The EnerSol EPB-1000NF power station overview
The EPB-1000NF power station on LiFePO4 batteries has a capacity of 1030 Wh, an output power of 1000 W and a service life of more than 2000 charge-discharge cycles. The power is quite sufficient to power a computer and small lighting for a long time, and for a short time it will allow you to turn on some more powerful electrical appliances. The equipment of the EnerSol EPB-1000NF power station is quite standard - two 230 V sockets, several USB ports of different power, an output for a car cigarette lighter and an input for charging from a car battery, a low-power light source and a fairly informative display showing the operating mode of the station. A distinctive feature of the EnerSol EPB-1000NF power station is the presence of wireless charging for smartphones, otherwise it is a typical power station, very similar to dozens of other types of power stations from other manufacturers. The charging station can be charged from various sources of electricity - from the grid, from a car battery or from a solar panel. When connected to the grid, the charging station charges in 2 hours, charging from a car battery will take about 4 hours, and the duration of charging from solar panels depends entirely on their power. The main advantage of this power station is its price - EnerSol EPB-1000NF costs almost half as much as similar power stations from Anker and EcoFlow. Whether to buy expensive power stations from well-known brands or buy a cheap power station EnerSol EPB-1000NF is up to the buyer to decide, but we will try to understand the practice of using this power station in domestic conditions and look for pitfalls that may await an unsuspecting buyer.
Some Uncertainties of the EnerSol EPB-1000NF Power Station
Unfortunately, there is very little information on the EnerSol EPB-1000NF power station - the instructions are a small piece of paper folded several times, which is very little for such a complex product. The characteristics of the EnerSol EPB-1000NF indicate the main parameters, but there is no information on several points that are important for buyers. Firstly, can the EnerSol EPB-1000NF power station be used as an uninterruptible power supply and be constantly connected to the electrical network, switching to batteries only when the power is turned off. The second point that the manufacturer of the power station kept silent about is the sine wave shape. For some equipment with electric motors to operate, for example, a circulation pump for an autonomous heating system, a pure sine wave is required, which is provided by expensive inverters. The instructions for the EnerSol EPB-1000NF power station indicate that it can be switched off if some equipment with electric motors is used, which suggests that a cheaper inverter is used in its design, which produces a stepped sine wave instead of a pure one. Therefore, buyers for whom the shape of the sine wave produced by the power station is critical should buy a power station that clearly indicates the shape of the sine wave. Another questionable point is that the instructions for the EnerSol EPB-1000NF power station state that it uses modern LiFePO4 batteries and that its service life is more than 2000 full charge and discharge cycles, but for this type of batteries, the typical service life is about 3000...4000 cycles. The question arises, what kind of batteries are used in the design of this power station - low-quality or even used ones, of which about half of the service life remains? Only the manufacturer of the EnerSol EPB-1000NF power station can answer all these questions, but we can only make assumptions.
Why Does the EnerSol EPB-1000NF Power Station Turn Off and What to Do?
Although the EnerSol EPB-1000NF power station is a fairly effective power bank with a fairly large capacity, it is not without some drawbacks. And the main one is that it turns off during operation. More precisely, this power station does not just turn off, but turns off when equipment with low power is connected to it. A typical example - during blackouts and long power outages, many have acquired the Internet via fiber optic cables, which are not afraid of a long absence of electricity. But in order to have Internet even during power outages, you need to somehow power the router and fiber optic modem. And many in this case use power stations to power both the computer and the modem with the router. In the situation with the power station, we are in for an unpleasant surprise - as soon as the load drops to a certain level, the power station switches off after some time. In practice, it has been verified that the load in the form of a router and an optical modem is not enough for this power station, and keeping a computer, lamps or something else on around the clock is unreasonable in terms of the operating time of the EnerSol EPB-1000NF power station on one charge. Therefore, such a power station is not a universal solution for energy autonomy - for round-the-clock power supply of the router, it is better to use either an additional autonomous power source, or purchase a power station from another manufacturer, for example, Anker and EcoFlow power stations are completely free of this drawback, but they have another drawback - the price of the power station.