04-01-2026 — April fooled

Howdy all. Yesterday my EcoFlow DPU X system got its first trial by fire. Just before 6 pm, a huge storm line blew in. The winds went from like 15 to 42 mph, in a moment, and the clouds opened up and the rain dumped out, while the lightning and thunder scared the crap out of me and Kitty.

Just before utility power dropping, I was in the EcoFlow App and the “Storm Guard” feature became available — it wouldn’t turn on previously.

When a storm is coming, this feature will charge the batteries to 100% to be ready. Well, it go to 98% before the utility power dropped at 6:35.

I, at first, had a few issues getting the EcoFlow working. In the future, I must remember to flip the 50amp breaker that can send power from panel to charge the batteries, before switching the manual interlock in the panel to go from street (utility) power to generator (batteries) power. Leaving that breaker on created a loop that confused the EcoFlow, as it tried to recharge itself from itself. Also, if it is an A/C day, it is a good idea to flip that double breaker off at the same time. I only have 12KWH of batteries, and the A/C compressor will suck it dry quicker. — Obviously, if I need A/C, I will have to accept the shorter cover time, and start up the generator within a few hours.

Another issue was / is, Spectrum always goes down when power on this street drops. Thus, no internet on the router I generally use for all the IOT devices in the house.

I overcame that by creating new “networks” on my T-Mobile 5G internet, with the same names as the ones used by security cameras and thermostats and etc. They need to be removed when power comes back up, and Spectrum’s gateway kicks in. Otherwise there are multiple SSIDs that are the same and cause network conflicts.

Anyway, I got all of the issues solved just before 11 pm. And sure enough, as I was patting myself on my back for doing such a good job, I noticed the street lights came to life.

It was time to undo all my temporary fixes, and go flip the interlock back to street power. In the 4 ½ hours, the charge on the EcoFlow system had gone from 98% to 63%. So, in minimalist mode, I can easily get the 8-9 hours of backup power I was hoping to get.

I’d really like to get another pair of batteries, and double to 24KWH of storage. That would mean I’d easily do 12 hours using A/C and everything else, before I’d need the generator to recharge and cover usage.

I had the charging set to 4000-6000 watts, so the batteries recharged last night, to 95% by midnight, once I was using street power. Not too bad.

The temperatures fell yesterday from 70+ down into the 50s and 40s by midnight, and then kept on dropping.

This was this morning’s wake up forecast. Brr. Not sure where that 58 is coming from. The forecast now suggests it may touch 40 today in between the rains.

Flowers and Butterflies — a late birthday card/gift to me from friends in the Carolinas.

I was outside earlier yesterday add artificial flowers to the various planters that had lost some over winter. The rains and warmer temperatures have these real ones popping nicely.

Sadly, there are still over 32,000 customers without power, at 10:30 this morning.

My brother’s house is one of the outages.

So, while I’m glad my EcoFlow worked, it still sucks to not have street power, and it isn’t the way to Enjoy Life.