These are the 2 products used to make up my solar generator: (# CommissionsEarned) Best Value: OUKITEL P2001 Discount Code: BABKKX6I ► amzn.to/3xbTvAz BALDR Portable Solar Panel ► amzn.to/3cWrA0y See my video description for additional links!

This was an EXCELLENT video covering what a power station is and why you'd want to get one. HUGE thumbs up on your video and testing! :)

Hey, Al, This was a very interesting video. We live in a rural area and have been thinking about getting something for emergency situations. For years we have had our electricity go off during the winter because of ice or snow causing lines to go down. Then in the summer there are storms causing trees to break and knock down lines. We have had to huddle around a kerosun heater for hours all the while hoping our pipes didn't freeze and burst. We also have a well with a pump which left us with no significant amount of water to use when again, the power suddenly goes out. Needless to say it was easy to see ourselves in many of the situations you showed. Too many times people have had to suffer through harrowing circumstances. This type of product is almost becoming a real necessity. Thanx again for such a well rounded and unbiased video. You have really helped us to think more seriously about the importance of being prepared before it's too late.

Double thumbs up for using both generator and power station together. You want both. You want the power station to serve continuous, quiet power and give you a day's worth of backup for selected critical devices on its own. And you want a generator that you only have to run 2-3 hours a day to charge up the power station in case of an extended outage. What you don't want is to depend on a generator alone during an emergency. It wastes fuel when it has to be left on all the time and its noisy. You'll actually use far less gasoline only running the generator 2-3 hours a day at 1100W to charge the power station than using the generator 24x7 constantly wasting energy running small loads. And on top of that, sure, have solar panels too.... having panels allows you to save gasoline and during an emergency that's important. The UPS function is awesome. Kudos on that classic cooler-master PC case I saw in your video by the way. I've actually gotten rid of my old APC units... and no love lost with those blasted lead-acid gel cells that wouldn't let you know they failed until an actual emergency occurs. In anycase, the P2001's UPS switching time is possibly the best on the market, less than 10mS (basically half a cycle on the zero-crossing of the AC waveform). You can't get much better short of buying a high-end dedicated UPS that synchronizes the inverter with the mains. Most other power stations with UPS or UPS-like features have much slower switching times and will glitch devices. The parasitic draw with the AC inverter on for my P2001 is 15-20W or so. This is inline with other units with this wattage output. Generally speaking if you want low parasitic losses you have to stick to the DC outputs. For example, I have a little GoLabs running my cable modem in the garage and since the cable modem takes a 12VDC input I just connect the GoLabs DC output directly to the cable modem and don't use the wall brick at all. It can run that cable modem (which draws 5W or so) for 2-3 days. On the flip side, this vampire current is actually really good if you happen to be using the P2001 in a cold environment because it will keep the battery at a decent temperature. -Matt

I built a DIY version of this last year. It worked really well while I was replacing the service entrance for the part of my property that powers my well pump.

A portable power station can definitely be a beneficial product in my life. Especially because of the erratic weather.

New and improved UKposts channel here!!!! Subscribed

Thanks for the vid,very informative.

This video kept my interest from start to finish.So much work and research went into it. Think I need one! 👍👍. GOOD JOB..!!

I have an Ego 4 battery slot Nexus that I use as a battery charger and as a power station. Works great, but it's heavy and does not have pass-thru charging and the solar charging system is very limited and relatively expensive. Still, I'm glad I have it. Since I have a bunch of batteries that sit on a shelf, I can one by one swap them in and out when using the Nexus for power. I would definitely NOT recommend it to use as just a power station, but if you happen to have a bunch of EGO batteries, it's worth getting in my opinion.

Great video thanks. You put a lot of work into it and now I have a much better understanding how to utilize them.

I live in a flat. No land or garden to put a fuel powered generator. Yes, I could put one on my balcony but it would disturb my neighbors with engine noise. So I went with a safe LiFePO4 power station and it is great. No noise, no fumes, 3000 watt, ups mode and everything indoors.

Excellent video! Perfect for my parents!

Oh ... and yes your thinking the right way...watt hours is the way to think. If you use 100 watts for one hour you need to replace it with a charge of 100 watts input for one hour, or 50 watts input for 2 hours. Plus any losses in the system, like 10% or more. It is all about the math.

Jasonoid brought me here, excellent video, Especially the Parasitic Power draw, I'm waiting for somebody to make a chart of those one day

Good job! I saw nothing you missed. I of course made my own battery banks and whole setup. Our total battery bank capacity is over 20 Kwh. I did switch to LiFePo4 on the last 10 plus Kwh bank. So I run the well pump and some other things on the old lead acids until the day they will die off. With 1.6 Kwh solar and two backup generators, we should be able to keep our mini farm running for a while. It is a start for now. Once again...good job sir.

Albo! One of my favorite and least prolific youtubers, I've been sitting on a 100 watt panel I bought for experimental purposes, was thinking about getting the marine battery set up going and what not, my how things have changed since I bought that panel... ...8 years ago! Lol, still in box. Arizona sun is plentiful but so is extreme heat, thanks for the video, I just started it but I know you'll be thorough 😃

What an awesome explanation video. Thanks 👍👏💯

The timing on this is impeccable! Californian's are on the verge of rolling black outs every day. 😵

I've watched a lot of "solar generator" videos (mostly for RV and van life, but I'm in a home). If I had the money, I'd buy the Bluetti AC500 right this minute. More than one in fact. Love that you're using one! Thanks for the video!!

As always an excellent, informative video. The only problem with your UKposts site is you don't have enough videos! I live in California and have a Tesla Powerwall so I usually don't even know if there is a power outage. However, it has it's limitations too. It can only handle the full house load for 12+ hours. But I suppose it would keep the refrigerators going a day or two if we didn't use any other power. And if it's cloudy or foggy, we may only get a partial, or no charge. So as much as I would like to be off grid, I'm glad it's hooked up to the utility company.

Mate, could you check does the PE(ground) on sockets pass through from input socket to output sockets? On my station, which is the same station but with other name, it doesn't. But in disassembly video I saw that there is a PE on output sceme with sockets, bit it doesn't have any connection with the PE on input socket. I just thinking do I need connect them, but lose the waranty becouse of disassemble of the station

Last time the power went out: 2.5 years ago, for half an hour. Last time before that.... I don't remember but my previous neighbours still lived nextdoor and they moved out six years ago. That's one of the perks of living in country that has regulations on what powercompanies are required to do (and that doesn't get hurricanes, that's a thing too) Also: a powerbank/generator is for emergencies, you don't power your tablesaw, airfilter or airconditioner in an emergency. What you need is the fridge fridge, a radio and a phone to call for help should a medical emergency arise. Also also: A backup power unit is pointless unless you test it regularly and the bext way to make sure it will work when you need it is to just use it regularly. That keeps the thing in good condition and it makes itlikely that you will notice a problem when you can still switch back to mains power, not when the power goes out and it stays dark.

You should have mentioned the draw for LED bulbs, definitely would help for all those people with their sensitive canna-peppers and mari-tomatoes

Wow! I counted 15 different item tests😀

Great video!! Clear and understandable for those not so electrictechy. One thing I was wondering is that you state that you can charge the unit up and have it stored untile the next time you need it? This has always been confusing to me as it seems to be stated diferrently here and there. Some say store it at 80% then run it down to 50%, charge it up again and then this and that. I've heard storing it at 100% puts a strain on the battery. Is this different with LifePo batteries? I am just thinking that you want to charge and store these power stations to 100% so that you have all the power available when you need it. What would be the maximum unused storage time they could sit at 100%? With all this internal battery protection stuff they have in these things, BMS i believe they call it, you would think they could somehow make it that the battery is fine stored at 100%? So acturally I am thinking that there is maintenance required on these units? I`m not sure about anybody else but I have allot of camping/outdoor gear with lithium batteries and I am always checking to see what level they are at so that when I need them, mostly in the summer, they are not dead. I can spend most of day with all my stuff running it ant then re-charging it because you are also not suppose to let the batteries sit empty or un-charged from what i understand? Thanks for the info on this model. Iam looking at the next model of this unit that has been upgraded.

Im not sure how relevant it is with newer cells, but one thing you need to be careful about is longterm storage and charge. Cells that are left discharged below a certain amount can permanently damage the cells leaving less charge. I have a small powerstation and solar panel ive had for years, but I left it at about 20% for a year when I didnt consider using it, to come back to it with 0% and less charge capacity after fully charging it. I knew this about batteries (cell degradation) but forgot to charge before storing it long term.

So supercharge doesn’t work with gas generators, that is a bummer because that is when it is most important, also since supercharge did not work on a gas generator, what was the input wattage from the gas generator ? Thank you for the review

You mention it has Anderson connectors. Anyone using solar panels with MC-4 connectors might need to look for an adaptor.

I sure hope you can answer me back could that power station run a small space in a 6 ft by 6 ft for 24 hours

Oh man, a Tesla power wall. I'm drooling. Wish I could do that!

the foam trays makes it super good deal

We miss your grow light review videos.

Will they charge an ebike?

Not available in France 😖

20 minutes to roast some peppers? That's murder~!!

I know this is kinda random for this video, but have you ever checked out kuarez lights? I tried to look in past videos and didn't see one.

Some models have expansion ports to hookup additional external batteries. Lithium batteries are still expensive, i would still look for older AGM marine battery power stations, easy to find off the shelf battery replacement when the original battery can't hold charge anymore, you can often find cheap off craigslist. Been running a Goal Zero yeti 1250 for over a decade. Have battery bank at home for blackout use and can unplug the main unit for camping, tailgating etc

For my home network including my modem, I run a belkin dc out ups with a basic 12ah liFePo4 battery each. My wifi and hardwired network stays active for 14 hours in an outage. The rest of the house is not so important. Reason being is because the fridge food is replaceable for way cheaper than a battery bank costs. Where I live we may have a significant outage once every 15 years. So it’s hardly worth it. That said, you can get a low cost 100ah liFePo4 battery on Amazon and get an inverter that will run the fridge for just at long as the system in the video. One thing I can’t stand though is when I see commercials showing cooking with battery banks. Heating/cooking is one of the most wasteful use of stored energy. A flame is next to free depending on if you can burn something or just use a simple camping propane canister which has way more energy density than a battery. I have a gas stove so it’s never an issue, but if I didn’t I certainly would have a device that either burns alcohol/wood/propane to cook food. And a portable gas heater of some sort for winter heating in an emergency. Flashlights these days can last for weeks without charging so lighting is less than important. I’m not knocking the video. It was well done. I’ve just thought a lot about this stuff logically lately and can’t persuade myself to use such devices solely for outages. Now if I had another purpose for it where it’s not just sitting around for 10 years waiting to be called upon…I’d consider it. Just my 2 cents.

GREAT info !! more wonderful videos please