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I looks like I was wrong, think I got the memory confused with my ham radio gear which is 13.8v. I emailed them too, so look more stupid. Nonetheless 3 tested as 3.28 and one as 3.25. I did ask them how they store them in their warehouse and why they ship at full charge instead of at the...

Moving on... (Homer disappearing into hedge)

Thanks everyone, I whipped up some new cables with some 12 AWG I had a spool of and some ring connectors, that bumped up the amperage to 5 A and the batteries are now past 3.1. I was going to use some 1 AWG cables I had, but the the ring connectors were too big and made contact with each other...

I have considered them, my only concern is that they will take months to get here and then there being an issue and waiting months more to return them and get new ones back. I am totally open to suggestions being new to the larger cells (I built a small 10 Ah pack a couple years ago). I mean I...

smoothJoey, so do those numbers still apply if I made it a 24 volt system, or are the number different? I mean the .85 and .8 bits. Same for 48 V? I ask because I see people on here using a 24 V battery with a 100 Amp OverkillSolar BMS and a 3000 watt inveter and they seem to be doing fine. I...

Interestin Interesting, on the Klein website you can compare and they had a PDF that compares them and the 390 does not have the inrush option.

I at least know those things, I like what you did there with the working on one side thing. ;-)

OK, so the new Electrodacus setup should handle more 100 A+ like the Overkill Solar BMSs? To be honest their website is a joke, everything is on one page and all smash together so you're not quite what specs are what or where one ends and another begins. I'm not quite sure where to begin with...

OK, that's good info and makes sense. So by quality you mean something like Victron? Are there other "quality" brands? I believe in the case of the Overkill Solar BMS that would be 127% of it's rated capacity since the BMS is 120 Amp. I'm not sure what other BMS options are out there that are as...

I went ahead with the Fortunes for now, I felt better about them for my first large pack. Is it a bad idea to mix brands down the road?

Another question, if I put a 1500 watt inverter on a 12 V system but don't draw the full 1500 watts (probably more like 800 or less) from basic electronics like router, modem, laptops, and monitors, will that be too much? I figured a little under 600 watts in my home office for the stuff I use...

I will add that one reason I was interested in the Electrodacus is because it could save cost on BMSs. Also I like to see the data, I may not understand it all yet, but I'm trying to learn. Also I like the number of methods you can collect the data. I am a technical guy being a DevOps Engineer...

OK, for now I think the 12v system with the Overkill BMS will probably suffice. I can't use the space heater because it's a 1500 watt space heater, but I may have to look into those little 500 watt ones. Surprisingly that space heater is pretty small, but man I forgot how many watts it used, I...

Ah, good to know. Ah, good to know, thanks for sharing. I just emailed them too to see what they suggest.

Stationary for our house.

OK, then it sounds like that Kaiweets may be a good option then. I don't see the point of measuring anything on the DC side since I will use the formulas to make sure I am within the margin.

Beefitter, that system is AWESOME!!! Great job! I just ordered 4 100 Ah Fortune cells, I think I will order another set to make my system 24 v like yours. I was going to go with 12 v, but found it wouldn't be enough to power a refrigerator and a few small devices like I wanted. If you have some...

Ah. I wondered if it's the leads, I have bigger ones I can use. So is it important to get them all to 3.65? Or will 3.31 work?

I wonder how the cell sellers store and or charge the cells...

OK, but the general answer is stay with the same brand and capacity? I mostly want to confirm it's a pretty hard yes or no. If it's pretty open then I want to confirm that. I will never put any packs that are overall lower or higher capacity together, but is minute differences between the packs...

Ouch, OK so the OverkillSolar BMS I was going to buy won't handle that much current, it's only rated 120 amps. So if I understand this right, even for a 200 watt system I would need a BMS that can handle 245 amps?

Hey everyone, I was curious, if I get around installing solar panels on my property, will they get damaged if I don't have them connected to anything? I ask because I may set up my 5 panels in the coming month, but I may take a few weeks after to connect them to a charge controller, batteries...

I don't know much about the other settings, but in my case my panels are 315 watts each, the only number I could find in the specs on that list was the VOC, so this is what it said. The panels are 315 Watt REC TwinPeak2.

Hey everyone, I'm glad to join in and start working on building a system for my little homestead. I am new to solar power and will have a lot of questions.

Hey thanks so much for the great videos, I just discovered your channel and website. I was wondering what system you would suggest for someone who wants to get their whole house completely on solar without sacrificing any usage. I bought a solar power setup from Iron Edison this summer, I...

Interesting. Yeah, that's a tough one, I don't have a ton of money to play around to figure it out. I received my at 3.8v, so fully charged from the Electric Car Part Company (Will's primary suggested Fortune cell dealer).

OK, so I see Will has the Daly 12 V BMS that can handle 250 Amps, so that could work for at least 2000 Watts right? To power a refrigerator with a potential to ramp up to 3000 watts when starting (I was told by someone on this forum) I would need a 48 V system, to power a 4k watt inverter...

Larry does your system power a full sized electric refrigerator?

Thanks a lot for explaining SolarQueen! Yeah, that makes more sense, I am SLOWLY understanding more. So do you suggest the Midnight brand, or is something like a Victron better? From what I can tell the Midnight brand is quality and is rated well, not some cheap Chinese charge controller, but I...

I really like them, but my major concern is if there was am EMP attack or CME event, that would fry the BMS and they have it all sealed up and don't appear to sell a replacement BMS. So those batteries would be unusable unless you have a BMS that could work, then you will have to figure out what...

Hey everyone, I was curious what you would suggest for as 12v system I plan on building soon. I'm going to make it like Will's hand truck generator setup, but 12v for now. I will use it to power my home office in case of emergencies. But I am confused as to why Will used the Electrodacus instead...

I mean instead of buying another 4 cells to make 200 ah now I have to use them to make a 24 v 100 ah battery.

OK, yeah, true. Can you make specific suggestions though? I built my 20 Ah pack last year, I didn't top balance them, I'm not sure how to do that. I also hooked a wire up wrong because the BMS wiring diagram was confusing, but I figured it out after it got hot, it works fine now, but I rarely...

OK, thanks guys. I think I will build a 100 Ah pack first just to the get creativity going and have a pack for longer ham radio use then go from there. But what I take from the both of you it sounds like I need to: 1. Figure out my usage 2. Buy and inverter that will cover that usage 3...

But otherwise does everyone have good experience with them? Are the reliable? Do they arrive in good condition?

That's also useful to know. I know people around here in North Idaho who swear by propane and other who swear gas. I know some who have diesel too. Half of our neighborhood is off grid, the other half, like myself, are on grid. I spent about $600 on a gasoline Westinghouse 7000 Watt generator...

My plan was to charge via grid for now, then eventually adding a solar charge controller after the fact. I have 5 315 Watt panels in my shipping container I haven't gotten around to installing on racks. I bought a full solar package at the beginning of last year before I knew much, I just sold...

Hey everyone, I kind of have a dilemma. I was about to buy 100 Ah Fortune cells to make a 100 Ah pack, but for not much more I could get 280 Ah cells from an Aliexpress buyer with a US warehouse. I know, at least based on what Will has stated numerous times, that the Fortune are high quality and...

OK, so with that said, what does "same age" mean? Same year? Same month? What does same capacity mean? What's the allowable variation? I mean theoretically, based on that statement, I may not be able to go with the same brand. I mean I may buy more cells in 6+ months to make a 200 AH setup...

Would I really need more than 120A for a 12 v system and a 1500 Watt inverter? If so, do you suggest another quality programmable BMS?

Oh, that stinks, so that won't work at all or could I wire it some other way?

Hello how safe or unsafe is it to mix batteries by manufacturer? I was thinking of buying SOKs, but I may want to build my own packs with Fortune cells too later, I haven't decide. I just heard it could be bad to mix cell makes/models. Is that only because of the health of cells?

Oh, that's good info Diysolar123! OK, anyone else want to chime in? Because that info may make my decision for me.

Wow, yeah, that's a great deal, I will keep my eye out. I just decided to sell my two unused MK Deka 245 Ah AGMs, I will use that money towards LiFePO4 cells. I bought them for $867, I'll try selling them for $800 since they have just sat there in my shop for a few months.

Oh joy. I'm using my cheap Klein multimeter testing each cell individually. I haven't bothered connecting them all together since I don't have my BMS yet. They arrived Friday.

OK, thanks for the info guys. Yeah I will probably use 100 ah cells and the Fortune seem to be the best out there. I will probably go with one 24v BMS, that is a good point about less deviation.

Hello, I'm going to build my own 24v system on a hand truck with an electrodacus and 8 100 ah Fortune cells, but I was wondering if you suggest the Growatt or the MPPT all-in-one and why? It seemed to me that Will upgraded to the Growatt for his 48v setup, but I didn't know if it's an upgrade on...

Yeah, and I knew better too. I was at HomeDepot earlier today and didn't think to buy some 10 gauge while there, I had some but gave it to someone that needed it. I may have something else, I need to look. Actually, I think I have some wire for house wiring that I could use too. Yeah, I...

It looks like the Samlex can do up to 3000 Watt surges. Nothing in my office, including my inject printer won't do anything that high. I have a space heater under the desk, but know enough not to use it on a 12v battery system. I just need to run two laptops, two monitor, Router, and modem/radio...

Hey everyone, I was wondering if any of you have taken into account EMP and or CME protection? I've done a decent bit of study on the subject, my conclusion is that LiFePO4 batteries are great, but their largest weakness is the BMS. So I had to rule out Battle Born batteries sadly since they...