This device, about half the size and weight of a brick, contains a 14.8V 000mAh lithium battery and an 90W inverter. The inverter can be powered off the internal battery or external 12VDC source. The internal battery theoretically has a 56watt*hour capacity but in practice about 40Watt*hours makes it through the inverter. On the internal battery, run time is about 12 hours with no load, 1:50 with a 19W load (digital oscilloscopeRigol DS1052E 50 MHz Digital Oscilloscope with 2 channels plus USB storage and connectivity and 1 GSa/sec sampling with switching supply), and an estimated 25minutes with a 90W load. To estimate runtime, divide 40Watt*hours by the sum of the average power consumption in watts of the device to be powered and 3.3watts internal waste. Use a Kill-A-Watt meter ($25) to measure the average power consumption of devices which may be lower than the worst case values on nameplate. BTW, the Kill-A-Watt P3 International P4400 Kill A Watt Electricity Usage MonitorP3 International P4460 Kill A Watt EZ Electricity Usage MonitorP3 International P4480 Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor with Electronic Graphic Timer displays "dC" instead of roughly 60Hz when connected to the output of the Enercell.
It is generally a mistake to use an inverter to power low power devices when running off local battery. The low efficiency of the inverter and AC supply combined is perhaps 60% compared to about 87% with a 12V car charger/adapter and the quiescent current when the load is not drawing power is around 3.5-25W for the inverter/ac supply vs about 0.035W for the adapter. AC powered devices are also often less efficient. It was a mistake not to include a 12V power outlet on this device. USB port is only rated for 500mA and does not have a separate power switch meaning you are wasting 3.3W instead of 0.035W. This device should have been built with a metal case/passive cooling instead of a power sucking fan. The fan uses relatively low power, sounds like it has poor quality bearings, and runs whenever the inverter/usb is on or whenever connected to an external power source. Because the life expectancy of the fan is poor, this might not last long use as a UPS for your DSL/cable modem.
With an external $80 26pound U1 size 12V 35Ahsealed lead acid deep cycle battery Lead Acid Battery(and separate charger or solar panels) run time can be extended about 10fold. A 20W solar panel ($60) LiteFuze® 20W Mono-crystalline Solar Panel 20 Watt High-Efficiency Durable Heavy Duty Long Lasting Frame could recharge this device in about 1 day, although the specs don't say if the "12V" input will withstand the 20V open circuit voltage of a "12V" solar panel. And it certainly doesn't claim to have maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) or it might be a good match for a small solar panel. The Li-Ion battery back inside is worth about $50 but has about 1/10th the capacity of a heavier and larger $80 sealed deep cycle lead acid battery (smaller than average car battery). Since the enercell is Li-Ion and doesn't bring out the battery connections, you can't just add a battery and expect this device to keep it topped off.
BTW, the internal battery pack should be charged at least once a month due to internal leakage if you want it to have juice when you need it; for maximum shelf life, though, when not needed to be ready it is best to store at 40% charge.
Run a piece of AC powered test equipment such as a digital oscilloscope without cords or available ac power. Run a 6W netbook for about 4 hours (netbook battery will run 4-10hours). Or run it in car or on emergency battery at lower efficiency if you neglected to buy the car charger. Laptop maybe an hour, if that. High powered desktop computer, not at all. Power out, phone lines up, netbook charged but you didn't buy a 12V adapter for your DSL modem? Run it for a few hours on this device to get disaster info. Maybe run your wireless router, too, halving the runtime. Run a 27W Razor 23" LED backlit LCD 1080P HDTV for about 1.3 hours, long enough to catch a newscast in an emergency, if you don't have a battery operated TV. Don't try to run your 50" TV; it will probably overload this device. My HLT71 battery operated TV draws about 8W when not trying to charge internal battery) so it could run almost 4 hours extra. Maybe you forgot to upgrade your battery operated TV to work with digital TV and need to power your converter box. Maybe you need to fire up your AC powered CB or ham radio (QRP) base station long enough to get out a distress call. You aren't going to cook, heat or cool your house, do your laundry, or keep your food refrigerated (you might run a 50W thermoelectric cooler for about 45minutes but those need to run close to 24hours/day to keep food cold). You might run a clip on fan for a couple hours. You aren't going to run power tools. You can charge your cell phone but there are more efficient ways to do that. Slow chargers would be particularly inefficient with this device. You didn't think about emergencies when you bought your AC only weather radio? Well, you can run it off this device long enough to check the forecast but you can't run it 24hours/day to monitor for alerts (without inefficient use of external battery). Run your AC powered AM/FM or Shortwave radio for a bit if you don't have a battery powered one. It doesn't have a built in flashlight. Run a 16W compact fluorescent for about 2 hours. You can loan a little power to your neighbor or bring a little inside from your car. I would not plan on using this device as the primary way to run anything in an emergency but it can be useful for those things that slipped through the cracks in your planning.
This is a cute little device that didn't have great bang for the buck or capacity as a serious source of emergency power, particularly with the design flaws and inadequate documentation, at its retail price (particularly in a bad economy) but at closeout prices is a good deal. Add to that the product packaging and documentation which fails to tell you what you needed to know, for the few people who even knew it existed during the short stay on retail shelves, so people would be reluctant to shell out $100 for enough units to keep it in production. Less power than a jump start pack with inverter, 12VDC, and USB outlets but originally in the same price range, though smaller and lighter you pay a premium for the small size.Xantrex XPower Powerpack 600HD Portable Power SourceCobra CJIC 350 500 Amp Portable Jump-Start/Air Compressor with A/C and D/C Power OutletsEnergizer 84020 12V All-In-One Jump-Start System with Built-In Air Compressor and Power Inverter Those devices would have similar considerations, however, and should be evaluated for battery capacity, efficiency, and quiescent power consumption.
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This is a very handy power source for running any AC device within the 90W capacity limit. It integrates a lithium battery with the small AC inverter in one small package. It has a cooling fan so there is some ambient noise. I use this device to power a pair of Audioengine2 powered speakers (which are remarkable in themselves) so my application is noise sensitive. I house the inverter inside a softpack carrier wish is used to carry the speakers and this pretty well baffles the noise. Could be used to provide extra power to laptops as well. The Enercell can be recharged from a 12-volt cigarette lighter or from a 120-volt wall outlet.Just bought another one under $10. What a steal for a portable 120 vac or USB source.
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I must say I'm very happy with the price! At less than $10, it is cheaper than most inverter on the market, yet it doubles as a batter back up as well as an inverter. I've just received the product and did some short test, so far I'm happy. Will know more once I go on a trip to Florida. I plan to use it as the inverter in the car and as power backup for my laptops and ipads.Now, a few things I wasn't happy: the picture on amazon made it look much smaller than it is. The real thing is very thick, almost like a cube. Also, although the fan noise is not very loud, it is the whiny type that can be annoying. Hopefully with music on, it won't be too much trouble.
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This llittle fella was the answer to a prayer. I needed to video record a special concert that lasted four hours. I recorded the sound on a separate device so the few parts to assemble the better.. The max batteries for the Canon camera only last 100 min. so I would have needed 3 @ $137.00 each. I discovered this unit which allowed me to plug the AC adapter for the camera in and record the entire night. It was incredible!! I have since done the same thing for another concert and it seems to last about 320-340 minutes. I have also powered my laptop for an additional 2½ hours when necessary.. I have already bought 2 more.Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for EnercellTM 90W Portable AC Power Inverter
It's nice to have some portable AC power for emergencies and just for convenience. So when I saw these devices being sold at a great price I purchased 3 of them. So far all 3 have accepted a charge which took 3.5-4.5 hours. I tried running my older laptop which worked fine and ran for a little over an hour. I also ran a 14 watt CFL lamp for around 2.5 hours. The usable capacity of these devices appears to be roughly 35 watt-hours.As another customer had said these units are about 1/2 the size and weight of a brick. Yes, they are portable but they won't fit in your pocket. They are also cheaply made. The safety tab on one of my units just falls off. They have a fan. It is not terribly loud but it can be annoying in a quiet room. You can also hear that the fan's bearings are cheap and I have a feeling that it was not designed with a long service life in mind. There are also warnings in the instructions about charging/running these devices unattended. This can be a real pain-in-the butt because of the relatively long recharge time.
You can also run this inverter form 12 Volts DC in your car so it could be handy to run your laptop during a long trip. But be careful, you don't want the internal batteries to get too hot or too cold. So don't leave this inverter in a hot car parked in the summer sun or in a parked car during a cold winter night.
If you need a portable AC supply with more capacity there are jump boxes based on a large gel-cell battery that either come with an integral inverter or can be connected to an external one. These have a usable capacity of around 100 watt-hours and typically have a 200 watt inverter. But they are much larger and heavier than this Enercell unit. If you need more power than that it is probably time to get a portable generator. Although high capacity battery/inverter systems exist they are very expensive.
The concept behind theses devices is great a portable battery/inverter so you can take an outlet with you. These are surplus units so the price is very reasonable. For the money they are a good deal. But I wish someone would design and sell a more robust device with a replaceable battery pack that would last for many years.
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