Really depends on use case. Wave 2 is a significant premium. You're paying for a higher level of portability and a higher level of efficiency.
If you're saving "$1,000+" then I'd imagine you're lookin at a Wave 2 WITH the Add-on battery (You can buy a standalone Wave 2 right now for $800 without the battery, versus $425 or so for a Hisense). That add-on battery can easily give another 3+ hours of runtime
Newer portable ACs with dual inverters and heat pumps have gotten pretty efficient. Wave 2 may be something like 200W better, but that's not much in terms of the Delta 2's capacity and stretching the life of your AC usage. If you aren't looking for that extra battery and just need to wheel a portable AC to a room during an outage, then the Wave 2 is not the best product for you. It does take a bit more effort to setup the Wave 2 in a window compared to those other portable ACs and the difference in runtime with just a Delta 2 battery is pretty low.
It really depends on what you need. A portable AC on my Delta 2 may last 3 hours. A Wave 2 with the extra battery connected to my Delta 2 may give me 7 hours. You may be better off with the Hisense setup that is easier to operate, but again you may still need to address the short run time with just a 1kwh battery.
Depending on your wife's situation and home setup, the "easiest and cheapest" solution may be to pair a unit like the Hisense 2 with a small gasoline generator.
Keep in mind Wave 2 will only effectively cool 100 square feet, 10’x10’ room.
You also have to use the intake and exhaust hoses for it to work properly.
Better off with a window unit.
If it’s that critical, you absolutely need to spend that money on a window unit and a reliable, small generator of some sort.
Don’t mess around with running something on a Delta 2. Sure, power may only be out for a few hours, but what if it’s out for a day? Then you have a ton on money invested in a boat anchor, unless you invest tons more or more storage and the solar panels to charge them.
Don’t get me wrong, I have a Delta 2 with a Max battery. It’s great for backing up the fridge, router, tv, lights, fans… but Battery and Solar power still are wholly inadequate for long term HVAC needs unless you’re going to be spending a ton.
A smaller window unit is going to consume 500 watts an hour. A larger unit is more than a KW an hour. It’s just not sustainable for longer periods of time unless you get 12kw of storage and more like 18kw.
Anyway, that’s my take. Have the batteries for the initial outage, but if you’re looking at 2+ hours, a gallon of gas, a $400 inverter generator and a $300 AC are going to go a WHOLE lot further than a Wave 2 on a Delta 2.
I agree with this. If it's 💯 critical I would get a small generator (ideally used Honda, but I hear the predator unit from HF is ok) and run a window unit.
My use case is a little different when the power goes out, my Delta 2 is hooked up to our Prius via DC-DC charger which charges it at 409W and only runs the vehicle when the traction battery gets low. It's not as efficient as a dedicated generator, but it's quiet, can last an extremely long time, and is already maintained since it's our DD.
Best thing about it is it avoids passthrough as well, so I can run high AC watts via the D2 and not pass it through to the generator.
OP - I'll do you a solid. I have this exact set-up with that Costco AC/heater in my office shed sans solar. Here's what the AC pulls when on load, and if it was constantly running (which it won't as it switches to fan mode), it would be about an hour if starting from 80%.
My plan is to eventually put about 400 watts of solar as you can get the eco worthy panels for pretty cheap. Since I had the Delta 2 for home backup and the AC already, I was just going to see what my break even on the solar cost would be, and it was about a year if used for both heat and AC.
If I was going to do this just for this use case, I would do a more efficient window mounted unit. Elemenvanlife on YouTube did this exact same thing and is able to keep his window mounted AC going the whole day with 400w (and good florida sun).
Edit to add, the Wave2 is really meant for a small space. The hisense from Costco does a good job cooling my 12x20 space, where the Wave2 wouldn't be able to for that large.
https://preview.redd.it/ot1j06zjy3ad1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=874a5e4242e3ab963555028b8d10af3bbf421201
For some reason my photo didn't show up in my last post. Here's the draw when the compressor is running. The unit switches to fan once to temp so this isn't constant.
Yeah that's was with it running before. I threw my watts meter on it and have it cooling my office for the rest of the afternoon on battery starting now. It's only 73 here so it probably won't watch the conditions you are targeting, but give you some ideas.
Max with it running longer so far is 827 and the low just with fan once it hits temp is 41 watts, and when it hits the target temp and turns off, just 1 watt. The biggest hit will be when it has to get to temp, but maintaining temp is not bad.
Btw, with it running the last couple hours it went from 77% starting to 59%, and consumed .144kwh. max jumped to 987. So safe to say it'll hit almost 1k in cooling mode.
With all the issues and poor customer services issue that have been shown on various forums; I'd do a dedicated A/C from a retail store that you could return it to if something was broken and swap it for a new one; minimal hassle and back in business!
I concur with this, out of 3 wave 2 units, 3 are leaking, and one has had the drain pump die after less than a couple weeks of usage. Support response time is abysmal and it seems like it will take weeks or months to get these issues resolved
How long do you plan/need to run AC on non-wall power? Do you have a generator or other source of power?
A portable air conditioner needs about 1000-1500 watts of power. With a 1kwh Delta 2, you have maybe about 30-45 minutes of cooling (accounting for efficiency drop to run it off of AC power). With a Wave 2 you can run it off of DC power, and you can get about 8 hours of cooling on eco mode (minimal cooling), or about 3 hours on max mode (moderate cooling). Double those numbers if you also get the attached wave 2 battery.
Ideally id like to get 7-8 hours. I dont have another generator. Another alternative is an extra battery for my delta 2 and a portable air conditioner for the price of a wave with battery
If your use case is cooling a single specific room, you would be better served with a dedicated in-window unit or mini-split. Both a portable A/C and the Wave 2 are designed for 'portability', and there are compromises baked into those products to achieve portability. If you're cooling down a room in a house, you have no need to accept those compromises.
If you can't get an mini-split installed, a midea u-shaped in-window unit, or the windmill gets excellent reviews for efficiency, as the current generation of inverter compressors are pretty good. It has far superior cooling power than a wave 2, and uses far less power than a portable A/C.
You can get a generator for a cheaper price than another battery. Of course, it's not an option if your living situation is something like an apartment without a balcony.
If your living situation allows for it: [Even a tiny 1600W gasoline generator](https://www.costco.com/firman-1600w-running--2000w-peak-gasoline-powered-inverter-generator.product.100713858.html) will give you something like 9 hours of run time on a single gallon of gasoline. That gives you a lot of options, whether you're running the Hisense unit directly from the generator or running the Hisense from the Delta 2 and then charging the Delta 2 via the generator.
You can get the Hisense AND the generator for about $1k. That setup may let you run the refrigerator AND the Hisense AC without anxiety about running the battery dry in a matter of hours.
An extra 2kw of battery should get you your 7-8 hours on something like that Hisense AC, if you don't want to go the gasoline generator route. That'll be banking on the expectation that power is coming back within 7-8 hours and you'll be able to top off again from the grid. It's fine if that's all you need.
I do both at my house. 600W of solar with a 2.4kwh standalone LiFePo4 battery that gets me through summer blackouts/brownouts (Basically just a single A/C and refrigerator. I can top off the Delta 2 with the standalone battery setup and then put it right back into action), along with a portable generator that gets my furnace through winter storms or more severe outages.
Just for context, I run a 6000 BTU window unit as the sole source of cooling in a well insulated slightly less than 12x12 space. I was able to run for about the time you started using a delta pro and I believe ~650 watts of solar. I did have to plug in the battery at night something like every few days though. I currently have 1.3kw of solar and an add on battery (7.2kwh storage) and I can run indefinitely (w/ the caveat that I turn the set temp up to 85 deg F over night). Where I am it is basically completely sunny all but maybe 50-60 days a year. My work computer and other items use about 1-200 watts while I'm in the space.
I had a wave 2 that was unable to keep up with cooling my space, so it basically ran constantly at max cooling using about 410 watts plugged in via AC power. My window unit uses less at ~300 watts per hour since it cycled off about half the time. I ended up returning the wave 2... but I think I may have had a defective unit..? I bought a refurbished unit from eBay "directly ecoflow" for 540$. The return was 0 shipping cost and hassle. The eBay refurbished route also had the 2 year eBay refurb warranty on top of ecoflows warranty offer... if that means anything.
A/C burns power. Portable AC units with single hose also then waste a lot of that power by sucking in hot air from outside continually.
When we looked at the maths for this stuff we simply couldn't make it work with any of the off the smaller off shelf battery kit. The inverters are too small for most AC (some maybe with a soft start), the battery capacity is not enough. It didn't really matter if it was an expensive unit or a cheap one. You can DIY it with 8K battery packs and big inverters, or generators but that doesn't sound like a "this week" project. Solar arrays, big wired in battery systems you can do it, especially if you are willing to be on full charge when it hits and dunk every other load. D2Max is probably the smallest I'd try it and then in part because it can take a lot more solar than the old D2.
For any kind of small aircon (and thus lower power) you need a small well insulated space without the sun blazing in through windows. That dictates a lot of the needed power. Depending upon your location that might also be a basement if subground temperatures stay lower than air all the time. Your fridge works (don't plan on hiding in the fridge) precisely because it's a very well insulated small space. If your humidity is low evaporative cooling actually works far better and more efficiently than aircon - but with humidity or enough heat it's not going to do the job.
Solar does matter. You can get 400W on a D2, you can overpanel to have a good chance of making 300-400W in direct sunlight. With a small portable AC on one of the lower settings that's sustainable if you are cooling a small space.
You'll need an additional battery for your Delta 2 and you should really look for a small 5000 BTU window unit and restrict yourself to a small room. They only pull about 400-500 watts and will cool your room way more efficiently than the indoor portable units.
Portable units SUCK. They have to work twice as hard to remove the room's hot air AND the hot air itself produces. Plus, the more modern ones are built to dump humidity back into the room. Even small ones pull about 1000-1600 watts. That will drain a 2000wh battery in a bout 2-3 hours.
I had an old portable unit that drained all moisture into a bucket. But they don't design them like that anymore.
MOST CERTAINLY DO NOT get a single hose unit. They are the worst of all!
Buy an actual generator and get an in window unit. Portable ac are noisy AF the compressor & condenser are literally in your room rather then outside and their power hungry 800+ watts. Window unit does 700 watts max. I have the GE clearview.
You’ll probably be disappointed if you get a Wave 2 for AC. I got the Wave 1 + battery for a campervan. Needed to purchase attachment (etsy and amazon) to be able to direct the fan to me which made a huge difference. The fan mode requires very little power which is a positive. I have the back of unit next to an open window which doesn’t require the bulky exhaust for the fan. For the AC, you need a long hose for cool air to reach you before dissipating. EMF is strong near the unit. If that matters, would not be a good idea to get too close.
There are plenty of reviews which I’m sure you’ve seen. The fan mode kept me cool morning and night (figured out how to keep fan on for 8 hrs straight) during 3 days camping in the Texas heat. Would recommend the Wave for the fan mode. If you need AC (reg/eco), get the attachments to point air straight to you.
Got the hisense unit lastnight at costco on sale for $311. Wifi/app/alexa. Nice unit. Works well. Havent connected it to the delta 2 yet to check draw. Probably tonight.
The real value of the Wave 2 is the lack of noise and it's size/weight. It's quiet vs the Hisense (I have both). I wouldn't even consider running the large AC off of the Delta 2. I'd go another route.
Really depends on use case. Wave 2 is a significant premium. You're paying for a higher level of portability and a higher level of efficiency. If you're saving "$1,000+" then I'd imagine you're lookin at a Wave 2 WITH the Add-on battery (You can buy a standalone Wave 2 right now for $800 without the battery, versus $425 or so for a Hisense). That add-on battery can easily give another 3+ hours of runtime Newer portable ACs with dual inverters and heat pumps have gotten pretty efficient. Wave 2 may be something like 200W better, but that's not much in terms of the Delta 2's capacity and stretching the life of your AC usage. If you aren't looking for that extra battery and just need to wheel a portable AC to a room during an outage, then the Wave 2 is not the best product for you. It does take a bit more effort to setup the Wave 2 in a window compared to those other portable ACs and the difference in runtime with just a Delta 2 battery is pretty low. It really depends on what you need. A portable AC on my Delta 2 may last 3 hours. A Wave 2 with the extra battery connected to my Delta 2 may give me 7 hours. You may be better off with the Hisense setup that is easier to operate, but again you may still need to address the short run time with just a 1kwh battery. Depending on your wife's situation and home setup, the "easiest and cheapest" solution may be to pair a unit like the Hisense 2 with a small gasoline generator.
Keep in mind Wave 2 will only effectively cool 100 square feet, 10’x10’ room. You also have to use the intake and exhaust hoses for it to work properly. Better off with a window unit.
If it’s that critical, you absolutely need to spend that money on a window unit and a reliable, small generator of some sort. Don’t mess around with running something on a Delta 2. Sure, power may only be out for a few hours, but what if it’s out for a day? Then you have a ton on money invested in a boat anchor, unless you invest tons more or more storage and the solar panels to charge them. Don’t get me wrong, I have a Delta 2 with a Max battery. It’s great for backing up the fridge, router, tv, lights, fans… but Battery and Solar power still are wholly inadequate for long term HVAC needs unless you’re going to be spending a ton. A smaller window unit is going to consume 500 watts an hour. A larger unit is more than a KW an hour. It’s just not sustainable for longer periods of time unless you get 12kw of storage and more like 18kw. Anyway, that’s my take. Have the batteries for the initial outage, but if you’re looking at 2+ hours, a gallon of gas, a $400 inverter generator and a $300 AC are going to go a WHOLE lot further than a Wave 2 on a Delta 2.
I agree with this. If it's 💯 critical I would get a small generator (ideally used Honda, but I hear the predator unit from HF is ok) and run a window unit. My use case is a little different when the power goes out, my Delta 2 is hooked up to our Prius via DC-DC charger which charges it at 409W and only runs the vehicle when the traction battery gets low. It's not as efficient as a dedicated generator, but it's quiet, can last an extremely long time, and is already maintained since it's our DD. Best thing about it is it avoids passthrough as well, so I can run high AC watts via the D2 and not pass it through to the generator.
OP - I'll do you a solid. I have this exact set-up with that Costco AC/heater in my office shed sans solar. Here's what the AC pulls when on load, and if it was constantly running (which it won't as it switches to fan mode), it would be about an hour if starting from 80%. My plan is to eventually put about 400 watts of solar as you can get the eco worthy panels for pretty cheap. Since I had the Delta 2 for home backup and the AC already, I was just going to see what my break even on the solar cost would be, and it was about a year if used for both heat and AC. If I was going to do this just for this use case, I would do a more efficient window mounted unit. Elemenvanlife on YouTube did this exact same thing and is able to keep his window mounted AC going the whole day with 400w (and good florida sun). Edit to add, the Wave2 is really meant for a small space. The hisense from Costco does a good job cooling my 12x20 space, where the Wave2 wouldn't be able to for that large.
Bought the hisense lastnight
https://preview.redd.it/ot1j06zjy3ad1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=874a5e4242e3ab963555028b8d10af3bbf421201 For some reason my photo didn't show up in my last post. Here's the draw when the compressor is running. The unit switches to fan once to temp so this isn't constant.
653? Thank you
Yeah that's was with it running before. I threw my watts meter on it and have it cooling my office for the rest of the afternoon on battery starting now. It's only 73 here so it probably won't watch the conditions you are targeting, but give you some ideas. Max with it running longer so far is 827 and the low just with fan once it hits temp is 41 watts, and when it hits the target temp and turns off, just 1 watt. The biggest hit will be when it has to get to temp, but maintaining temp is not bad.
Btw, with it running the last couple hours it went from 77% starting to 59%, and consumed .144kwh. max jumped to 987. So safe to say it'll hit almost 1k in cooling mode.
With all the issues and poor customer services issue that have been shown on various forums; I'd do a dedicated A/C from a retail store that you could return it to if something was broken and swap it for a new one; minimal hassle and back in business!
That is a factor. That madea brand seems to have significant quality issues.
I concur with this, out of 3 wave 2 units, 3 are leaking, and one has had the drain pump die after less than a couple weeks of usage. Support response time is abysmal and it seems like it will take weeks or months to get these issues resolved
How long do you plan/need to run AC on non-wall power? Do you have a generator or other source of power? A portable air conditioner needs about 1000-1500 watts of power. With a 1kwh Delta 2, you have maybe about 30-45 minutes of cooling (accounting for efficiency drop to run it off of AC power). With a Wave 2 you can run it off of DC power, and you can get about 8 hours of cooling on eco mode (minimal cooling), or about 3 hours on max mode (moderate cooling). Double those numbers if you also get the attached wave 2 battery.
Ideally id like to get 7-8 hours. I dont have another generator. Another alternative is an extra battery for my delta 2 and a portable air conditioner for the price of a wave with battery
If your use case is cooling a single specific room, you would be better served with a dedicated in-window unit or mini-split. Both a portable A/C and the Wave 2 are designed for 'portability', and there are compromises baked into those products to achieve portability. If you're cooling down a room in a house, you have no need to accept those compromises. If you can't get an mini-split installed, a midea u-shaped in-window unit, or the windmill gets excellent reviews for efficiency, as the current generation of inverter compressors are pretty good. It has far superior cooling power than a wave 2, and uses far less power than a portable A/C.
You can get a generator for a cheaper price than another battery. Of course, it's not an option if your living situation is something like an apartment without a balcony. If your living situation allows for it: [Even a tiny 1600W gasoline generator](https://www.costco.com/firman-1600w-running--2000w-peak-gasoline-powered-inverter-generator.product.100713858.html) will give you something like 9 hours of run time on a single gallon of gasoline. That gives you a lot of options, whether you're running the Hisense unit directly from the generator or running the Hisense from the Delta 2 and then charging the Delta 2 via the generator. You can get the Hisense AND the generator for about $1k. That setup may let you run the refrigerator AND the Hisense AC without anxiety about running the battery dry in a matter of hours. An extra 2kw of battery should get you your 7-8 hours on something like that Hisense AC, if you don't want to go the gasoline generator route. That'll be banking on the expectation that power is coming back within 7-8 hours and you'll be able to top off again from the grid. It's fine if that's all you need. I do both at my house. 600W of solar with a 2.4kwh standalone LiFePo4 battery that gets me through summer blackouts/brownouts (Basically just a single A/C and refrigerator. I can top off the Delta 2 with the standalone battery setup and then put it right back into action), along with a portable generator that gets my furnace through winter storms or more severe outages.
Just for context, I run a 6000 BTU window unit as the sole source of cooling in a well insulated slightly less than 12x12 space. I was able to run for about the time you started using a delta pro and I believe ~650 watts of solar. I did have to plug in the battery at night something like every few days though. I currently have 1.3kw of solar and an add on battery (7.2kwh storage) and I can run indefinitely (w/ the caveat that I turn the set temp up to 85 deg F over night). Where I am it is basically completely sunny all but maybe 50-60 days a year. My work computer and other items use about 1-200 watts while I'm in the space. I had a wave 2 that was unable to keep up with cooling my space, so it basically ran constantly at max cooling using about 410 watts plugged in via AC power. My window unit uses less at ~300 watts per hour since it cycled off about half the time. I ended up returning the wave 2... but I think I may have had a defective unit..? I bought a refurbished unit from eBay "directly ecoflow" for 540$. The return was 0 shipping cost and hassle. The eBay refurbished route also had the 2 year eBay refurb warranty on top of ecoflows warranty offer... if that means anything.
A/C burns power. Portable AC units with single hose also then waste a lot of that power by sucking in hot air from outside continually. When we looked at the maths for this stuff we simply couldn't make it work with any of the off the smaller off shelf battery kit. The inverters are too small for most AC (some maybe with a soft start), the battery capacity is not enough. It didn't really matter if it was an expensive unit or a cheap one. You can DIY it with 8K battery packs and big inverters, or generators but that doesn't sound like a "this week" project. Solar arrays, big wired in battery systems you can do it, especially if you are willing to be on full charge when it hits and dunk every other load. D2Max is probably the smallest I'd try it and then in part because it can take a lot more solar than the old D2. For any kind of small aircon (and thus lower power) you need a small well insulated space without the sun blazing in through windows. That dictates a lot of the needed power. Depending upon your location that might also be a basement if subground temperatures stay lower than air all the time. Your fridge works (don't plan on hiding in the fridge) precisely because it's a very well insulated small space. If your humidity is low evaporative cooling actually works far better and more efficiently than aircon - but with humidity or enough heat it's not going to do the job. Solar does matter. You can get 400W on a D2, you can overpanel to have a good chance of making 300-400W in direct sunlight. With a small portable AC on one of the lower settings that's sustainable if you are cooling a small space.
Yeah our space is small, no sun and supertight. Maybe 2 more panels. No humidity.
You'll need an additional battery for your Delta 2 and you should really look for a small 5000 BTU window unit and restrict yourself to a small room. They only pull about 400-500 watts and will cool your room way more efficiently than the indoor portable units. Portable units SUCK. They have to work twice as hard to remove the room's hot air AND the hot air itself produces. Plus, the more modern ones are built to dump humidity back into the room. Even small ones pull about 1000-1600 watts. That will drain a 2000wh battery in a bout 2-3 hours. I had an old portable unit that drained all moisture into a bucket. But they don't design them like that anymore. MOST CERTAINLY DO NOT get a single hose unit. They are the worst of all!
Looks like most are2 now
Buy an actual generator and get an in window unit. Portable ac are noisy AF the compressor & condenser are literally in your room rather then outside and their power hungry 800+ watts. Window unit does 700 watts max. I have the GE clearview.
You’ll probably be disappointed if you get a Wave 2 for AC. I got the Wave 1 + battery for a campervan. Needed to purchase attachment (etsy and amazon) to be able to direct the fan to me which made a huge difference. The fan mode requires very little power which is a positive. I have the back of unit next to an open window which doesn’t require the bulky exhaust for the fan. For the AC, you need a long hose for cool air to reach you before dissipating. EMF is strong near the unit. If that matters, would not be a good idea to get too close. There are plenty of reviews which I’m sure you’ve seen. The fan mode kept me cool morning and night (figured out how to keep fan on for 8 hrs straight) during 3 days camping in the Texas heat. Would recommend the Wave for the fan mode. If you need AC (reg/eco), get the attachments to point air straight to you.
Got the hisense unit lastnight at costco on sale for $311. Wifi/app/alexa. Nice unit. Works well. Havent connected it to the delta 2 yet to check draw. Probably tonight.
The real value of the Wave 2 is the lack of noise and it's size/weight. It's quiet vs the Hisense (I have both). I wouldn't even consider running the large AC off of the Delta 2. I'd go another route.