12v 280ah lifepo4 home made acrylic box

[fitnessman]

hi guys, have watched a few videos and am keen to build my own 12v lifepo4 battery.

i have a VW t5 with a 120AH AGM battery under the single passenger seat and would like to upgrade to lifepo4, working out the sizes i can get 4 x 3.2v 280ah cells in the same space and fit a BMS in there also (agm is H: 220mm x W: 173mm x L: 305mm truned on its side so its 173mm high to fit under the seat, 4 x 3.2 lifepo4 cells taped togeather is H: 200mm x W: 173mm x L: 300mm again they will be placed on their side). i will charging the battery with my renogy Dcc50s MPPT and DC to DC charger which has a lithoum setting aswell as AGM (for solar only using 1 x 100w panel at the moment but will upgrade if i get this bigger capacity)
my question is that i would like to buld a custom acrylic "box" to shield the batteries under the seat to the exact dimentions of the 4 batteries tied togeather and prevent any possible shorts accross the termials, is there any reason not to build this box with acrylic for these cells that i am unaware of?
also can someone confirm that Lifepo4 can run on their side like AGM batteries can.

thanks

 

[Maast]

I'll chime in; I wouldnt. An all-acrylic box is a little too potentially melty for my tastes. Wood'll char at higher temperatures than acrylic will melt, also the fumes from an acrylic fire would be nasty as hell in a enclosed space like a van.

As far as sitting on its side, I wouldnt. There is a liquid organic solvent electrolyte in the LFP prismatics and if you were to hit a internal pressure high enough it'd start spewing liquid vs gas and the electrolyte is nasty stuff to inhale.

 

[thegoogler]

Any progress on this? I'm thinking of the same acrylic material to build mine inside my travel trailer. I've also considered using a Noco Group 31 battery box, but there's not enough room width-wise to allow for any compression (aside from just some strapping tape) and still fit some simple padding around the cells to absorb impacts.