diy solar

diy solar

Who's in the UK and Ireland?

CHRIS. Nas4 said:
￡314.20 3%OFF | 4pcs LiitoKala 3.2V 105Ah 200Ah 280ah 310Ah 320ah LiFePO4 battery 12V battery Lithium-iron phospha Can make Boat car battery
a.aliexpress.com

423.36US $ 2% OFF|4pcs LiitoKala 3.2V 105Ah 200Ah 280ah 310Ah 320ah LiFePO4 battery 12V battery Lithium iron phospha Can make Boat car battery|Rechargeable Batteries| - AliExpress

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com
a.aliexpress.com a.aliexpress.com
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And they have stock in Germany, 4x320ah £527.28 delivered brilliant! I'll let you know how long they take to arrive.
 
Ordered 304ah CATL ones and a JBD so just a long wait now but so far so good.
 
In London. I took the plunge in July and bought 4 x 105ah cells for £150 including VAT and delivery. They took 3 months to arrive from China and there were no additional fees. They tested at 88ah so not a great first experience of buying from China direct, but I've enjoyed seeing what I can do with that 12v LiFePO4 pack compared with some similarly sized lead acid batteries I have lying around. Lithium is definitely better for driving the 12v fridge and the small 1000w inverter. I've just pulled the plug on 8 x 230ah cells from a different seller to make a 24v pack. These are supposed to be coming from Italy and therefore I wasn't charged VAT on the website. Let's see what happens at customs!
 
squowse said:
Sorry I don't know what I was thinking - the 24V power supply won't be able to do your top balancing. You'd need one about 3.5V of course. I've got a 5V one here I'm going to see about extending the adjustment to 3-3.5v by replacing the variable resistor used to control the voltage. I've seen it done on a smaller one on YouTube. I'll find out I suppose.
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put it in series with two Si diodes, they have about 0.7V each voltage drop
 
ps do you have any sun in the UK? I was always thinking the country is virtually sun-less
 
kuranaga said:
ps do you have any sun in the UK? I was always thinking the country is virtually sun-less
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It's not all that bad, albeit not quiet like over the pond or anything, but still enough to make solar more than worth while.
 
kuranaga said:
put it in series with two Si diodes, they have about 0.7V each voltage drop
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What current can they handle? There's about 140 Amps peak. I doubt they could handle that. The power supplies are adjustable to 3.65V so no problem with voltage anyway.
 
h
squowse said:
What current can they handle? There's about 140 Amps peak. I doubt they could handle that. The power supplies are adjustable to 3.65V so no problem with voltage anyway.
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he is taking about top balancing... another one not reading the thread? I doubt he will do 130Amps!
 
kuranaga said:
h

he is taking about top balancing... another one not reading the thread? I doubt he will do 130Amps!
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"He" is me. I'm talking about top balancing with a 140A charger. There's no need to be rude. How much current can your diodes take? Most people will be using less current for top balancing. But they'll have the variable voltage power supplies so woulddn't need diodes
 
squowse said:
"He" is me. I'm talking about top balancing with a 140A charger. There's no need to be rude. How much current can your diodes take? Most people will be using less current for top balancing. But they'll have the variable voltage power supplies so woulddn't need diodes
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then use a smaller power supply. you make problems where is none. will just take 3 days instead of one, what is the problem
 
kuranaga said:
then use a smaller power supply. you make problems where is none. will just take 3 days instead of one, what is the problem
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What are you on about? I have a perfectly functional high current charger. Why are you wading in talking about diodes and other random misunderstandings?
 
kuranaga said:
you can easily get 200A diodes, maybe €15 per piece. if you add a good heat sink, no problem to take 140A. look at mouser.com
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So why do I want to spend £30+ heatsink etc on something to burn off excess electricity? I can just adjust the power supply down. The power supplies only cost about £30.
 
alcina said:
In London. I took the plunge in July and bought 4 x 105ah cells for £150 including VAT and delivery. They took 3 months to arrive from China and there were no additional fees. They tested at 88ah so not a great first experience of buying from China direct, but I've enjoyed seeing what I can do with that 12v LiFePO4 pack compared with some similarly sized lead acid batteries I have lying around. Lithium is definitely better for driving the 12v fridge and the small 1000w inverter. I've just pulled the plug on 8 x 230ah cells from a different seller to make a 24v pack. These are supposed to be coming from Italy and therefore I wasn't charged VAT on the website. Let's see what happens at customs!
Click to expand...
To update on this...

So this order never arrived. It was supposed to be delivered in 3 weeks from Italy. The tracking number provided was clearly a Polish tracking number and the Polish tracking number always said: "waiting for parcel from seller" or words to that effect. 3 weeks came and went. I raised a dispute based on: a) the tracking number was Polish not Italian; b) the tracking number said the seller hadn't yet submitted the parcel to the delivery company; c) 3 weeks had passed and I did not believe the parcel had ever been sent yet alone would ever arrive. I submitted screenshots of all the evidence. The seller sent a message saying "I can send you the batteries from Germany if you still want them". I said no and requested my money back. I got my money back. So the aliexpress escrow thing works. This seller, when I purchased, had 4.8 stars. It now has 3 with many reviews quoting exactly the same experience as me. This seller is: Lifepo4 BATT Store.

I thought I'd give aliexpress one last chance before I dropped the same amount of money on half the power by buying a 12v 200Ah SOK battery from Amazon. I searched again, found another store with 4.9 stars. This store was selling 8 x 280Ah EVE cells for a little less than the previous store was selling 230Ah cells. These were free shipping from China. I pulled the plug on 10th December and waited. There was no shipping information - always anxiety provoking, but it said expected delivery was by 7th February. The 90 day aliexpress delivery window was until the middle of March after that I would automatically get a refund if it hadn't arrived. The 7th February came and went. I thought I'd give it another week before opening a dispute. On 9th Feb I got a text from DPD saying they were going to deliver a parcel that day. As I've bought quite a lot of stuff from all over the place recently I wasn't sure what that parcel would be! The allotted time arrived and a DPD liveried van turned up at my door. Out came one large heavy box and he went back to the van for a second box. I realised it was the LiFePO4 cells!!!. He scanned the first box, tried to scan the second but the label was ripped. So he said he would have to take the box back to the depot and get it redelivered!!! NOOOOOOO!!!!! However, early the following morning another DPD van arrived and the second box finally made it the last two feet of its long journey from China.

I unpacked all 8 cells, they were well packaged in made-to-measure foam inserts. They LOOKED like Grade A cells. No bulging, no scuffs, little plastic EVE stamped terminal caps, intact QR codes etched into the aluminium all saying EVE 280Ah. All 8 cells measured 3.29 volts. I wanted to get a capacity test done so as they were all 3.29 volts I didn't spend time top balancing them, I wired them together, put on a BMS and charged them up. Then I ran a capacity test. 41.25 hours later the BMS shut down. The device said it had pulled 283.56Ah or 7177.19Wh. So very pleased! These cells appear to be exactly as described: Grade A 280Ah EVE cells. This seller is: SANBEN Gobal Battery Store. I had no additional charges to pay on delivery. I will now balance them and start building my 24v system.
 
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