Bluetti AC300 review: Home backup power when you need it

Bluetti power stations, several of which we’ve reviewed, are a great way of powering your off-grid adventures. If you need a solution that provides enough electricity to power your home as a backup, you need to look at some of the higher-end models. In this review, I look at the Bluetti AC300 to understand if it is viable to power your home appliances.

How to source power during a blackout

Australia’s underinvestment in baseload power and transmission has the country staring at possible blackouts. As a child, a blackout was commonplace. As an adult, it is a very rare occurrence.

Previously, using candles and not opening the fridge were ways of dealing with outages. Today, multiple fridges, medical equipment and a reliance on internet connectivity means accessing power is more important than ever.

As illustrated in our recent guide to off-grid power, you have various ways to source electricity without connecting to mains power. Two main backup options include either using a petrol generator or a battery backup system. A petrol generator is noisy and requires a constant fuel supply but is a cheaper solution for short-term power needs. A battery-based solution is an investment that can allow automatic switchover for continuity of electricity supply and can be recharged from the sun. Batteries come into their own when you use them for a day-to-day power solution to power some or all of your electrical appliances. When combined with solar panels, you generate and store your power. You will reduce the amount of electricity you need to buy from the grid. If you are lucky enough to own an off-grid cabin, these solutions could mean you never need to connect to the grid.

15-amp battery off-grid power supply for a caravan

When you visit a caravan park, a powered site will provide you with a 15-amp power connection. A 15-amp plug has a longer Earth terminal.

This connection allows you to draw up to 3600W (watts) compared to a standard home plug at 10amps delivering 2400W (10A x 240v = 2400W)

You need more amps when you run appliances like an air conditioner, microwave and inverter cooktop in a caravan.

In previous reviews of Bluetti portable power stations, the AC200 Max provided up to 2000W and the AC180 up to 1800W of AC power via a standard 10amp plug. The Bluetti AC300 and Bluetti AC500 can provide up to 3000W (1+ plugs) and 5000W (2+ plugs) via 15A plugs.

For the caravan owner wanting to upgrade their batteries to a larger lithium supply, the AC300 and AC500 can provide a plug-and-play solution without having to rewire the van. For the super power-hungry caravan, the AC500 will support up to 18,432WH of batteries, which would be very heavy and expensive, capable of running an aircon for 3 days straight without recharging. Adding a recharging solution, such as solar, significantly reduces the size and expense of the batteries you need. Recharging can also be achieved from your vehicle’s alternator.

What can the Bluetti AC300 do?

The Bluetti AC300, paired with a B300 battery, can provide UPS home battery backup with 3000W of AC pure sine wave power. Pure sine wave translates to the ability to run sensitive electronic devices like a PC. A coffee machine needing 2000W and a toaster drawing 800W can be run simultaneously (2800 watts is less than 3000 watts). Some electrical devices with motors, such as air conditioners, require a much larger wattage to start turning the motor and less once running. The AC300 can surge to 6000W, which is all that would be needed. 

The DC specifications are also impressive in the power station. It supports both a 12- and 24-volt cigarette lighter port. 12V, like in your car, is limited to around 100 watts; a 24-volt device support can supply around 200 watts. Using the power station with DC (direct current) is far more efficient than AC power, which loses energy in the inverter process. A special 12v RV port can provide up to 30A or 360W with an optional cable. This cable runs an RV’s 12-volt requirements in a plug-and-play scenario.

Direct connection of your smartphones, tablets, PCs, drones, etc, is via 1 x USB-C (100W) port or 4 USB-A (<18W) ports. The required B300 Battery adds 1xCig, 1 x USB-C and 1 x USB-A port for every battery in your setup. Previous Bluetti models we have reviewed have been all-in-one solutions, meaning all the power infrastructure was in one box. The AC300 breaks from this mainly due to weight. If only one box was provided, it would be too heavy to lift.

The AC300 weighs 22kg and contains an inverter, display screen and other electric components. The required B300 battery weighs 36kg. Each B300 battery has a capacity of 3072Wh, equivalent to a 240Ah battery. The battery is connected via a thick cable. Up to four B300 batteries can be daisy chained to the AC300, providing a maximum of 12,288Wh. For comparison, a home battery solar solution normally uses a 10,000Wh battery. Theoretically, you could double this capacity again using a Bluetti P090D cable to attach an additional B300 battery to each of the first 4 B300 batteries.

How does the AC300 recharge?

Having a potentially large battery capacity requires a significant recharge capability. The benefit of these up to four connected batteries is they act as a complete solution and thus are managed and charged as a complete solution, so charging can be as simple as a single cable into the AC300.

The AC300 comes with a 10A standard household power cord, allowing charging up to 2400W. The AC300 is capable of accepting 3000W, which will require an electrician. If you have a petrol generator, this could also be used to charge the battery.

Although a cig lighter charger is provided, even one battery would take 30 hours to charge from a vehicle, which is impractical. In our AC200 article, we discuss ways to improve vehicle charging.

This category is often referred to as Solar power stations. Solar is an excellent choice to recharge your system from sunshine. The AC300 can accept power from an array of up to 2,400W solar panels. A single battery could be charged in less than two hours. Those wanting even more solar can add 500W of panels to each B300 battery, further increasing your charging ability.

There are no details yet, but Bluetti promises an EV Charging solution that would make recharging the B300 battery as simple as recharging an electric car. Great for travellers with a big battery bank.

Bluetti AC300 specifications

Capacity	3,072Wh to 12,288Wh
Power	240-volt AC up to 3,000Watts
Dimensions	AC300 520mm x 320mm x 358mm 21.6kg B300 520mm x 320mm x 266mm 36.1kg
Price (RRP)	$4,998
Website	Bluetti Australia
Warranty	4 years
Manual or Support pages	User guide

Using the Bluetti AC300

I have been testing the AC300 connected to my home deep freeze and charging exclusively from solar panels. To further test, I took the Bluetti away in my caravan and put it to the test. The caravan saw it as a mains socket. As you can see, by running the aircon, inverter and battery charger, I could draw 3,579 watts. However, I was also receiving over-wattage alerts due to its 3000-watt limit. This shows you can run major appliances in your RV without any expensive custom build by simply plugging our RV’s 240 inlet into the Bluetti.

The AC300 differs from previous models in that it supports a Wi-Fi connection. Previously, the Bluetti App would only connect to a power station if it was in a Bluetooth range of around 10 metres. With the AC300 connected to Wi-Fi, I can query the AC300, change settings and receive alerts from any place with an internet connection. Suppose I ran a small business and needed to run critical infrastructure like a freezer or computers. In that case, I can use the power station as a UPS that sends alerts and keeps critical appliances running.

A feature I liked was the ability to limit the charge rate when connected to mains. There are preset suggested amp rates but it’s also user-definable. I have solar panels at home that export excess electricity into the grid. Using a timer switch and limiting the charge rate, I could set up a home battery solution charging from my roof at a rate slightly less than the average export, avoiding an expensive full-blown home battery solution and allowing me to take this same setup away for the weekend. I learned that if you use both inputs on the solar cable, each input needs to be similar, just like any parallel panel connection. This can be overcome by using the separate solar input on the B300.

Who is the Bluetti AC300 for?

If you have appliances that draw 2400 watts or even a combined 3000W, the Bluetti AC300 is the go-to portable power station. Its modular construction means that even with the maximum 12,000Wh of battery power, it can be broken down into 5 pieces and carried.

The benefit of this is that it can be used at a home or office to provide backup power for critical appliances while still being used for a weekend away. Indeed, if you had an AC300 with multiple batteries, you could take one of the batteries away for the weekend And leave the rest behind to still perform its backup duties. Note this would only provide 12- or 24-volt power for camping.

I see the real opportunity of this setup to provide plug-and-play power solutions to those building an off-grid vehicle or those modernising an old caravan RV or 4WD.

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