Hey y'all,
After sleeping on the project for a bit, I found some time to forge ahead on it again. I ended up getting 4 x EcoWorthy 150Ah Metal Case batteries, which I am comfortable with because it is my first project and like the extra safety of the metal cases. They are being capacity tested as we speak (first two tested at 150.32Ah, 151.62Ah, the last two are in-progress). I am not terribly concerned with exact capacity, but as long as they're around the same I'll be happy with the capacity (I know the worst one will bring the others down).
Here's a pic of what they look like, I have 4 of them:
Plan:
After sleeping on the project for a bit, I found some time to forge ahead on it again. I ended up getting 4 x EcoWorthy 150Ah Metal Case batteries, which I am comfortable with because it is my first project and like the extra safety of the metal cases. They are being capacity tested as we speak (first two tested at 150.32Ah, 151.62Ah, the last two are in-progress). I am not terribly concerned with exact capacity, but as long as they're around the same I'll be happy with the capacity (I know the worst one will bring the others down).
Here's a pic of what they look like, I have 4 of them:
Plan:
- Targeting ~250A as safety limit, I have Class-T 250A fuse for positive lead. This lead me to 1/0 AWG wiring, sound right?
- They will go feed a 6000XP
- The batteries and the 6000XP will be by a wall in the garage. Space is limited but I will make it work.
- Rarely drops below 0C where I live and when it does it's short; the inside of the garage doesn't usually drop to/below. But I can manually keep an eye on charging for the time being during winter if/when I get some solar coming into the 6000XP. Initially it will just be a grid-charged backup/proof-of-concept.
- They will not be in those foam carriers, they will be close together next to eachother. How do I connect them w/o putting great stress on the terminals? I have the cable and terminals and tools to make 1/0 AWG 3/8" cables, but because the distance will be so short it will be very hard for a beginner like me to nail the distance exactly if the wire is to be perfectly straight. Shall I make them much longer than the couple of inches they need to be, so they sort of create a half circle, to eliminate having to be so exact in a straight line? I keep running into physical problems like this and it is frustrating.
- Shall I put Class-T Fuse Holder directly on terminal, or make another extra short 1/0 wire to it?
- Do I even bother with bus bars since I'm not running in series and not planning on running anything else to this bank?
- How do I place these, on what? Shall I get a wooden bench from IKEA or what? Everybody is so creative and I just get stuck on the physical build parts..
- I wrote to EcoWorthy about placement and internals, they told me these use "post cells" (I'm assuming they mean prismatic?) and when I asked if they can be placed on the side or on the back (my preferred method), they said that only on their back is fine other than upright. That sounds great, but I just want to make sure it sounds legit and wasn't just someone who doesn't really know what they're talking about answering my inquiry. Shall I keep it safe and just keep them upright? On their back I can save some space and 2x2 with the terminals toward the inside for each 2, making a more squarish but more compact pack. Even if I don't do a square but still a 1by string, having them on their backs will allow me to build a narrower pack, which is a plus, without having to run wires "over the batteries" (as I would need to if I placed them upright but turned to one side).
- Do I strap them down to whatever I place them on?
- I'm seeing some people make drawings, some even provide some scripts. What software can one use for making drawings of things, and to drop some of those scripts in and create a drawing from it?
- Anything special to do before connecting the bats in series once I figure out my cabling plan? I charge all my 12.8V LFPs to 14.2V down to 0.1A, the plan is to do this and then hook up the series — sound good?
