Buy now or wait? 48v battery build

[G00SE]

18650battery, ezealco, imr batteries, and gobel all carry US stock and all have reasonable prices.
Fortunately since @42OhmsPA ordered some battero cells, it seems gobel now has those stateside as well!
Overseas pricing seems to have decreased but also not moved in about a month. I sometimes wonder if until these warehouses diminish their current stock that we won’t see localized lower pricing. They seem to have the volume to dictate the higher prices for stateside convenience

 

[DIYrich]

Compare the cost of waiting to the estimated price reduction.

Price of Lifepo4 lf280k has dropped about 40% in one year. Total cost (battery, bms, etc), about 25%. New lf304 bring down total cost per kwh. Maybe lf350 next year? Maybe assume another 25% reduction in one year?

If you only use for backup power, grid down is infrequent, and you have a generator, then cost of waiting is cheap.

If you don't have net metering, and lots of excess solar generation during the day, time of use pricing, then cost of waiting is expensive.

 

[42OhmsPA]

18650battery, ezealco, imr batteries, and gobel all carry US stock and all have reasonable prices.
Fortunately since @42OhmsPA ordered some battero cells, it seems gobel now has those stateside as well!
Overseas pricing seems to have decreased but also not moved in about a month. I sometimes wonder if until these warehouses diminish their current stock that we won’t see localized lower pricing. They seem to have the volume to dictate the higher prices for stateside convenience

I actually cancelled the overseas shipment and I'm spending a few hundred more to order from US stock, the whole wait time worries me with world events as they are.

 

[mjgillen]

I actually cancelled the overseas shipment and I'm spending a few hundred more to order from US stock, the whole wait time worries me with world events as they are.

What did you order and from whom?

 

[42OhmsPA]

What did you order and from whom?

Battero Tech 280Ah (REPT) , Gobel.

 

[mjgillen]

Battero Tech 280Ah (REPT) , Gobel.

Thank you!

 

[[Au]Ray]

Hello all,

I've been shopping around a bit and ran across this from Battery Hookup and wonder if this is a great deal or should I wait and shop around more as prices continue to fall?

I realize this thread is several months old, but I have been scouring the web recently in order to find the best deal on a few LiFePO cells as well.

You mentioned

The batteries I am looking at are EVE Grade A 3.2v 280ah cells for $110 each

I will assume that you have made a purchase in between now and then, but in case you have not, or if any others are interested, the best deal I have found so far in terms of price per kW are the 3.2v 228Ah CATL cells from Batteryfinds. They currently offer a 4-pack of matched CATL 228 cells for $296. Here is the link to those:

4-PACK - 3.2V CATL 228Ah LiFePO4 prismatic cells

And if you are dead set on the EVE 280Ah they have those in stock as well for $340/4-pack ($85 each)

Then, if you have not ordered from them before, add the coupon code "WELCOME20" to your order for $20 off your cart total.
Now you have 4 228Ah cells for $276 which is $69 per cell. A bit less capacity yes, and not EVE cells, but I believe the CATL cells should perform similarly well. Additionally, these ship for free, from the west coast.

BatteryHookup who also has some great deals right now. They've got a discount code you can use on the CALB 230Ah cells that brings them down to a price just a tad bit higher than the CATL cells from Batteryfinds. The CALB cells have some really nice bulky terminals. These also ship from California, and for me 16x of these will cost about $100 shipped to Vancouver, WA.mAlso noteworthy is the warranty period; for purchases made from BatteryHookup a 60-day warranty is included. For all orders from Batteryfinds, you will have a 1-year warranty. Pretty big difference in the warranty, and with the free shipping I have to say Batteryfinds has the obvious edge.

With these sort of prices, along with the fact that I am building a 24v system, the most sensible approach for me right now is to order 16 cells so that I can build a pack w 8s2p config that will yield 460Ah, ~11.7kWh when completed. I hope this info is of some use to you.