PowerPaul Australia Pty Ltd

06/09/2026

Using some of life's luxuries Off-Grid is not “impossible” and doesn't require a lot of infrastructure. A PowerPaul Scout battery and a basic 3000w inverter will do this easily…

I’ve always liked a sauna, so I figured it was time to play around with one to see what power it really uses. I got the Lyon from Alpine Spas who is local to here. It was reasonably cheap, easy to set up and compact. It’s a simple Far Infrared style and has 7 FIR panels to radiate the heat. In reality they are just resistive heaters at about 300w each. The whole unit is rated at 2100w so it can plug into any standard mains outlet (or inverter). I found it draws more like 1950w but this will depend a lot on the supply voltage. No hardwiring or high current circuit is needed. Temperature goes up to 70 deg C.

It takes about 30-45 minutes to heat up, and during that time the heaters don’t turn off. So we can say the pre-heat stage consumes 1000-1500Wh. Then a session in there could be anything between 15-45 minutes. During that time the heaters cycle on and off so it will likely average about 1000-1500w, so we can say that consumes 250-1200Wh. Ambient temperature, set temperature, how often the door is opened, and other factors will mean this varies for different people.

I found a small USB fan circulating air means much more efficient heating for the person (plug pack is outside the sauna, never run a rechargeable fan in something like this!). At the same time it also means the temp' sensor mounted at the ceiling is cooled slightly so it does have a longer duty cycle. This means power consumption would average much higher at 1750w or more. But the effect is also amplified. Having a higher seat so you're right near the ceiling makes the best use of the heat naturally being up high. I’m curious to see how running a small humidifier inside goes too, but that can happen down the track, that should promote more sweat as the body can't get rid of the heat as efficiently. Towelling off the sweat also helps.

What this all boils down to, is that running some luxury items like this is completely possible Off-Grid. In fact a session in this sauna would likely only consume 50% of a single PowerPaul Scout battery, or just 25% of a MonoLith. It also runs easily off an inverter as it's almost entirely a resistive load.

In summer this sort of consumption is not significant for most setups that are likely to use something like this. If you have 4kW of solar, you can replace the power used in just 30 minutes. If you time it right during the day, the sauna can run entirely from solar power and still charge your battery bank at the same time. During Winter or bad weather, these figures change a lot, but planning the usage around your needs (like everything Off-Grid) is the key to ensuring you’re completely powered.

https://powerpaul.com.au/product/scout-2026-12-8v-345ah-lithium-battery/

05/09/2026

The PowerPaul product line-up is evolving... Always...

We recently ran a 78Ah battery through it's paces, and it turned out to be excellent, however right before considering production we found out the cells weren't IEC62619 certified, so that prototype was canned, bu**er!

But that meant we looked at other options and for not much different size case, we could make a 100Ah battery instead. So we're in the process of going down that route and it means we should (hopefully) have some 100Ah batteries with a 150A BMS ready to go by the end of the year, just what many of you have been asking for.

The battery options we provide are still niche so we do a handful of batteries really well, instead of a lot of batteries not very well. This keeps us focussed on quality and ensuring our batteries have an edge over most others on the market. Most of our range come with capacity or BMS ratings above others. Running higher power items for short duration (like a microwave, induction cooktop, coffee machine, kettle, power tool, etc) is not an issue. We also focus on usable capacity, where others cut out when you need it most, ours are allowing you to use the last bit of energy for the necessities, whether that's calling for help, or making a coffee.

We have...
Joey 12v 100Ah 150A (coming soon)
Nifty 12v 163Ah 300A Slimline
Nifty+ 12v 326Ah 300A Slimline
Nifty+ 24v 163Ah 300A Slimline
Cub 12v 175Ah 300A (approx. N70 size)
Scout 12v 345Ah 300A, our most popular model
Cabin 24v 163Ah 300A
MonoLith 12v 645Ah 300A (Chassis or internal mount)
MonoLith 24v 345Ah 300A
MonoLith 48v 163Ah 200A

Every single battery is put through our own procedures to test both the cells and BMS performance, not just a sample or a short term load like most brands do.

Most batteries are now in stock and ready to go same day or next day. Freight can be organised anywhere in Australia.

See the website for full details and spec's of each model, get a freight quote, or place an order. Or use the contact form for any questions.

PowerPaul® lithium batteries handcrafted in Melbourne. Each battery is meticulously tested and cycled twice for peak quality and capacity.

03/09/2026

Weird things happen when engineering minds get frustrated...

*** Edit... 5 minutes at its rated load to try and drain the battery a little, and it crapped itself. I need to look closer but I think the output MOSFETS's are kaput. ***

An oven light failure tripped a circuit breaker a couple of days ago, which just happened to be on the same circuit as the PC, so of course some annoyance happened. But it reminded us that this PC should have been on a UPS.

We had this one sitting on the shelf so it was brought down and as expected the little 7.2Ah battery was on its last legs. Instead of buying a new one which would go kaput again in a few years, I decided ty pull the battery out and put connections for a REAL battery on the side. This means I can connect anything to it and our test Joey battery was called to duty.

This means about 20 x the backup power is ready to go any time.

It also means I get to see what the charger circuit does when Lithium is used. I'll be keeping an eye on it for a few days and putting it through its paces.

I also found a USB module hanging around so that got put in the front too. However when testing it just now, I have found the volt meter on the USB is VERY wrong. Even with the battery at 12.8v the meter showed 13.2v. Beware of cheap things like this as they may be very deceptive.

The wiring may be a bit of overkill, but it was what was handy 💪

02/09/2026

Heads up...

We'll be closed this Monday and Tuesday while I go back for revision surgery. Yep unfortunately what was done a few weeks ago didn't work, so here's hoping for a better result this time.

Freight dispatch should resume again on Wednesday Sept 9th. Orders placed over the weekend may not ship until then. So if you have an urgent order, get it in today for dispatch tomorrow.

02/09/2026

Well that was a long "tomorrow"... oops!

This Optima D31M has had several years of service inside a high spec’ DB Drag vehicle along with 5 other Optima Blue Top batteries, so it hasn’t had a cruisy life. All up the total capacity would be a little over 400Ah when new.

Peak loads are in excess of 7kW. It has a rated capacity of 75Ah C20, but that reduces to 65Ah at C2.5. Estimates of C1 rate are around 45Ah. Once you start drawing loads of C2-C3 that figure drop much more drastically so we would expect it to drop down to a figure like 20-30Ah before the amplifiers cut out due to low voltage. This means the entire battery bank could be discharged in 10-15 minutes which was exactly what happened recently.

These batteries have been removed and will probably be replaced by 4 x PowerPaul Cub batteries. Total capacity will now be about 700Ah and BMS capacity up to 1200A (even higher momentarily). We did some testing and still managed to trip the Amp’s into either low voltage shutdown or overload (TBC), but performance was still better than with the Optima's.

Back to the performance of the Optima battery on the test bench. At a 25A discharge rate is achieved 57Ah, which is either on par with some online quotes of 52-55Ah, or below the brand new quoted 65Ah mentioned on other searches. Still I think this is quite good for a battery of this age.

It then went on the bench to try an approximate C5 rate, which is about 13A. For this test it achieved 59Ah.

I think I'll do a 20hr test just for the fun of it, so I'll try add in the results of that later tomorrow. 20hr test turned out to be about 18hrs as the last bits crept up to higher current and I wasn't here to adjust it. However 67Ah was the ultimate capacity. But who uses batteries at a 20hr rate 🤔

Some other things that are worthy of mentioning for those of you who change from AGM/Lead Acid to Lithium. Whilst assembling all the cables, it was such a big bonus to be able to turn the batteries OFF so the terminals weren’t live. 12v may not be a dangerous voltage to touch, but the potential of a short circuit while manoeuvring heavy wires is very high.

In the end, for the same physical volume, and about 2/3 the weight, you can get a LiFePO4 battery with about 4 times the usable capacity, and significantly longer expected life.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1676268647841023&set=a.494619342672632

Teaser for tomorrow (or the next day). This optima battery has been in service for a few years now and has actually tested not too bad. It's still a far cry from a LiFePO4 Battery but it seems to have done okay considering its use.

31/08/2026

Teaser for tomorrow (or the next day). This optima battery has been in service for a few years now and has actually tested not too bad. It's still a far cry from a LiFePO4 Battery but it seems to have done okay considering its use.

30/08/2026

Not many of us are travelling right now, so it's the perfect time to remind everyone to drop into your local eateries and stores when you do travel...

PowerPaul batteries give so many people the ability to cook whatever you want, wherever you want, without restriction from wind, rain and fire. However we wouldn't be here without the inspiration to travel and stop in at the iconic local pubs for a pint and a meal of Bangers and Mash or a Chicken Parma (*Parmi) with chips and salad.

Make your $ savings when you want to free camp by a river or on a hill-top, but when you're close to a town show them the respect for looking after the area you camp in, and drop in to have a meal or re-stock the fridge from the local places. Try not to wait for the big few supermarkets because they have enough money.

There's no sales pitch in this post, just a gentle reminder that the towns across Australia generally do it tougher than those of us living in capitals and major hubs. When those towns suffer, our travels do too. Food, water, fuel and other necessities shut down making travel less comfortable, and of course lives that people have built get upended.

If you have a favourite place that you've visited in your travels, feel free to mention them (tag if possible too) in the comments so others can benefit from the same experience. So many places are sprawled across the massive 7,700,000 square kilometres that people don't know about or may pass through without second thought. But a reminder from you may help them drop in to support that place.

29/08/2026

We get some silly comments on some of our posts, and they're usually from people who have seen a couple of sensationalised YouTube videos and taken them as gospel. They also rarely look at things from the opposite POV.

We got one of these this morning and the person failed to provide any reasonable evidence, so it was just hidden because I'm not having that sort of stuff on here.

So for anyone wanting some straight up good info about battery fire risk (for the chemistry we use here), you can watch Will Prowse break it down in terms that ANYONE can understand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60LEo0Rwpp8

He has also done other videos about battery safety and explosion risk etc, so scroll through his channel and you will see some actual testing and analysis.

*Tired of getting ripped off? Check out my "Will Prowse Approved" s...

28/08/2026

A positive post (not a positive battery post)...

We love cats here, Fleck and Chance were adopted from 2nd Chance Cat Rescue over a year ago now and have settled in nicely. No need to fight their way to food or disrupt the local wildlife to survive.

But recently we've been helping a little boy kitty who clearly knew we're "cat people". Nick-named Plush this critter has become a morning and evening visitor.

He's also no longer needing to scrape through bins or cause trouble with wildlife. Instead there's a morning and evening meal and also some human interaction time.

If there's someone in Victoria who would like to adopt this cute cat, please get in touch. He's so cuddly, allows me to pick him up and put him on my lap for pats, belly rubs are accepted without any problem too. Oh and best of all his fur is just like a plush toy, it's amazing! He'll come up to me as soon as I open the door and bump up against my legs.

With a little care and some necessary vet work (desexing, vaccinations, microchip etc) I expect he'll be an incredible companion. I'm sure we can provide some advice and help if necessary. To see him find a forever home with a loving carer would be awesome.

I love his reaction when he walked through the donut I put outside for him to sleep in...

27/08/2026

Coast Custom 12 Volt doing their thing...

When the sum of the work is worth more than the components, that's when you get systems like this.

One line stood out and fits with what we've been telling people for years...
"This isn't just about fitting the biggest battery bank possible. It's about designing a complete system where every component works together, is properly protected, easy to monitor and built for reliable off-grid travel."

https://www.facebook.com/coastcustom12volt/posts/pfbid0fUzKC21XaFZqc7ev1f1Xf5auYcThGF3kQTGQFbcrWk96Kyc3oPFLPjH4yW4HCx6tl