The EB3A is a great entry-level power supply
I had been wanting a portable power supply for a long time to take camping. I had found a “secret” overflow camping spot near Chattanooga that was amazing. Several gently-sloping, nicely mowed acres right on the shore of a little lake. Across the lake, far enough away to not be teeth rattling, but close enough for the perfect sound was a set of railroad tracks. The freight trains would run through a couple times a night just adding to the night sounds.
The camping spot has a nice bathroom/shower house, and since most of the park residents are in their huge houses on wheels, with every amenity, there’s never much competition for the facility. The main issue with me staying for more than a day was my screen habit – being overflow camping, that area isn’t set up for power or septic…it’s just open field. I got by with charging my phone in my van, and probably could have used this little inverter I bought to charge up my iPad, but the power supply is a lot more convenient…and also isn’t going to drain my van battery.
The EB3A is a pretty new model in Bluetti’s line of power supplies. (Some folks insist on calling them solar generators for some reason, and although they do take input from solar panels if you have them, they sure don’t generate power by themselves. They’re really nothing more than a fancy set of batteries, and have to be recharged just like any other battery.)
The selling point to me on the Bluettis over the other brands is that a lot of the other brands have lithium batteries. Althought performance and longevity vary wildly depending on the use of the units, lithium batteries are commonly acknowledged to have about 500 cycles of charge/discharge before they degrade to about 80% of their capacity. Bluetti uses LiPo4 batteries – sources vary, but LiPo4’s are commonly rated at 3,000 to 5,000 cycles with 80% capacity. Some of the tradeoffs for getting that longer life are lower energy density (takes more batteries for the same capacity as lithium) and higher cost (that’s come down a lot in recent years).
I did a little research on the different brands out there and decided on Bluetti – I think I made a good choice.
My next campout is going to be for at least 3-4 days. I’ll take my old kayak with me and paddle around the lake a bit – fill the cooler with some stringy steaks and pack my ancient Weber Little Smokey grill, and my other camping “essential” – absolutely gotta have a hammock! I’ve got a folding table that I plan on outfitting with the Bluetti as the power source, and will at minimum have my iPhone, iPad, Macbook Air, and trusty JBL Charge 3 speaker…I may bring my big ol’ 2020 Intel iMac – depending on how big of a power hog it is…I’ll be bench testing it at the house in a few days, and get back with ya.
I’ve got a couple YouTube videos featuring the Bluetti equipment. Along with the EB3A that I bought, they sent me an EB55 to test out and make some content with. It’s a hoss – double the capacity of the EB3A, but doesn’t have all the bells and whistles that the EB3A has. Still an excellent unit.
