OK to combine Battle Born with EG4 batteries?

[marcfest]

I've currently got four 100 Ah 12V Battle Born Batteries, connected 2S2P to form a 24V battery bank, for 4,800 Wh. I want to add capacity. Adding another 4 Battle Born would cost $3,500 and bring me up to 9,600 Wh. It would also be a hassle wiring them all together.

I'm wondering if I should instead buy two EG4-LifePower4 Lithium Battery | 24V 200AH | Server Rack Batteries for $1,499 each. That would give me an extra 9,600 Wh for $3,000, which is less money than the $3,500 I'd pay for the 4 Battle Born batteries adding just 4,800 Wh.

What would you recommend?

Also, if I went with the EG4 scenario, would I be able to connect the current 4,800 Wh Battle Born bank and the new 9,600 Wh EG4 rack in parallel to form a 14,600 Wh system, or would the different battery brands cause problems with one another?

Thank you, as always!

 

[sunshine_eggo]

The official industry recommendation is "same everything" - brand, capacity, age, etc.

MANY are successful with "frankenbanks" built from a hodge-podge of whatever they have available.

There is nothing inherently problematic in your proposal. Once the bank is built, confirm by applying a heavy load and use a clamp DC ammeter to insure that each battery is operating within spec conducting a current within their ratings.

Note that all referenced batteries are 5120Wh, not 4800. 25.6 * 200 = 5120.

 

[SignatureSolarJames]

@sunshine_eggo is right,
We have not tested the mix to be honest, if you have trouble we could get some battleborn to compare and test, can't promise that perfect is achievable in parallel tho

Do you have the mid-point balancers from Victron for series balancing? the slight series imbalance would likely drive the issues paralleling with our packs, battleborn uses a lot of cylindrical cells so the charge approach will differ with 8 prismatic in series.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

@sunshine_eggo is right,
We have not tested the mix to be honest, if you have trouble we could get some battleborn to compare and test, can't promise that perfect is achievable in parallel tho

Do you have the mid-point balancers from Victron for series balancing? the slight series imbalance would likely drive the issues paralleling with our packs, battleborn uses a lot of cylindrical cells so the charge approach will differ with 8 prismatic in series.

While I'd never recommend Victron balancers due to their cost and their anemic current, balancers are always a good idea in 12V strings. I prefer:

KiloVault Battery Balancers

KiloVault Battery Balancers help extend the life of a battery bank in your solar power system. 24V and 48V versions are used to maintain battery voltages across a series connection of batteries.

www.altestore.com

 

[OzSolar]

MANY are successful with "frankenbanks" built from a hodge-podge of whatever they have available.

Frankenbank... ?

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Frankenbank... ?

Derived from "Frankenpack" where some asshat has used modules from 10+ different packs to rebuild a Prius HV battery. Within my own circle of builders, I believe I have coined that term as well...

 

[JCSchwarb]

I've currently got four 100 Ah 12V Battle Born Batteries, connected 2S2P to form a 24V battery bank, for 4,800 Wh. I want to add capacity. Adding another 4 Battle Born would cost $3,500 and bring me up to 9,600 Wh. It would also be a hassle wiring them all together.

I'm wondering if I should instead buy two EG4-LifePower4 Lithium Battery | 24V 200AH | Server Rack Batteries for $1,499 each. That would give me an extra 9,600 Wh for $3,000, which is less money than the $3,500 I'd pay for the 4 Battle Born batteries adding just 4,800 Wh.

What would you recommend?

Also, if I went with the EG4 scenario, would I be able to connect the current 4,800 Wh Battle Born bank and the new 9,600 Wh EG4 rack in parallel to form a 14,600 Wh system, or would the different battery brands cause problems with one another?

Thank you, as always!

You definitely should go with Lifepo4 batteries as the depth of discharge is 2x to that of lead acid. However, you would likely need a separate charge controller to keep the Lifepo4 batteries charged separately as they have different charging requirements. You could possibly map to the lead acid SOC via voltage, but would need to think through the voltage curves to see if there is any voltage that would make since to initiate charging. But my first thought is to keep dissimilar battery types on different charge controllers

 

[McKravitts]

To be safe you could isolate them.
One simple way:
Use separate charge controllers on each bank and isolate the outputs with power schottky diodes.