Jackery

[gotoPzero]

With electricity apparently going to cost half a kidney by the end of the year would it be economical to buy a jackery and solar charge it and then charge all my personal devices off it?

In the house we have quite a lot of personal devices laptops ipads phones etc. I would say most devices use at least 60% per day of their total capacity so probably at 3 full charges a week.

Between the lot must be a few quid in electricity a week? Or am I letting man maths take over ?

[Kermit power]

I've been wondering this too!

How many devices can be connected simultaneously? How many times would you need to charge your phone to pay back the investment?

[Turn7]

Surely, most will start charging at work, even if they dont now ? Or even just in car.

I cannot see a few devices being the big issue this winter if Im honest.

[NMNeil]

Not exactly a glowing review of the Jackery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3_VkhzxvjM

[eliot]

In the grand scheme of things all your gadgets use very little and there’s not much sun in the winter.

[gotoPzero]

So I don't work so paying for all the electricity.

I use my laptop quite a bit. My Mrs uses her ipad pretty regularly too.

So we have

Ipda Pro
IPhone
Samsung a32
Laptop
Bose headphones
Apple ear pods
2 x smart watches

I would say we charge all those devices each day. Not from zero though.

Solar efficiency is a definite issue. From what I have read online to fully charge a 1000w supply in the winter on 2x100w panels might take 3 to 4 days however the question is if you are putting in more than you are taking out I guess its not an issue. The laptop probably the most thirsty item.

I will try and work out how many Watts we use a day..

[marksx]

In law's had one while we were camping last week.

Useful, charged well even in poor conditions, but the actual battery capacity was small. Smaller than the solar powerbank we had with us that was £40 rather than £500.

[Turtle Shed]

I've looked at this from a non-solar perspective because I have an electric car and use the Octopus Go tariff. (Currently paying 5p/Kwh from 12:30 to 4:30am and 14.29/Kwh the rest of the time (fixed until November)).

That's stupidly cheap but in November let us assume 7.5p and 50p, in fact, let's assume a difference of 50p for simplicity. Let us also assume zero charging loss and 100% efficiency in the system. We'll say that the 1Kw/h version costs £1,000 rather than the £1,100 it actually costs.

So... I can save 50p per day if I charge it overnight and use it during the day. That's 2,000 days to pay for itself, and the warranty info suggests that after 500 charging cycles the capacity starts to drop off.

Sadly the man maths don't work, though I do accept that with a solar panel you will always have a means of charging and having a little bit of electricity to use if the power were off for days. I think a standard petrol generator is a much better option to cover that eventuallity.

[gotoPzero]

So by my maths looking at £30 a year to charge my devices.
If electric doubles its still only £60. Even if I am out by a factor of 2 its still only £10 a month.

The 1000w unit is £1300 incl 2 x solar panels.

Thats never going to pay for itself.

The 500w unit is more affordable at £500 ish. But its still going to take c.10 years to pay for itself.
By which time the battery is going to be dead.

If a second hand one came up for a couple of hundred it might be worth it.

Or wait till the ones with batteries that can be charged 5000+ times come down in price.

[dmsims]

Efficiency ?

[Polly Grigora]

What has me thinking that batteries last longer if fully cycled rather than half?

[Lucas Ayde]

gotoPzero said:

With electricity apparently going to cost half a kidney by the end of the year would it be economical to buy a jackery and solar charge it and then charge all my personal devices off it?

In the house we have quite a lot of personal devices laptops ipads phones etc. I would say most devices use at least 60% per day of their total capacity so probably at 3 full charges a week.

Between the lot must be a few quid in electricity a week? Or am I letting man maths take over ?

They make a good portable and emergency backup power supply. Not really ideal for continuous use that as they are Li Ion which has a relatively low number of full charge cycles. (Unless they have started to make Li Fe Po models which can last up to a decade of daily chages).

Solar is not going to work too well going into the winter, if you are thinking of using one of the portable panels. Still, depending on how much juice you want out of it every day it might be enough.

You may have cheap electricity overnight depending on your tariff, so you could change it off the mains then, if that is the case.

I bought an Ecoflow Delta Pro which I'm going to use as an 'emergncy power station' for the house, primarily for potential blackouts. I might buy a second and put a lot of solar on the roof and go for a full home battery solution.

[Lucas Ayde]

gotoPzero said:

So I don't work so paying for all the electricity.

I use my laptop quite a bit. My Mrs uses her ipad pretty regularly too.

So we have

Ipda Pro
IPhone
Samsung a32
Laptop
Bose headphones
Apple ear pods
2 x smart watches

I would say we charge all those devices each day. Not from zero though.

Solar efficiency is a definite issue. From what I have read online to fully charge a 1000w supply in the winter on 2x100w panels might take 3 to 4 days however the question is if you are putting in more than you are taking out I guess its not an issue. The laptop probably the most thirsty item.

I will try and work out how many Watts we use a day..

Your electricity bill should tell you - mine gives the average kW/h used per day and compares it to this time last year.

Also, my electricity meter reads straight up kilowatt hours which you can use to track usage yourself if yours does likewise.

[Podie]

I've been looking at these, but they're not exactly cheap - so the ROI seems to be quite a while.

Equivalent Bluetti is a bit cheaper https://bluettipower.co.uk/

Edited by Podie on Monday 15th August 13:06

[gotoPzero]

Lucas Ayde said:

(Unless they have started to make Li Fe Po models which can last up to a decade of daily chages).

They do. The one I have seen that looks decent for the money is the Anker 757 which is 1500w and LiFePO4.

Its not cheap though.

I will maybe look out for a second hand one but honestly I dont think its going to be worth the outlay. I think it would be better to make something DIY which is based around a couple of solar panels and an off the shelf inverter.

Which is what I am now researching.

[xeny]

Polly Grigora said:

What has me thinking that batteries last longer if fully cycled rather than half?

Depends on the battery chemistry, but for the common LiON battery that isn't the case - for best life you avoid both deep discharge and full charge states.

[rxe]

Maths make no sense at all.

With solar panels, these cost about £2K, The solar panels won’t do much in the winter. But let’s assume you charge it at work and no one notices, so you don’t need panels and it only costs about £1000.

You will get about a kWh out of it, so about 60p, assuming you bring it home full charged and absolutely flatten it. Maybe a quid in the worst circumstances.

If you religiously do this every day, and the thing survives, you have break even at about 3 years in the worst case electricity prices.

I’d have thought the £1000 could be spent far more efficiently on a bit of loft insulation or LED bulbs.

[Turtle Shed]

A quick note from me following some research. The Bluetti models such as this use LiFePO4 batteries:

https://www.hampshiregenerators.co.uk/product/gene...

They offer around 2,500 charging cycles before dropping below 80% capacity, considerably more than the Jackery equivalents.

I was initially looking at something that can supply 1Kw/h, the Jackery 1000 Explorer at about £1,000 but now I'm considering buying two of the Bluetti boxes instead. Slightly more money but slightly more power, and it would appear, considerably more cycles.

Would probably couple them with solar panels at some point (most will work just fine) but I'm waiting to hear back from Octopus about their rates when my current tariff ends in November. No point in having a system to charge cheaply at night if they get rid of the tariff. (Which I doubt, but worth holding off for a day or two).

[gotoPzero]

rxe said:

But let’s assume you charge it at work and no one notices,

I am retired.

But I get your point its probably not worth it.

However I am looking at a DIY set up looks like I can create something for about £1000 that will potentially give me "free" electricity and upto 2000W.

I reckon I would be in profit after maybe 2 years.

After that point it would be free. But I dont know if I can be bothered tbh.

[Polly Grigora]

xeny said:

Polly Grigora said:

What has me thinking that batteries last longer if fully cycled rather than half?

Depends on the battery chemistry, but for the common LiON battery that isn't the case - for best life you avoid both deep discharge and full charge states.

Seen this, much appreciated