diy solar

diy solar

Good cost per W-hr

alfaeric

New Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2020
Messages
240
A suggestion for a sticky- what is a good price per Whr for storage?

I see a lot of "is this a good deal" questions for threads- and the most applicable answer would be how much you are paying per W-hr. And if you know how much Whr you need, you can see how much you need to buy for X cost.

Just an idea.

I see a lot of 12V, ~100Ahr LiFePO batteries for about $450, which would be 1200Whr for $450, or $0.375 per Whr.

(I just paid $220 for 200Ahr Lead acid, which is effectively 100Ahr for a realistic range, with not nearly as many cycles available- something less than half of a LFP battery)
 
The question of a good deal is not only about price. It's about quality of the product, reliability of the seller, location of the good, shipping options, etc, etc.
 
actually you find 280A cells for about 70$ sot it makes 0.17$ per watt (shipment included).
but yes, if you have to change them after 1500 cycles, better to take twice more expensive and keep them for 3000 cycles.
so calculation would be more like (price+shipment)/ (amp x volt x number of cycles )
 
actually you find 280A cells for about 70$ sot it makes 0.17$ per watt (shipment included).
but yes, if you have to change them after 1500 cycles, better to take twice more expensive and keep them for 3000 cycles.

That would be 280Ah cells for about $70 / Wh. The "hour" part is important, without it the numbers mean something completely different.
 
yes, my bad, when you speak about battery capacity this is Ah.
 
actually you find 280A cells for about 70$ sot it makes 0.17$ per watt (shipment included).
but yes, if you have to change them after 1500 cycles, better to take twice more expensive and keep them for 3000 cycles.
so calculation would be more like (price+shipment)/ (amp x volt x number of cycles )

I haven't seen any 280AH cells for $70 shipped. That is a great deal if they are decent quality new cells. Are you sure $70 isn't the Alibaba pre-shipping price? Shipping is often 50-100% of the listed price on smaller orders of the super cheap alibaba cells.

edit: and regarding how to measure cost, I think WHrs per $ is good when comparing similar batteries but when comparing between different types, I like using something that accounts for lifespan too like what Will used in his battery comparison video (I think it was price per 1200whrs over 1000 cycles).
 
Last edited:

this is the price for 4 cells, so 82$ per cell without shipment.
i think they make a lot of money with shipment because for 8 cells (a value of 660$) it cost almost 500$ for shipment. so 143$ per cell.
They are suppose to ship from china, but strangely my tracking order shows they are delivered from Germany (to France).
So probably they have some stock in different part of the planet and dispatch from the closest (cheapest place).
so total cost is around 1150$ for 8x280Ah = 6700W
 
Last edited:
yes, my bad, when you speak about battery capacity this is Ah.
And because you can buy individual cells of 3.2V, normalizing the comparison to W-hr is a better one, as I see it.

I do understand that quality matters- a lot. But before that- core price of power storage is important.
 
Back
Top