Portable power station as battery charger and block heater?

[skipswift]

Has anyone done this? Thoughts? Watch outs?

Thanks.

[GeeBee]

I looked at them to power my AeroTherm Deuce. Takes a very big unit, like about 60 pounds.

[Boilermonkey]

Yeah, most don't have the output amps required to run a block heater.   You'd be better off buying a small gas powered inverter.

[Pinecone]

Even if they will supply the amps, it will only be for a short period of time.   

FYI, you need gas powered generator, that may incorporate an inverter. 

[takair]

I use two deep cycle lead acid batteries, inverter, cellular switch to preheat for three hours running 300 watts of heat on the engine.  I have a solar panel on the hangar to charge.  V1 had a single deep cycle battery, but that barely went two hours and was barely adequate.  My neighbor uses 4 deep cycle batteries and a much larger inverter for a full Tanis heater.  Another neighbor has a huge bank of deepecycles and huge panels for his Baron preheat. 

Long story short, it takes a lot of energy to get heat into these engines.  The battery does not output as much in cold either, so that is another consideration.  Given my experience, two deep cycle for 2 hours is what you need when temps are in the twenties.

[mhrivnak]

This is very doable, and it gives you a power solution you can bring with you in the plane. Let's focus on the pre-heating part, since that's simpler and hopefully a more common use case than charging your plane's battery. Figure out how much power your heater pulls in watts. Using a kill-a-watt is a good way to measure. I think mine pulls about 800W total to heat the oil sump and each of the four cylinders. If yours only heats the sump, it probably uses a lot less power.

Want to pre-heat for an hour? In my case I'd be looking for a LiFePo4 battery that can output at least 800Wh (watt-hours; that's literally saying it can output 800W for an hour). A standard 100Ah (amp-hour) battery will give about 1300Wh, so that would be more than sufficient.

Then you need an inverter that can handle the load. Over-size it. For my 800W load, I'd look for something rated for 1000W or more.

Connect it all with appropriate gauge wire, and you're in business. A simple approach is to secure the battery, inverter and charger in a milk crate with straps and zip ties.

Or just buy one of the ready-made power stations with a sufficient power rating.

DIY example with respectable components:

• $100 inverter
• $180 battery (after coupon) (updated Feb 2025)
• $50 charger

plus wire, connectors, and a crate or toolbox to put it all in. You get a fun project and save a lot compared to buying a Jackery 1000 or similar.

To charge the plane's battery, you'd want a DC-DC charge controller along with a way to connect it to the plane's battery. But hopefully that isn't a common need, and it may not be worth worrying about.

[TangoTango]

Sorry to revive the thread, but I've been pretty seriously considering one of those 1kw battery power stations to power my Tanis when I'm tied down on a transient ramp. The Ecoflow Delta 2 should power a Tanis nicely for several hours and will only eat up 27lb of payload (with no fuel to carry around in the baggage compartment). 

The only gotcha I can think of is the requirement to delay starting it, since you'll only have 4 hours or so until you've drawn the 1kw battery down. Maybe a timer of some kind? Of course with a generator preheat solution you have to drive out anyway, so this isn't a new problem.

[mhrivnak]

On 2/13/2025 at 3:28 PM, TangoTango said:

The only gotcha I can think of is the requirement to delay starting it, since you'll only have 4 hours or so until you've drawn the 1kw battery down. Maybe a timer of some kind? Of course with a generator preheat solution you have to drive out anyway, so this isn't a new problem.

Just keep in mind that the Delta 2's stated capacity of 1024Wh is the battery's raw capacity used as DC. Converting DC to AC via the inverter, and running its onboard accessories, will eat into that significantly. It looks like a 4-cylinder Tanis draws 240W, so I'd plan for 3 hours max out of a Delta 2.

[TangoTango]

On 2/15/2025 at 11:03 PM, mhrivnak said:

Just keep in mind that the Delta 2's stated capacity of 1024Wh is the battery's raw capacity used as DC. Converting DC to AC via the inverter, and running its onboard accessories, will eat into that significantly. It looks like a 4-cylinder Tanis draws 240W, so I'd plan for 3 hours max out of a Delta 2.

I actually just ordered a Delta 2 Max, which has a 2048Wh battery - I was worried 1024Wh wouldn't be enough. It eats up 50lb of payload, which should normally work for my mission.

Unfortunately, there is no built-in timer that I can find in the unit manual, so I'll have to leave the unit on and use a plug-in timer. It looks like the inverter draws 40w at idle (plus the negligible load from the timer), so I'm going to try setting a timer the evening before and have the Tanis kick on a few hours prior to my planned departure. Once it gets here I'll experiment and report back.

[TangoTango]

I just used the Delta 2 Max to preheat my Tanis for the first time, and I am pleased to report it worked well. Temps were around 0C overnight and the power center was in the luggage area with a full charge. I turned on the power center the evening before departure, ran a 16ga extension cord out the window under the cover, and set a six hour timer before the Tanis would kick on using a cheap amazon timer here (note this timer has a "countdown to on" feature, not all do). This meant the power center had to idle the inverter for 6.0 hours, then the timer kicked on the load and it preheated for 4.7 hours. This pretty much ate up all the capacity it has (single digit power state remaining). 

All in all, I'm glad I did 2048Wh, especially with the idle time required if I want to set everything up the night before and time it for an early morning departure. 1024Wh wouldn't have cut it.

Edited March 4 by TangoTango
typo

[Fly Boomer]

19 minutes ago, TangoTango said:

I just used the Delta 2 Max to preheat my Tanis for the first time, and I am pleased to report it worked well. Temps were around 0C overnight and the power center was in the luggage area with a full charge. I turned on the power center the evening before departure, ran a 16ga extension cord out the window under the cover, and set a six hour timer before the Tanis would kick on using a cheap amazon timer here (note this timer has a "countdown to on" feature, not all do). This meant the power center had to idle the inverter for 6.0 hours, then the timer kicked on the load and it preheated for 4.7 hours. This pretty much ate up all the capacity it has (single digit power state remaining). 

All in all, I'm glad I did 2048Wh, especially with the idle time required if I want to set everything up the night before and time it for an early morning departure. 1024Wh wouldn't have cut it.

Great follow-up.  Thanks.