Battery Bank Build - Deligreen 280AH EVE cells

[solardad]

April told me someone else bought 66 cells for $80 each.
I paid $6641 including shipping and the PayPal transaction fee for 66 cells from Deligreen.
Hopefully they will arrive in a month.
I saw your box tore up. They made the nice spongy battery holders but it makes the whole box spongy by the time it gets here.

@ArthurEld Yup, that was me. FedX did a hell of a job shipping these. I happened to see the contract driver that they used in a subsequent delivery and basically these guys are throwing their deliveries in the back of a box truck vs. stacking and or leveraging the shelving you normally see in a dedicated truck. Crappy service by them.

 

[ArthurEld]

I'm sure they get tired of moving around those 50 lb boxes. Especially when they are soft.
And they won't stack well.

 

[Fallingaway]

I guess I'm planning on combining all 48 of mine and balancing all at once.

I only had 16 to do but I tried doing it in sets first and had sub par results. It’s so hard to tell the SOC based on voltage. Doing one single top balance with all in parallel they were balanced on the first try. Also I think some people forget to keep in mind that sometimes it takes a couple cycles afterwards for them to be balanced. The only time I get any kind of drift that catches my attention is when I discharge to low then charge back up.

 

[Javalord1]

I charge 8 at a time with a 30 amp bench charger. It only takes about a day to get to 3.65v

Hi Craig, hello from Homedale, ID! I have 32 arriving, just ordered. Was planning on 2P 16S. May I ask what charger and BMS you are using? Thanks, Jerome

 

[Javalord1]

Update: So I have half of my cells up and running in a 2p16s configuration, so far so good.

I originally was going to do a cabinet but ended up leveraging an existing shelf that I had my old battery bank on, Chevy Volts packs. The location is limited in size so the shelving should be ideal, two shelves of banks at 2p16s. Ended up re-enforcing the shelves with 3/4 plywood.

View attachment 18005

After wired up and balance wires in place.

View attachment 18006

Terminal block for balance wires and Active balancer and Chargery BMS. The relay still needs to be hooked up. The balance function of the Chargey is really not relevant for a pack at this size when compared to the performance of the active balancer. I ran a few basic tests and it was able to balance the pack down to a cell delta of 4-6mv from 25-27mv over the course of 8-10 hours. I would normally be happy in the 20-30mv range given my pack high and low settings are, 54.6v and 48v or 3.4125v to 3, just below and above the cell knees.

View attachment 18007

Active balancer screen with cell details: View attachment 18008

Update: So I have half of my cells up and running in a 2p16s configuration, so far so good.

I originally was going to do a cabinet but ended up leveraging an existing shelf that I had my old battery bank on, Chevy Volts packs. The location is limited in size so the shelving should be ideal, two shelves of banks at 2p16s. Ended up re-enforcing the shelves with 3/4 plywood.

View attachment 18005

After wired up and balance wires in place.

View attachment 18006

Terminal block for balance wires and Active balancer and Chargery BMS. The relay still needs to be hooked up. The balance function of the Chargey is really not relevant for a pack at this size when compared to the performance of the active balancer. I ran a few basic tests and it was able to balance the pack down to a cell delta of 4-6mv from 25-27mv over the course of 8-10 hours. I would normally be happy in the 20-30mv range given my pack high and low settings are, 54.6v and 48v or 3.4125v to 3, just below and above the cell knees.

View attachment 18007

Active balancer screen with cell details: View attachment 18008

 

[Javalord1]

Hello from Idaho! I have the same number of batteries on the way. So you have both an active balancer and BMS? May I ask what brands/models and how you like so far? Huge thanks, Jerome

 

[solardad]

Hello from Idaho! I have the same number of batteries on the way. So you have both an active balancer and BMS? May I ask what brands/models and how you like so far? Huge thanks, Jerome

@Javalord1 Hello! So I have my 66 cells setup in two 16s banks, (2p16s) and each one has a dedicated BMS. I used to have a Chargery BMS on each bank but the accuracy (long story) was not great on one of the units. So I decided to purchase and install a Batrium Watchmon 4, big price increase but I justified the $$ spent given the overall amount of money that I had invested in the bank. The other bank I still have the Chargey and it is ok, still off in reading voltage readings when compared to my MM. In addition I also have a JK Balancer (2a version) on the 2nd bank as an experiment but in reality it is not really needed given my inverter cutoff values, 3.4v and 3v.

In the end I am not sure if I would do Batrium again given the cost and type of cells that I have, they all stay nicely within. balance given the tight voltage range that I leverage. The JK Balancer does seem to work great when I turn it on and has a nice BT app. that displays each cells voltage.

 

[Bob B]

@Javalord1 Hello! So I have my 66 cells setup in two 16s banks, (2p16s) and each one has a dedicated BMS. I used to have a Chargery BMS on each bank but the accuracy (long story) was not great on one of the units. So I decided to purchase and install a Batrium Watchmon 4, big price increase but I justified the $$ spent given the overall amount of money that I had invested in the bank. The other bank I still have the Chargey and it is ok, still off in reading voltage readings when compared to my MM. In addition I also have a JK Balancer (2a version) on the 2nd bank as an experiment but in reality it is not really needed given my inverter cutoff values, 3.4v and 3v.

In the end I am not sure if I would do Batrium again given the cost and type of cells that I have, they all stay nicely within. balance given the tight voltage range that I leverage. The JK Balancer does seem to work great when I turn it on and has a nice BT app. that displays each cells voltage.

Have you tried to power the Chargery externally? Also, the new updates are working a lot better.

 

[Javalord1]

@solardad Thanks for your great note! This BMS seems to punch all the right notes. I'm going to get it. Some good reports so far...

16s BMS 100a for LifePo4 with 12″ 8ga Wires – Overkill Solar

overkillsolar.com

 

[ArthurEld]

@solardad Thanks for your great note! This BMS seems to punch all the right notes. I'm going to get it. Some good reports so far...

16s BMS 100a for LifePo4 with 12″ 8ga Wires – Overkill Solar

overkillsolar.com

Soledad tried a few BMSs but probably not that one. That's a new one.
People like the 4s and 8s Overkill BMSs so the 16s is probably good.
Overkill is in Florida so you probably get good support.

But you might want to ask in your own thread to see if someone who uses Overkill will answer.