BLUETTI Solar Generator AC180, 1152Wh LiFePO4 Battery Backup w/ 4 1800W (2700W peak) AC Outlets, 0-80% in 45Min, for Camping, Off-grid, Power Outage

More comprehensive review of Bluetti AC180 Power Bank, Jan 3, 2025I purchased the AC180 on Amazon on Dec 1, 2024. Price was $479 plus $49.58 in sales tax for a total of $528.58. I considered this to be a great price, lower than it appears to have ever been previously over it’s life. As of today (Jan 3, 2025) it remains at $479 when using the Amazon included coupon.The device claims to have an 1152 watt hour LiFePO4 battery. Their manual states that you need to de-rate that first by 10%, then again by another 15%. So 1152 * .9 = 1063.8 * .85 = 904.23 watt hours available (when using AC outlets via built in inverter). My testing suggests this is a pretty accurate value. Assume this has a 900 watt hour battery for planning purposes and you should be close.Overall Pros: Self contained, reasonably light weight unit with an 1800 watt continuous, 2700 watt peak, AC inverter. This is big enough to run any individual 120V appliance in my kitchen (toaster oven, microwave, coffee pot). None of those would normally be operated for more than about 5 minutes at any given time, meaning the AC180 could support their intermittent use as needed over a number of hours. It is portable and light weight enough to be moved into the kitchen when needed, and powerful enough to do the job while in there, for a while.Overal Cons: The relatively small internal battery. The other goal I had for this unit was to run my refrigerator during a power outage, and I wanted this to handle that load for 12 hours, plus intermittent heavier loads noted above for short periods of time. My fridge averages about 70 watts over time (with peaks as high as 400 watts when it goes into a de-icing cycle). So assuming a continuous 70 watt draw for 12 hours I would need 840 watt hours, very close to the maximum I could draw from the internal battery. If I added any load at all (brief use of other appliances, or even an LED light bulb), I wouldn’t make my 12 hour goal.My solution: I added an external 100 Amp Hour, 1280 Watt Hour, 12 volt LiFePO4 battery, and connected it to the Bluetti’s solar/charging input port. At 12 volts, it provided about 98 watts of input power. At 24 volts (using a 12 to 24 volt buck converter) it provided about 150 watts of input power. Using a continuous 90 watt draw (through the inverter) and the external battery supplementing the internal battery (at 12 volts), I was able to run over 16 hours and had about 10% of the internal battery remaining. Using a continuous 183 watt draw (via the inverter), and the external battery supplementing at 24 volts (150 watts), I achieved a total of 9 hours of run time (and had 3% left on the internal battery). In both cases, I drew the total 1280 watt hours from the external battery. Another con: The input charging voltage takes a hit also, it took a 107 watt draw from my external battery to produce 98 watts of charge into the AC180. So a hit on the input, and a hit on the output. With the 9 hour, 183 watt test, the overall efficiency (total input watt hours to total load watt hours) was about 77%. Acceptable, but not great. With the 16 hour 90 watt test, the efficiency was about 69%, a bit poorer than with the higher load. Internal inverter inefficiency regardless of how much load is applied took a greater hit with the lower load.Bottom line: Despite the not really great efficiency, I’m happy with the Bluetti. I’ve built a couple of my own “solar generators”, none of which matched the Bluetti for size, weight, and capability in a single package. By adding the external 12V 100AH battery, I’ve given the AC180 the run time I’m looking for with it. Individually, the AC180 and the external battery, are very portable and can be paired at the needed location. With the pair, I can use this in my kitchen to run my fridge for an extended period of time while also using some heavy draw appliances briefly from time to time. Also, this combination is much more cost effective than the newer AC180 V2 with the larger battery. I paid $150 for the external battery.

I love the quality of Bluetti products. They just work! I like how this unit shows you exactly how much power is coming in, and how much power is going out. It has an easy to understand display, and the operation of the unit is simple, with 3 easy to understand buttons:- Unit ON- DC Output ON- AC Output ONThe unit charges in just a few hours when attached to home power, and should get a full charge during a day attached to the included 200W solar panel.It is important to note that in real life, you will not get 200W of charging from your solar panels! That is their theoretical limit, and any slight deviation from perfect sunlight will cause the output power to be lower. (This includes, clouds, humidity, pollution, latitude, altitude, time of year, angle of the panels)In my case, I did some tests using the included stands set to a "good" angle trying to get the sun exactly perpendicular to to the solar panels and got the following results:- Fully cloudy day with slight rain - 57 W- Clear day - 161 W(Early April, 40 degrees latitude, 4200 feet elevation)*The reason date/latitude/altitude matter is because the amount of solar power you receive is dependent on upon how much atmosphere the light must travel through, and the angle it hits from the sun (because more energy from the sun bounces off to the side, the larger the angle it hits the atmosphere. Part of why it's colder at the poles and in winter because that angle is larger.)All this to say that you shouldn't be angry and think your unit is defective if you don't get the full 200W advertised.The unit uses up to 20 W of power when turned on, for running the display/bluetooth/power conversion circuitry, so keep it off when not in use. Also, only turn on the AC/DC buttons when actually using that output, so it doesn't waste power trying to convert when nothing is using it. Thankfully, it has an auto power off function to keep from wasting power. And the display shuts off after a few seconds to preserve electricity as well.Speaking of bluetooth, the system has an accompanying app which uses bluetooth to connect your phone to the unit from up to 100 feet away. Using this, you can do 4 important things:- Check how much power is coming in and how much power is going out (on both DC and AC)- See what % of the battery is left- Turn on/off the AC and DC outputs- Turn on/off the whole unitIn short, everything you can do from the box itself can be done via the app, from the cozy comfort of your tent on a cold morning when you want to start the water boiling before you get up out of your warm sleeping bag.