03-12-2026 — Powered up

Howdy all. Brrr. It was 29 this morning when I took trash to curb. And the winds made it worse by a lot. 36 now at 4 pm. And that should be the high for the day.

Tomorrow, there is a high wind alert from 8 am to 8 pm. Gusting will be up around 50 mph. Possible snow before the sun peaks out and temperatures get above 40.

Can’t say I am “prepared” for this again, but at least I am semi-prepared for any electric outage. The EcoFlow DPUX is completely set up and has been tested using generator as charger, and even passing through needs of the house. The EcoFlow batteries “should” last 6-10 hours. I can monitor usage on the iPhone. When it gets low, then power up the generator for a couple hours. And when outage is over, the street will quickly refill the charge on the batteries.

The setup looks a little better in person, than my rough drawings. But the theory has been proven.

Oops. The plug wire, hanging to the floor, in front, is for a “heating pad” that could be useful when the temperature in the garage drops to below zero.

The box in upper left, with green plug, is the 240volts coming from the batteries, headed to the breaker panel, on the opposite wall in the garage.

The upper middle is the 240volt connection from the panel, to normally keep the batteries charged.

Then it is a pre-existing 120v outlet for things like the heating pad, or other stuff in the garage.

The big box on the right is the generator/PV rectifier — takes solar, or non-inverter generator power, and makes pure sine wave PV output to charge the batteries

The box peeking from behind the EcoFlow, is the “extension cord” from the generator outside. That is where the cable going into the bottom of the rectifier, begins.

So it is charged to 100% and ready to be used. Hopefully not soon. And not often. But it will make me feel much more secure in the bad weather that is so common.

I’d hate to document what the total final cost for all of the wiring and connectors (many bought as a variation of existing setup, as a just in case), and the various hardware. But, for the sake of scaring myself, I’d guess it was about $13,000. That’s a lot of dollars just to make it easier to not panic, and Enjoy Life