[Nut-upsdev] eco mode insight, maybe

[Jim Klimov]

Discussion at
https://github.com/networkupstools/nut/pull/2837#issuecomment-2710802065
tells us that EcoFlow devices may be doing something similar.
Worse, the `battery.runtime` reports depend greatly on whether it is
charged or being used. From the post:
-

> * The battery.runtime has different meaning/value while the power station
is ONLINE (in UPS, or pass-through mode) and when it is DISCHARGING.
-

> * I have Anker and Ecoflow models and their respective smartphone
application, while ONLINE shows somewhere around one-and-two-thirds of a
day running time. I asked them why? Why show a value instead of OnGrid, or
ONLINE. Here is the answer I received from Ecoflow:
> > "When the device is fully charged to 100%, the battery will stop
charging, but it will continue to power the device's internal systems, such
as the Battery Management System (BMS) and the cooling fan. These systems
will gradually consume the battery's power, and the time listed is the
duration the battery can sustain this power in its current state. However,
once the battery level drops to 97%, it will automatically start charging
again."

So my guessy take on this is that the load is also normally fed from the
wall, just some internal electronics (controller, fan) is fed from battery
to be always available - and its power draw is so small that it would
survive for about 40hrs if left alone, and that is what the reading
represents then. When wall power goes out, the load on the battery
increases and the numbers drop suddenly.

> * The current Ecoflow firmware does not return an UPS Load value. Without
that you can't (even programmatically) have a Run Time value. So you get
the battery.runtime instead :)

So until the power goes out, they even have no way to predict how much that
would stress the battery/transformer/inverter/...

Oh joy.

Jim

On Tue, Mar 11, 2025 at 12:54 PM Greg Troxel via Nut-upsdev <
nut-upsdev at alioth-lists.debian.net> wrote:

> I was looking at the manual for a cyberpower CPS1500AVRLCD3:
>
>   https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/A1-K2cO6SbL.pdf
>
> and noticed they call this "GreenPower" which is probably one of many
> flavors of ECO :-)
>
> In this case, they say that they don't power the transformer in normal
> operation, persumably switching with relays to power it for voltage step
> up/down during low/high voltage, and turning on the inverter for missing
> voltage.  Obviously they must have some power supply for control
> electronics and maybe trickle charge of the battery.
>
>
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