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EcoFlow’s $200 PowerStream is so clever, you might buy a $4,000 solar generator (www.theverge.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Title reads like at ad, but this is a new way to reach energy independence. I actually have a small EcoFlow device and it’s pretty good for the price.

I hope this tech can be made available in the US soon.

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[–] 60 points 2 years ago (5 children)

Yeah, non-USA for this atm, as much fun as it would be to plug such a system into an apartment.

I believe that the US requires that a direct-feed system has to plug into a physical kill switch setup to prevent back-feed of power during an outage.

Still pretty neat, though!

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  • [–] 25 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

    Same for the EU.

    Solar inverters also need to follow the grid frequency

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  • [+] 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)
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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    Interesting - which other generators for example wouldn't you want starting up?

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  • [+] 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)
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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)

    I think I get that, thanks. So an Island grid is less stable and could cause itself damage if two microinverters say are trying to sync up to each other vs a beefy, stable main grid?

    So how does a backup battery system work when islanded? Typically also at 52Hz?

    Or can it go into a 60Hz beefy mode?

    It would be nice to get all the little island solar inverters working when the grid goes down!

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    I'm guessing the commenter above is in the EU and operating at 50Hz normally, so running at 60Hz wouldn't be a great idea. A backup battery and such operate in the same way when islanding.

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  • [+] 1 point 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)
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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    IIRC some inverters are able to sync up with alternative power sources, but the documentation is extremely limited and seems to be reserved mostly for large-scale systems. I know my Solaredge system has slowly been implementing using both at the same time, but the documentation is pretty unclear as to how this works. I know at the very least it'll allow you to use a 2-wire start to kick a standalone generator on when the batteries are low, but don't know much else about how it's currently set up

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  • [–] 16 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Also in the US regular 120v outlets are fed from 1 of 2 transformer legs. If you back fed power through a 120v outlet, roughly half of the circuits in your home would function and the others would be dead.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    And disclaimer: no one should do this, but when the transfer switch disconnects from the grid, would it work to jump say a breaker across the L1-L2 hots to share that 120v backfeed over both?

    Clearly the 240v appliances won't work in this configuration, but the fridge on one leg and the internet on the other will still work ok, right?

    Again, no one try this - it's just a thought exercise.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago

    Yes, it will actually work. I know it's very much not to code, but when we lost power for over 10 days, I did this to keep our furnace running and us from freezing to death since it was -10F out.

    I only have a small 120V generator, but hooked both legs to hot and backfed via our EV charger's outlet, since its a 50A circuit. Like you said, nothing 240V worked, but that little 3kW generator did a great job powering basically the whole house with no issues.

    That winter was definitely a big driver for me to get a backup battery system so our solar could power the house.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    These systems automatically turn themselves off during an outage.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    That's great, but it doesn't matter unless it has the physical cutoff that's required to bring that kind of system up to the current electrical code for such a system.

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