Long time off grid. First time here

[12volt dan]

I've been off grid since /95 never got into a forum before, at least not for solar. I'm not claiming to be an expert on solar but obviously have some experience living with out the grid. I bought my first panel in /97 at 11 bucks a watt so like the photon addict I am these panels at 2 bucks a watt now (or less) has had me in an altered state.
I have lived the last 20 some odd years with lead acid (20 ts 125's) which at 10 years old are pretty much done. I was able to purchase a battery pack out of a hybrid for 400 bucks of LiFePo4 with about 11.8kwh of storage.

 

[Hedges]

Welcome.

Try as little as $0.12/W; check out SanTan Solar (one of the sources of surplus and used panels from solar farms.)
Also, DC Solar bankruptcy, maybe you heard? SMA Sunny Island inverters and trailers being liquidated.

Your battery price sure looks good, with the specs you gave!

 

[12volt dan]

opps wrong button....
my question is is there any other reason that this large batt can be put inside? I realize that this type of battery doesn't burn,something I picked up here. but is there any other reason? otherwise in the go. These batts are in 40 volt packs (16 in total) and I plan to divide in to 3 12 volt cells.
The middle cell will be isolated and kept for the deep well pump while the two end cells will be house power. That way I can charge at 40 volts and free up some room on the charge controllers for more panels.

Cause you can never have enough panels

 

[12volt dan]

Welcome.

Try as little as $0.12/W; check out SanTan Solar (one of the sources of surplus and used panels from solar farms.)
Also, DC Solar bankruptcy, maybe you heard? SMA Sunny Island inverters and trailers being liquidated.

Your battery price sure looks good, with the specs you gave!

I'm in canada (Muskoka On) how far would they be coming from?

Ok checked the site out even with shipping it's better than I can do up here. oh yeah new fan

 

[Hedges]

It seems if any lithium battery is OK indoors, LiFePO4 would be.
Keeping it above freezing means you can charge it.

Can you make 48V packs? That would work with many inverters and chargers.

I'm using AGM with my Sunny Island, but REC makes a compatible BMS (same price as your battery!); maybe that would support a bunch in series/parallel.

SanTan is in Arizona.
I've shipped things from Canada to San Jose, not too bad but had to shop. CST was the carrier for that load.
There are some other liquidators around, I think one in the Washington/Oregon area (looks like that doesn't help you), others Florida. Try searching including on eBay.
But for the right prices and products, shipping pallets probably isn't too bad per unit.

 

[12volt dan]

It seems if any lithium battery is OK indoors, LiFePO4 would be.
Keeping it above freezing means you can charge it.

Can you make 48V packs? That would work with many inverters and chargers.

I didn't want to cut up the packs they are a pain. I have outback controllers and I think I can get to 40 volts by going to 36volts and tweeking the voltage to 40.

I know outback has a good range but never went that far from presets before ,I'll have to check that out otherwise I'm breaking them up.
sorry for the syntax errors, learning this forum

 

[Hedges]

My Sunny Island can be set for nominal 42V to 52V, lead-acid three cells below 48V to 2 cells above.

Maybe your tweek will work, and 36V hardware does exist. 40V would be lower than normal for charging a 36V battery, so slightly adjusted values could fit.

Think you can get signals from BMS to control the inverter, or can you do settings on the inverter and charger so they never violate limits and BMS is just emergency disconnect?

What hybrid EVs have LiFePO4? I'm only hearing of explody types in the used market.

 

[12volt dan]

My Sunny Island can be set for nominal 42V to 52V, lead-acid three cells below 48V to 2 cells above.

Maybe your tweek will work, and 36V hardware does exist. 40V would be lower than normal for charging a 36V battery, so slightly adjusted values could fit.

Think you can get signals from BMS to control the inverter, or can you do settings on the inverter and charger so they never violate limits and BMS is just emergency disconnect?

What hybrid EVs have LiFePO4? I'm only hearing of explody types in the used market.

The outback has 5 presets 12, 24, 36, 48, and 60 volts. From there you can program the voltage higher or lower. I don't know how far you can go from the presets. At 12 volts the preset is 14.4 and I've brought it down to 13.8 for the lead acid I'll see how far I can go up from 36v, hopefully I can get to 40v.
Orion buses with the BAE hybrid drive is where this came from. I got the whole top battery shell with cooling fans and other assorted electronics inside. one pack looks like this and there is 16 packs in the battery. somebody in Port Perry was scraping them and it looks like they are all gone now. didn't take long.
BMS? you'll have to educate me on that

 

[Hedges]

BMS? you'll have to educate me on that

BMS, Battery Management System. That's the most important aspect of using lithium.
Lead-acid you can just charge to target pack voltage and if any cells are low it will cook the others trying to bring up the low one.
Individual lithium cells must never be charged above a magic voltage or below another magic voltage; that will kill them. For some battery chemistries, "vent with fire". Even LiFePO4 can be ignited.

BMS will monitor individual cell voltages. Usually it has a relay or FET SSR to disconnect if voltage or temperature are violated. Some communicate to the inverter. Also, they have passive or active balancers (since lithium can't take an equalization charge like FLA)

Is there any electronics with your batteries? I see something in the photos - do you have a way to work with it?
You must have something monitoring cell voltages and controlling termination of charge, also discharge.
Some pictures show a bunch of tabs and what could be fuse per cell strips.
You might interface a BMS of your choice.

 

[12volt dan]

"Is there any electronics with your batteries? I see something in the photos - do you have a way to work with it?
You must have something monitoring cell voltages and controlling termination of charge, also discharge.
Some pictures show a bunch of tabs and what could be fuse per cell strips.
You might interface a BMS of your choice."

Yeah I wasn't sure what the electronics were on top but you may be right that it's something to do with bms, hope so. I will see what I can find out
The tabs are the 3.3vcells (8 batteries to a cell) the cage on the side would have to be cut to get them separated into 12v batteries as the cells are all in series. once cut then you could add the other terminal. that's why I'd like to isolate the middle 12volts otherwise you would short trying to make the 12 volt batts on a common ground since that tab would be both + for one batt and - for the next in line.

I found this from outback. I have 2 flex max controllers that are compatible here it would seem that I could add a bms if I read that right

 

[12volt dan]

Ok found more info here on theses things. and the original configuration on the bus here

 

[jgriffin]

Hey there. Another Canadian here! Did you go ahead with a pallet order yet? Getting ready to figure out what I want this week from santansolar. Thinking a used pallet of some kind, that way if I get dinged on duty charges coming across the border, it won’t sting as bad as buying new.

That being said, weighing out if I buy CUSMA friendly brands, how close it’d be. I guess used CUSMA friendly brands would be best.

I’m going with the 36-40 volt battery packs as well, 4 of them just to start. Gonna roll the dice on a Renogy Rover controller just to keep the price down. 12s bms with low temp cut off, and Reliable 36v 3kw inverter. It’s my first build, kinda winging it.