EcoFlow DELTA 2 allows clearances to be extended during load shedding

With the wave of power cuts expected to continue indefinitely in South Africa, there are only two options to adopt. The first is to simply follow the load shedding schedules, planning your cooking, work and daily life around each block of outages. The other option is to put mechanisms in place to minimize the impact of your experience during these power outage blocks. Certainly, the second option has a cost, but creating a certain level of normalcy has a price. EcoFlow has offered various solutions to everyday users and recently enhanced its offering with its Series 2 collection. This includes the EcoFlow DELTA 2 and RIVER 2 products.

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When it comes to load shedding, most solutions meet basic needs. Examples include keeping the lights on, making sure the router provides Wi-Fi, or simply charging smartphones. While some solutions take into account large appliances such as refrigerators and televisions, there is one area often overlooked by everyone: gaming. Despite the meteoric rise of e-sport in South Africa, the games and players are still stigmatized. Many people think it's not worth spending an hour or two relaxing and playing a few games, let alone making a career out of it.

With the EcoFlow DELTA 2, you can keep the lights and router on for a few hours, and it's powerful enough to keep you gaming, even as we enter phase 6 load shedding. After receiving the device for review, I quickly put it through the most general tests. However, the DELTA 2 does not just meet basic challenges, it can meet other ones. Games, which draw a lot of power from your graphics card, will put more pressure on battery power consumption. And that's exactly what I wanted to test.

Conception and design

For many power solutions, aesthetics are not the priority in delivering a good product. Fortunately, EcoFlow prides itself on providing solutions that work and look good. A solution that isn't an eyesore when it's in your living room or somewhere visible is relatively important.

This is a compact chassis, considering the capacity of the unit and the possibilities of the inverter. Its dimensions are 400x211x281mm. Without getting too technical, that's about six loaves stacked in pairs. Having tested a few other devices with a smaller capacity than the EcoFlow DELTA 2, its size is surprising.

Additionally, it weighs 12 kg. This may seem heavy, but in context it is very light. You will have no difficulty moving it from the house to the car and vice versa. Living in a third floor apartment, I was able to move it quickly and without issue. Plus, it fits easily in your trunk when you travel. Even if the trunk is full, it stows just as quickly behind the seat inside.

The device has two handles, on the front and back. This makes it easy to take and transport. On the front, a large LED screen provides plenty of detailed information. Just below is where all the USB ports are located.

On the back you will find the power sockets for 3 and 2 pin plugs. Additionally, the AC input port is under a flap. Finally, at the bottom are the DC outputs, with the “car charger” port also having its own flap.

A few buttons are worth noting. The first is the power button located on the front panel at the bottom. It's different from any other button, with a clear separation to ensure you don't accidentally turn it off. Next, there are three flat buttons with a white indicator light on the end. These buttons turn each section on and off, including the USB, AC, and DC ports.

I like the idea of ​​having separate areas for each type of output and each having its own control. Overall, it's a simple design that isn't obnoxious at all. It stores neatly and is not obtrusive if it needs to be visible.

EcoFlow DELTA 2 Specifications

When it comes to device specifications, it is essential to understand what you are buying. Unfortunately, you'll often find that brands add specifications that don't make sense to the average buyer, leading to incorrect purchases for what they're trying to get. EcoFlow makes things much more accessible by adding basic information and professional specifications.

For starters, the EcoFlow DELTA 2 has a 1,024 Wh – or 1 kWh – battery. Users can add additional batteries to the main unit and increase the capacity up to 3kWh. This is quite impressive if you want to power the entire house in the event of a power outage.

It comes standard with 13 ports. This includes 4 AC outlets with an output of 1800W and a surge of up to 2700W. It also has a built-in feature called a limited period.

In addition to the AC output, you get 2 USB-A ports (5V, 2.4A, 12W), 2 USB-A Fast-Charge ports (5V, 2.4A / 9V, 2A / 12V, 1.5A , 18W) and 2 USB-C ports (5/9/12/15/20V, 5A, 100W). That's 6 USB ports in total. In addition, it has a car power socket (12.6V, 10A, 126W) and x2 DC5521 sockets (12.6V, 3A, 38W). When it comes to output requirements, the majority of devices are covered.

Knowing that you are covered for most South African outlets is awesome and provides some peace of mind. But it is above all the different charging options that set it apart. First of all, it supports AC charging (from a wall outlet) up to 1200W. The charging speed can be changed for slow charges. Charging speed can be changed for slow cycles to preserve battery life. Users can increase the power to 1200W for short intervals between load shedding programs, charging from 0 to 100% in just 80 minutes.

Additionally, EcoFlow also offers other charging options when AC power is not available. The first of these is the car charging option. Using your car's 12V socket, you can charge the DELTA 2. It supports 12 or 24V options at 8A.

The solar charging feature is something that would work great in a modern home or when you're away from any other power sources on a camping weekend, for example. The device has a separate port for this function, which offers charging options of 11-60V, 15A and up to 500W. Although EcoFlow sells solar panels for use in this case, it is not limited to brand-specific solar panels, which is a great thing.

Finally, it also offers 1,100W DC charging where available. The unit is designed for different power levels, sources and fluctuations to allow easy charging wherever you are.

The battery is made of LFP or lithiated iron phosphate (LiFePO4). This battery has become famous for its use in such devices, providing better lifespan, efficiency and increased safety over time. Therefore, users can expect a maximum of 3,000 battery cycles at over 80% capacity, or 3,000 recharges. For an average user, autonomy should reach 10 years with a single recharge per day.

Finally, the device is also equipped with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technologies. Again, this is about allowing users to connect to their devices. By downloading the EcoFlow app, you can connect to the device and change the various settings. You can adjust the charging energy usage, the interval between operations, deactivation of unused ports and general management of the device. This also means that you can access the device from anywhere, as long as it remains connected to the Wi-Fi network.

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General performance and battery

Using the EcoFlow DELTA 2 in everyday conditions makes it easy to complete any task and meet any challenge. Taking into account the power of your device and the duration of load shedding, the device offers many features in various configurations.

To put into perspective how easy it is to handle household appliances, here are some comparisons:

• Smartphone – up to 100 full charges
• Laptop (60W battery) – approximately 16 charges or 16 hours of use
• Router (10-15W) – 31 hours of use
• Bar fridge – 15 to 30 hours
• Refrigerator (120W) – 7 to 14 hours
• TV – 8 to 10 hours

Having tested many of these products, I can attest to the averages mentioned above. Additionally, it is essential to use a combination of these devices. For example, I can easily power a 2.5 hour load shedding window and still run the TV with a set-top box, router and laptop for a few hours. On a normal day, I would leave these items in place without worrying about whether they will be used until the power outage passes.

I liked that the device provided a good overview of the remaining battery capacity in the event of a power outage. You will get a percentage and remaining usage time. Additionally, this information is available on the device's LED screen or via the mobile application.

In the event of a power outage, the DELTA 2 emits an audible signal to indicate that it is no longer supplied with alternating current. So I can easily open the app and see the expected consumption duration based on what's running. In most cases, it is well over four hours.

I often ran the projector and PC from the device, especially in the evening. With an average load, the PC consumed around 60 W and the much larger projector 180-220 W. This combination also achieved around 4 hours and managed the load shedding of stage 6. This combination also allowed wait around 4 hours and manage the load shedding slot in step 6.

Once you've configured your device with the devices you want to keep powered on during load shedding, you don't have much else to consider, as it will operate reasonably stable when needed.

The question arises whether the device works well as an inverter even though it is labeled as a power station. It doesn't quite work like an inverter in the same way, but it does it well enough. Plugged-in devices are not completely battery-free when powered by alternating current. Instead, she uses a little while keeping it lightly charged, as slowly as possible. When all outlets are unused, a tiny amount is still drawn from the battery. This means that there is no problem in the event of a power outage, because the consumption does not change for your devices. So there are no dangerous surges or spikes on the devices, but rather on the battery side, for which there are several fail-safe methods to avoid any problems.

Next-level gaming with EcoFlow DELTA 2

Although daily use is crucial to the consumer, I was more interested in how the EcoFlow DELTA 2 addressed challenges that many other power solutions cannot.

Since not everyone has the same gaming setup, I took the opportunity to test out a few options. Below is a list of configurations I tested to ensure I covered as many uses of the EcoFlow DELTA 2 Power Station as possible.

• PC gaming
• Laptop gaming
• Console games
• Project vs TV vs Monitor

MonitorTVProjectorPC150 – 250W3h20 – 7h30160 – 280W3h10 – 6h30240 – 480W1h50 – 3h30Laptop100 – 200W5h00 – 9h00120 – 220W5h00 – 8h30220 – 380W3h00 – 4 h30Console (Xbox Series

Test averages fluctuated significantly throughout the battery life. As we all know, games are not constant in terms of FPS for each scene; therefore, consumption changes frequently. Therefore, each test was performed at least twice to understand overall power usage and battery life.

While you may not have the ability to game continuously on your projector for more than 4 hours, it is definitely capable when using a monitor or TV, both of which run at 4K. At the same time, with a 1080p projector, the consumption of the PC, laptop and Xbox Series X is different from that of 4K outputs. However, given the quadruple power required for the projector, there is no significant saving.

Overall, using the EcoFlow DELTA 2 for gaming is impressive. It keeps you powered during the standard 2.5 hours of load shedding and can go beyond 4 hours during stage 6 load shedding. Better yet, you can crank up the graphics and use a 4K display, and there won't be any effect. So if you game for a living and need to keep up the pace throughout the day, you can rest assured that the DELTA 2 can hold up.

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Is EcoFlow DELTA 2 worth the investment?

Depending on your use cases, power solutions have different prices. A simple inverter will do the trick if you only want to power your router. However, you'll need a little more power to watch TV, power your refrigerator, or in my case, continue gaming during a power outage. This is what the EcoFlow DELTA 2 provided. It easily handled daily tasks, even during phase 6 load shedding, allowing me to continue gaming throughout the day.

The EcoFlow DELTA 2 retails for R24,999. It’s not cheap, far from it. However, it is a very reasonable price when you consider what an alternative 1 kWh system would cost, with the inverter and portability added. Additionally, being able to play for hours even during phase 6 load shedding, especially if that's your profession, is good news.

All things considered, the EcoFlow DELTA 2 is a great product at a reasonable price, offering ample battery power and flexibility. It is highly recommended.