New Camping “Essential”: Bluetti AC180 Power Station

Here’s another pic from this morning: Using 300 W STC PV array (3x 100 W modules wired in series) to recharge the AC180 power station while it’s charging my eBike’s battery via a 120 Vac power brick.

😎  🌞⚡️🔋🔌🔋🚴🏻‍♂️
Jim / crewzer

One more hopefully useful post.

Like many power stations, the Bluetti AC180 can be recharged from a 12 V vehicle power socket via its DC/PV input port. However, most limit charge current to ~10 A to avoid overloading the socket and its fuse.

The AC180’s input current limit is 8 A for DC voltages below ~30 V. Its battery energy spec is 1152 Wh, equivalent to a 12.8 V x 90 Ah battery. Assuming 90% charging efficiency, it could take up to ~13 hours to recharge the PS’s battery from a vehicle power socket (1152 Wh / (12 V x 8 A x 90%) = ~13 hrs.)

I no longer drive that long. 😴

I found a 120 Vac power brick with an output of 25 V nominal and up to 8 A via a DC7909 plug. This PB can operate from our truck’s cheesy built-in 120 Vac inverter (300 W) and should be able to complete a recharge in ~6.5 hours… perfect!

We should now be all set up for our next trip in October. 😎

Safe travels!
Jim / crewzer

Charging in truck from 12 V car socket:

Charging in truck from 120 Vac inverter via the 25 V power brick:

Useful post indeed.  As it turns out outTV has a 150W inverter that I completely forgot about.  Do you mind sharing which PB you got?

It’s this model from Amazon for $65:

• FANLIDE Portable Power Station Charger, 200W Power Supply Adapter Charger for Portable Generator, AC to DC Charger Compatible with Jackery Portable Power Station Explorer 1000

⚠️ Our truck’s inverter is rated at 300 W.. This 25 Vdc PB is a 200 W (output) model… assuming 85% efficiency, the input power would be 235 W…  it may overload your 150 W inverter.

HTH,      
Jim / crewzer

Noticed this morning that Bluetti is having an Early Black Friday sale.  The AC180 is selling for $669.  That's the lowest price I've seen for this model....

A couple more application examples:

I used our Bluetti AC180 to recharge our eBike batteries (AC cord plugged in on the right) while boondocking at Fat Point 2024 last February. The Bluetti was recharged from solar via the high-current DC posts on the side of our 855s TC (DC cord on the left):

I used our Bluetti last month to power our new StarLink terminal (and wirelessly charge my iPhone) while camping at Lewis and Clark State Park in western Missouri. I had shore power available, but part of the test was to make sure everything worked “off grid”:

HTH,    
Jim / crewzer

@Crewzer posted:

Charging from our truck’s back seat power port. It’s pretty slow, as the DC input limits low-voltage current to 8 Amps. The charge rate can be doubled to ~200 W by inserting a 12V / 24V boost converter between the power port and the DC input; that’s an experiment for another day.

😎    
Jim / crewzer

Today was the day for the 12/24 V boost converter experiment.

I used a small Victron 12/24-10 boost converter to boost the voltage from one of our truck’s 12 V power sockets (fused at 20 A) to 20 V. The converter’s output voltage is adjustable.

The AC180 limits DC charge current to 8 A for input voltages below 30 V, so I saw 160 W input from this configuration (20 V x 8 A = 160 W).

I could probably increase the converter’s output voltage to ~24 V (for 192 W output) and stay under 16 A (20 A x 80%) from the truck’s power outlet with the engine running.

Assuming 90% charging efficiency, the 160 W configuration could fully recharge the AC180 in about eight hours. Set for 192 W, the recharge time would be about six hours.

I may ultimately go for 180 W (22.5 V x 8 A) and a seven hour recharge period, which would be almost double the “straight 12 V” charge rate (95 W) in about one-half the time.

To conclude, there are at least three options for recharging portable power stations from a vehicle alternator:

1) 12 V directly from a power port    
2) 12 V boosted to ~20 - 24 V (or more) from a power port, an upfitter switch or other high-current source  
3) 12 V - 24 V from a DC power brick plugged into a vehicle 120 Vac inverter

HTH,    
Jim / crewzer

Amazon and Bluetti have the AC180 on sale right now for $579.   Amazon also has the similar Grecell 1126 Wh unit for $609.  Don't think the Grecell has bluetooth, though.   The form factor on the Grecell is more rectangular--might make a difference to some.

Excellent price @ $0.50 / Wh; thanks for sharing!

Safe travels,    
Jim /

Application update:

As many of you know, I removed the generator from our TC several years ago. This removed a lot of excess weight, but left it difficult to operate high-power AC loads while boondocking.

However, I left all of the generator’s AC, DC, and control wiring in place.

I just installed a wall-mount 5-15P AC power plug in the switch panel just inside the door. The new plug is wired to the generator’s repurposed AC wiring still connected to the stock automatic transfer switch.

I can now conveniently power the camper’s AC loads and outlets from the AC180 PPS by plugging it into the wall plug using an extension cord and right-angle adapter. The ATS takes about 15 seconds to recognize the non-shore-power source and switch over to the PPS.

I’ve attached some pics below.

HTH,    
Jim / crewzer

Wall plug (male) location (lower right) in the switch panel:

PPS power outlet socket connects to power input plug via an extension cord and right-angle adapter:

The microwave can now be quietly and conveniently powered from the PPS while boondocking:

😎

Jim -
It's great seeing your power station integration ideas!
We like that we can run the micro and/or coffee maker without firing up a gas generator.
I had toyed for a while with the idea of installing a transfer switch, but we seem to do ok without one so far. It's great that yours was already wired up!

Cheers and happy 4th!
Henry

Jim,

Thanks for your continued updates!

During a recent stay at Assateague National Seashore we liked that we could run the coffee maker and microwave as needed during our stay.  The CG does not allow generators.  We even topped off our house batteries at one point.

While it would be nice to have a full solar setup and inverter, our current camping style doesn't warrant the effort and expense of making that happen.  Getting a portable battery bank with an inverter that we can take along on trips as needed, and use for other purposes besides our traveling made the most sense.

Thanks for sharing your application scenarios!

I like that PPS’ can supplant noisy generators for some uses, and I especially like that a PPS can be a viable alternative to the weight, complexities, and cost of a  PV system, batteries, generator, etc. 😎

Safe travels,    
Jim / crewzer