Costco Wholesale has for their
Members:
EcoFlow Delta Pro 3 Power Backup System (2-Count EcoFlow 4KWH Delta Pro 3 Units + 50 Amp Hub) for
$4999.99.
Shipping is free.
Thanks to Community Member
fpolsky87 for finding this deal.
Features:- Includes:
- 2x EcoFlow DELTA Pro 3 Portable Power Station
- EcoFlow 50 Amp Hub
- Two sets of 4KWh DELTA Pro 3 units paired together for an extended power supply
- Plug-and-play power solution for your entire home with 120V/240V capability
- Recharge with AC or solar for energy savings
- 10ms swift switchovers to protect your NAS systems, servers, and appliances from power disruptions
- Long-lasting 10-year LFP battery for reliable performance
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Is Ecoflow magically going to do wiring to your main panel?
Either way as I said you can add 28.8KW for $160 per KW.
How much will that many KWs cost you with Ecoflow? You will need to buy 7 ecoflows for $5k each. That will run to $36k.
With a diy approach for a 28kw you will only spend $3840 for lifepo4 batteries.
It's literally day and night difference on the cost of ownership!
This set is 8 kwh for $5000, meaning you only need 4 of these sets to reach 32 kwh for a price of $20k, very different from $36k. This set will also get you far greater output and charging capabilities than buying your $4k of batteries, which don't come with chargers or inverters. That's fine if long term storage (using/charging less than 20% a day) is your goal, but not okay if you want to be able to cycle them each day.
For a fair comparison, you would compare adding $4k of batteries with the Delta Pro 3 Extra Battery pack, which doesn't add any additional output capacity. At present, it is $2300 for each additional battery, but it is a new product. I expect future sales to bring it down to the $1600 range or so, which still puts it at $400 per kwh. Yes, more than twice as expensive as DIY batteries, but you get the warranty and a more compact and elegant package.
Also, this may not matter depending on environment, but the Ecoflow BMS comes with more protections than those cheap batteries on Amazon, specifically the low temp protection. If you want low temp protection, those batteries run around $250 each. All of the sudden you're not saving as much. Not to mention, good luck keeping your multitudes of 12v batteries balanced. These units have all the engineering and work done. DIY, you're going to have to spend time researching and planning how to put everything together. For some people, that time is more valuable than the money saved.
Just watch some youtube reviews where people have actually torn down and/or tested the safety features that many of these cheap batteries claim to have. There are some 'diamonds in the rough', however, many advertise things like high/low temperature shutoff, short circuit/overcurrent protection, but don't actually have those working as advertised. They'll also often have things like pinched wires, poor connections, poor construction allowing movement, etc. All have the potential to start a fire. I could go on...
Bottom line is: when things have to go through certification processes & more rigid QA standards to satisfy UL or ETL, risk of fire/failure is reduced significantly, and insurance won't deny a claim if something DOES happen with a UL listed product.
Often times, your only recourse for a cheap amazon battery failure is amazon's 30-day return policy - with no other warranty support whatsoever.
A more appropriate/comparable battery option that's actually UL listed would be something like the LifePower4 from Signature Solar [signaturesolar.com], which comes in about 25 cents per Wh shipped - not a bad price for peace of mind. 5 year warranty.
This set is 8 kwh for $5000, meaning you only need 4 of these sets to reach 32 kwh for a price of $20k, very different from $36k. This set will also get you far greater output and charging capabilities than buying your $4k of batteries, which don't come with chargers or inverters. That's fine if long term storage (using/charging less than 20% a day) is your goal, but not okay if you want to be able to cycle them each day.
For a fair comparison, you would compare adding $4k of batteries with the Delta Pro 3 Extra Battery pack, which doesn't add any additional output capacity. At present, it is $2300 for each additional battery, but it is a new product. I expect future sales to bring it down to the $1600 range or so, which still puts it at $400 per kwh. Yes, more than twice as expensive as DIY batteries, but you get the warranty and a more compact and elegant package.
Also, this may not matter depending on environment, but the Ecoflow BMS comes with more protections than those cheap batteries on Amazon, specifically the low temp protection. If you want low temp protection, those batteries run around $250 each. All of the sudden you're not saving as much. Not to mention, good luck keeping your multitudes of 12v batteries balanced. These units have all the engineering and work done. DIY, you're going to have to spend time researching and planning how to put everything together. For some people, that time is more valuable than the money saved.
Now with ecoflow you would still need 3.6 units which comes out to $18k.
Now with ecoflow you would still need 3.6 units which comes out to $18k.
You aren't going to get 30kw of output out of a $1000 inverter. 3 10 kw solar hybrid inverters is $4800, bringing the total up to $11,600.
12v LFP batteries with low temp protection are about $220 per kwh, so an additional ~$600. Cost now increases to $12,200.
Time. At least 4 hours spent researching how to properly put everything together, assuming you've never had experience. Another 4 hours selecting components because you don't make a purchase this large without vetting the products. It needs to match the portability, so another 4-8 hours getting measurements to see what kind of box you can put it in and what dolly to use. Putting together a system this large would be at least 8 hours of work. Minimum 20 hours of work. The people with the skill and money to put a system like this together probably value their time at at least $40 an hour. $800, bringing the price up to $13,000 if putting something like this together isn't a fun side hobby.
In the end, you can potentially save $5000, or 28%. For most people, the savings will be less. No matter how you try to package it, it will never be as compact as the Ecoflow, probably at least 20% larger in size. You lose US-based support and warranty. The China-based support and warranty is usually worth less than the hard drive space the documents take up, so you're on your own if something goes wrong. The control app won't be as polished and might be missing some features.
There are pros and cons to each route, and it's up to each person to decide which pros outweigh which cons. Proclaiming that the DIY route is the only proper route to go is incredibly short-sighted.
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That said.. the one you linked @ $230/kWh is clearly indicated as "Indoor"; looks like the outdoor version is more like $251/kWh: https://signaturesolar.
For one, I believe the solar input is higher for the DP 3. Higher total. I think the high input is 160V still. But now there's a secondary, lower voltage input as well.
Another difference, I think, is 240V output from the DP3 without the hub that the Delta Pro Ultra requires... Not sure. But again, with those specs pulled up --> the differences are usually pretty obvious. I'm sure there are plenty of articles and videos to be found on the topic at this point. You'd just have to decide whether the +$1,800 was worth it for those differences.
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Good write up about it here: http://www.linspyre.com/ecopower/...rters.html [linspyre.com]
One note is that you can charge at 120V (at least using the standard AC input) and discharge at 120V and 240V simultaneously. Depending on the output it may not actually be charging, but the incoming AC should offset part of the outgoing charge (at least that's what both the DPU & my power monitoring show). Note that to do that and not trigger an overload on the input the charging mode must be set to fast charge mode.
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