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diy solar

Hithium 314ah Review/Capacity Test 333ah

Update. 3banks of Hithium up and running a couple weeks now. They were not top balanced. The 2amp balancer in the jk bms can take care of that. 3.33x volts so they are partially up in the knees and only a .001v deviation.

Pack #4 are the 2year old eve 304ah grade 'b'. It has a sleeper cell in the pack that has been a pain from the beginning.

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Getting there. Spent too much time in the shop this weekend putting things together. 6banks@+300ah, or +90kwh in operation. 2more banks to go then it's time to fix some siding, trim trees, and add more solar panels. Not passing up the next good deal on bifacials. With the expected bad weather in the first week of January, all this battery backup may be a good thing.

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That looks great. Nicely done.
Thank you. Honestly wish I'd taken more time and finished it better.

Eventually, I'll wind up going to a beefier busbar. Those are 1/4"x2" copper, which I think are rated for 700amps inside a cabinet and should be fine for 2inverters that can only draw 300amps max each, but you know, have to keep the future in mind.

Will add a plywood protective cover to the top banks and some lexan to cover the lower banks. The plywood cover can serve as an extra needed table.
 
What supports all the weight? Does each case rest on a shelf/support or on top of each other?
concrete floor on bedrock - solid granite.
Each pack sits on steel angle iron bolted to the columns - shallow unistrut is used to make adjustments easy - and infinitely variable.
I have one pack in another part of the shop - painting the fronts one by one black - just for the look of it.
Steel doors will cover the ESS area - those are not finished yet.
 
Folks, would a reputable vendor provide the test data for the lot of cells that an order would come from? Ie they have a lot of 1000 cells and I am ordering 32. Seems like this would be readily available for a customer. Getting the run around that Hithium doesn't use the same QR codes... seems not right. Was sent a pic of a QR code with "D8E" in the QR code = D=2023, 8=Aug, D=14th, but was told it was from a mfg batch made late 2024. Vendor code matched up to Hithium "01J" but cell model was 280ah, not 314 per the QR reader.

This wasn't Docan, but seems like there is other feedback from them in this post that the QR info is off, but cells tested fine.

Thoughts please.

Thanks
 
.003v is the delta amongst the Hithium banks (yellow) which isn't even enough to activate the balancer.

Meanwhile, the jk's 2amp balancer is keeping busy with the grade 'b' Eve304ah cells (green).

I'm liking these Hithiums much more than the grade 'b' Eve, even though they are both labeled as 'ess' grade. If they were room, more would be on the slow boat from China.

We may capacity test this bank in the next few days with all the ice headed our direction.

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Oops ... something happened. Someone have experience with these panels? They appear to have all the latest and greatest; bifi, n-type topcon, 1.6mm glass both sides, 21.5% efficiency. $.245/w shipped.
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If someone is buying two pallets or more, cheaper and higher efficiency panels can be had ordering directly from China.
I wondered about doing that but shipping has to add considerably to the price. Now that I've spent my money, what did you find out?
 
Would you just add them to your existing sccs or add extra?
Array would go down by the house. It is up in the air if I pull the LV6548's out and install SRNE ASP's and use one of the LV6548's in the work trailer and keep the other as a spare. No panels on work trailer and it only runs 120V. I'd like to take a break for awhile before another build. The current build is wearing me down some.

I did some quick calculations and the panel width is always a problem. 5 tall in landscape is 225 inches, the Iron Ridge rails are 204 inches. I could put an extension on each end of 11 inches I guess. I did 6 inches here and still had about 2 inches at the top left over with 1 inch spacing from the bottom. I wouldn't want to add 21 inches just to one end.

 
If I only went 4 high, then for 24 panels it is 6 wide and it would be about a 20 foot center section, too much I think.

37 panels is enough panels, but bifacial is no good for mounting on a vertical wall with the leftovers.
 
If I only went 4 high, then for 24 panels it is 6 wide and it would be about a 20 foot center section, too much I think.

37 panels is enough panels, but bifacial is no good for mounting on a vertical wall with the leftovers.
I'll have to modify all the ground mounts but I think going from 260w Trina and 320w Jinko to new 420w bifacials will be worth the effort.
 

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