diy solar

diy solar

190ah Lifepo4 $590

Don't get too excited ,weight seems about a kilo a cell down . 200Ah should be about 5Kilos if full and I see they make and offer a copy of CALB cells ? China Air Lithium Battery Co . So I'd not buy them .lots of frauds going on over there in batteries and there is no warranty worth anything .

Its a punt if you do it and you would only do it because they are cheap. That said I do it often.
 
What's it about those CALB cells that make you think they're a copy? Do you mean the 100ah or the 200ah versions?

The weight is down due to aluminium casing no? Comments have people confirming the capacity is correct.
 
Also from that wiki article these battery companies are increasing production hugely. It says in the space of 4 years they plan to increase production 5 fold, that's going to bring the price of cells down, which seems to be what we're now seeing.

EV car production is going to be what's pushing this forward now.

I am not aware of any EVs that use Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries (outside of China). LiFePo4 batteries do not have the density of Lithium Ion. Not a problem for most solar setups but a big issue for autos.

As for prices of Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries dropping, they have been and will continue to do so.

"Grade B" cells, if the reason they are "grade B" is they do not reach their designed capacity or their resistance is slightly out of spec, not really a big deal. As long as the cells you buy are matched to each other.
 
I am not aware of any EVs that use Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries (outside of China). LiFePo4 batteries do not have the density of Lithium Ion. Not a problem for most solar setups but a big issue for autos.

As for prices of Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries dropping, they have been and will continue to do so.

"Grade B" cells, if the reason they are "grade B" is they do not reach their designed capacity or their resistance is slightly out of spec, not really a big deal. As long as the cells you buy are matched to each other.

Yeah, I'm guessing the NMC cells are for cars and the lifepo4 ones behind are the cells being sold by this company. I'm only going on physical looks.

catl.JPG
 
What's it about those CALB cells that make you think they're a copy? Do you mean the 100ah or the 200ah versions?

The weight is down due to aluminium casing no? Comments have people confirming the capacity is correct.
Well CALB is a different chinese company for one .
The weight quoted is for a normal alloy cased cell.
Tesla has been using LiFePo4 in some of its cells but have not seen them go forward with that yet.
 
TL;DR: Well packaged. Got rated capacity. So far, so good.

Brief review of the shipping:
I bought 8x 123AH(120AH) LiFePO4 from BLS through their AliExpress Store earlier this summer. There was a slight delay due to a typhoon. Once it reached UPS, it arrived quickly. They came in 2 boxes with batteries individually boxed in anti-static bags with foam padding.
box.jpg
box_inside.jpg

Testing:
Most of the cells were closely charged but it took a bit to match one cell with the rest. I've only done one full charge-up/discharge test and got the estimated 3kWh after bottom balancing. So far, so good.
capacity.jpg
 
I'm looking at your meter. 3.5V per cell is where I run mine up to max . Thats 28V neat. usually I stay at about 27.5V while working . .
That's a long way from your 25.04 V Your meter is showing 100% for that voltage .
I just wonder what you have your pack set at? High and low voltages .
Is there a reason for it being set on CLR?

I'm interested because I have 3 of those type of meter . Not JUNTEK but same display and shunt etc. I've blown up 2 learning how to wire them and stupid shorts.

I too buy from Ali Express and have had no problems except being another country you can not expect a warranty to apply. Anyway if they work even reasonably with an active balancer set up on them and daily solar charge up I'm finding the cells stay spot on.
Ive bought 7 times so far and planning a 200Ah buy again now with one of those 48 volt MPP PIP inverters.
 
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This was a discharge capacity test. I boost charged up to 27.6V then stopped and let it settle down (about 27.0V). I disconnected the solar panel and cleared the stats before I began testing capacity through discharging. The 25.04V is where I stopped as I was satisfied with how much I pulled (3kWh). The meter registered it discharged 118.70AH/3000WH. The batteries were advertised as 123AH/120AH.

My current settings I keep the top around 27V after it settles. I cut-off the load at 24V which the cells bounce back up to about 25V resting.

As for the meter showing 100%, I haven't played around with the configuration to figure out how to set/calibrate that properly. I use it more for power draw monitoring.
 
I’ve purchased similar cells from BLS battery, (16) 200Ah 3.2v cells in July for my RV. They exceeded their AH capacity and have performed very well. Jason from BLS, whom you may text with thru the app was very helpful in matching a 400A BMS. I also secured a second, lower rated Daly BMS as a backup.

I ended up on Ali express After purchasing three lion energy batteries and as I was waiting for delivery I watched Wills video that they were overstating their capacity.

after peeking inside the Lion batteries and seeing The same blue batteries you see on BLS, YouTube videos of Victron lithium batteries containing yellow Chinese Thundersky or Winstons, It should be evident that China makes quality lithium batteries.

While I did need to make my own low temperature solution I have no doubt that these batteries will perform as expected for significantly less money.

I would like the terminals to be more robust and for them to provide BMS solutions with remote
Monitoring and low temp cutoff. I’m never the less completely satisfied with my purchase.

Attachment is capacity at a 50-60A discharge. There was still more to give.
 

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I bought the 190ah battery pack and am charging it with the 12V MPP solar all in one off shore power right now. The 4 cells arrived very well matched matched at 3.1V, which I thought was a bit low. The pack wont seem to charge past 13.55 volts. I do have the daly BMS 100A on it.

I'm new to this, but I was expecting a much higher voltage before they stopped accepting charge. I have the bulk charge set to 14.6 as recommended by BLS. Wasnt exactly sure where to set the float but have tried changing it to see if that was holding up charging. Cells were 4 mV out of balance, so balancing now. I didnt think that was too bad.

Any ideas on the voltage? I'm waiting for a hall effect monitor and then will do a capacity test.
 
after peeking inside the Lion batteries and seeing The same blue batteries you see on BLS, YouTube videos of Victron lithium batteries containing yellow Chinese Thundersky or Winstons, It should be evident that China makes quality lithium batteries.

Sure does, making sure you get the quality ones is the trick!
 
LiFePO4 batteries have a very flat voltage curve for majority of their state of charge. The voltage will rapidly increase sometime after 90%. Same on the other side, voltage will rapidly drop somewhere under 10%. You can search for "lifepo4 charge curve" for lots of graphs.
 
LiFePO4 batteries have a very flat voltage curve for majority of their state of charge. The voltage will rapidly increase sometime after 90%. Same on the other side, voltage will rapidly drop somewhere under 10%. You can search for "lifepo4 charge curve" for lots of graphs.

Yeah. It just seemed to be sitting exactly at this voltage for a very long time with no change. I just asked jason at BLS and he said "this is normal", so not 100% sure.
 
Yeah. It just seemed to be sitting exactly at this voltage for a very long time with no change. I just asked jason at BLS and he said "this is normal", so not 100% sure.

What does your charge controller report for energy generated? How big is your solar system?

For reference, it takes my 330W system roughly 2 days to charge my 24v 120ah bank.
 
What does your charge controller report for energy generated? How big is your solar system?

For reference, it takes my 330W system roughly 2 days to charge my 24v 120ah bank.
I'm using the utility charger. I don't ont have it in my trailer conversion yet so no solar. Should be charging at 20A. That is the rating of the utility charger in my unit.
 
Any ideas on the voltage? I'm waiting for a hall effect monitor and then will do a capacity test.

after a full charge the voltage settles to around 3.4-3.5v Per cell. My pack will reach 14.4/14.6 volts while taking a 75a charge but then drops to around 13.5v. All the capacity is there.
 
I bought the 190ah battery pack and am charging it with the 12V MPP solar all in one off shore power right now. The 4 cells arrived very well matched matched at 3.1V, which I thought was a bit low. The pack wont seem to charge past 13.55 volts. I do have the daly BMS 100A on it.

I'm new to this, but I was expecting a much higher voltage before they stopped accepting charge. I have the bulk charge set to 14.6 as recommended by BLS. Wasnt exactly sure where to set the float but have tried changing it to see if that was holding up charging. Cells were 4 mV out of balance, so balancing now. I didnt think that was too bad.

Any ideas on the voltage? I'm waiting for a hall effect monitor and then will do a capacity test.
Did you order from aliexpress?
 
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