and in case of an emergency you can activate the SOS beacon which will alert local authorities, search and rescue, forest rangers or whoever is the response team to come find your location. This is a very neat feature but is still unclear if the GPS option can be toggled off when you don’t want it to be activated. In a situation like that, it seems like it should be possible to turn the GPS on, then send out the SOS so that you’re not being tracked by BigBlue everywhere you go.
