Powering my house, no problems

Bluetti
Apex 300

A house battery that’s very stable. It’s taken over from my Elite 200 V2, and now powers all my servers and my PC.

Bought by me Not sponsored Not gifted
The front of my Bluetti Apex 300: the lit display, charging mode switch, and four UK sockets under the label AC output 230V/3840W, with one plug in.
Mine. Four UK sockets, 3,840W.

The short version

The good

  • 3,840W, so I can pull far more than my Elite 200 V2
  • Very stable. No problems at all so far
  • Runs on solar by day and cheap Economy 7 by night
  • Expandable with B300K or B500K batteries
  • Keeps my portable Bluettis topped up too

The not so good

  • No DC ports at all
  • Bluetti’s app still won’t work properly with my phone
  • Topping it up from another power station works, but isn’t efficient

Who it’s for

Anyone who wants a proper house battery to run off solar in the day and a cheap night tariff after dark. I’m so happy with this system.

2kW Of solar feeding it, and I keep adding more.

How I use it

My house battery

The Apex is a house battery, and it’s very stable. It’s replaced my Elite 200 V2, in that it now supplies power to all my servers and my PC.

It has a much bigger power capability, 3,840W against the Elite 200 V2’s 2,600W, so I can pull far more from it.

So far there have been no problems at all.

Solar by day, Economy 7 by night

I’ve now got a 2,000W solar system, and I keep adding to it. During the day the solar powers everything and charges the Apex at the same time.

Come sundown, it has enough juice to get me to midnight. Then Economy 7 takes over and charges it up. By 7am it’s back on solar, and that’s it for the day.

My Bluetti Apex 300 on the floor against a brick wall, plugged into the mains, with red and black solar cables running through two isolator switch boxes in front of it.
Plugged in, with the solar isolators in front.

No DC ports

It has no DC ports, but I’ve got enough portables for that: my Elite 200 V2 and an Elite 30 V2.

The Apex charges them during the day. Any excess energy goes into the 200, and that keeps our phones and other gadgets charged.

Batteries that work together

If I need to, I’ll give the Apex a charge from the Elite 200. I know it’s not as efficient as adding a proper expansion battery like the B300K or B500K, but it’s fine for now, and I get to use them separately.

I haven’t had to charge the other power stations during the day, because the Apex supplies enough power for all of them through solar.

What’s next

I’m so happy with this system. I’ll probably get the B500K at some point, but for now it’s doing just fine.

The app problem, and my fix

I did have one problem: Bluetti’s own app. I still can’t get it to work properly with my phone. So I came up with a solution, and built my own.

Bluetti Monitor

A free app that connects to your Bluetti over Bluetooth and shows a detailed description of every stat your power station reports.

Mac and Linux

There’s a DMG for macOS, and RPM and Flatpak builds for Linux. It only reads from your power station. It never changes a setting.

Bluetti Monitor showing my Apex 300 at 42 percent, discharging 292W to my servers with 4 hours 6 minutes left, a chart of the last hour, all 16 battery cells within 7mV of each other, and lifetime totals of 125.6kWh solar and 57.5kWh AC output.
Bluetti Monitor on my Apex 300 this evening: 42%, 292W going out, 4h 06m left, and 125.6kWh of solar so far.

Bluetti Monitor is my own unofficial app. It isn’t made or endorsed by Bluetti.

The specs

Bluetti’s numbers, and what I actually found.

3,840WContinuous AC output, through four UK sockets
2,764.8WhLiFePO4 battery, rated for 6,000+ cycles
2,400WSolar input, across two 1,200W inputs
58kWhMaximum capacity with B300K expansion batteries
7,680WPower Lifting mode, for heating loads
0DC ports
125.6kWhSolar mine has taken in so far

My setup

Bluetti says vs what I found

Bluetti saysWhat I found
3,840W outputFar more headroom than my Elite 200 V2. Runs my servers and PC with no problems.
2,764.8Wh batteryEnough after sundown to get me to midnight, when Economy 7 takes over.
Up to 2,400W of solarMy 2,000W of panels power the house and charge it through the day.
Expandable to 58kWhNot yet. I top it up from my Elite 200 for now, and I’ll probably add a B500K.
Bluetti appStill won’t work properly with my phone, so I built Bluetti Monitor.

Specs are Bluetti’s published figures. The solar total and power readings are from my own unit.

The verdict

After running my house on it.

Got a question about the Bluetti Apex 300? Email me at review@madrant.co.uk. Good questions get answered right here in the review.