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Going solar: My love and (a little) hate with EcoFlow
October 1, 2024
About seven years ago when I moved to this house, my plan is to have it powered using solar technology. I contacted a well-known company and after initial talks, my electricity bill of ₱1,600 will not justify the expense.
Last September 18, I received a partial delivery of EcoFlow products. Wait, what? Why?
Some months ago, I attended the home owners association meeting and a home owner was given a slot to present his experience utilizing solar power. This made my mummified interest rise from its grave, maybe this is the time?
Solar now or never?
My current utilization is around ₱25K annually and given the current (lower) prices of solar equipment, is now the right time?
Maybe adding an airconditioner will justify it? Let's see...
Adding a 1Hp LG inverter air conditioner will bring up the monthly payments by nearly ₱2k, eventually doubling the annual cost to the neighborhood of ₱50k when used for 12 hours a day. I performed a rough calculation to determine the cost of the solar equipment and that came out to around ₱260k for a 5kW hybrid setup.
I contacted another well known solar company that appeared in my Facebook feed because a friend is their customer. Their prices for grid-tie and hybrid systems are ₱210K and ₱370K, respectively. It will take 7 years to achieve the ROI for a hybrid setup.
Maybe a full-blown system is not for me?
The itch is still there to scratch, which prompted me to look elsewhere and that's when I discovered this Balcony Solar System from EcoFlow.
It breaks my heart, err wallet, that this €1,250 combo is not available in the Philippines. The package consists of the 800W PowerStream micro inverter, a 2kWh waterproof battery (expandable to 7kWh), and two (2) 400W rigid solar panels.
Wait, balcony? I don't have a balcony! Well, it's just a name EcoFlow coined because this is supposed to be for those in apartments with balcony and would like to utilize solar technology. They don't have roofs do they? But I do!
The diagram and pricing below is my alternative configuration which is cheaper than the original plan (with the Delta 2 Portable Powerstation) so this doesn't provide off-grid capability.
I want to minimize initial cost for this experiment so I ordered the EcoFlow PowerStream package (with flat cable and one Smart Plug) to kick things off.
In addition, I saw the EcoFlow NextGen 160W portable solar panel (better stand, with solar angle indicator) and bought it for my experiment (due diligence). In the end, I should be able to use it for its intended purpose.
The experiment begins, continued on next page.
