diy solar

diy solar

I really like the new powerpro battery..

I'm definitely interested in 2 of these for my Sol-Ark 15K. Until now, I was considering HomeGrid.
 
Rocksnsalt said:
I really don’t understand what the fixation is for some on the weight of the unit minus the cells.
It’s designed to be all weather and to hold the weight and items within it safely. Outside if need be, and it has internal heaters.

So do all that and make it look nice and see what you come up with.
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I'm no electrician or metal fabricator. Lithium batteries outdoor seems counterintuitive at first glance, I prefer technologies that have been in the market a while as I'm not able to replace out of pocket. I'll watch the forums and reviews for years before my next battery purchase. Shopped for years before pulling the trigger on current system.
 
JohnTupper said:
I'm no electrician or metal fabricator. Lithium batteries outdoor seems counterintuitive at first glance, I prefer technologies that have been in the market a while as I'm not able to replace out of pocket. I'll watch the forums and reviews for years before my next battery purchase. Shopped for years before pulling the trigger on current system.
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I’m not an electrician or fabricator either. But I know it cost money to develop things, test, get certs, and bring a product market.
But it looks like you’re all set with your system, so all good. ????
 
JohnTupper said:
I'm no electrician or metal fabricator. Lithium batteries outdoor seems counterintuitive at first glance, I prefer technologies that have been in the market a while as I'm not able to replace out of pocket. I'll watch the forums and reviews for years before my next battery purchase. Shopped for years before pulling the trigger on current system.
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While not common in the DIY space, mny of the big names in solar/energy storage(telsa, enphase, etc) have been selling outdoor rated lithium battery systems for years already.
 
pvgirl said:
While not common in the DIY space, mny of the big names in solar/energy storage(telsa, enphase, etc) have been selling outdoor rated lithium battery systems for years already.
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I'm sure outdoor mounts would be great for some people, but in rural TN having thousands of dollars in lithium mounted outside with bears and worse (humans) would surely result in damage or loss. I am much more comfortable with batteries locked in the mechanical room in my basement. Would need a monster of a fence (probably more like a wall) to secure anything in my county
 
HighTechLab said:
I wish the made it so they could easily be put one in front of another and attached to each other...and allow the wiring to run between the side compartments. Otherwise they consume a LOT of space left-to-right if they need to be screwed into the wall.

Also, the terminals being on opposite sides is a bit tough...I wish there was more room to allow them both to be on the same side.
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Also, having the positive and negative terminals in the opposite orientation (left / right) as the 18k seems like a design oversight.

I, too, wonder what the spacing requirements are for the front/back of the batteries, as I'd likely want to make a portable (wheeled) "back-to-back" or "back-to-front" rack/stand.
 
Rusty959 said:
I've got my server rack batteries, admittedly only 3 of them so far, in a full size server rack that will be able to store up to 10. It has wheels on it so it can move around, and nicely encloses everything. it's 7 feet tall so it's just small enough to get through my garage door but really maximizes space.

I think the EG4 rack isn't making use of the potential benefits of a server rack. It's not all that tall, and you have to mod it to put casters on it or double stack it.

Where neither it or the new 280Ah battery is really optimizing is storage within a certain footprint. How well can you stack the new batteries? Seems like a chore.

If I had to do it again, I think I'd still go for server rack for expandability and maneuverability.
View attachment 162390
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Wow! Looks like you could get nine or ten batteries in that one cabinet. Will it handle the weight? What about the ampacity of the bus bars?
 
SignatureSolarJames said:
lithium weight has no hacks, 3x server packs are 315lbs. You may have an Alibabba cell special...
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Reminds of the walmart car batteries. They are so much lighter then a better brand and claim the same cold cranking amps. The difference is the reserve capacity. Leave your headlights on with a walmart battery for 5 minutes and your done. Most good car batteries will handle a good draw and still start your engine. They cut corners with less actual materials in the battery. Likely those cell do not test to capacity.
 
This battery is designed for a specific type of market where people just want to be told to buy this and plug a few simple push in cables and you are done. It also looks nice so it caters to that same type of market that simply don't want to fuss with having to know anything technical. It also addresses that one thing that would prevent a battery to work which is below freezing temps. With all this simplification and design comes a higher price. This is no different than computer market. You could get an Intel Nuc and other components (or go even further down and build from a motherboard up) to piece together your computer or buy a snazzy slimmed down portable that has worse bang for your buck technical wise.

So I'm sure this battery will do well for those that put a lot of value on the design and simplicity of it all. It isn't meant for everyone especially those who have no problem building batteries from cells or even dealing with busbars and cabling on a server rack system.
 
When I was originally looking at batteries, the Fortress Power Evault was interesting as one of the cheapest $/kWh with UL 9540. However 520# was a little much for me. The 308# of the PowerPro is still too much.
 
SignatureSolarJames said:
right, if no BMS is included and other gear then that makes sense
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Batteries weigh as 42OhmsPA said. Cabinet is 15 lbs, and that's with a mounting plate that I removed. Bms maybe a pound. In all, I don't think I added more than 25 lbs to the batteries. As I said, if you want a plug and play battery with some extra bells and whistles, UL will be huge for some people, or don't like to DIY (which is in reality the bulk of the market), I think it's a nice option. But, one can build a nice battery with high end components that eats up less space and weighs about a third less for about $1k less.

I can't fit the powerpro under my wire through, they are too tall. My 24" tall batteries fit, and I can fit 3 side by side as they are only 16" wide. Even If the powerpro wasn't too tall, I could only fit 2.
 
rhino said:
This battery is designed for a specific type of market where people just want to be told to buy this and plug a few simple push in cables and you are done. It also looks nice so it caters to that same type of market that simply don't want to fuss with having to know anything technical. It also addresses that one thing that would prevent a battery to work which is below freezing temps. With all this simplification and design comes a higher price. This is no different than computer market. You could get an Intel Nuc and other components (or go even further down and build from a motherboard up) to piece together your computer or buy a snazzy slimmed down portable that has worse bang for your buck technical wise.

So I'm sure this battery will do well for those that put a lot of value on the design and simplicity of it all. It isn't meant for everyone especially those who have no problem building batteries from cells or even dealing with busbars and cabling on a server rack system.
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Much of your description on who these would appeal to doesn't describe Will. Yet, this is what he has decided to goto & dump EVERYTHING else. I think THAT says something about who they appeal to.
 
Tulex said:
Batteries weigh as 42OhmsPA said. Cabinet is 15 lbs, and that's with a mounting plate that I removed. Bms maybe a pound. In all, I don't think I added more than 25 lbs to the batteries. As I said, if you want a plug and play battery with some extra bells and whistles, UL will be huge for some people, or don't like to DIY (which is in reality the bulk of the market), I think it's a nice option. But, one can build a nice battery with high end components that eats up less space and weighs about a third less for about $1k less.

I can't fit the powerpro under my wire through, they are too tall. My 24" tall batteries fit, and I can fit 3 side by side as they are only 16" wide. Even If the powerpro wasn't too tall, I could only fit 2.
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I started 24v and 2 car batteries, then got a bit more real and went 48v and built a DIY battery, then I bought a ton of crap to play and experiment with ?.
Now I am getting real with a new home build and taking it 100% off grid. Everything now HAS to be listed and approved.
The EG4 inverter and battery combo make this an easy decision.
Swings and roundabouts !!!!!
 
rhino said:
This battery is designed for a specific type of market where people just want to be told to buy this and plug a few simple push in cables and you are done. It also looks nice so it caters to that same type of market that simply don't want to fuss with having to know anything technical. It also addresses that one thing that would prevent a battery to work which is below freezing temps. With all this simplification and design comes a higher price. This is no different than computer market. You could get an Intel Nuc and other components (or go even further down and build from a motherboard up) to piece together your computer or buy a snazzy slimmed down portable that has worse bang for your buck technical wise.

So I'm sure this battery will do well for those that put a lot of value on the design and simplicity of it all. It isn't meant for everyone especially those who have no problem building batteries from cells or even dealing with busbars and cabling on a server rack system.
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Really it's very close to the pricing of three eg4 LL v2s (seems like closest equivalent with display etc versus the lifepower4).
 
2TrevorJ said:
I think it's a pretty awesome looking battery with great specs (especially when you run multiple). Yeah it'll suck to place them but ya gotta tough it out. EG4 just needs to finish the certification process to really cement it as a great choice for those with picky permitting or who have insurance concerns.

I'm not sure many inspectors are that hard up on the 3' or 40 kWh rule. I know my city inspector didn't care. That's really in response to NMC/Li-Ion safety concerns IMO.

I noticed Sol-Ark comms settings config in the manual. I know as a company they're not hot on it but if it works...screw it. Not that I'm changing my setup but I dig it.
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I had some time to read the manual and I do have a couple concerns now. Not dealbreakers but not what I hope to see either:

Important (SOC Discrepancy)
It is normal for LFP batteries that have their own internal BMS and that are wired in parallel to demonstrate a wide variety of SOC readings during any given charge or discharge cycle. Variations of up to 10% are common. This is not cause for concern or indication that the module is providing less than the maximum capacity. This is caused by even slight variations in wiring resistance to each battery, internal resistance, temperature differences, and even variations in each cell. Even a slight variation causes one battery to take more of the load or charge for a short time. Over the duration of the discharge or charge cycle, this will balance out with the lagging battery then taking the load or charge at the other end of the cycle resulting in recovering the full listed KWH capacity of the pack. The voltage differences created as batteries diverge in SOC will eventually cause them to converge at some point in the cycle.
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I believe some other larger scale parallel battery solutions have the master manage the overall current...balancing among parallel units. My two 28.8 kwh stacks rarely deviate by more than 1% and there's another local install that is a carbon copy of mine (the owner lurks on here) and behaves the same. Now...maybe I just did a really good job duplicating the 4/0 lengths to the common bus bar but I seriously doubt that's why. ?

I took my slave stack out of commission for a couple days to work a firmware issue and when recommissioned it was roughly 20% SOC behind the master (68% vs 88%). The master pretty much quit charging (talking maybe 200W) until the slave caught up and only then did the master start charging - afterwards they proceeded together from 88-100% as a team. I don't think that happens quite so apparently without active management.

✱Note: The default BMS in the module allows for 100A charging current Maximum. To achieve higher charging currents, please contact your distributor for optional firmware files, or navigate to https://eg4electronics.com/downloads/ for the most up to date firmware.
Please note that if the battery firmware is updated to allow 200A maximum charge, the internal thermal sensors will throttle the charge current to what the BMS deems necessary to prevent overheating.
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Hmmm...so not really 200A until unlocked and even then continuous current over 100A per battery is asking a lot from the hardware?

Again, I think these batteries are pretty slick. Just a couple things to note.
 
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