aolithium 48v vs. sok 48v rackmount

[beastman]

Hi,

I recently had a power outage of 4-5 days in Northern CA, and our sok48v six stack (31kw) + solark15k kept us running the entire time, even with lots of rain using the 8kw solar array and currently the external generac lp is not working. Might be looking to buy another solark 15k and parallel the two; but looking to save some cash on the battery side.

I have a friend who is using the aolithium batteries with his solark 15k (20kw) and he has had zero problems with them for 8 months. They appear to have a descent bms and have precharge resistors like the 48v sok batteries w/ bms. It's about $4200 for 20kw - quite a deal w/ the bms.

Does anyone have any concerns about the aolithium's here? It seems like they are nearly 1/2 the cost of SOK 48v rackmount.

While my 48v SOK rackmounts have been going for six months w/ zero issues, spending another $8k on batteries to work with a secondary solark 15k is not ideal. I'd like to be around $11k for the whole upgrade when adding another 20kw of batteries and the secondary solark 15k. Going to be upgrading the pv this summer from 8kw to 20kw. We have an EV as well that is power hungry.

Any experience of suggestions would be appreciated, I am assuming I can run two different battery banks off the two solark 15k's even if they are in parallel.

AOLithium battery - https://aolithium.com/products/51-2...vFuuOmNEXHUAjzvz2Tw3HG8OZk2dyLgaVNihwtObvENAo

Thanks

Brock

 

[marionw]

Use the "Search" feature (upper right) and search on "Aolithium 100Ah" (without quotes)

 

[Detritalgeo]

Hi,

I recently had a power outage of 4-5 days in Northern CA, and our sok48v six stack (31kw) + solark15k kept us running the entire time, even with lots of rain using the 8kw solar array and currently the external generac lp is not working. Might be looking to buy another solark 15k and parallel the two; but looking to save some cash on the battery side.

I have a friend who is using the aolithium batteries with his solark 15k (20kw) and he has had zero problems with them for 8 months. They appear to have a descent bms and have precharge resistors like the 48v sok batteries w/ bms. It's about $4200 for 20kw - quite a deal w/ the bms.

Does anyone have any concerns about the aolithium's here? It seems like they are nearly 1/2 the cost of SOK 48v rackmount.

While my 48v SOK rackmounts have been going for six months w/ zero issues, spending another $8k on batteries to work with a secondary solark 15k is not ideal. I'd like to be around $11k for the whole upgrade when adding another 20kw of batteries and the secondary solark 15k. Going to be upgrading the pv this summer from 8kw to 20kw. We have an EV as well that is power hungry.

Any experience of suggestions would be appreciated, I am assuming I can run two different battery banks off the two solark 15k's even if they are in parallel.

AOLithium battery - https://aolithium.com/products/51-2...vFuuOmNEXHUAjzvz2Tw3HG8OZk2dyLgaVNihwtObvENAo

Thanks

Brock

Hello Brock,

There is certainly some upfront cost savings to be had with the AOLithium 16S "48V" packs.
@edharveybc and @Kremer have them setup with varying real world experience although Ed has had some success integrating them into a schnieder system i believe.

One thing to note is that for the cost savings there is very superficial technical support (mostly they repeat what is in the manual) but they do respond in normal mainland China business hours. There is also a lesser warranty but not yet sure how warranty cases are handled within the AOLithium storefront. The BMS in them is a lesser known brand and there is no user-installable monitoring software available... yet. Last thing is that they are compatible with CAN-based communication AIO's for Master-Slave(s) communication but if you have a RS-485 based system it can only read a single MASTER pack (Voltronic, etc..)

Will featured one on his channel but that was an earlier hardware version (they since changed the BMS somewhat) and he let them sit too long so they dishcarged to failure while still showing 100%... he had a stack of 4 connected in parallel with all his other stacks so likely the load was too low for the BMS to track the discharge properly? It was a nice first look at the packs but there was no time for a full testing in an isolated setup. Even my brand new Ruixu stack is taking its time getting all 5 packs to map out current draw evenly so the AOLithium packs have never really gotten a stand-along full analysis by large solar power influencer.. yet. Of course the Ruixu packs dont have the LCD display so any fluctuations in SOC or cell imbalance are out of mind most of the time.

As mentioned above, do a search for aolithium and there are a few good owner feedback posts to take note of. Once you know the Cons and Pros its easier to make the decision for your circumstance... They are good value if you are ok with being on your own to some extent and dont need full certification/listings... If you want instant customer support from withing North America and a robust platform then the added upfront costs of SOK may be more appropriate.

 

[Will Prowse]

Would absolutely get sok over aolithium.

 

[edharveybc]

Would absolutely get sok over aolithium.

Remember not everyone is located in the USA nor has the same budget. SOK in Canada is $1000 more per unit than Aolithium. That's nearly a 40% savings for functionally the same thing.

I've personally been running 4x aolithium units since October on a Schneider inverter and they have operated exactly how I expected them to. They are on 8kW of solar and when there is insufficient solar there is a propane generator for backup.

Absolutely good value for the money. In other markets this comparison will differ.

 

[Nan_wpg]

Quality, price, service. Pick 2.

 

[G00SE]

Remember not everyone is located in the USA nor has the same budget. SOK in Canada is $1000 more per unit than Aolithium. That's nearly a 40% savings for functionally the same thing.

I've personally been running 4x aolithium units since October on a Schneider inverter and they have operated exactly how I expected them to. They are on 8kW of solar and when there is insufficient solar there is a propane generator for backup.

Absolutely good value for the money. In other markets this comparison will differ.

Holy smokes. I love the idea of sok batteries more than the rest, but at that price delta no way. I too would load up on the budget variant. That’s a huge difference up there

 

[edharveybc]

Quality, price, service. Pick 2.

Yup, different markets have different options. Some markets only get 1

 

[Detritalgeo]

Yes this is true, Canada has:

1. AoLithium 16S 48V ------------ $1599 CAD (flat cost - no tax or shipping fee) = $16/Ah
2. Maple Leaf Beaver 16S 48V --- $1985 CAD (with tax and shipping) = $20/Ah
3. Ruixu 16S 48V ----------------- $2240 CAD (with tax and shipping) = $22/Ah
4. SOK 16S 48V ------------------ $2658 CAD (with tax and shipping) = $27/Ah

EG4 is basically not an option for the most pa.rt Region specific costing and decisions are the reality.