2Big2B
Free Wheeler
I am not affiliated with the author.
I am new. Maybe this is old news.
I just stumbled across this on YouTube which should probably be of interest to many of us here. This is a wonderfully instructional video about a serious off grid DYI Solar Power installation on a farm.
I learned stuff from this video. A case in point was about how, with the lack of internal resistance in LIF batteries, they can instantly discharge some very high amps - enough to burn circuit boards and fry stuff - which, as he explains, is why some early DYI adopters of LFE batteries kept blowing up inverters.
From the notes:
HighTechLab
In this video, I cover the full installation of the prismatic lithium ion cells (LiFePO4) for the off grid ranch.
So some background - 2 years ago we decided to go down the route of Off-Grid. This was partially made feasible by the fact that the local utility company (PG&E here in California) was asking for $70,000 to bring power to our ranch, despite the fact that we have 4 of their poles already running through the 40 acre property. They would the be charging us monthly on top of that to use power and if we didn't want to pay their astronomical rates (the going rate in the area is around $.30/KWH), we would then need to continue to invest in solar bringing the cost easily to $100,000. Long story short we told them to pound sand. I've posted in here a few times as I've made upgrades to the system, but essentially we started out with a build cost of $16,000. When I originally did the buildout on the system, I went with 32ea 200ah 12v size 8D FLA batteries - And that was approx $6400 investment. They worked well, at first.
Fast forward 2 years later - I have 3 pallets out back stacked with the 8Ds, and only had 12 batteries properly functioning when I finally decided to switch to the lithium cells. What a disaster. Expensive mistake.
The problem came from a few sources - I moved out of state for work, and was no longer home to do proper maintenance. The cells got rode hard and put away dry (Literally). As a result, the capacity went through the floor and the generator was auto-starting anywhere from 3 times to 10 times per night - the batteries were holding practically nothing. When I finally came home a few months later I noticed this was the case and we promptly added 25 gallons of distilled water to 27 batteries and tried to charge back up. It was too late, the cells were done for.
I flew back out of town and kept in close contact with my parents back on the ranch and things were not going well. They were burning gallons upon gallons of diesel fuel and having all sorts of balance problems. I flew back two weeks later and tried to figure out the best batteries that were left, and from 6 shelves of batteries (total of 24 batteries) I was only able to get 12 of them to have a decent capacity and hold some sort of charge. I was able to get them down to 3 generator cycles per night which equated to around 5-9 gallons of fuel per night. Since there was plenty of solar power the daytime was no issue, but it was winter time and the nights were long.
Struggle, struggle, struggle, until one of my youtube followers reached out to me and taught me about Prismatic lithium. I was very hesitant at first as I feared for fires caused by battery packs - This was also part of my initial design choice to go with the lead acid batteries. Come to find out that the prismatic LFP cells are far more stable than say, 18650 technology, easier to keep balanced, etc. I was still hesitant because I didn't understand why they burned and how easily it was for a string of 18650s to experience a thermal runaway.
There are plenty of channels here on Youtube that used old laptop batteries and make these intricate battery packs, but at the end of the day they are using
So here I am now, I got my first 100ah pack of LFP. Yes, this pack is undersized for my loads and usage, however, it's a stepping stone to both learn from and to save up cash for a bigger bank.
These things are truly amazing, I am down to 1 generator cycle at night, which tells me they are holding at least 5x more usable power than the FLA's.
As a follow up, check out his amazing setup that he was uprading:
Living Off The Grid With NO POWER BILL EVER
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They are the best new lithium.
