EcoFlow Delta Pro Ultra X Ran a House for 8 Hours on 81%

How the EcoFlow Delta Pro Ultra X handled a simulated blackout

The test was simple: kill the breaker feeding the Smart Home Panel 3 at 8:53 a.m. and see how long the house stayed normal.

CNET's reviewer lives in suburban Chicago with buried power lines and no real weather risk, so waiting for an outage wasn't an option. The workaround was to flip the breaker that feeds the EcoFlow Smart Home Panel 3, installed as a subpanel, and let the Delta Pro Ultra X take over.

It took about 20 milliseconds. That's fast enough that the reviewer's desktop, modem and work setup never noticed. The family didn't either. By 1:00 p.m. the battery had fallen to 50%, at which point two circuits set to shed load switched off automatically.

The breaker went back on at 7 hours and 51 minutes, with the battery at 19%. During that stretch the system was powering a refrigerator, a beverage cooler, two electric coolers, lights, TVs and a Legion Tower 5i with an RTX 4070 and three monitors.

That last detail matters. A gaming desktop with three displays is not a light load, and the reviewer notes that switching to a laptop or cutting bedroom circuits would have stretched runtime considerably. This wasn't a worst-case test or a best-case one. It was a real workday.

The Smart Home Panel 3 is the quiet upgrade

The battery gets the attention, but the panel is what makes the system feel like part of the house rather than a gadget in the garage.

The Smart Home Panel 3 supports up to 32 circuits, which is plenty for a 100-amp home. More importantly, it can reportedly serve as a main panel, something the previous Smart Panel 2 couldn't do. That opens up cleaner installs for people starting from scratch.

The app is where the system earns its keep. Circuits are sorted into Must Have, Nice to Have and Not Necessary, and the app estimates runtime for each configuration. The reviewer set Nice to Have circuits to drop at 50% charge, which is exactly what happened at 1:00 p.m.

One honest snag: the circuit labels from the electrician didn't match what was actually powered. That's a reminder that install quality matters as much as the hardware, and EcoFlow now has certified installers nationwide, a change from the earlier setup where the electrician reportedly needed the reviewer's guide to get through it.

EcoFlow Delta Pro Ultra X vs Tesla Powerwall 3 and Anker Solix

The DPUX is competitive on capacity but the price is the part that needs a hard look.

The reviewed system costs $10,999 for the inverter, two batteries and the Smart Home Panel 3, which is $3,299 on its own. Installation is extra. That's a serious number, and it puts the EcoFlow in the same conversation as permanently installed home batteries rather than portable power stations.

On raw capacity, the DPUX offers 12.28 kWh, slightly less than the Tesla Powerwall 3's 13.5 kWh starting point. The Anker Solix E10 is another comparable package. The difference is that the EcoFlow gear is modular and can be expanded with extra batteries or solar, which is a real advantage if you plan to grow the system.

Who should actually buy this

If your power is reliable and your lines are buried, this is a luxury. If outages are a recurring problem, it's closer to insurance.

The reviewer's own situation makes the case: blackouts are rare, and the system sat mostly idle until a real outage happened while they were out shopping. That's the honest trade-off with any home battery. You pay upfront for something you hope never to need.

Where it makes more sense is in areas with frequent storms, weak grids or time-of-use rates. The Smart Home Panel 3 can be configured to run the house on battery during peak pricing and switch back to the grid when rates drop, which turns a backup into a tool for lowering bills.

The catch is that the $10,999 figure doesn't include installation, and the final cost depends heavily on your panel, your wiring and local codes. Get a quote before assuming the sticker price is the whole story.

Availability and pricing

EcoFlow sells the Delta Pro Ultra X and Smart Home Panel 3 in the US, and the company works with certified electricians for installation. The reviewed configuration costs $10,999 before installation, and the Smart Home Panel 3 alone is $3,299. Pricing and installer availability in the UK and EU vary by region, so check EcoFlow's local site before budgeting.

Installation is the variable most people underestimate. The final bill depends on your existing panel, whether the Smart Panel 3 goes in as a main panel or a subpanel, and local permitting. That's why the sticker price is a starting point, not a total.

The Delta Pro Ultra X isn't cheap, and for most people with reliable power it's hard to justify. But the test shows something more useful than a spec sheet: a home that kept working through a blackout without anyone noticing. That's the bar for home backup, and EcoFlow cleared it.