Big power banks

You know the ones the YouTubers are always trying to flog.

I need one of these as I’m going to lose the power to my garage, it’s a long boring story.

Anyway I need lights maybe the odd power tool, maybe an infra red heater in the colder months. I had thought about a generator but the noise would be too many for the neighbours.

Has anyone used one of these bohemoth power banks?

Something like thishttps://www.hampshiregenerators.co.uk/product/generators/portable-power-stations/bluetti-ac180p-portable-power-station/

I doubt that will run a useful heater for more than half an hour or so

1800w not enough then?

1800W is the output, not the capacity.

Battery capacity 1440Wh – so in theory it will run a 1.4KW load for 1 hour.

Barely, but with a capacity of 1440kwh it would be gone in well under an hour if my understanding of batteries is right. I reckon it’d run lights and a bit of light powertool use, it would also provide the little bit of electricity you need for one of the chinese diesel heaters all the other youtubers are going on about

I’m clueless re capacity and output to be honest. I just need to know what I need and I’ll decide whether I can afford it…

I was thinking a grand would cover it but maybe not.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/404400862546?_skw=diesel+heater&itmmeta=01JCB3887QN9Q8SQFFGHFN1MNC&hash=item5e282b7552:g:aHIAAOSwXb9nCN6o&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8HoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKl9nRHPXeLWs7AYI8HY4IqWBm6LCte8wR24gRotdTz%2ByuYfu4Lfh%2FGNTXxLSV9SSQ1p8%2BRCSN6fbsCBxifpGoO4yxyHiszjdsoBv%2BkgDEPx9BubFvZUfRceTdNgoG%2BjEnXYuCffH%2BlvRs0CZvmjSLuPeDt7dG9ktSyiQRe2cja7auk%2Fn%2BIGSG1PJN%2F0O9SU3YjGQrR1tK%2F9a%2F3WW7mSVjGoe99CAza2PgkGPe%2BuaNFUUOyQfXdcZVe6MtzJwBLhKBOCSkq5w32gb7Nqij7rRvVK%2FOTqKKCeCSRie40ObzJzag%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABFBM_oOh4-JkOne of these would provide cheap heat and use sod all electricity, a power bank could supply that and led lights. not really sure how much powertools would use

@sweepy I had thought about a diesel heater.

I’m considering a big power bank. If the 1kwh DJI power station drops to £600 I’d might be buying one. I’ve see videos of it powering sizeable power tools and even charging a car. Looks like it’d be good for camping with an induction hob and fast charging a DJI amflow bike quickly. I’d charge it in summer via solar.

Jackery V2 1000 is another option but they don’t have as high a sustained output but they are nearer to £600 in the sales.

I’m clueless re capacity and output to be honest.

Power is measured in Watts. Capacity is how long it can deliver power for, in Watt-hours. So a 1440Wh power source will deliver (on paper at least) 1440W for 1 hour, 144W for 10 hours, 1W for 1440 hours, and so on and so forth.

By way of comparison I’ve just looked at a little fan heater I have here, it’s rated at 1800-2000W. So it’s right on the edge of what that power bank can put out and it would run it for maybe 45 minutes.

That bluetti looks good. Good price. The DJI power station is £850 at the moment,  probably better at power tool use as well.

Heated gilet for personal heating and a hat.

I have an AC-180. Great thing. Was weighing up the AC-180P but Bluetti didnt sell it directly at the time and it was quite a bit more expensive than the AC-180. Glad i didnt to be honest as you wouldn’t want it any heavier. About 90% efficient in terms of wH. Can be switched off with the phone app which is convenient. Recharges quickly.

My instant starter bank from Halfords works as a decent battery bank. But buy yourself a down filled gilet and some fingerless gloves because you won’t be running a battery powered heater for any time.

Surely a generator would be what you need?

Is your garage anywhere near your home? If it is, can’t you just run an extension cable to it when you need power in the garage?

honda Eu10 or 22, hold their value well 2nd hand when you come to sell.

Old school Honda EX650 for whisper quiet if you can find a good little used one locally.

Is a heavy duty mains extension reel out of the question?

I have a 50m long one, rated for about 700w wound up, and about 3000w fully unwound…

Why do you need heat in your garage? Just put a jumper on.

Camping gas heaters are also available.

I’ve the anchor version of pretty much what you linked and it’s great, but I wouldn’t run a heater off it

My advice would be to buy a battery bank for your smaller power needs, and also a gas heater. As others have said, the power bank will be fine for items with power needs in watt, not kilowatts. But once you start talking about heaters etc, which will suck up thousands of watts (which = kilo-watts) then you are going to need a mahoosive power bank. so it would be cheaper to buy a gas heater imo.

Wood burner for the garage.

Tesla power wall plus solar panels for power tool use.

Might blow your budget 10x , but hey , this is STW

You said “it’s a long boring story” so I assumed there was good reason and didn’t probe further. Which was remiss of me. You’ve presented a solution without defining the problem. Why can’t you restore power, is there a Cliff Notes version of events?

Parafin heater and a decent long extension cable?

I’ve got a 30m cable running from an outside power point across to my shed at the back of the property. We were quoted about $5k to power shed with something a little more suitable.

Extension cable was $50. That’ll do pig. That’ll do.

If you don’t want the noise of a generator, I’m assuming your power tools are silent? 😉

What about a shed sized solar set up?

I had a brief chat with the OP. The long answer is “it’s complicated” but the short version is that whilst running an extension cable is the obvious solution, it isn’t viable in this instance because there’s nowhere to run the extension from.

Have a 1000w / 1000wh Anker power bank in the Disco. Charges off 230v or 12v, so doesn’t need to leave the truck. Ideal for laptops, charging power tool batteries or test gear

Also have a 2200w Champion Mighty Atom dual fuel generator – runs off petrol or LPG, so handy for the caravan and is really not very noisy at all

Just as an slight alternative option to running a long lead to the garage.

Install an outdoor socket on the house? Would save having to run a cable through a door window. I was originally thinking along the lines of caravan/campervan electric hook ups but there appears to be standard 3 pin plug options available. I use one whenever I stay at my parents to run a heater in the campervan.

it isn’t viable in this instance because there’s nowhere to run the extension from.

Cant help but think making it viable is better than a £650+ battery that’ll barely last an hour.

just taken delivery of a anker solix c1000 to power my apnea machine whilst i do back to backs in my job will report back after the weekend

rrp £999 currently 619.99 at costco

Install an outdoor socket on the house? … Cant help but think making it viable is better than a £650+ battery that’ll barely last an hour.

That was my thought also, but we’re assuming that there’s a house.

The rear wall of my back yard is the side of a garage. It is (sadly) nothing to do with me or any of the neighbouring properties, it’s its own thing. The guy who owns it lives a couple of towns away. Where do you suppose he might “make it viable” from if he requires mains power? 10km extension cord?

For lighting and maybe super light power tool use, and charging battery tools, putting together 12 or 24v LED strip lights, a solar panel and a battery ought to be a fair bit cheaper than the prepackaged power bank. For heat, long out of fashion, paraffin heaters are still around and kick out quite a lot of heat and a lot simpler than the diesel Webasto type heaters as seen in camper vans.

Lighting is by far the most practical thing to be powered from that battery bank; 20-40 watts of LED lighting can provide lots of light and last around 20-30 hours on the battery bank you propose.   You may also want to look at LED lights with built in batteries, this is just one example but many different types available.

The power tools is a bit tricker to power but might be possible with the power bank.  It just depends on the power tool and how much power it consumes.  Some tools like a small sander might use up 100 watts and will last 14 hours on that battery bank, other tools might require 500 watts and last 3 hours others might require 1000 watts or more and last 1 hour tops.   You might want to consider investing in a range of cordless tools?  If you don’t need anything fancy then range of cordless tools from Lidl or screw fix with a bunch of spare batteries might come in cheaper than the battery bank?

The heating is by far the hardest to solve with batteries.  As others have said a heater will use up anywhere from 1000 watts to 2000 watts so the battery bank will last anywhere from 1.5 hours to 30mins.  And thats just on its own, if you combine with the power tools and the lighting then it may not be able to do everything at once or only last 10-15mins.

For heating your best bet is to burn a fuel.  Either the camper van heaters suggested above.  They still require electricity to run them but only about 10-30watts so the battery bank can last 10’s of hours.  or you have camping gas heaters option1 or option2 these use gas canisters used in camping stoves and can last for a few hours depending on the size of the gas canister.   Or you could try a small wood stove like this example.

The only issue with burning fuels is of course making sure the exhaust and ventilation are good so you don’t suffocate your self.  Place the heater by the garage door so smoke goes outside but heat blows into the garage etc … But I think this is a simpler problem to solve than battery powered heating

Jackery 1000w V2 are currently £499. Should cover lighting and small power tool usage.

I’m holding out for a DJI 1000 power station…

Really loud cheap generator, when your neighbours lose their shit offer them £20 plug in to their leccy.

We use these in work https://instagrid.co/gb/products/one  & so far so good. Two of our local suppliers have bought some and are looking to buy more.

One of the other teams has just bought a Jackery unit which looked interesting till I read the trustpilot reviews. They’ve not used it yet but are toying with returning it after having read the reviews :/

Gas heater?

Cordless tools?

Night vision goggles? 🙂

Parafin heater and a decent long extension cable?

They output alot of moisture, resulting in rusty tools and mouldy paper and wood.

I have an Ecoflow River 2. Really good for camping and trips away in the van. Runs the fridge, charges devices, powers the laptop etc

It’s not powerful enough to run a Nespresso machine, haven’t tried it with powertools. Would probably work with a heater on a lower setting but definitely not for long

Would be OK if I had a more powerful version though

for lighting – assuming your garage has a roof – You’ll put solar powered lights in cheaper than one of those.

20-30 quid per individual unit – or 150 quid for a pukka set up with a decent battery / panel and 4 spot lights.

heating ?

Power tools – what powertools are you regularly using that doesn’t have a battery option these days ? – Run a long extension for the non regular times?

I had this issue a long time ago in the garage at the bottom of the garden – solar lights were shit then but they did the job – the markets moved on with LEDs etc – back then it was florescent tubes.

I ran a cable in a trunk along a wall in the end.

We really need to know what kind of tools you’d like to run?

I’ve got the basic Bluetti AC180, and it’s a good bit of kit for what I use it for, but I’d doubt even the P will manage to start much more than a drill.

Diesel heater is most likely the best heating option, as electric heating from a battery pack will require a lot of capacity.