Power stations

Hicksy 92

Member
Nov 23, 2018
86
124
Stonesfield Oxfordshire
Hi all , anyone charging there ebikes with a portable power staion, ideally I would like to charge 2 at the same time while they are in my van , if so any recommendations welcomed .
thanks
 

mike_kelly

Well-known member
Subscriber
Aug 11, 2022
944
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US
Lots of Black Friday discounts out there on power stations right now.
Just remember that if you have say a 500watt hour battery you need at least a 500watt hour power station if you expect to charge it completely and for two bikes double that. The inverter in the power station would have to be rated at 1000w.
It might be cheaper to get a small 2000w petrol/propane generator although it would be noisier.
 
Last edited:

Hicksy 92

Member
Nov 23, 2018
86
124
Stonesfield Oxfordshire
Lots of Black Friday discounts out there on power stations right now.
Just remember that if you have say a 500watt hour battery you need at least a 500watt hour power station if you expect to charge it completely and for two bikes double that. The inverter in the power station would have to be rated at 1000w.
It might be cheaper to get a small 2000w petrol/propane generator although it would be noisier.
Yes definitely cheaper , but would like to be charging while on the move . Just wonder who’s using what brands , models etc ,
 

Mcharza

E*POWAH BOSS
Aug 10, 2018
2,621
5,422
Helsinki, Finland
I’m using Ecoflow River Pro. Can charge the battery two times, but I have a small battery Specialized Kenovo Asl.
New Ecoflow models have LiFePo battery and those have about 3000 battery cycle. So they would last longer than your ebike.
 

mike_kelly

Well-known member
Subscriber
Aug 11, 2022
944
778
US
You can charge in the van while you are driving with just an inverter to your cigarette lighter, maybe not two bikes depending on your cigarette lighter amperage.
 

Richywalker64

Active member
Nov 14, 2020
211
174
Hartlepool
Hi all , anyone charging there ebikes with a portable power staion, ideally I would like to charge 2 at the same time while they are in my van , if so any recommendations welcomed .
thanks
I use a Jackery 1000 explorer which I'm really happy with and has two 3 pin ac outlets so I can charge 2 bikes at the same time
 

Richywalker64

Active member
Nov 14, 2020
211
174
Hartlepool
Yes they are ok. The Delta Max is the same just twice the capacity.
Yeah I think if I bought another I'd go for a bigger capacity but I got mine at a reasonable price of £550
I have 2 504wh batteries for my Merida e160 and it'll charge both as long as they're not totally flat
However I've just bought a new Cube stereo hybrid 160 with a 750wh battery so a larger power station would suit me better
 

SwampNut

Well-known member
Oct 26, 2022
298
353
Peoria, AZ USA
You can charge in the van while you are driving with just an inverter to your cigarette lighter, maybe not two bikes depending on your cigarette lighter amperage.

The lighter/power socket in most vehicles is limited to around 120 watts, highest is around 160. Most bike chargers are going to consume more than that. However, your idea is solid if it's wired to the vehicle battery. It's by far the cheapest, and mostly infinite capacity. A 400-500 watt inverter is very inexpensive.
 

mike_kelly

Well-known member
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Aug 11, 2022
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My charger is a 2amp at 120v that means it would most likely work on a cigarette outlet. Like I said it depends.
 

SwampNut

Well-known member
Oct 26, 2022
298
353
Peoria, AZ USA
My charger is a 2amp at 120v that means it would most likely work on a cigarette outlet. Like I said it depends.

No, there’s absolutely no chance. Even without considering losses, that’s 240 watts, or 20 amps at 12v. That math is volts times amps is watts. You can reverse the equation. And simply put, the amps at 120 will be 10x at 12v.

But perfectly acceptable when hard-wired.
 

SwampNut

Well-known member
Oct 26, 2022
298
353
Peoria, AZ USA
There are cigarette lighter outlets that can handle it.

It's impossible to prove a negative, but I think that's false. The highest I've ever seen is 15A, and that's rare. It was also backed up by scary-small wires. What car have you seen with a 20A outlet? Or are you talking about an aftermarket add-on, in which case you have to go to the battery anyway? I was shocked to see that my Tesla is just over 15 which is high, Jeep 10, Smart car 8.

First blurb from Google...

10-amp

Most cigarette lighters run on a 10-amp fuse that allows for 12 volts or 120 watts of power output at maximum. There may be some variance on this depending on your vehicle. Check your owner's manual or the cover of your cigarette lighter socket to find the specific output for your vehicle.
 

Kingerz

Active member
Jul 11, 2021
215
178
Australia
It's impossible to prove a negative, but I think that's false. The highest I've ever seen is 15A, and that's rare. It was also backed up by scary-small wires. What car have you seen with a 20A outlet? Or are you talking about an aftermarket add-on, in which case you have to go to the battery anyway? I was shocked to see that my Tesla is just over 15 which is high, Jeep 10, Smart car 8.

First blurb from Google...

10-amp

Most cigarette lighters run on a 10-amp fuse that allows for 12 volts or 120 watts of power output at maximum. There may be some variance on this depending on your vehicle. Check your owner's manual or the cover of your cigarette lighter socket to find the specific output for your vehicle.
That's right. They will put out 150W even with an inverter which won't run a bike charger that I've seen.
 

Kingerz

Active member
Jul 11, 2021
215
178
Australia
Hi all , anyone charging there ebikes with a portable power staion, ideally I would like to charge 2 at the same time while they are in my van , if so any recommendations welcomed .
thanks
I have a blog and some video guides to this, which lets me go away for 2 or 3 days of biking even when it's not fully sunny, using a Bluetti EB150. I also have a much less portable AC300.
 

hogicid

Member
Jun 2, 2023
64
10
United States
It's impossible to prove a negative, but I think that's false. The highest I've ever seen is 15A, and that's rare. It was also backed up by scary-small wires. What car have you seen with a 20A outlet? Or are you talking about an aftermarket add-on, in which case you have to go to the battery anyway? I was shocked to see that my Tesla is just over 15 which is high, Jeep 10, Smart car 8.

First blurb from Google...

10-amp

Most cigarette lighters run on a 10-amp fuse that allows for 12 volts or 120 watts of power output at maximum. There may be some variance on this depending on your vehicle portable power station. Check your owner's manual or the cover of your cigarette lighter socket to find the specific output for your vehicle.
Hello. I am looking at various ones of these and need advice. size, Watts, what do I need. I dont want to power the house but basically a emergency back up 1. Run some small appliances maybe up to a small air conditioner 2. Charge from wall plug and maybe future solar panels 3. Run in parallel (is this even possible) to increase capacity? 4. Storage length 5. Price versus capacity 6. Brand integrity/qulity/longevity The current idea is to leave them charged to use if we get a brownout and in the future rig them to solar panel fr longer outages. I would prefer a few smaller ones (maybe 500W+) over one bigger one but advic is needed
 

mike_kelly

Well-known member
Subscriber
Aug 11, 2022
944
778
US
You need to do a survey of the appliances you want to run. Each device will have a label printed on it with the voltage it runs at and the current it requires. You will find the small air conditioner pulls a lot more than your other devices. Then add up the requirements of the devices you will have on at the same time. You can't start to do anything until you know what you need.
 

cozzy

E*POWAH Elite
Subscriber
Aug 11, 2019
940
1,054
Hampshire UK
The aferiy 2000wh has caught my eye recently.
Can be had for about £850 with a discount code, also from Amazon.
Would get me 2 charges of a 700wh battery.
Even pricing up individual components, battery, charger, inverter etc isnt much cheaper than this.
Additionally I could run bits of my house during the day after charging up on cheaper overnight elecy.

 

Litehiker

New Member
Nov 23, 2022
73
31
Las Vegas, NV
I use a BLUETTI AC200 MAX Li Fe Po battery charged by an Off Grid TREK 220 watt folding solar blanket. Yeah, a very spendy setup, especially the outstanding OGT solar blanket at US $1,700. but well worth it for backcountry car camp E-MTB trips and power outage situations to keep refrigerator/freezers running.
On a recent antelope hunt in remote north central Nevada this setup kept my TWO battery, AWD E-CELLS Super Monarch Crown bike batteries charged and ran a small cooler all day off the BLUETTI which was kept fully charged by the solar blanket. (Yeah, I'm spending my daughters' inheritance.) :)
 

Bri-72

Member
Nov 19, 2018
32
24
Inverness
Maybe silly question but charge time from portable power stations like Jackery, are they any different from charging at home from AC outlet?

And perhaps on a related note, any way of speeding up Orbea Rise M series charge time. 5 hours full charge is slowwwwww
 

Richywalker64

Active member
Nov 14, 2020
211
174
Hartlepool
Maybe silly question but charge time from portable power stations like Jackery, are they any different from charging at home from AC outlet?

And perhaps on a related note, any way of speeding up Orbea Rise M series charge time. 5 hours full charge is slowwwwww
I use my Jackery explorer 1000 occasionally to charge my bike and it appears to take the same amount of time as using the mains .
One thing to note tho if you are considering buying one is capacity, my Jackery is 1000wh and my bike battery is 750wh but for every 10% charge it takes 10% out of the Jackery.
So due to losses through the inbuilt inverter my Jackery will only give me 1 full bike charge from zero.
 

SwampNut

Well-known member
Oct 26, 2022
298
353
Peoria, AZ USA
Maybe silly question but charge time from portable power stations like Jackery, are they any different from charging at home from AC outlet?

And perhaps on a related note, any way of speeding up Orbea Rise M series charge time. 5 hours full charge is slowwwwww

The only way to speed it up is to get a charger with a higher capacity. The most effective way to charge is a DC to DC charger, like EVs use. But that's a bit rare with bike batteries (common with remote control vehicle batteries). The charge time won't change significantly by the source type (inverter etc).
 

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