Solar powerpack for camping etc

I should be able to do the calcs but it’s decades since I used any of that theory. All I know is that when I followed the logic above when looking at the wattage of my chiller display and freezer for the market stall, it didn’t work. IIRC the chiller was 120w and the freezer 400w, so a max load of 500w (not that simple as the compressors don’t run continuously but when they do start, they draw a lot so for worst case I assumed a constant draw of 400w). With my 2000wh of power-bank, that nominally gave me 5 hrs run time. First time I used it in anger, I still had 25% of one 1000 wh battery left, the other was full, after 8 hours of use and with additional string lights permanently on. 🤷‍♂️
 
I should be able to do the calcs but it’s decades since I used any of that theory. All I know is that when I followed the logic above when looking at the wattage of my chiller display and freezer for the market stall, it didn’t work. IIRC the chiller was 120w and the freezer 400w, so a max load of 500w (not that simple as the compressors don’t run continuously but when they do start, they draw a lot so for worst case I assumed a constant draw of 400w). With my 2000wh of power-bank, that nominally gave me 5 hrs run time. First time I used it in anger, I still had 25% of one 1000 wh battery left, the other was full, after 8 hours of use and with additional string lights permanently on. 🤷‍♂️

Agreed, I think you did the right thing to get a lot more battery capacity or max draw than you need.

500w is quite a fast draw, which could stress a battery. Plus batteries get fatigued or affected by cold weather. Also running them down too much causes damage to most types of battery.
 
Luckily enough, I have the same charger as you and as electrikery is like the dark arts, I just want to ensure that I order something of the correct spec, and I like the idea of connecting to my diesel heater if I am forced to sleep out in the cold. But that is another story.
I have 3 sets of batteries for the chainsaw. There are limits to how many sets I want to be tripping over. lol, so the idea of a power station or bank is appealing, as it would have other uses.
So 120 watts per battery x 6batteries is 720 watts x 5 charges is 3600 watts. Add in 20% for inefficiencies etc, say 4500 watts.
That would give me a days work, which is more than enough as this is for light work. I am assuming about 1/2 hour per set of batteries.
Does that sound right? Or am I making things up, or quoting the wrong stuff again. Because looking online a 700 watts unit is £269. So maybe I am way off. Might be easier to load my generator on the trailer and take that with me.
 
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Luckily enough, I have the same charger as you and as electrikery is like the dark arts, I just want to ensure that I order something of the correct spec, and I like the idea of connecting to my diesel heater if I am forced to sleep out in the cold. But that is another story.
I have 3 sets of batteries for the chainsaw. There are limits to how many sets I want to be tripping over. lol, so the idea of a power station or bank is appealing, as it would have other uses.
Ideal. I would say a portable 1000 watt hr battery with at least one mains socket would be fine for charging your chainsaw batteries.
 
I should be able to do the calcs but it’s decades since I used any of that theory. All I know is that when I followed the logic above when looking at the wattage of my chiller display and freezer for the market stall, it didn’t work. IIRC the chiller was 120w and the freezer 400w, so a max load of 500w (not that simple as the compressors don’t run continuously but when they do start, they draw a lot so for worst case I assumed a constant draw of 400w). With my 2000wh of power-bank, that nominally gave me 5 hrs run time. First time I used it in anger, I still had 25% of one 1000 wh battery left, the other was full, after 8 hours of use and with additional string lights permanently on. 🤷‍♂️
You've got too many variables going on there to provide anything more refined than your estimate. The biggest of which is the weather -If it's a 30 C roaster of a day when you're running your market stall, those chillers are going to be running continuously. If you're outside in winter, they'll barely run at all. Also if trade is brisk, and you're constantly opening the chiller door to get product, that'll have a huge impact versus, say, if you set up at a vegan music festival. Remember, the absolute worst thing you can do in a power cut is keep opening the freezer door fretting over how quickly your meat is defrosting... All that said, It seems you're fine with your battery capacity.

If you'd still rather get a better idea...Maybe your inverter has a function, hidden in a menu somewhere, to show you the average power draw over the course of the day, which should enable you to work out a endurance with a bit more accuracy. Or even use a plug-in watt meter.

Thread stealing, Ok, so I need a bit of help on working out power requirements.
2 x 5Ahr batteries 18v. My chainsaw. How big a station would be needed to charge the batteries, 5 times?

This is what I have worked out,
90 w/hrs per battery per charge? So 1,000 w/hrs min or 560 m/amps? Would that be about right?

Im not a sparky, but I think you are mixing up battery output (volts and amps) rather than charger input (volts and amps) or what the charger draws from the wall when you plug it in. These aren't the same because of inefficiency/wastage/heat.

18v chargers draw anything from 1amp to 8amps for fast chargers. UK mains is 230 volts AC. Watts = amps x volts. The other thing you need to know is how many hours it takes to charge one battery. It might be easier to just buy more batteries.
Gah I typed the below whilst you and muddy had already updated the thread. Might as well post it now as I reckon there may be some useful additional context...possibly.

As muddy has said, you need to tell us the model of the charger you're using - that is what will determine how many charging cycles your will get off your powerbank. Power tool chargers are not 100% efficient - far from it, and a lot of them will run fans to cool the battery. The other variable here is how hard you run your saw, and by that I mean do you swap batteries as soon as the saw starts complaining the charge is low, or do you carry on making that final cut till the battery protection kicks in and shuts the tool down - from another thread you said you were limbing so I would assume the former, which is A) better for tool battery life but also b) will require less energy to charge, as power draw vs time is not a straight line.

It's also important to remember, for the sake of understanding, Watt Hours is a multiplication of the 2 units, not Watts per Hour as you've typed.
 
Luckily enough, I have the same charger as you and as electrikery is like the dark arts, I just want to ensure that I order something of the correct spec, and I like the idea of connecting to my diesel heater if I am forced to sleep out in the cold. But that is another story.
I have 3 sets of batteries for the chainsaw. There are limits to how many sets I want to be tripping over. lol, so the idea of a power station or bank is appealing, as it would have other uses.
So 120 watts per battery x 6batteries is 720 watts x 5 charges is 3600 watts. Add in 20% for inefficiencies etc, say 4500 watts.
That would give me a days work, which is more than enough as this is for light work. I am assuming about 1/2 hour per set of batteries.
Does that sound right? Or am I making things up, or quoting the wrong stuff again. Because looking online a 700 watts unit is £269. So maybe I am way off. Might be easier to load my generator on the trailer and take that with me.

Sorry that final edit confused me, I was going off 5 charges. So you want to charge six batteries five times, which is 30 charges? Yes it sounds like you need a much bigger power pack which will be very expensive.

Plus that is a lot of sawing for an electric saw, are you really going to do that regularly!? As you say you could use the generator to charge the powerpack and the batteries at lunchtime. Or just man up and buy a petrol saw - the power and runtime is in a different league to electric. Something like a stihl MS170 costs £160 ish
 
Sorry that final edit confused me, I was going off 5 charges. So you want to charge six batteries five times, which is 30 charges? Yes it sounds like you need a much bigger power pack which will be very expensive.

Plus that is a lot of sawing for an electric saw, are you really going to do that regularly!? As you say you could use the generator to charge the powerpack and the batteries at lunchtime. Or just man up and buy a petrol saw - the power and runtime is in a different league to electric. Something like a stihl MS170 costs £160 ish
I was looking at a small petrol saw. But I already have a light battery one which I was using the other night and it is great. You are right, I am very unlikely to need that much power. I do go a bit Timtime, more power over the top. I will have a look at 1 kw stations.
 
I like the idea of connecting to my diesel heater if I am forced to sleep out in the cold.
Oddly enough, that's what I'm doing tomorrow night as I sleep in the back of the car between LL and FL high seat sessions. Despite running the heater from 21:00 to 04:30 when doing the same last month, the 1000W Solix unit I took to provide the mains supply to the heater's 12v transformer was still reading 98% when I switched it off to go and shoot some deer 🤗
 
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- Power a 12-volt coolbox.
Someone has probably already mentioned but these powered cool boxes are really inefficient. I started off with one that I just plugged into the car cigarette lighter socket. I had a spare car battery and decided to buy a cheap panel for camping. The battery lasted no time powering the cool box. I've since bought a Bluettie lipo powerstation and more importantly a compressor fridge. It's only small in the region of 20l but it uses way less power and gets so much colder than the pizo(sic) cool box that would just get to maybe 15 degrees below the ambient temperature. I paid a few £ for the fridge but there's some on AliExpess that I'd look at now for under £100
 
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Many 12v cool boxes just cool to a set amount below ambient temperature (14c iirc). We had one in the caravan awning one spring when the temp outside fell to almost zero. Wife's Prosseco froze.😱
 
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