Anker’s flagship energy station, the Solix F3800, is now delivery after elevating nearly $6 million on Kickstarter. It may be used independently to energy a weekend away or scaled for whole-home backup. Costs begin at $3,999 with common gross sales set to start on January ninth.
The three.84kWh Solix F3800 energy station itself will be expanded to 26.9kWh of vitality capability after including six of Anker’s 3.84kWh BP3800 LFP enlargement batteries. It’s able to producing as much as 6,000W of dual-voltage (120V / 240V) AC output throughout oodles of jacks — sufficient to simply energy nearly any house machine, together with the air conditioner and water pump. You’ll be able to even join two F3800 collectively for 12,000W of whole AC output and as much as 53.8kWh of capability, however now you’re speaking a couple of system costing tens of hundreds of {dollars}.
In keeping with the US Power Data Administration, the common US house consumed 889kWh monthly in 2022, or about 29.2kWh per day. So, a maxed-out Anker system (53.8kWh) holds sufficient saved vitality to energy a whole house for about two days, or for much longer for those who’re solely powering crucial gadgets just like the fridge, freezer, sump pump, and some lights.
The F3800 is designed to be moveable with a telescoping deal with and wheels. You’ll be able to join as much as 2400W of foldable photo voltaic panels to the F3800 to create a semi-mobile 132.3 pound (60kg) photo voltaic generator to energy your RV, boat, work shed, or tiny home from the unit’s built-in NEMA 14-50 and L14-30 ports. You’ll be able to even cost your EV at 6,000W / 240V for a dozen or so further miles of vary in an emergency.
Anker provides just a few kits constructed across the F3800 energy station to maintain the house up and working when the grid goes down, which is occurring extra ceaselessly as a result of rise in excessive climate. Every equipment varies in value, complexity, and the management it may possibly present over house circuitry.
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On the prime finish is the Solix F3800 Residence Energy Package, which is just obtainable in the USA. It combines the Solix F3800 with a lot of extra electrical bins and cabling, together with Anker’s Residence Energy Panel (skilled set up required) to offer battery backup and computerized switchover for as much as 12 of your own home’s circuits. It additionally permits your F3800 batteries to retailer vitality collected out of your current rooftop photo voltaic panels after putting in a present transformer. The Anker system can then be optimized within the Anker app (connects over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth) to cost the batteries utilizing surplus solar energy when the solar is powerful and electrical energy charges are low cost and to energy the house at night time off your vitality shops when grid costs improve — probably saving you cash over time. The F3800 house vitality system can’t ship extra electrical energy again to the grid.
The much less succesful and cheaper Residence Backup Package features a 10-circuit 120V / 240V switch change, permitting the Solix F3800 and any enlargement batteries to plug immediately into your own home throughout emergencies, identical to noisy and smelly gasoline turbines. Nonetheless, turbines that run on liquid gold nonetheless have the benefit of powering your circuits for so long as you retain filling the tank. Not like the Residence Energy Package, the Residence Backup Package requires guide intervention to change as much as 10 house circuits over to your Solix F3800 battery array.
Again in June, Anker introduced an much more highly effective Solix house backup answer anticipated to ship someday in 2024. However that Solix answer is mounted to the wall like a Tesla Powerwall, whereas these Solix F3800 kits supply extra flexibility as a consequence of their moveable and modular design. For instance, you may disconnect the F3800 unit and some enlargement batteries from the house and use them to assist energy your subsequent summer time street journey or weekend away.
Anker, like EcoFlow and different latest Tesla Powerwall opponents, is positioning its Solix F3800 kits for house backup that may be “simply put in in just a few hours” (by knowledgeable electrician) whereas doing so “at a considerably decreased value in comparison with extra conventional house energy storage choices.” However that’s a calculation every house owner must confirm to account for his or her distinctive wants, tax incentives, different native variabilities, and the inevitable set up weirdness that often accompanies any quest for vitality independence.