midwestsolarnoob
New Member
I’m looking at building DIY storage for my DIY camper. Comparing my original idea of using EG4 rack batteries (24v or 48v) it is cheaper. We haven’t decided on which voltage we want to use yet. But for most average mobile solar users, 12v prebuilt china batteries are cheaper. Those people also need less storage capacity and use less panels. If I was just power a fridge, a fan or two and some led lighting, sure 12v is great. But we will be powering a mini split, fridge, lights, fans, Xbox, tv, chargers, etc. So higher voltage will be much easier for us. Anyways. I can build diy for almost half the cost of buying the EG4. So to me it’s cheaper. Granted shit is constantly changing in price. So when we finally build our solar system that may change and I may go back to the idea of rack batteries. But either way it’s all in fun because at the end of the day, do whatever makes you feel happyAgain, DIY being less expensive for a LiFePO4 battery with special requirements is a no-brainer.
Looks like you’ve built 4 105Ah 4S / 12V batteries for $1636 minus the cost of the inverter.
Using the reference I just posted, you could have bought those 4 batteries OTS from Amazon for $680 ($170 each).
So unless you got your BMSs for under $50 and your cells for under $40 each (shipped), your batteries were not less expensive than lowest-cost OTS (again, overlooking that your DIY batteries are 250A and the OTS batteries on Amazon for $170 were only 100A).
Would be interesting to know what you spent on the batteries alone as an end-of-2023 datapoint for DIY ~100Ah 4S / 12V.
Also, I’m sure I’ll share our whole set up when we finally get it done next spring