Anker’s SOLIX F3800 Is The New Heavyweight In “Portable” Energy Stations – CleanTechnica Examined – CleanTechnica – Uplaza

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The Anker SOLIX F3800, mixed with the brand new Dwelling Energy Panel, is probably the most accessible whole-home backup energy system round proper now. It could possibly energy your private home in an influence outage, can be utilized as a complete backup resolution for off-grid houses, and performance because the hub of a completely put in photo voltaic power system for on a regular basis use, seamlessly harnessing the solar to energy your private home.

Anker made a reputation for itself within the client electronics house during the last decade with a variety of inexpensive but sturdy USB chargers, cables, and batteries. Amongst a sea of single use generic manufacturers, Anker stood out as a model shoppers may belief, and because of this, its merchandise discovered their means into tens of millions of houses around the globe together with ours.

After a wildfire burned our dwelling to the bottom in 2017, we went straight out to purchase the entire vary of Anker USB chargers, cables, energy strips, and energy stations, and so they simply proceed to carry out. Due to the power of their model and the sturdiness of their merchandise, we have been excited to see them transfer into the moveable energy station enterprise over the previous couple of years. A handful of small but highly effective gadgets have helped them acquire a foothold with more and more bigger items being launched over the next months.

It felt like a pure evolution that led Anker to the intersection of moveable energy stations and the house stationary storage market. Anker didn’t bat a watch and easily charged into the house with the launch of its SOLIX model, with the F3800 because the flagship product.

Anker SOLIX Dwelling Energy Panel is the important product of Anker SOLIX F3800 Dwelling Energy System. Appropriate with one or two items of Anker SOLIX F3800, you’ll be able to set up a wise complete dwelling power system. Anker SOLIX F3800 can energy your private home with the grid and the rooftop photo voltaic concurrently through AC coupling. You may retailer extra power generated by your photo voltaic panels throughout the day to be used at night time, or it could possibly robotically present an instantaneous backup energy provide to your dwelling within the occasion of energy outages.

If your private home doesn’t at present have rooftop photo voltaic and you don’t have any plans to put in it, you’ll be able to nonetheless harness photo voltaic power through the use of inflexible or moveable photo voltaic panels together with the Dwelling Energy Panel and Anker SOLIX F3800. These choices can offer you a house energy system that reduces electrical energy payments and permits you to profit from photo voltaic power. Moreover, this technique will be built-in with the grid to energy your private home.

The Anker SOLIX F3800 makes use of iron phosphate battery cells, also called LiFePO₄, because the power storage for the unit. This chemistry is understood for its capability to resist heavy use, 1000’s of cycles, and a 100% depth of discharge which is one thing extra conventional lithium-ion primarily based packs merely can’t do.

As well as, iron phosphate cells are extraordinarily thermally steady, that means it’s practically unimaginable for it to have thermal points within the occasion of bodily harm to the cells themselves. This makes it the best chemistry for stationary storage however traditionally, its low power density made it much less most popular for moveable purposes. In consequence, the Anker SOLIX F3800 is a girthy unit, with a whopping 3,840 Wh / 3.84 kWh of storage capability that strains the definition of moveable at 132 kilos.

This may be expanded as much as an unimaginable 26.9 kWh because of its Modular Pack Design. As much as 6 growth battery packs will be jacked proper into the Anker SOLIX F3800 to allow you to buy precisely the correct amount of storage to your software. It’s additionally a good way to get began with a big energy station with the information which you could all the time add extra capability sooner or later as your wants change. Outdated and new Anker battery packs play collectively properly, guaranteeing an enduring resolution to your power wants.

Iron phosphate battery cells have continued to enhance lately, so the upper weight and bigger quantity penalties for utilizing them isn’t as excessive because it was only a few years in the past. Then again, it looks like the right chemistry for a semi-portable energy station just like the Anker SOLIX F3800.

Charging

Anker despatched us the Anker SOLIX F3800 to evaluation and we have been desirous to get began. Earlier than we may begin enjoying with it, we needed to get it charged up. This may be executed with a normal wall cable from any AC outlet. Out of the field, it defaults to pulling 1,600 watts from the wall, although it could possibly assist as much as 1,800 watts peak AC charging. The charging velocity will be adjusted with the Anker smartphone app.

To verify this, we plugged it into the wall and tuned the charging velocity right down to a meager 1,000 watts to high it up for its first cost. Within the on-line guide for the Anker SOLIX F3800, Anker recommends totally charging the unit earlier than its first use and we fortunately obliged.

If AC charging isn’t your factor, you too can recharge the unit from a normal 12 volt automotive outlet at 120 watts or immediately through photo voltaic. When you’re utilizing it as a backup energy resolution from your private home, plugging it into the house’s AC system in all probability makes probably the most sense, however you’ll be able to add extra power safety with some photo voltaic panels.

The Anker SOLIX F3800 additionally helps charging immediately from photo voltaic panels from 11-60V by means of an XT-60 connection. For 11-32V photo voltaic chargers, it could possibly pull in a most of 10 amps and with 15-60V photo voltaic chargers, that will get pushed as much as 27 amps max.

The Anker SOLIX F3800 can settle for as much as 2,400 watts from moveable photo voltaic panels, that are nice when you’re utilizing the Anker SOLIX F3800 in an RV, trailer, or as a backup energy resolution. Simply unfold the panels, join them up with the included MC4 hyperlink cables and you can begin harvesting natural, free vary photons from the solar.

For extra everlasting setups, you too can wire it as much as a hardwired mounted photo voltaic set up which bumps the utmost photo voltaic it could possibly drink as much as 3,800 watts when linked to a Dwelling Energy Panel. These installations do require skilled set up and extra {hardware} to get them wired up, however the advantages are apparent.

Wiring the Anker SOLIX F3800 into your private home with the Dwelling Energy Panel with some mounted photo voltaic panels on the roof transforms it from a nice-to-have unit into the center of your private home’s electrical system. It drinks up extra solar energy and shops it for the day you should hold your private home working when the grid goes down. That’s true power independence.

Utilizing the Anker SOLIX F3800

To actually put the Anker SOLIX F3800 to the check, we took it out of the kitchen the place we usually stress check moveable energy stations and went straight into the storage. I introduced out an array of energy instruments together with angle grinders, sawzalls, drills, and sure even a welder.

I’m a hack at welding however I can reliably get issues to stay collectively and so they appear to carry as much as abuse, in order that’s one thing. I plugged my Lincoln Electrical multiprocess machine into the Anker SOLIX F3800 and acquired all my provides arrange. As knowledgeable hack, I used to be welding on the ground of the storage as traditional and laid down just a few beads on some scrap materials.

The Anker SOLIX F3800 didn’t bat a watch and simply saved pushing energy to the welder. I lay down just a few beads for about 10 minutes and the welder had no concern with the ability provided from the Anker SOLIX F3800. The facility ranged from zero when not pulling the set off on the welder to 30 or 40 amps because it ramped up earlier than shortly spiking to 2,000 to 2,550 watts when actively MiG welding.

The unit had no points supporting this load or the wide selection of energy instruments I used to prep the weld floor and get the fabric trimmed up. The Anker SOLIX F3800 can assist as much as 6,000 watts of energy output so it wasn’t a lot a check of the max wattage it may deal with, however simply the pure depth of a welder and energy instruments which might usually draw energy in a short time and at excessive hundreds.

The Anker SOLIX F3800 really bridges the hole between moveable energy stations and glued batteries designed to be bolted in place in a battery wall to your dwelling. It may be used fully by itself or immediately wired into your private home’s electrical panel, relying on what you want it to do. You may add capability to it by buying growth batteries or take simply this core unit with you. It is likely one of the most succesful, versatile programs we’ve seen and from the seems to be of it, there isn’t a lot the Anker SOLIX F3800 can’t do.

The Anker SOLIX F3800 can be utilized as a conveyable unit and comes geared up with 4 wheels and even a luggage-style deal with that permits you to transfer 132 kilos / 60 kilograms of mass round with out an excessive amount of hassle. It’s not one thing you’re going to take to the park or in all probability even out on a tenting journey, however it’s positive for shifting it round the home or possibly out to your off-grid cabin to maintain the lights on and all of your home equipment working whilst you’re out having fun with nature.

It might even be a terrific candidate to be used in an RV, the place you may briefly transfer it from your own home into the RV, conserving the unit charged up from the car’s alternator or a rooftop photo voltaic system.

As a particular hack, the Anker SOLIX F3800 can be used to cost up your EV with none further {hardware}. Each different moveable energy station we’ve reviewed had points with this as a result of EV chargers error out. This may be hacked with a floor loop plug, however Anker solved this natively with the Anker SOLIX F3800.

Plugging an AC EV charger into the Anker SOLIX F3800 returns the everyday error on any charger. Anker added a particular button to allow 240 volts output particularly for EV chargers. To activate this mode, double press the 240 volt energy change and the unit mixes issues up internally to allow EV charging with out having to purchase any further {hardware}.

We examined this with our 240v Wallbox Pulsar Plus AC charger, a gen 3 Tesla Wall Connector, and a 110v Mercedes wall charger. None of them have been ready to make use of the unit natively in 110v mode however simply linked to the unit and have been in a position to cost from it utilizing Anker’s 240 volt energy change. A lot success!

The Anker SOLIX F3800 can run in 3 completely different working modes to go well with a variety of purposes:

The Anker SOLIX Dwelling Energy Panel can monitor the ability output from each the rooftop photo voltaic system and the grid, or can even monitor the ability output from the inflexible photo voltaic panels/moveable photo voltaic panels and the grid. Consequently, it could possibly recharge the F3800 with extra photo voltaic power and make the most of the saved energy to provide the home in periods of low photo voltaic manufacturing, thereby enhancing photo voltaic power utilization effectivity.

Setting the On/Off-peak mode through the Anker App enables you to energy your private home throughout peak occasions and recharge the F3800 throughout off-peak occasions, thereby serving to you to save lots of the electrical energy invoice long-term. Its inside Good Power Administration system works with Anker’s Power Optimizer to resolve when to make use of power from the solar, the battery, or the grid to maintain your payments low.

When an influence outage occurs, the Anker SOLIX Dwelling Energy Panel will robotically change to the F3800 as the ability supply to provide as much as 12 circuits linked within the backup load heart. With correct circuit planning, the 6,000W AC output and 120V/240V twin voltage permits the opportunity of reaching whole-home backup.

General

The Anker SOLIX F3800 fills an vital hole between moveable energy stations and residential power storage programs. It’s an ungainly house, however Anker has executed an admirable job of constructing a versatile, scalable product that delivers not solely the performance, however the kind issue that makes it able to dwelling in each of those worlds with out an excessive amount of of a difficulty.

At 3.84 kWh of power storage, it’s a huge quantity of capability for a conveyable unit and there’s no getting across the Anker SOLIX F3800’s 132 pound weight. On the flip aspect, 3.84 kWh of storage isn’t a ton of energy once you’re powering your complete dwelling. The typical dwelling in America makes use of 11 kilowatt-hours of electrical energy per day, so this could actually be just for supporting essential hundreds or as a backup system.

Anker knew that and made it doable so as to add extra battery packs, daisy-chaining them into the Anker SOLIX F3800 so you’ll be able to actually construct the superbly sized system with the correct amount of storage to your wants. Its iron phosphate battery chemistry offers householders the peace of thoughts that the batteries are extraordinarily steady and can present a protracted life with out points.

For extra details about the Anker SOLIX F3800, head over to the Anker SOLIX F3800’s digital dwelling.

Disclaimer: Anker generously sponsored this text and offered the Anker SOLIX F3800 to the writer freed from cost for the needs of this evaluation.

Specs

• MSRP:
  • Anker SOLIX F3800: $3,999 (at present on sale for $3,499)
  • Anker SOLIX F3800 + Dwelling Backup Package: $4,598 (at present on sale for $3,999)
  • Anker SOLIX F3800 + Good Dwelling Backup Package: $5,237 (at present on sale for $4,299)
  • Anker SOLIX F3800 + 3,800 kWh Enlargement Battery: $6,498 (at present on sale for $4,999)
• Battery Chemistry: Lithium iron phosphate battery cells
• Storage Capability: 3,840 wh / 3.84kWh, expandable as much as 26.9kWh with as much as 6 optionally available Anker SOLIX BP3800 growth batteries because of its Modular Pack Design
• Weight: 132.3 kilos / 60 kilograms
• Included equipment: AC charging cable & two MC4 3-Port Photo voltaic Charging Connectors
• Connectivity: Monitor power enter and output from the Anker app. Connects with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
• Guarantee: 5-year guarantee
• Safety: No Danger of Fireplace and Shock

Energy enter

• AC charging (120v wall outlet): 1,800 watts
• DC charging (photo voltaic): 2,400W photo voltaic enter max, for a peak cost of 0 to 80% in 1.5 hours with photo voltaic

Energy output

• AC output rankings: 6,000W, 120V/240V split-phase output
• AC output ports: NEMA 14-50 and L14-30 shops onboard to immediately cost your EV and RV