Living in a Subaru || Electrical Power Station Setup for Full-Time Carlife
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ต.ค. 2024
- I have three electrical systems for my Subaru Forester Wilderness (that I live in full-time).
Here's some links for what I am currently using (these are paid amazon affiliate links, where your purchase helps support the channel at no additional cost to you):
EF ECOFLOW Portable Power Station RIVER 2, 256Wh LiFePO4 Battery/ 1 Hour Fast Charging, 2 Up to 600W AC Outlets, Solar Generator (Solar Panel Optional) for Outdoor Camping/RVs/Home Use amzn.to/3X76txm
EF ECOFLOW Portable Power Station DELTA 2, 1024Wh LiFePO4 (LFP) Battery, Fast Charging, Solar Generator(Solar Panel Optional) for Home Backup Power, Camping & RVs amzn.to/4bOgbcz
Anker Portable Charger, 20,000mAh USB-C Power Bank with 20W Power Delivery, 525 Power Bank (PowerCore Essential 20K PD) for iPhone 14/14 Pro, Samsung, iPad Pro, and More amzn.to/3RigHqV
120W Portable Solar Panel for Power Station, 23.5% Efficiency ETFE Foldable Solar Charger with Adjustable Kickstands and QC3.0/PD60W/DC 4 Outputs for Outdoor Camping Van RV Trip amzn.to/4bNuWMz
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#livinginacar #subaruforester #electrical
I have been telling my friends that a Forester is not a car. It's a mini-RV. Thank you for validating my claim.
lol yes!!
I have a Jackery 500 and Jackery 240, both of which are about five years old. They have both been awesome! I have a Bluetti 748 watt unit that has been a disappointment even though it’s the newer LifePo 4 battery technology. I know lots of people love their Bluetti’s, and I was so excited to finally get one but it’s been a huge dud for me. (Takes 5-6 hours to charge from a wall plug and ridiculously long to charge with a solar panel but the unit itself discharges very fast ☹️) My old Jackery runs my Dometic fridge for 2 1/2 days, while the Bluetti would only run it for approximately 16-18 hours, even though it supposedly several hundred watt hours more capacity than my larger Jackery. The Bluetti also has a loud charging “brick” that’s bulky and very inconvenient to deal with.
I’ll be purchasing a much larger capacity unit later this year and it will for sure be a Jackery. I’m thrilled they’ve finally started building with the LifePo4 batteries.
Thanks for your explanation of how the Ecoflows work. I didn’t realize their Bluetooth was always on! I have lots of full time friends but none with EcoFlow products. The Anker products look good but I feel I’ll stick with Jackery since I’ve loved everything about my older units.
Thanks for sharing about that! Very interesting to see Jackery and Bluetti against it each other!
Some really good helpful information about that brand of solar generators. I'll have to check out your link for the solar panel, sweet it comes with different adapters. I have a Jackery 1000 & 300 and am really happy with them both. The 1000 is for higher kitchen gadgets and to power my fridge and the 300 is so light weight and recharges very fast. That sucks about the blue tooth on it and no way to turn it off. I'd get a bike lock and tie it up under your front seat. It won't stop everyone but will slow them down, I wouldn't leave anything in my vehicle in the city. Good video, thanks a lot.
Great to hear about the jackery!
I bought a Jackery 1000 a few years ago and love it. However, my car fridge drains the crap out of it quickly. Today, I just ordered a 3000! Cannot wait to have it run for awhile. It has wheels and it will probably be a bitch to try to charge with my two solar panels. Love your videos, keep em coming!!
Hope it works out for you!!
Hi Elizabeth
Hope you are having a good day today. Thank you for your information today
You too!
My charging solution was to come directly off of the car battery with a DC to DC converter. It steps up the voltage. For my power station, it’s limited at ten amps DC input, yet the voltage can be twelve to as high as sixty volts DC I think. Ten amps at twelve volts is 120 watts. Amp x volts = watts. That’s not a lot of watts. Since I know my car system can give more electricity, I use the converter and step up the voltage to twenty-four. Now I’m charging my power station with 24 volts x 10 amps = 240 watts. My power station now charges twice as fast.
Interesting!
Hi! Thanks for the information. The safety information was interesting, I hadn't thought of that.
Welcome!
Regarding the WI-FI and Bluetooth always being on. Just turn off the power station when leaving your car. No power equals no WI-FI or Bluetooth signals
Ah that only works if I’m not using them to charge stuff when I’m out of the car
Thanks Elizabeth for sharing your setup. I have a subaru forester 2007, it's very suitable for my off grid home, in the middle of farmland on rocky hills, (literally, Lord of the rings, NZ landscape), my car surprises me often, as I've been challenged with a new crazy access road. Have faith in yourself, the subaru will manage thick mud, big puddles and uneven sideways slopes! Reduce your gearing and take the road to your land slowly, keeping at least one side of car on the highest part of road, near centre usually. Practice driving rough surfaces and put it to the test. Get a bit reakless and enjoy offroading, your car is SO capable to have lots of fun. You might want to secure your chiller with a bungy😁
Thanks for that!
I have been enjoying bingeing on your videos today and am a new subscriber. I don't want to live in my Outback, but have been searching for the no-build methods of sleeping in one. I like your suggestions (also a CPAP user) except for the high price (for me) of some of the larger "generators".
Yeah the power stations can get ridiculous
👋⛺️🚙 I started using the small battery bricks as backup battery for phone after seeing all those people on the news after Hurricane Sandy knocked out power in NYC + surrounding areas, and gave out Mophies good for a couple to friends & family that Xmas. Later I got larger ones 10000m or 20000mAh for phones, tablets, fans, lights & radios. In 2017-18 when I wanted to go camping again figured out which power station was enough to run my CPAP for 4-6 nights (they were VERY expensive then & I ended up getting an off brand Chinese unit which is still working). I agree on keeping a separate power station solely for medical devices. These days I have a small auxiliary AMG battery and 120w of solar on roof that I mostly use to power a 12v fridge & on rare occasions some battery bricks while park if I forgot to charge them earlier on vehicle 12v socket while driving. ABC = Always Be Charging!
Makes a lot of sense!!
I soooo needed this info. Thank You..❤
Glad it was helpful!
Wow. You came across my recommendations about a week ago, I watched your from the beginning playlist, and I am caught up. Parasocial interaction aside, you are my new favorite! Your big battery could easily handle the 450 watts the Dash 4-cup egg bite maker draws. I only tell you this because you can bake a half batch of brownies in that little guy in 12 minutes. A guy at work calls it my easy bake oven but they still line up for warm brownies no matter how much they tease me. Also, I can fry eggs, reheat sausages, make a little omelet. A really simple way to more hot breakfasts.
That's a great idea!
Elizabeth, do your DC power outlets in your car have a 10 Amp, 15 Amp or 20 Amp fuse? You'll want to find out so you can determine the maximum output in watts your power outlets can put out. You multiply 12 volts from your battery by the amps of your fuse. My truck has a 15 Amp fuse for the cigarette lighter which means it will put out 12 x 15 = 180 watts total. If your power outlets put out 180 watts, you generally don't want to exceed this amount when charging devices from your car charger outlets.
My power stations only allow 100 watt charging via DC so it should not be an issue
Hello Elizabeth nice informative vid and nice to see you!
Thanks for stopping by!
I have had really good luck with Goal Zero power stations and I have some of there other stuff like solar panels and lights. I live off grid so I use them everyday for regular day to day things and I work from home. I have had mine for several years so mine do not have WiFi which I prefer also.
Thanks for sharing!
I’d have to drive around for hours per day to keep charged up with those.
I don't that much out of any of them, so a little bit of driving keeps them topped off
Watts Amps and Volts are a mathematical formula. Watts (W) = Amperes (A) × Volts (V).
Is your CPAP machine the standard machine or is it a travel machine? Great video!!!
Travel one!!
I have watched a lot of videos with people showing their charging set ups, but I still feel unsure of it all. One thing I have heard is to not charge a power station directly from the 12 volt system (while plenty of others recommend it) because it can somehow harm the battery/alternator. I am not a car person, so no idea what the problem here is, but the people who say this have a second car (or marine?) battery that is somehow daisy chained to the main battery, and that second battery is then what they use to obtain their power so they don't risk harming their main battery or alternator. I have seen them even drill new holes into their vehicles to bring that new cord inside since there often is no preexisting opening for this extra cord/charger. I would love to know how that is all set up, or even if it is important to do, but given the lengths some people go to in order to add this system, it seems like it might be helpful.
Also, if you are ever messing with the main car battery, please be very careful. I never realized how dangerous those batteries were until I saw a video on TH-cam about a woman who touched the wrong connections or something, and got zapped hard. It put her into a coma. She then appeared to have recovered and was driving and sort of going about her life, but not acting normal. A brain scan was done on her, and the results showed she had suffered some pretty extensive brain damage. I am sure you are aware of the danger, but just in case, I thought I'd tell you just in case you were not.
I like your new set up in the Subaru. Definitely looks much more comfortable than your car, and I am glad you were able to make that change and have a better quality of life. Enjoy your travels, and stay safe out there. 🙂
Thanks! I just have my power stations plugged into 12v (“cigarette lighter”) plugs so it’s very safe!
If your largest battery still worked and you were using it for cooking would you still use the little air fryer or was that not very viable?
I still like it for a change, but not every day bc it uses a lot of power
@@elizabethoffgrid Thanks!
It's more than a little annoying that you can't buy a simple, reliable device anymore. They always have to add some stupid thing that is likely to fail then for some reason the whole thing won't work. Grrr. At this point, I am pretty sure they do it on purpose.
I understand electric systems pretty well, and i can say with certainty that most of these companies are full of crap with the supposed amazingness of their systems. There is the reality of electrical systems then there are the completely unrealistic boasts about what these products can do. Best thing is to learn the fundamentals of electrical and batteries, etc. Even a very basic education can give you a good BS detector.
How do you charge your refrigerator all the time? Thanks
Ah I don’t have one! I have a cooler with ice :) - it’s a yeti 34 cooler I got as a gift