Entire DIY LFE battery from Luyan?

[freedomlives]

I saw a lot of posts about Amy and Luyan as a good source for batteries.

Indeed her price is better than what I found in Europe for the "not grade A" LF280K cells. I asked her for a quote, and for 16 of them shipped DDP to me in Slovakia, it is $134 vs $151 from NKON.nl

Luyan: https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Luyuan-1pcs-280AH-LiFePO4-LFP-3_62585177205.html
NKON: https://eu.nkon.nl/eve-lf280-prismatic-280ah-280a-lifepo4-b-grade.html

Shipping from China into the EU is supposed to take up to 60 days. Has anyone in the EU recently ordered batteries from Luyan and could share experience how long it took? I'm fine with waiting two months, because I have other projects to do (building shed for wood burning furnace being the major one), although a bit sooner would be nice.

Amy suggest this JK BMS which is appealing as I see the communication protocol is open enough, repository on Github for code to run on an ESP. From what I've been reading, communication between BMS and PV inverter is "icing on the cake" and not so important if you have just one battery?

And I notice Luyan makes a box for batteries for $200. Has anyone used this? Is it worth it? I'm going to have the batteries in my workshop, so I could make some box from wood. https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Luyuan-Battery-Box-Case-set-for_1600593903876.html

I'm still looking at inverters, main thing is I bought 5.5kW worth of panels (12 pieces) last spring, OCV of each is 50V, so I need one that would support ideally all of them. Deadline is to get everything together by the end of the year, when new regulated electricity prices come into play here in Slovakia- first 4000kWh a year is 556€ total (14¢/kWh) and above that is whatever the market price is. I don't want to be a pessimist, but the country 5km away from me is still being invaded with no definite end in sight... :-/

 

[Hartswood]

I am going through the same process. I am deciding between Luyuan kit and the Seplos kit with communicating BMS, but no balancing. Amy says everything you need is in the kit except the BMS and cells. This shows the Seplos kit being built:

. I spoke to them about the poor packaging, they sent me a video showing how it is now all put in a cardboard box. People on the forum tell me the JK is better in most respects, other than communication, I am not aware of anyone getting it to talk to an inverter.

If your going to use a hybrid inverter connected to the grid the first thing to check is there a requirement in Slovakia to use an inverter which is approved by your electricity network regulator. In the UK any inverter approved for connection to the grid is shown on it's database, G98, G99, G100. I wish I had known this before I started my search. Victron is superior to any of main Chinese products, though I think they are made there. The inverter suited to my requirements, battery no solar, appears to be Sunsynk/Deye 8kW. I wouldn't put one of the fan cooled ones anywhere where the noise could disturb people.

 

[freedomlives]

I dragged my feet a bit, and when I contacted Amy again earlier this week, they had sold out on "Non-grade-A cells", but I ordered the box and BMS from her (I also ordered an LCD for the BMS). On the JK-B2A24S20P BMS, I also ordered both the CAN and RS-485 options. We'll see if either can communicate with the Axpert inverter, but at least the RS-485 can be hooked up to an ESP and some sort of "roll my own" monitoring can be done beyond just the app on the phone.

I also ordered the battery tester they have on their store, both to test the LF280K cells, and also a bunch of 18650's I have and want to make some small battery packs from.

She said they'd have more cells in a couple of weeks, probably $3 more per cell, but I ended up ordering from a Netherlands supplier (NKON) who have cells already on the way and will ship to me mid September. Perhaps I'm a bit paranoid, but if lots of people in Europe start now thinking more of the coming winter, it might end up the cells cost more in 2 weeks, or availability declines.

 

[sergea]

I dragged my feet a bit, and when I contacted Amy again earlier this week, they had sold out on "Non-grade-A cells", but I ordered the box and BMS from her (I also ordered an LCD for the BMS). On the JK-B2A24S20P BMS, I also ordered both the CAN and RS-485 options. We'll see if either can communicate with the Axpert inverter, but at least the RS-485 can be hooked up to an ESP and some sort of "roll my own" monitoring can be done beyond just the app on the phone.

I also ordered the battery tester they have on their store, both to test the LF280K cells, and also a bunch of 18650's I have and want to make some small battery packs from.

She said they'd have more cells in a couple of weeks, probably $3 more per cell, but I ended up ordering from a Netherlands supplier (NKON) who have cells already on the way and will ship to me mid September. Perhaps I'm a bit paranoid, but if lots of people in Europe start now thinking more of the coming winter, it might end up the cells cost more in 2 weeks, or availability declines.

They will not communicate with any inverter on the market. you will need some kind of middleware to translate jkbms protocole to pylontech RS485 protocol.

See this link to monitor your inverter and bms https://github.com/jblance/mpp-solar

If you are a fan of HA see https://github.com/syssi/esphome-jk-bms

 

[RV10flyer]

The new JK200A 8-20S BMS with the 4.3" LCD from Hankzor Store are going to look real nice on all 10 batteries soon. No inverter comms needed or desired. I just want to be able to walk into the power shed and see all of them working together with one glance. I have 6 different brands and nothing works as good as JK.

 

[freedomlives]

They will not communicate with any inverter on the market. ou will need some kind of middleware to translate jkbms protocole to pylontech RS485 protocol.

See this link to monitor your inverter and bms https://github.com/jblance/mpp-solar

If you are a fan of HA see https://github.com/syssi/esphome-jk-bms

Thanks. I saw the esphome integration before, but not the python package. I haven't set up HA yet. The few devices I have run Tasmota, and aside from remote control, they're doing a bit of timing. When the PV system will be installed, I will for sure need more "smart" to the home, like making sure the well pump and sump pump don't run at the same time.

 

[chess-equality]

The new JK200A 8-20S BMS with the 4.3" LCD from Hankzor Store are going to look real nice on all 10 batteries soon. No inverter comms needed or desired. I just want to be able to walk into the power shed and see all of them working together with one glance. I have 6 different brands and nothing works as good as JK.

What other brands have you used? Currently I'm shopping for a good brand for a future project, though I have already shortlisted Batrium and JK. I have (serviceable) batteries currently on use and I'm looking to change the BMS in the future.

 

[RV10flyer]

What other brands have you used? Currently I'm shopping for a good brand for a future project, though I have already shortlisted Batrium and JK. I have (serviceable) batteries currently on use and I'm looking to change the BMS in the future.

Daly, JBD, Ant, Overkill (JBD), Chargery and Seplos. All various 100-250A rated. I rarely see more than 30A in or out. Most have more than one glitch or issue. I want simple and ability to monitor without pulling my phone out. JK with their new 4.3" is perfect for me. I know nothing about Batrium.

 

[zbynek]

@freedomlives How is the battery box from Luyan? I am also thinking about buying it so any experience with it would be great. Also, how did the shipment looked like at your end? Who was did the local delivery to your door and did you have to deal with customs? I am thinking it would work almost the same in Czechia which is what actually interests me .