Battery Generators at CES: AllPowers, Jackery, Bluetti, and Ecoflow

[btarunr]

Smart battery generators were a recurring theme this CES. These are devices with large batteries—usually lithium ion—connected to an integrated sine-wave AC inverter, and other goodies such as direct low-voltage DC charging points for all your devices. These come in pretty handy as a replacement for small gas-powered gensets you take along for camping, as the battery drains much slower than the genset burns fuel at its lowest-load state; and many of these batteries include a means to recharge with solar power, using portable, foldable PV panels.



AllPowers showed off a wealth of battery generators, ranging from smaller brick-sized ones with around 3000 Whr batteries; to very large ones with 405 Ah internal batteries that can put out 2.4 kVA AC output. Its largest one sits on wheels and puts out 4 kVA using a 690 Ah internal battery. Commong to these generators are AC power inputs with power draw ranging between 1000 W to 1700 W, and 2-pin DC for PV solar panels; and outputs with one or more 3-pin AC outputs, and power-delivery USB ports in both type-A and type-C sizes. Displays put out real-time status, including battery and time-to-drain/recharge. AllPowers also unveiled fold-out PV units that can generate anywhere between 100-400 W of power, which the generator can immediately convert to AC, or recharge itself.



Jackery presented similar kinds of battery-generators as AllPowers, their generators are available in the same range of power output. Some of these are shaped like travel bags that you can lug around (just don't take them to an airport!). Jackery also showed us a 15-inch pizza box-sized fold out PV panel. Ecoflow, besides showing off a range of battery-generators, also unveiled a battery-powered refrigerator and ice-maker that can come super-handy for camping trips where you want something to sip and need fresh ice made from spring water.



Update Jan 9th: We also came across Bluetti, which is specializing in stackable mobile battery generators that can power entire mobile homes or on-site science labs. The company also showed off home power solutions using 9 kVA lithium-ion battery packs that can be connected to home solar roofs and work to either let you live off-grid, or vastly cut down your utility bills.



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[Space Lynx]

This is cool, thanks for covering this.

I hope to get a Jackery and a few solar panels someday. It's a few years away still, but yeah. It's nice to see more competition and improvements happening in this area. I hope solar continues to make progress. Every home should have solar panels on the roof, its silly we don't do this or incentivize it with stronger tax breaks.

 

[Zareek]

This is cool, thanks for covering this.

I hope to get a Jackery and a few solar panels someday. It's a few years away still, but yeah. It's nice to see more competition and improvements happening in this area. I hope solar continues to make progress. Every home should have solar panels on the roof, its silly we don't do this or incentivize it with stronger tax breaks.

Agreed, very cool, I wish they were more cost competitive with gas generators but given time and competition they should eventually be close.

 

[vbq7qK68eyYAH4iR]

I've recently been looking at this market, for a camping trip in a few months. I found that we seem to be in a transition phase at the moment, where companies are releasing new products with updated battery chemistry, which have much high cycle life. Currently any Lithium Ion generators generally state a 500-800 cycle limit until 80% capacity. New devices that have LiFePO4 (lithium iron phosphate) seem to have more than double the duty cycles, generally around 2000 cycles until 80% capacity. It is a rapidly evolving market and it's exciting to see what potential the future holds in this segment. My current front runner is the EcoFlow RIVER portable power station, as it seems to have a nice balance of features and capacity, while being well priced in this market segment.

 

[trog100]

it misleading to to call these things generators.. they are more like portable large power banks..

trog

 

[trsttte]

it misleading to to call these things generators..

I'd say it's plain wrong, they are not generators at all, they're batteries

 

[Lianna]

it misleading to to call these things generators.. they are more like portable large power banks..

trog

They are usually called power stations, as opposed to much smaller (in size/weight/energy/power) power banks, and stressing their stationary vs mobile use.
It's especially apparent when they have portable fuel generators to charge their power stations - like EcoFlow does.