diy solar

diy solar

Seplos Solar

MT off grid said:
What do you mean by off grid/ grid assist
Click to expand...
no feed back to grid.
looking at the growatts or mpp solar/voltronic inverters, they are considered off grid, but can make use of the grid to take peek loads/charge batteries on low solar days.

as you're not delivering back to the grid, you may be able to get away from your UL listing requirement.

also, a different inspector sometimes helps too ;)
 
houseofancients said:
no feed back to grid.
looking at the growatts or mpp solar/voltronic inverters, they are considered off grid, but can make use of the grid to take peek loads/charge batteries on low solar days.

as you're not delivering back to the grid, you may be able to get away from your UL listing requirement.

also, a different inspector sometimes helps too ;)
Click to expand...

houseofancients said:
no feed back to grid.
looking at the growatts or mpp solar/voltronic inverters, they are considered off grid, but can make use of the grid to take peek loads/charge batteries on low solar days.

as you're not delivering back to the grid, you may be able to get away from your UL listing requirement.

also, a different inspector sometimes helps too ;)
Click to expand...
That's what I want to do, my plan is to have my 220 loads on one breaker and the 120 loads on my battery bank but the inspector says that nothing in the NEC code book allows for this, he said that if a building has grid power all off grid equipment is required to be UL listed even if there is no physical way for the two breaker panels or power sources to feed one another
 
I can add a little more info about the Mason battery. I'm pleased with the robustness of the steel case, which weighs ~25 lbs. empty. The thickness of the steel is about 0.05", putting it somewhere between 16 and 18 gauge. The sixteen 135 AH cells weigh in at about 96 lbs., so the assembled battery will be about 125 lbs. The built in MIDI fuse has a 1,000 AIC rating, which I'd expect to be a huge obstacle to any kind of certification.
 
tigerwillow1 said:
I can add a little more info about the Mason battery. I'm pleased with the robustness of the steel case, which weighs ~25 lbs. empty. The thickness of the steel is about 0.05", putting it somewhere between 16 and 18 gauge. The sixteen 135 AH cells weigh in at about 96 lbs., so the assembled battery will be about 125 lbs. The built in MIDI fuse has a 1,000 AIC rating, which I'd expect to be a huge obstacle to any kind of certification.
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I'm not familiar with fuse sizes, why do you think that would be a problem?
 
Thai said:
Anybody have comments, remarks, recommendations regarding Seplos Solar. In particular their recently advertised MASON series LiFePO4 battery system?
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I'm responding to the OP, haven't read beyond that so apologies if all this has been covered already.

I have no experience with their products and have not purchased from them, but I have interacted with a few of their reps, they strike me as an honest and earnest company in a market filled with many less than honest sellers.

They have produced some content that have been of great value to the community on the meaning of A, B, and C grade cells, and how to spot/test the difference.

The BMS they sell has been receiving positive feedback recently, I don't know who manufactures it, but its supposedly the same BMS being used in the EG4, Jakiper, and SOK rackmount batteries.
 
Found the certs for Seplos Batteries
 

Attachments

  • SEPLOS_PUSUNG-R_LiFePO4_Battery_Pack_CE_Test_Report[1].pdf
    2.6 MB · Views: 31
  • SEPLOS_PUSUNG-R_LiFePO4_Battery_Pack_ROHS_Certificate[1].pdf
    547 KB · Views: 18
  • SEPLOS_PUSUNG-R_LiFePO4_Battery_Pack_UN38.3_Certificate[1].pdf
    340.1 KB · Views: 15
MT off grid said:
Those are eve cells, according to seplos they manufacture the cells they use so im not sure if theirs are UL or not
Click to expand...
Can you provide a source or direct quote for this info? To the best of my (limited) knowledge, Seplos does not manufacture any raw cells, and does not claim to, but they do sell cells under their brand name. Maybe this has changed, I have been out of the loop.

tigerwillow1 said:
The built in MIDI fuse has a 1,000 AIC rating, which I'd expect to be a huge obstacle to any kind of certification.
Click to expand...
MT off grid said:
I'm not familiar with fuse sizes, why do you think that would be a problem?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
There are two basic types of current (ampere) rating a fuse has. The nominal current rating it is designed for (i.e. a "125A" fuse), and the AIC (or "Ampere Interrupt Capacity") which is the current that the fuse is rated to safely break.

Why the MIDI fuse is a problem is that the AIC of 1000 is extremely low for main battery protection. Best practice with lithium batteries seems to be an AIC of 20,000A or greater. In practice this means a class T fuse or high AIC breaker, but even a moderately higher rating would be better than the 1000A midi fuse rating.

Seplos is not the only rackmount battery that fails to meet this best practice, to my knowledge, every single rackmount battery comes without proper main battery overcurrent protection. Some of the others come with breakers that are only rated for AC and are not even DC rated at all.
 
Dzl said:
Can you provide a source or direct quote for this info? To the best of my (limited) knowledge, Seplos does not manufacture any raw cells, and does not claim to, but they do sell cells under their brand name. Maybe this has changed, I have been out of the loop.


There are two basic types of current (ampere) rating a fuse has. The nominal current rating it is designed for (i.e. a "125A" fuse), and the AIC (or "Ampere Interrupt Capacity") which is the current that the fuse is rated to safely break.

Why the MIDI fuse is a problem is that the AIC of 1000 is extremely low for main battery protection. Best practice with lithium batteries seems to be an AIC of 20,000A or greater. In practice this means a class T fuse or high AIC breaker.

Seplos is not the only rackmount battery that fails to meet this best practice, to my knowledge, every single rackmount battery comes without proper main battery overcurrent protection. Some of the others come with breakers that are only rated for AC and are not even DC rated at all.
Click to expand...
The response I got from seplos when I asked for the cell manufacturer was that they produce the cells and I was send a data sheet with cell info and all it has is their name on it
 
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MT off grid said:
The response I got from seplos when I asked for the cell manufacturer was that they produce the cells and I was send a data sheet with cell info and all it has is their name on it
Click to expand...
If you still have it would you mind sharing the datasheet here or through private message?
 
MT off grid said:
The response I got from seplos when I asked for the cell manufacturer was that they produce the cells and I was send a data sheet with cell info and all it has is their name on it
Click to expand...
 

Attachments

  • Seplos 3.2v 100ah (C32100A) lifepo4 battery cell specification(1).pdf
    458.9 KB · Views: 26
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Dzl said:
Can you provide a source or direct quote for this info? To the best of my (limited) knowledge, Seplos does not manufacture any raw cells, and does not claim to, but they do sell cells under their brand name. Maybe this has changed, I have been out of the loop.


There are two basic types of current (ampere) rating a fuse has. The nominal current rating it is designed for (i.e. a "125A" fuse), and the AIC (or "Ampere Interrupt Capacity") which is the current that the fuse is rated to safely break.

Why the MIDI fuse is a problem is that the AIC of 1000 is extremely low for main battery protection. Best practice with lithium batteries seems to be an AIC of 20,000A or greater. In practice this means a class T fuse or high AIC breaker, but even a moderately higher rating would be better than the 1000A midi fuse rating.

Seplos is not the only rackmount battery that fails to meet this best practice, to my knowledge, every single rackmount battery comes without proper main battery overcurrent protection. Some of the others come with breakers that are only rated for AC and are not even DC rated at all.
Click to expand...
 

Attachments

  • Seplos 3.2v 100ah (C32100A) lifepo4 battery cell specification(1).pdf
    458.9 KB · Views: 8
Dzl said:
Can you provide a source or direct quote for this info? To the best of my (limited) knowledge, Seplos does not manufacture any raw cells, and does not claim to, but they do sell cells under their brand name. Maybe this has changed, I have been out of the loop.


There are two basic types of current (ampere) rating a fuse has. The nominal current rating it is designed for (i.e. a "125A" fuse), and the AIC (or "Ampere Interrupt Capacity") which is the current that the fuse is rated to safely break.

Why the MIDI fuse is a problem is that the AIC of 1000 is extremely low for main battery protection. Best practice with lithium batteries seems to be an AIC of 20,000A or greater. In practice this means a class T fuse or high AIC breaker, but even a moderately higher rating would be better than the 1000A midi fuse rating.

Seplos is not the only rackmount battery that fails to meet this best practice, to my knowledge, every single rackmount battery comes without proper main battery overcurrent protection. Some of the others come with breakers that are only rated for AC and are not even DC rated at all.
Click to expand...
as with other, seplos doesnt use the breaker as a overvoltage protection, rather as a simple way to disconnect power, they rely on the bms mosfetts
 
houseofancients said:
but @Sanwizard didnt ;)
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Yeah, the only certifications seem to be available for their 100ah Pusung batteries, which are twice the price. Since I am doing DIY, I dont really care about certs. The Masons, with the sale price of $1000 per 6.9KW 16S battery, had a better value at 14.4 cents per watt hour ( plus shipping though, but that would be the same for the Pusung) than the Pusung.
The ability of the BMS's to monitor across banks in parallel, in an awesome metal enclosure is what sold me. Once they communicate with my inverters, it will be a perfect solution for me. I just wish I had bought more of them, since the price is now $600-$800 more each.

Any thoughts about using these 135AH banks in parallel with 280ah banks? I know Andy at off-grid-garage did some tests, but has anyone tried that for real?
I have the two other Seplos 200AH BMS's, so they should work with the same software on the 280AH banks.
 
houseofancients said:
as with other, seplos doesnt use the breaker as a overvoltage protection, rather as a simple way to disconnect power, they rely on the bms mosfetts
Click to expand...
My opinion is just a layman's opinion, but I recently shared my perspective towards that approach here if you are interested.

However, in the case of Seplos, I thought it was a fuse not a breaker? @tigerwillow1 mentioned a MIDI fuse.
 
Dzl said:
My opinion is just a layman's opinion, but I recently shared my perspective towards that approach here if you are interested.

However, in the case of Seplos, I thought it was a fuse not a breaker? @tigerwillow1 mentioned a MIDI fuse.
Click to expand...
Yup. Its a small 150amp fuse in a plastic case with tiny connectors. Its the only real subpar component of the battery that should be replaced with a class-T fuse and better connection points.
 
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