diy solar

diy solar

Documenting Purchase from Amy Wan of Shenzhen Luyuan Technology Co. LTD. Alibaba

Hello @myles. I am in BC, Canada and ordered 16 cells from Amy about a month after you did. I am curious if the rest of your cells arrived and if and when the UPS tracking page ever populated with delivery dates.

My cells are being delivered to Vancouver Island and I'm hoping they can avoid needing to go through the mainland and any areas affected by road closures. I was hoping UPS tracking could offer some guidance ahead of time, but delivery date just says "The delivery date will be provided as soon as possible." Did you get any updated notice before yours arrived?
 
Hello @myles. I am in BC, Canada and ordered 16 cells from Amy about a month after you did. I am curious if the rest of your cells arrived and if and when the UPS tracking page ever populated with delivery dates.

My cells are being delivered to Vancouver Island and I'm hoping they can avoid needing to go through the mainland and any areas affected by road closures. I was hoping UPS tracking could offer some guidance ahead of time, but delivery date just says "The delivery date will be provided as soon as possible." Did you get any updated notice before yours arrived?


My shipping NEVER updated with a date, to the best of my knowledge, once the packages were on the UPS truck, it changed to "on the way" but still with no delivery date, then they all the sudden just showed up, first i received 11 boxes on one truck, then 3 more came, then the last 20 showed up!
 
My shipping NEVER updated with a date, to the best of my knowledge, once the packages were on the UPS truck, it changed to "on the way" but still with no delivery date, then they all the sudden just showed up, first i received 11 boxes on one truck, then 3 more came, then the last 20 showed up!
Thats pretty much how all my stuff from China shows up. Its always a surprise.
 
My shipping NEVER updated with a date, to the best of my knowledge, once the packages were on the UPS truck, it changed to "on the way" but still with no delivery date, then they all the sudden just showed up, first i received 11 boxes on one truck, then 3 more came, then the last 20 showed up!

Same.
 
Amy had informed me that my packages were in customs review a little over a month ago (21-Oct), and cleared customs two weeks ago (15-Nov). I had originally requested UPS but they were switching to FedEx, so the UPS number she gave me months ago are worthless. Ten days ago she gave me the new FedEx numbers, and so far there is nothing else. I don't know if I should be worried, or if this is still normal.
 
I have signed up with both FedEx and UPS for notifications, and generally receive about 2 days notice before they arrive. It's free, and only two days notice since I am only one state over from the port.
 
Awesome! And the more i research about the lifepo4 cells, the more i am inclined to build a detached, climate controlled shed to house all my solar stuff inside. I am a safety nut, especially when it comes to my mechanical room being beside living quarters and I have 4 girls in my house to protect. It maybe overkill but the last thing i want is a fire inside my house!
 
I have signed up with both FedEx and UPS for notifications, and generally receive about 2 days notice before they arrive. It's free, and only two days notice since I am only one state over from the port.
Yeah, I've been signed up for the same, but it sounds like it won't matter, as the packages just show up with no warning.
 
Awesome! And the more i research about the lifepo4 cells, the more i am inclined to build a detached, climate controlled shed to house all my solar stuff inside. I am a safety nut, especially when it comes to my mechanical room being beside living quarters and I have 4 girls in my house to protect. It maybe overkill but the last thing i want is a fire inside my house!
Smart. All my equipment is in the barn( no animals)
 
Awesome! And the more i research about the lifepo4 cells, the more i am inclined to build a detached, climate controlled shed to house all my solar stuff inside. I am a safety nut, especially when it comes to my mechanical room being beside living quarters and I have 4 girls in my house to protect. It maybe overkill but the last thing i want is a fire inside my house!
yes, I specifically built an insulated solar power shed for the LIFePO4 batteries and inverters and charge controllers etc outside next to the house.

my advice is to build it bigger than you think you need. mine is 8x8 super insulated. it is not big enough for my large off-grid setup but I am coping at the moment.

when it was 53 below 0 Fahrenheit last winter a 250-watt light bulb would keep it at 58 degrees. don't want to freeze 64 272Ah Lishen cells etc.

the other side is trying to keep it cool in the summer heat. at times I opened it up with a screen door to let it cool off at night and utilized a fan, but it really needed a small air conditioner or something, a few days as the temp would climb up in the high 80's.

I plan to make a 12x12 foot off-grid solar power shed that will be superinsulated( possibly this winter).
My main concern was I have a handicapped daughter who is unpredictable. so need to keep her out of harm's way, so I built it outside with a lockable door to keep her away from the potential electrical danger.

The other issue/delemma is exactly where to place the new larger solar power shed.???? close enough to the solar panels and close enough to the house. a winter project?

I do not believe that fire is my highest risk in this setup but is a very valid concern for sure. my main concern was the little one contacting high amperage dc or possible ac equipment. so the locked door and an outside solar power shed was the answer.
Lots of extra time but the end result is worth my efforts! Safety first!

Soon I will have the 4th battery build which is a 32 cell 4P8S EVE LF280K build 280x4 will be 1120 amps at 24 volts. 28 of the 32 EVE cells are here now!

The other already assembled and cycling battery builds: 2 are 16 cells 2P8S lishen 272Ah cell builds = 544Ah, and one 4P8S 32 cell Lishen 272Ah build =1088Ah 24 volts.

All is being done off-grid -- no net metering or grid-tie in South Dakota. if you want grid-tie you can give them electricity for free with a bunch of extra electrical components needed probably (not for me). the electrical Coop manager did stop one day and offered to let me hire them but no net metering and they had not installed any solar PV systems so I declined their service for pay offer.

so extra effort to keep the young and curious away is worth your while! ? cheers from South Dakota

It is time to do more work on the solar panel array support structures; 30 250watt PV panels mounted 50 more to go!
what super mild weather spell we are having at the moment!
 
Started sorting out all the batteries and starting to spitball the battery cabinet itself. I bought a powder coated steel cabinet from Canadian tire. But I am going to spray the inside of it with what we call in the automotive world slrayable seam sealer. It's a 1K urethane based non conductive rubber like spray. I will be designing battery clamp of sorts and a simple spacer for between the cell casings themselves.

The plan is to have 4 seperated battery banks for redundancy. So each pack is 16S and I have a chargery 16T for each pack so four chargery BMS. And the. Into a solark 12K. All off grid. I still need to read up all the wiring details and fuses that need to ordered. That's the next step! I am slightly regretting the chargery. But I think I can move past the quirky menus and potential calibrations of will prowse video so far haha.

IMG_20211205_210953.jpgIMG_20211205_211009.jpg
 
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Started sorting out all the batteries and starting to spitball the battery cabinet itself. I bought a powder coated steel cabinet from Canadian tire. But I am going to spray the inside of it with what we call in the automotive world slrayable seam sealer. It's a 1K urethane based non conductive rubber like spray. I will be designing battery clamp of sorts and a simple spacer for between the cell casings themselves.

The plan is to have 4 seperated battery banks for redundancy. So each pack is 16S and I have a chargery 16T for each pack so four chargery BMS. And the. Into a solark 12K. All off grid. I still need to read up all the wiring details and fuses that need to ordered. That's the next step! I am slightly regretting the chargery. But I think I can move past the quirky menus and potential calibrations of will prowse video so far haha.

View attachment 74748View attachment 74749
You may need to add additional structural support to those shelves. What is it rated for? I like the idea of non-conductive material over the metal, but using sheets of non-conductive material may last longer and not break down like paint or foam over time.
 
I need to do something similar for the 16x 280ah I have coming from Amy. I was planning to put them in my garage, but it isn't built yet and is unlikely to get built for another year... sigh. So I may have to mount the box on an external wall. So.... does anyone know of any premade wall-mountable enclosures that can be at least water-resistant, that I can insulate to heat if they get too cold, and are reasonably low-profile (much like a Powerwall format)? Asking too much? ...probably.
 
You may need to add additional structural support to those shelves. What is it rated for? I like the idea of non-conductive material over the metal, but using sheets of non-conductive material may last longer and not break down like paint or foam over time.

The shelves are rated for 250 lbs each so much more than needed, it is a heavy duty cabinet, However i will be adding bracing to the underside of the shelving, or the topside as the shelves maybe able to handle that weight at max capacity, but a prolonged static load of 180 + lbs is what i am worried about.

as for the sprayable seam sealer application.. this is the same material that goes on a moving car getting pelted by aggregate on gravel roads etc and handles many hours and miles of use under very harsh Canadian conditions, car washes, gravel rocks, road debris, sand blasting from gravel roads etc. I am not even one bit concerned that the static not moving load of the batteries will effect it in any way. I will report back on this though if its my final course of action.

Another good alternative for those that aren't in the automotive field, something that's more universally applicable would be a sprayed in bed liner to coat the inside of the box, usually meant for trucks. this is usually urethane based, and urethane in itself is not electrically conducive either, and we've all seen how much a bedliner can take a beating.
 
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I need to do something similar for the 16x 280ah I have coming from Amy. I was planning to put them in my garage, but it isn't built yet and is unlikely to get built for another year... sigh. So I may have to mount the box on an external wall. So.... does anyone know of any premade wall-mountable enclosures that can be at least water-resistant, that I can insulate to heat if they get too cold, and are reasonably low-profile (much like a Powerwall format)? Asking too much? ...probably.
I saw a guy on youtube using one of these job site boxes for his cells. They are waterproof and lockable, and you can run cables to them. Fairly inexpensive also.

 
Thanks for the link, but it's not working. I don't know if they're blocking traffic from outside of CONUS, or what...

Anyway from the URL I'd say that's too deep to wall mount. I would prefer something that's 6-9" thick otherwise it will be in the way of traffic.

1638806121528.png
 
Thanks for the link, but it's not working. I don't know if they're blocking traffic from outside of CONUS, or what...

Anyway from the URL I'd say that's too deep to wall mount. I would prefer something that's 6-9" thick otherwise it will be in the way of traffic.

View attachment 74797
That looks like you don't allow javascript. I use NoScript, and until I marked Lowes scripts as trusted, I would get that same error. Having got it once, you'll need to clear the cookies for Lowes.com before trying again with scripts enabled. Having said that, it may very well be a non-US thing, but I doubt it.
 
Thanks for the link, but it's not working. I don't know if they're blocking traffic from outside of CONUS, or what...

Anyway from the URL I'd say that's too deep to wall mount. I would prefer something that's 6-9" thick otherwise it will be in the way of traffic.

View attachment 74797
Yeah, the job site box is NOT wall mount, but it is built for outdoor use. I thought that was one of your requirements.
 
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