Ecoflow for easy LiFe power

Larryjb · 05-10-2024, 01:43 PM

I'm curious if anyone has used or considered Ecoflow for battery power?
Looks easy to set up, and has solar charging options.

https://www.ecoflow.com/us

I did get the River 2 Pro for use as an UPS for household wifi/Internet and phone. I figure it could provide power for lights, toilet, furnace, and water pressure when boondocking. I think the fridge might drain it too fast to be practical. A larger unit that might be more suitable would be very expensive.

**Bill** · 05-10-2024, 03:12 PM

The furnace can be a bit of a power hog. You might want to try it out before you rely on it.

The River 2 Pro specs list a bunch of temperature limits, such as "Operating temp 68-82*F". Seems kinda narrow. Do you envision this being limiting at all?

Bill

Larryjb · 05-17-2024, 08:17 AM

The 68-82°F is "best" storage temperature, but rated as 14-113°F. I believe the narrow range helps to maintain a charge for the long term. Cold batteries can't hold a full charge, and warm batteries probably bleed charge.

I agree the furnace will suck a lot of current. Do you know how much? It is mainly a fan, but fans will suck quite a bit of current. Also, the fan would not be running all the time, so as long as it's not really cold you might get away with overnight use, then charge it during the day.

I think if you were doing more serious boon docking, you would want a better set up, but I figure this would work well for lights, toilet, water pump etc. The lead acid battery, even a deep cycle one, doesn't offer a whole lot of reserve.

**Kidkraz** · 05-17-2024, 11:31 PM

Larry, I took snap shots of all the data tags on my appliances when I got my camper. The picture isn't great, but I believe the furnace draws 2.7 amps, if I read it properly. I have the NT20SE version heater. I have done more boon docking camping, and bought decent, but inexpensive lights that are either rechargeable, or a portable charger with usb plug. I have 2 Anker 20,000mah power packs that last several days for string lights. Amazon sells small 20-30,000mah units pretty cheap. That would allow you to use Ecoflow strickly for the furnace.

Wavery · 05-19-2024, 08:44 PM

If you are going to plug your camper's power cord into it, be sure to turn off your converter's charger. You might want to look for different heating and forget about A/C. Run your fridge on propane.

We use a "MR Heater" Buddy heater. It works great and it's silent. We used it in the mountains in 15* weather and it kept us cozy warm. We use a separate 1G propane tank and converter hose instead of those 1# propane bottles that are SOOOOO expensive now. It uses zero electricity.

768wh isn't much. That's essentially 100W for 7hrs, then dead battery. You might want to consider about 400W of solar panels if you are going to camp for 3+ days.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...e?ie=UTF8&th=1

Larryjb · 05-20-2024, 10:42 AM

I would probably use the Wave heater rather than the furnace for heat. And I would most certainly not plug the main power cord of the trailer into the Ecoflow. It does have a 12V output which I could probably hook up to the 12V.

I got the River 2 Pro mainly for battery backup for our home wifi and phone as we recently got switched from copper to fibre optic. Now, in the event of a power failure, we still have telephone (using a corded handset) and wifi. The modem, router, wifi access points, and phone draw about 50W, and the battery would last about 9 hours.

This has just been a musing of mine.

Wavery · 05-21-2024, 12:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Larryjb

I would probably use the Wave heater rather than the furnace for heat. And I would most certainly not plug the main power cord of the trailer into the Ecoflow. It does have a 12V output which I could probably hook up to the 12V.

I'm curious why you would not plug the power cord into the Ecoflow.

It should run your lights and water pump quite nicely for a weekend. The CO detector might draw a little but not that much. The fridge needs 12V to run even when you are on propane.

I'd try camp driveway for a weekend and see how it goes. I've always been curious about running a serious stand alone. Several people have tried the smaller ones and failed but this one looks like it might be doable. Be sure to iether turn off the converter's charger or disconnect your trailer battery bank.

larsdennert · 05-21-2024, 12:36 PM

Consider that a 100ah 12V deep cycle battery provides 1.2Kwh of power and two of those provide 2.4kwh. Then compare the cost of that battery to an ecoflow unit and decide what you want to spend for electron storage. The furnace also uses about half a tank of propane if run over night in the cold. You can go overnight on a battery but from memory it uses at least half of it.

Larryjb · 05-22-2024, 01:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wavery

I'm curious why you would not plug the power cord into the Ecoflow.

It should run your lights and water pump quite nicely for a weekend. The CO detector might draw a little but not that much. The fridge needs 12V to run even when you are on propane.

I'd try camp driveway for a weekend and see how it goes. I've always been curious about running a serious stand alone. Several people have tried the smaller ones and failed but this one looks like it might be doable. Be sure to iether turn off the converter's charger or disconnect your trailer battery bank.

I just wanted to avoid using the Ecoflow to charge the existing lead acid battery. The Ecoflow has a 12V output that I could perhaps wire into the DC electrical system.

**rickst29** · 05-22-2024, 01:47 PM

Your current 'River' appliance can only be charged in 120-VAC (not solar). The battery pack is small, and it doesn't provide native 12-VDC.

"Delta" models do accept solar panel power, but they are also somewhat small in battery size and maximum inverter power as well. The BMS might not be poprivde cellphone control for "tuning" voltages to storage versus usage situations.

Their portable all-in-one' type units units are small and easy to carry, and maybe usable in other ways. If used for TM only, a dedicated LFP setup would probably be superior at the same price, opr maybe even less: You could store much more power in the batteries, you could use a separate inverter unit with much higher power (usable even with microwave ovens or the Air Conditioner), and you could tune battery voltage on the fly for storage long term versus camping situations.