You might think electricity is a given—that there’s a never-ending supply available at the flick of a switch. That is, until your power goes out and stays out. Making it worse, your phone only has 10% battery, darkness is falling, and it’s suppertime.
There’s a solution to this dilemma: the Renogy Lycan Powerbox. The Lycan Powerbox is a large emergency or portable energy solution that can charge gadgets, power appliances and generally supply electric power when you lose yours—or while you’re camping or at the beach. I had a chance to try out the Renogy Lycan Powerbox for a few weeks: here’s what I learned.
What is Renogy Lycan Powerbox?
You could call the Lycan Powerbox a portable solar or AC-powered generator. Set on handy wheels, because this thing is heavy at 55 lbs, the Powerbox also has a telescoping luggage handle so it’s relatively easy to move around. Plus it’s got sturdy side handles.
With an interchangeable battery (LiFePO4 Battery) you can actually keep a second battery on hand for long unplugged trips or emergencies and swap it in when needed.
The Lycan Powerbox comes with an easy to read and understand LCD display that shows you information on battery capacity, any errors, and whether your DC or AC load is on or off. AC and DC output buttons allow for easy switching between the two output modes.
There’s also a built in LED floodlight panel for emergency lighting.
This generator, unlike a traditional gas generator, operates absolutely silently, and obviously has no fumes, meaning you can use it indoors. If you have it on for a while, a fan does kick. in, but it’s pretty quiet and shouldn’t disturb you.
What can you connect to Lycan Powerbox?
You can connect plenty of things to the Lycan Powerbox; almost any AC powered appliances like fans, heaters, even a low energy toaster or a coffee maker. There’s 4 AC plugs, 4 USB ports for charging gadgets like phones, and tablets and because it has what’s called a Pure Sine Wave Inverter inside, it can handle the more delicate electronics of all your technology, without frying it or otherwise rendering it useless.
Renogy Lycan Powerbox What’s in the Box?
With all that, there’s still more stuff packed in here; there’s an AC cord for recharging of course,
There’s a couple of other cables you’d use for charging and recharging including an MC4 to Anderson Power pole: to connect solar panels for recharging and a Cigarette lighter to Anderson for recharging using your vehicle. I also opted for the Anderson Power Pole to Alligator Clip for charging an external lead acid rechargeable battery and plus a 5.5mm DC to Light bulb socket with a handy switch for more emergency lighting; these cables are extra.
Power Output: Renogy Lycan Powerbox
When it comes to the power specs, the Lycan Powerbox has 4 x 110V AC Output, 3 x 2.4A USB Port Output, 1 x 1A USB Port Output, 2 x 12V DC Output. It has a maximum wattage of 1200watts.
What can Lycan Powerbox do? What’s it used for?
This gadget has so many practical uses. If you’re a camper, RVer or like us you’re dabbling in the campervan lifestyle, the options are endless. Bring it on the road to provide additional power for any gadgets or appliances you want to bring with you: phones, fans, tablets, camera batteries, your laptop; even TV lights if you’re a YouTuber!
If you’re more of a homebody, this box is still a pretty good idea; it can supply power for hours and even days if you have an outage, and if you live in a disaster prone area (I’m thinking California with its frequent earthquakes or the hurricane-prone southern US), having one of these on hand could mean the difference between struggling and surviving comfortably.
What can I connect to Lycan Powerbox?
In short, you can connect almost any powered gadget to the Lycan Powerbox, so long as it doesn’t draw more than 1200 watts, or so long as everything plugged into it doesn’t exceed 1200 watts in total. You can find the wattage draw printed on the back or the bottom of every electrical gadget.
When it comes to vanlife or RVing, or even tenting, you could plug a small portable heater into the Lycan and keep it warm inside your vehicle or tent without danger of carbon monoxide, and without needing to run a noisy generator or diesel heater. This use alone is going to improve our stay in the campervan in colder weather.
How long does the battery last on Lycan Powerbox?
How long the battery will last you will obviously depend on what’s plugged into it, but the Lycan Powerbox is designed to for up to 1075 watt-hours. What does that mean? While we could talk about the formula for calculating this, I’ll give you something more practical.
To test it, I plugged a Dyson fan into the Powerbox at 7am and left it running all day at medium speed. By 7pm it had only depleted 40%of the battery—I still had about 60% of the battery left.
My Lycan Powerbox arrived fully charged, and even though it was a good two weeks before I got to using it, it stayed at 99% battery.
You could use a low energy appliance like a toaster, coffee maker or even an energy Star approved cooler or small fridge.
How do I recharge Renogy Lycan Powerbox?
This amazing and versatile generator box can be recharged using solar panels, and Renogy makes what it calls solar suitcases for this purpose (up to 300 watts can be plugged into the Lycan). You can charge it using an AC wall outlet, or a 12V auto socket, and as noted earlier, the cords and cables for recharging it are all in the package.
While I’d definitely add solar panels for recharging once we start hitting the road in our van this spring, for now, I’m able to recharge it using the wall socket, so that’s super convenient.
Renogy says a full recharge could take up to about 12-13 hours through shore power or 5-6 hours utilizing a 300W panel. In my testing, I was able to replenish my battery from 60% -100% in about 5 hours.
What’s the life cycle of the battery?
Renogy says you should get about 2000 charging cycles from the battery inside the Lycan Powerbox. Of course since it’s interchangeable, once you hit your battery max life cycle, you can replace the battery, meaning this device will last you pretty much forever.
Overall review of Renogy Lycan Powerbox
The Renogy Lycan Powerbox is pretty amazing. It’s clean, portable electrical power that lasts.
It’s easy to use, easy to move around and amazingly versatile thanks to all the different ways to charge it, all the things you can connect to it, not to mention that replaceable internal battery basically guarantees you’ll have this for life.
If there’s any downsides, I found that the small compartment under the LED light isn’t big enough to hold all the leads and connectors; it would be nice if there was a way to keep everything together, particularly if you’re taking this on the road. I was thinking a remote control could be a neat addition. I also found that the weight of the box and the lightweight luggage handle made for some maneuverability issues; it’s kind of awkwardly weighted and tends to always want to tip back onto its base, but to be honest you’re not going to be driving this around a lot.
Overall, I’m super happy we got the Lycan for our vanlife plans and I think it’s the ultimate emergency preparedness gadget too. I can definitely recommend it for it’s versatility, portability and practicality, not to mention its easy to use design.
The Renogy Lycan Powerbox sells for about $1799USD and it’s available from Renogy’s website. If you want to save some money, you can use the TECHGADGETSCANADA discount code I have.
