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| EcoFlow River 2 Max 512WH LFP 500-1000W Sine Wave Battery Generator |
Energy to power the queen size fleece 220w electric blanket & tiny 200w space heater stored in a Ecoflow River 2 Max unit with 512 WH of LiFePO4 Batteries. A plush queen size fleece blanket & camping pillow complete the sleep bag alternative with heat solution. (see images in the post for a look at the products)(all were purchased on Amazon via Prime subscription)
The EcoFlow River 2 Max power station can charge via an AC power cord at up to 660w in about 60 min or accept up to 100w input from a USB-C charger via the front USB-C port. I recently found a USB-C laptop charger at work for free that will also work to slower trickle charge the unit :) I will mostly likely regularly use the AC charging cable since it's the fastest solution.
The AC outlets on the unit will power the tiny 200w personal electric space heater & 220w electric blanket that making wintertime camping in the car a warmer experience. Thats the entire reason for the Battery Generator acquisition or purchase, so that it can store energy to later energize the heat generating devices to keep me warm while napping in my car during cold winter weather.
This means that even on the coldest winter days I can stay warmer while taking a nap. The RIVER2 Max can pump out 500w in normal & 1000w in X-boost, but even the space heater & electric blanket will rarely draw less than 420w, even less since the electric blanket has 5 power modes. If it can pump out warmth for about an hour, that will work. I can charge my iPhone or Apple Watch while taking a nap too.
No affiliate links or anything, this is not an AD, this is just Aaron Kenneth Schwarz buying & reviewing stuff on my own volition without any payment, using my own money earned from being a School Bus Driver.
This way I can say whatever I want & give you honest reviews with integrity. I share my solution for car trunk camping so you can try it yourself using my kit as described & modify to your heart's desire with additional gear or kit to make it more powerful for deep cold sub-freezing American interior winter cold days where a much more Powerful EcoFlow Delta with 2kWh battery & 2000+ watts of pure sine wave power output can energize a much more powerful electric heater solution to warm or defrost your vehicle cabin on the coldest winter days so you can have a warm nap in the trunk or car camp without getting super cold, all without running your vehicles engine, without using a smelly fossil fueled generator, all with LFP battery energy storage that's good for 10+ years & or 3000+ cycles.
I car camp to take a nap in my car during breaks at work. This mid-day nap helps me keep going all day. I leave home for work at 5:40am & get home around 7pm, so that mid-day nap really helps to keep my mind sharp so I can safely drive the school bus :)
Update as of Sunday 11/5/2023 the big fuzzy queen size black fleece blanket, large dark grey fleece 220w electric blanket, and camping pillow arrived vacuum packed in very tight bags inside boxes, sealed from dirt or other junk & very clean, so we started demoing or test both on our friend Dr. O's couch, since we are currently house sitting for her thankfully :)
Meg found them so comfy & relaxing that she asleep snuggled up in the warm soft fuzzy lovely kit :) That shipping was super-fast in less than 1 day or almost same day shipping, making the Amazon Prime subscription very much appreciated. I also use Prime on the TV in our Tiny Home rental to stream content for free, further justifying the cost of the Prime subscription! We use Alex devices as alarm clocks, timers, to check the weather, & to look things up online with natural voice language questions, which brings even more value to our Prime subscription. We are still waiting for the power station, space heater, egg foam & iWatch band.
Update 2. After reviewing the trunk area, we decided to get a large Full-size egg create foam 3in thick to put on top of the all-weather trunk liner. Then we will put the Faux Furr Queen blanket down. The electric blanket will be used at the top sheet sine cool air in the cabin will be the main issue to combat, which the small electric space heater can also be used to address on the coldest days of the year.
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| Best Price Mattress 3 Inch Egg Crate Memory Foam Mattress Topper with Soothing Lavender Infusion, CertiPUR-US Certified, Full / it smells like lavender too, not too intense, but noticeable. This provides a soft surface under the Faux Fur blanket so that its more comfortable & flexible to lay on. This also acts a sound absorbent material that reduces NVH or sound intrusion from the rear of the car with the rear seats folded down. Thankfully the windows are also tinted dark black, which contrasts nicely with the white paint color & cool styling of the 12th generation Corolla Sedan design :) ** Today 11/10/23 I use the weatherproof liner as a template to trace with a red sharpie market, then some nice scissors to cut the foam to shape of the trunk liner, and even though the edges are imperfect, it fits great. I covered it with the electric blanket & put the River 2 Max in the back. Now testing will commence on Monday when I return to work after the super cool 3-day weekend :) |
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| Wapaneus Electric Blanket 72”x84” Flannel Heated Blanket Full Size with 5 Heating Settings 10 Hours Auto-Off, Fast-Heating, ETL Listed, Machine Washable, Dark Grey. This thing gets really warm with dual 110 watt heating elements. This means it will enable both Meg & I to warm sleep in the back of the Corolla Hybrid trunk & back seat folded down area. We are going to add some foam to level out the surface more, then apply the fuzzy blanket, then use the electric blanket on top & space heater on the coldest winter days to warm the trunk area. |
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| Lasko MyHeat Personal Mini Space Heater for Home with Single Speed, 6 Inches, Black, 200W |
Sleeping in the back of my cars a long tradition of mine to try glamping or car camping. Larger cars & SUV & some trucks & vans are easier to car camp in than a compact sedan like our 22 Corolla Hybrid, but with the rear seats folded down, I can easily climb into the trunk & let my legs hang out in the passenger cabin rear seat area above the folded down seats. Using oversized queen-sized blankets means there will be extra to wrap around my body like a loose sleeping bag. The pillow provides a nice head & neck support device since the weatherproof rubber liner of the trunk not exactly comfortable to rest my head on.
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| MOON LENCE Camping Pillow, Compressible Lightweight Travel Pillows, Hammock and Car Camping Pillow with Removable Pillow Cover, Medium Size / I really like this travel pillow, its small enough to be practical in many ways in many applications. The fabric is breathable & the fluff inside fluffs up nicely from a very compact stored form to a very expanded pillow form that give good neck & head support without being too hard or soft, or very well balanced. |
I wanted to stay away from gasoline, diesel, propane or biomass combustion-based heat or electrical energy because I am going to be sleeping while the system operated inside the tiny, enclosed space in the trunk of my car & backseat area.
This means that portable battery generators were the best option. I wanted to keep the budget reasonable & I am not trying to cook in my automobile as my workplace lunchroom has a full kitchen with stove, multiple microwave ovens, hot water kettles, a commercial Keurig coffee maker that brew pods. The work kitchen also has a giant commercial freezer, and giant commercial fridge too. Even a sink & dishwasher. Given the cost the SMA architecture designed building from 2014 Platinum Eco-Friendly with heat pump & solar PV systems, it was many millions of dollars.
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| Bedsure Faux Fur Blankets Queen Size Black – Fuzzy, Fluffy, and Shaggy Faux Fur, Soft and Thick Sherpa, Cozy Warm Decorative Gift, Queen Blankets for Bed, 90x90 Inches, 640 GS. Wow this faux fur blanket is super soft & fuzzy, and fluffy & snuggly comfy :) Amazing & seems well made during our early couch testing this evening (Sunday, Day 1 with it) |
My car is parked in the parking lot, near some concrete walls that get hit my sun, acting as heat batteries. The inside of my car still gets really cold on winter days, hence I wanted a non-combustion-based energy solution to power the electric blanket & 200w personal electric space heater.
These battery energy generators & power banks come in all sizes from a few AH to multiple kWh. In the 300-1000w output space the units with pure sine wave inverters can perform as well as very low power 3 stoke gasoline generators.
For example the EcoFlow River 2 Max can output 1000w in boost mode, with a nominal output of 500w max. At 5kg or 13lbs, the unit is also extremely rugged, water resistant, cold & hot operational from -4F to 122 F, the LFP battery of 512 WH or about 1/2 kWh, can be used for camping, fishing, as a UPS for power backup, to charge phones, laptops during power outages.
They can be really useful in mobile applications where the noise, fumes, fueling, oil changes, CO, CO2, & water vapor can be problems, especially inside the closed cabin of a smaller automobile. Fuel burning generators or heaters have to be used in ventilated spaces so the toxic carbon monoxide can escape.
Every winter some people are killed by running gasoline fueled emergency backup generators inside their apartments with the windows & doors closed. They end up dying because the CO or carbon monoxide emission from combustion ends up blocking oxygen transport by binding to the oxygen carrying sites on red blood cells. CO poisoning similar to hypoxia in that its like cutting of the supply of oxygen to the brain & other organs & tissue.
Taking this medical information about inhaling combustion emission into consideration, the pure sine wave AC power output & LFP battery-based generator was the only rational portable energy solution to use inside the car. If I turned on my car to make heat for the nap, the noise of the hybrid energy drive system turning the engine on & off again would wake me up repeatedly, it would also waste fuel, wear out my car faster, and ruin my fuel economy records that I aggressively try to maximize with a collection of efficient driving techniques known as hypermiling.
Black aluminum iWatch Series 8 gets a band inspired by car camping & I love orange the color :)
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ULTIMAL Band Compatible Apple Watch 49mm 45mm/44mm/42mm 41mm/40mm/38mm, Tough Breathable Nylon Sports Strap, Hollow Out Design iWatch Series 9/8/7/6/5/4/SE/3/2/1/Ultra (1/2) / Been wearing this band with my Apple Watch Series 8 for a few days now, and it goes on & off very easily. The Velcro works really well & it seems to be well made & dries off quickly after getting wet in the shower. I press it with a dry towel to soak the water out & then set the entire unit & band on the inductive charger dock where waste heat from the charging seems to dry it out entirely within 20-40 minutes. It's kind of big & clunky, but also breathable & flexible & works well with my shirts & jacket cuffs accordingly. This is not a low-profile nylon band, its chunky & cool looking & I absolutely love the orange color & cool logo's! Yes, I am an ultra-deep Professional School Bus Driver with a Class B CDL and lots of driving experience, and an excellent driving safety record. **Latest 11/9/2023 Solar PV 100w Mono Capture for Car Dash capture under front windshield. If I can get 15+ watts out of this to trickle charge the Eco-Flow River 2 Max, then its worth it. Others have said through a quality MPPT they are getting 160w output, but many other warn the low grade included PWM controller lowers voltage from 18-20vdc from the PV module to 14.2vdc current regulated, so charging with less than 50watts even in direct sunlight. If you plug the panels via the SAE directly into your battery generator unit with an MPPT, you can get more of the solar DC current created by the panels. DO Not Bend of Flex the PV panels; Bending Ruins the Mono Solar PV crystals with cracking! |
Allways oversize your Solar PV kit to battery ratio. In this example I am charging a 20AH LiFePO4 battery generator with 110w of solar PV or about 5:1 ratio of solar watts to amp hour of battery. That means your battery will be able to capture energy in very dark winter sky conditions that make your PV only output 10% of their rated wattage. At least you can always trickly charge with an efficient MPPT controller in your battery generator or aftermarket model. Save the PWM controller included as a backup spare, since it is the reason this kit gets so many bad reviews. The panels themselves are good & hold well if your are gentle with them & treat them as if they are very fragile. Any bending of the solar PV in this kit will reduce power output by damaging the solar cells.
Be very careful not to flex these flexible solar panels, as doing so causing micro-cracking of the solar PV crystals, giving rise to loss of power output or degrading performance faster. If you can mount them unfolded to a stiff hard non-bending surface like a metal, wood, hard plastic or glass panel, it will greatly increase the useful life. Also, if your battery generator has a MPPT controller, do not use the PWM controller included with the kid, its very low quality & wastes energy. Use the SAE from the panels to cable adapter & plug that adapter directly into your battery generator unit.
** 11/10/2023 Compact 9BB Mono Panel 12v 100w after many hours of Amazon & Ebay Reseach
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| Newpowa 9BB Cell 100W Monocrystalline 100W 12V Solar Panel 100W 12V Compact Design High Efficiency Module RV Marine Boat Off Grid (100W) for only $71.55 all said shipped with tax :) You might wonder why I would double down on solar PV solutions at power input, well I also have a folding 60W charging kit & 6w folding battery bank charger. That means we have 266 watts of solar capture with all these devices in full sun, but the reality is very different. I am in Washington State where overcast drizzly weather tends to dominate the October to February "Winter" interval where solar PV modules might only make 10% of their rated output, even when always facing the sky. This durable long lasting 100W mono 9BB compact panel really being tested for use in a 10-30 panel RV / Tiny Home or Manufactured home rooftop solar PV energy capture system. Such a system will be operated at much higher voltage, all DC into 200 AMP MPPT charge controller into perhaps 10kWh or larger format LFP batteries for a whole home UPS energy system completely offline & not connected to grid power, except for perhaps worst-case charging using our EU2000i generator at 1.6kW worst case. I will also need internet at home one way or another. I might also go the route of bifacial panels in the 200-400watt each range for a 8kW or larger array. Time & future budget will tell. For now, it's just DIY adventure car napping with heat & solar energy. |
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