Brings back memories of being a very young employee: --Home 56kbs dialup was too slow for mp3, so I downloaded them at work to a zip drive. --Grabbed soda, Expresso, ice, fruit for the commute home/home use. --Use the bathroom on the way out of work to save a flush/wipe. All those pennies added up over decades.
I loaned mine to neighbor during power outage, my smaller bluetti. I had a nice 400 watt system with 100 amp hour battery also at home. She charged it at work, they had power in that part of town.
I have 2 400 watt solar panels to charge the Mega 1 . Im just waiting for the sales launch in October . I wont be charging from work but i will have 500 to 700 continual watt hour at peak charge times . Happy camping .
The savings is not worth it. This is a good way to kill the battery. If you want the power bank to last, you aren't supposed to go below 50% charge. It would make more sense to forage wood and use that to cook on.
The lithium iron phosphate batteries (lifepo4) can be discharged to 0% and charged to 100% about 3,500 cycles. That's once every day for almost 10 years. The slightly older lithium ION batteries have about an 800 cycle life. Some are even using semi-solid lithiums that last 4,500 cycles for 15 years. Advancing very quickly.
lol okay so i have a chevy volt phev, an old 2013 model, and what i did is made an EV range extender. hear me out. the volt hsa a 16.5kwh battery with ~11kwh usable. i bought some surplus "20mm ammo cans" on e bai which were like 30 bucks ea since i got 4. then i got 8x 280ah lifepo4 cells (the older eve style ones with the shorter nut terminals), they were 220 bucks for each group of 4, and then i built 24v batteries in an 8S configuration, no BMS just using small 4s active balancers. i got a very cheap european/240v single phase off grid inverter which can do ~3.3kw output at 240v for like 120 bucks and attached it to the big metal enclosed range extender, and wired in one of those E bike j-1772 to NEMA 14-20 adapters, so i can basically charge the battery bank through the inverter from 240v. now i get to the hospitals i do rotation at which all have free level 2 charging, and i plug the charger into the powerbank and charge it up, and sometimes do pass through charging from the inverter into my car, so i can steal about 18-20kwh per day lol. when i get home i usually just dump the range extender back into my car to offset home charging, but i suppose i could wire in a grid tie inverter with a limiter or something fancy. idk i like always being able to charge to mostly full again for ev range, and the battery pack kind of pays for some of itself since i can take extra power from the free chargers at all the hospitals... and i think during a hurricane or natural disaster having powerbanks that i can bottle up 8kwh in would be better than a generator. right now each 8kwh range extender weighs about 100lb which is the max i can lift comfortably, the ammo cans have really solid handles. just thought you would be inspired by my daily 3$ electricity heists. im a med student so they cant fire me yet lol edit, i think someone could feasibly hide a big powerbank in their car and either leave their tesla in camping mode or wire into an obd2 port (they make adapters for 12v battery tenders because the obd2 port always has 12v in modern cars unlike cig outlets), and they could charge up their battery bank in their car everyday while their car is charging for free. i would be too worried about the battery bank getting stolen. would be funny to do a video about stealing electricity from work and show how little you saved given how much hassel it was, like when you did the uber cost benifit analysis with depreciation
I used to have a gasoline car that require me to push a button to start some gadget I wired in. It turns out, having to do it every time I got in was too much and eventually I stopped. I think what you do to save, like this saving electricity scheme, should be done with a mind of valuing your time. So you really have to see how much time it costs your to do it and how much you save. The more you make, the less it makes sense to do 'smaller' jobs.
I've got a better idea: You live somewhat close to work and you have an EV and your work has EV chargers. Charge the EV up every day at work, and then somehow figure out a way to power your home from your EV at night, just don't drain all the way to zero!
@@warsurplusprobably not. Same with a $500 power bank. If you are charging it every day for a year, it’s gonna be dead in a few years, won’t recoup the $500
Possibly if you have a lithium iron phosphate battery, like a BYD blade battery. They're supposed to get a million miles. Most people won't drive that far before getting a flying car when they come out in 2035@@warsurplus 1kwh for me, residentially, costs 8 cents Canadian. Much cheaper than beatthebush's 40 cents for a kwh. Some people have tiered pricing and can charge overnight at 4 cents CAD per kwh. My municipality and local malls have free level 2 charging for EVs everywhere. There's no cost basis reason to get these batteries for camping, which are big toys. You're in the hole by $800 right at the start by buying the thing. People do tonnes of TH-cam videos on them because they are usually trying for referral money, to make the cost back for these things.
You are really reaching down into the frugal files. You're now advocating pilfering energy from one's employer to save approximately $4 per month and risk being a social outcast and non-grata from your employer. Please stop. I've followed your channel for a long time. There has been a diminishing return on your frugality tactics in the last couple of years. I'm all for living frugally and not being wasteful but you're now exploring savings practices that are so minute, they're like finding breadcrumbs at an atomic level.
Brings back memories of being a very young employee:
--Home 56kbs dialup was too slow for mp3, so I downloaded them at work to a zip drive.
--Grabbed soda, Expresso, ice, fruit for the commute home/home use.
--Use the bathroom on the way out of work to save a flush/wipe.
All those pennies added up over decades.
I loaned mine to neighbor during power outage, my smaller bluetti. I had a nice 400 watt system with 100 amp hour battery also at home. She charged it at work, they had power in that part of town.
I have 2 400 watt solar panels to charge the Mega 1 . Im just waiting for the sales launch in October . I wont be charging from work but i will have 500 to 700 continual watt hour at peak charge times . Happy camping .
I use my Bluetti AC180 to cook rice. The mini rice cooker sold at Walmart only uses 200 watts and cooks rice in about 20 minutes.
Nice! Wait... rice cooking so fast? I have this pressure rice cooker and the fastest it could do it is 35 minutes.
@@BeatTheBush seemed like 20 minutes but I could be wrong. It happens pretty fast for 200 watts and doesn’t burn it like my Instant Pot.
I usually just solar charge my power station, but this isn't a half bad idea for when I run the station to zero. Make my job pay for it! LOL
When you charge at your job, it is a huge risk and also risks your reputation. I think it's not worth it.
Great video and you're very funny.
But solar panels are expensive :(
I will bring a smaller one to work to charge lol
Good idea.
I will start charging stuff at work lololol
The savings is not worth it. This is a good way to kill the battery. If you want the power bank to last, you aren't supposed to go below 50% charge. It would make more sense to forage wood and use that to cook on.
The lithium iron phosphate batteries (lifepo4) can be discharged to 0% and charged to 100% about 3,500 cycles.
That's once every day for almost 10 years.
The slightly older lithium ION batteries have about an 800 cycle life.
Some are even using semi-solid lithiums that last 4,500 cycles for 15 years.
Advancing very quickly.
@YouLookinAtMe-Bro that's not true for all of them, my Bluetti is already failing. Also, you should never go to 0 if you want them to last.
can it be used as a UPS?
Yes, 20ms or less switch over time.
lol okay so i have a chevy volt phev, an old 2013 model, and what i did is made an EV range extender. hear me out. the volt hsa a 16.5kwh battery with ~11kwh usable. i bought some surplus "20mm ammo cans" on e bai which were like 30 bucks ea since i got 4. then i got 8x 280ah lifepo4 cells (the older eve style ones with the shorter nut terminals), they were 220 bucks for each group of 4, and then i built 24v batteries in an 8S configuration, no BMS just using small 4s active balancers. i got a very cheap european/240v single phase off grid inverter which can do ~3.3kw output at 240v for like 120 bucks and attached it to the big metal enclosed range extender, and wired in one of those E bike j-1772 to NEMA 14-20 adapters, so i can basically charge the battery bank through the inverter from 240v.
now i get to the hospitals i do rotation at which all have free level 2 charging, and i plug the charger into the powerbank and charge it up, and sometimes do pass through charging from the inverter into my car, so i can steal about 18-20kwh per day lol. when i get home i usually just dump the range extender back into my car to offset home charging, but i suppose i could wire in a grid tie inverter with a limiter or something fancy. idk i like always being able to charge to mostly full again for ev range, and the battery pack kind of pays for some of itself since i can take extra power from the free chargers at all the hospitals... and i think during a hurricane or natural disaster having powerbanks that i can bottle up 8kwh in would be better than a generator. right now each 8kwh range extender weighs about 100lb which is the max i can lift comfortably, the ammo cans have really solid handles. just thought you would be inspired by my daily 3$ electricity heists. im a med student so they cant fire me yet lol
edit, i think someone could feasibly hide a big powerbank in their car and either leave their tesla in camping mode or wire into an obd2 port (they make adapters for 12v battery tenders because the obd2 port always has 12v in modern cars unlike cig outlets), and they could charge up their battery bank in their car everyday while their car is charging for free. i would be too worried about the battery bank getting stolen. would be funny to do a video about stealing electricity from work and show how little you saved given how much hassel it was, like when you did the uber cost benifit analysis with depreciation
I used to have a gasoline car that require me to push a button to start some gadget I wired in. It turns out, having to do it every time I got in was too much and eventually I stopped. I think what you do to save, like this saving electricity scheme, should be done with a mind of valuing your time. So you really have to see how much time it costs your to do it and how much you save. The more you make, the less it makes sense to do 'smaller' jobs.
Just order mines
I've got a better idea: You live somewhat close to work and you have an EV and your work has EV chargers. Charge the EV up every day at work, and then somehow figure out a way to power your home from your EV at night, just don't drain all the way to zero!
Would the extra cycles on the car's battery be worth the net savings?
@@warsurplusprobably not. Same with a $500 power bank. If you are charging it every day for a year, it’s gonna be dead in a few years, won’t recoup the $500
A power station will last about 3000 cycles. So if you do it long enough, you would get about 3000kWh of energy which is worth $1200.
Possibly if you have a lithium iron phosphate battery, like a BYD blade battery. They're supposed to get a million miles. Most people won't drive that far before getting a flying car when they come out in 2035@@warsurplus
1kwh for me, residentially, costs 8 cents Canadian. Much cheaper than beatthebush's 40 cents for a kwh. Some people have tiered pricing and can charge overnight at 4 cents CAD per kwh.
My municipality and local malls have free level 2 charging for EVs everywhere.
There's no cost basis reason to get these batteries for camping, which are big toys. You're in the hole by $800 right at the start by buying the thing. People do tonnes of TH-cam videos on them because they are usually trying for referral money, to make the cost back for these things.
@@warsurplus Depends on the battery chemistry in the cars battery pack.
Invest in a producer . You deserve that .
You’d be better off secretly mining crypto at your work
That is probably not a good idea either.
I cant even say what I do at work to save money lol
Lol
No way, that is literally stealing.
It's in the grey area. What if you exclusively charge your phone at work? Anyway, I do not recommend it.
As a former small business owner, I think that taking something from my business for your own use is still stealing from the business.
You are really reaching down into the frugal files. You're now advocating pilfering energy from one's employer to save approximately $4 per month and risk being a social outcast and non-grata from your employer. Please stop. I've followed your channel for a long time. There has been a diminishing return on your frugality tactics in the last couple of years. I'm all for living frugally and not being wasteful but you're now exploring savings practices that are so minute, they're like finding breadcrumbs at an atomic level.
He literally said don’t do this and didn’t reccomend it….
@SkylerF, Yes, but that advice follows much later after exploring this silly exercise.
Meanwhile people charge EVs at work. You need to chill.
@@Consul99 Charging an EV at work is a perk, not pilfering, considering that is usually performed overtly.
It's a often debated topic. I'll have to put the 'do not charge your power stations at work' earlier in the video. I don't recommend it.
*of course i do. i live in my car, i charge while at work construction job sites*