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LTO as prismatic cell, haven't seen that before?

kimsv

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Joined
Dec 29, 2019
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Hi! First post for me here. Have only been lurking and reading before. Watched Wills videos on YT and it definitely opened my eyes for LiFePO4 batteries.

I have a truck camper that I'm rebuilding and going to use mostly during winter for skiing. My plan so far has been to build a battery out of prismatic cells, probably aluminium cased ones that's easier to heat up. The problem for me isn't heat, it's the cold. The camper will be frozen when not in use (during winter....) and I'd need to heat up the batteries before I could at least start charging them, say during driving. When the camper's warm it's of course not any problem. They could probably discharge when cold so the idea has been to use a silicone heating pad from Keenovo to heat the batteries to a given temperature with a temperature relay that I'd activate when loading the camper for use. Overall a doable solution, fun to build, but not really KISS. I know there are drop in LiFePO4 batteries now that has all this built in, for example LifeBlue Low Temperature and other brands, probably the same battery with different branding.

Now to the topic.. =) Since I like DIY and was looking at cells online I found these: 6PCS LTO Prismatic on Aliexpress
Skärmavbild 2019-12-30 kl. 03.06.43.png
I haven't seen LTO cells non cylindrical before. These are 23Ah and said to be rated NV 2.3V, which would be 13.8V in a 6S configuration. Really good! They're NOT cheap at all per W at $368 for 6 cells. But you get 12 cells for $499 and 24 cells for $839 so it really gets better the more you add. The downside of coarse is the need for a big BMS, or many?!

Has anyone here used these cells? They seem perfect (other then the price...) for my application. I probably wouldn't have that much problems heating up a LiFePo4 pack but this would save me the headache and maybe give me more peace of mind when I'm not there and can monitor it.
 
Do not buy those you found price is horrid
Yeah, the price is steep.. But I haven't seen any other prismatic LTOs? I'm not buying today so no rush, it is a rapidly developing market after all..
 
I've got some plans ahead to use LTO cells as backup in the cold should everything else fail. Haven't seen this form factor before - thanks for the link!
 
Maybe use the low AH LTO to warm up a LifePo bank to get them warm enough to use.
 
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