Are "power packs" a better alternative to batteries?

A few weeks ago I finally bought a power pack that I've had my eye on for quite a while. I researched the daylights out of it, read maybe 1.2 kilo-reviews and compared it with the competition (Jackery) and finally pulled the trigger on a Bluetti AC50B.

With the AC50B, I have:

• a 32AH LiFePO4 battery
• a 12V DC-DC converter that that provides a 10A output
  
• a 120V inverter + two AC outlets
  
• the ability to charge via 12V from a car 
• the ability to charge from home AC
• a solar charge controller for recharging from a solar panel

That's a lot of stuff built into a small package that weighs 14 lbs (6.5kg) .

I had been thinking about building my own "battery box" but by the time I added up the cost of all the individual components, I had a re-think.

To the above functionality, add the front panel metering display that shows state of charge, power going in, power coming out and estimated time to either a full battery or a dead battery.

I wanted a way to:

• charge my drone batteries in the field (rapidly, with a high-current USB-C port)
• power a non-QRP POTA activation
• have AC power in the field

To assemble all this functionality to build my own battery box would cost upwards of $800 and I wouldn't be able to assemble them into such a small integrated package. The Bluetti was $279 and shipping was free.

So how does it perform?

On DC

I used my CBA to discharge the Bluetti at a 2-amp and 5-amp rate. The discharge curves are virtually identical:

An interesting note: the Bluetti uses LiFePO4 batteries in all of its models. The Jackery uses LiIon for small and medium size power banks, switching to LiFePO4 chemistry only in the larger and more expensive models.

The DC output on this, and all Bluetti and Jackery models, is limited to 10 amps.

I wish there was a 20 amp maximum so that I could directly power a 100-watt radio, such as my FT-891. Power output of the FT-891 needs to be reduced to 40 watts in order for it to draw only 10 amps. 

I have not yet charged the Bluetti from my car but, according to the manual, it would take 5-7 hours.

On AC

I used two appliances to discharge the Bluetti from its AC outlets - a handheld hair dryer and an electric fan.

I set the switches on the hair dryer so that it drew 365 watts and 3 amps. Total power withdrawn was 347WH before the Bluetti shut down with an indicated 2% battery life remaining.

During that time, output was consistent in power, current and frequency. A cooling fan within the Bluetti ran the entire time.

The fan withdrew 35 watts. I turned it on at 10pm and it was still running when I woke up at 7 the next morning. It ran until 8:30, for a total of 367WH withdrawn.

I used the Kill-A-Watt to measure both power withdrawn and power put back into the Bluetti during recharge.

Recharging

Front panel meter shows 92 watts being delivered by solar panel

When recharging from AC mains, the Bluetti has 3 rates available.

• The default Standard, which charges at 275W rate. The internal fan runs constantly (and quietly) at slow speed during Standard charging.
• Silent charges at a 168W rate and the fan runs intermittently.
• Turbo charges at a whopping 580W rate and the fan runs in fast speed. A full charge takes 70 minutes.
  

These modes can only be selected via the Bluetti app. If you choose to not use the app, the Bluetti will always charge at the Standard rate.

I also recharged the battery with my 100-watt solar panel on a bright Florida afternoon. Of course charge time will be highly variable when using solar power. In my case, the battery went from 40% to full charge in 2h40m.

During that time, the front panel meter showed the amount of power going into the device, changing periodically with passing clouds.

The front panel meter correlated very closely to that of my Powerwerx inline meter.

Speaking of the App

Besides being needed to change charge modes, the app also provides useful information on the Bluetti's status: alarms/error codes, presence of an optional external battery, and the state of inputs and outputs from various AC and DC sources/loads.

Other settings that are controlled via the app are "Power Lifting" which increases the AC output from 700 to 1000 watts for "resistive loads". The manual doesn't explain what a resistive load is, but it would be something with a power factor close to 1, where reactive power is close to zero (as opposed to real power).

Summary

I have absolutely no regrets about buying the AC50B - it is as capable as I'd hoped and smaller than I thought it would be.

Its functionality would have cost 3-4X as much if I were to build such a device myself (plus the time taken to do so). And it would have resulted in a much bigger package, with probably more weight.

For size reference

.

.