Barbuda Cottages
New Member
- Joined
- Mar 24, 2020
- Messages
- 21
Hello , I'm looking for some advice on Lifepo4 replacement for our 48 volt , 2600ah battery bank .
Our current solar system is 60 x 300 watt solar panels ( adding another 30 panels this summer ) , 4 outback flexmax 80 charge controllers , 4 x 24 volt 1300ah sealed battery banks ( paralleled and series for 48 volts ) , 4 outback fx 3600 watt Inverters , mate 3s, with a Kubota 20kw diesel generator . This system was purchased 2 years ago after our previous system was destroyed by hurricane Irma , and because of limited funds we ended up purchasing used lead acid batteries ( big mistake ). now this battery bank is failing to hold a proper charge so its time to replace .
We use between 1200-1600 Ah per day of power and have gone as high as 2000ah in a single day which is very rare .
I'm thinking of replacing the 2600ah lead acid with roughly 2000ah lithium to meet our immediate needs and from what I've read I should be able to add banks within the next 2 years if I take care of the original banks , I plan to follow Will's advice cycling between 20-80 % ?
Now to my question , I am not in a position to spend $80 thousand on a set of battle born batteries. I have been reading a lot of threads on making battery banks with purchased cells and BMS units . I've seen that the price of the 280ah cells have come way down ( $80 per cell ), is it advisable to purchase and build 7 banks ( 112 cells ) and feed all 7 banks to a positive and negative bus bar keeping in mind that I will need to expand this to 10 to 12 banks in the near future ? It would definitely help the wallet if this will work . I'm estimating I could be under the $15000 range for the 7 banks . If someone can let me know if this is a viable solution and if so could recommend a reputable supplier for the batteries from Alibaba , also a quality BMS for the 280ah batteries I would really appreciate any advice .
Thanks
Our current solar system is 60 x 300 watt solar panels ( adding another 30 panels this summer ) , 4 outback flexmax 80 charge controllers , 4 x 24 volt 1300ah sealed battery banks ( paralleled and series for 48 volts ) , 4 outback fx 3600 watt Inverters , mate 3s, with a Kubota 20kw diesel generator . This system was purchased 2 years ago after our previous system was destroyed by hurricane Irma , and because of limited funds we ended up purchasing used lead acid batteries ( big mistake ). now this battery bank is failing to hold a proper charge so its time to replace .
We use between 1200-1600 Ah per day of power and have gone as high as 2000ah in a single day which is very rare .
I'm thinking of replacing the 2600ah lead acid with roughly 2000ah lithium to meet our immediate needs and from what I've read I should be able to add banks within the next 2 years if I take care of the original banks , I plan to follow Will's advice cycling between 20-80 % ?
Now to my question , I am not in a position to spend $80 thousand on a set of battle born batteries. I have been reading a lot of threads on making battery banks with purchased cells and BMS units . I've seen that the price of the 280ah cells have come way down ( $80 per cell ), is it advisable to purchase and build 7 banks ( 112 cells ) and feed all 7 banks to a positive and negative bus bar keeping in mind that I will need to expand this to 10 to 12 banks in the near future ? It would definitely help the wallet if this will work . I'm estimating I could be under the $15000 range for the 7 banks . If someone can let me know if this is a viable solution and if so could recommend a reputable supplier for the batteries from Alibaba , also a quality BMS for the 280ah batteries I would really appreciate any advice .
Thanks
