Solar PV battery options

Big Lar

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120071768#Comment_120071768

Thats a nice return

SD_DRACULA

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120071054#Comment_120071054

So that minus the 90% DOD, and 20% round trip loses, brings the 40kwh pack to what? About 30kwh usable give or take. Easily go through that in a day 🙂

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120072493#Comment_120072493

Yep. With all the round trip losses, people need more than they think. And then you are starting to talk silly money if you have to get pre made packs. How much is a 5kWh pre made pack these days retail, at least €2500? Plus a good bit extra for proprietary cables? And many inverters having a maximum number of packs you can connect?

With the CALBs you can still add another 10kWh for €1300. And another and another. And you don't need any other hardware, just reconfigure your pack, you can still use the single BMS / balancer you already had, the busbars and bolts etc. are all included. After buying and selling some previous batteries, I think the 40kWh I soon will have has cost me about €3000

SD_DRACULA

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120072629#Comment_120072629

100%

40kwh is the new 20kwh - add that it to your sig, free of charge 😂

unkel

I'd rather a more positive message in my sig 😂

I honestly wish we didn't need these batteries and that the Irish government was a bit more progressive thinking and would have forced a more equitable feed in tariff and smart meter solution onto the utility providers.

"The grid should be our battery"

How's that for a sig?

randombar

Anyone have a link to the Neey yoke?

Is this it? https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003125644284.html

Also I think I need to keep a better an eye on these Forums, I miss the battery sales every time they come up!!!! Any alerts in place for em or anything?

SD_DRACULA

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120072688#Comment_120072688

I think come August when my energia EV tariff expires the sig will need to be: I don't need sex, the government f***s me every day!

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120072718#Comment_120072718

Yes that's it and from a reliable store too (Hankzor official store)

As for the CALBS, just have a look a couple times a week on PWOD official store. Target is sub €1400 for 16 after the VAT is taken off. Could be another sale coming up before or after the Chinese new year.

slave1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120072493#Comment_120072493

Not quite, you will have already suffered it losses "into" your battery so your available AC battery capacity for you to avail of will be

100% - assuming 100% SOH

Less

10% - or whatever your DOD allowance is, some inverters will not allow as deep as 90%

Less

10% - losses out, just giving an example rate, each inverter will be different

So 80% available.

Using a 40kWh pack as an example

64cells x 3.2v x 200Ah x 80% available = 32.8kWh

slave1

..and the reality is the 200Ah cells are not 200Ah, likely ~190Ah but I'm not testing mine

bullit_dodger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120072688#Comment_120072688

I've been giving that very idea a lot of thought, and while it certainly would be convenient to us end users if the "grid was the battery", it doesn't really help the case of smoothing the load throughout the day. It's sort of like us chucking our exports over the fence and letting the grid sort it out. Hawaii is a good example of where solar has "gone too far" :-) When EV's become mainstream and we adopt V2G wider, then we'll be in a better position, but for now I think batteries are the way to go. I realize people may have different opinions there, and that's cool.

I for one applaud that massive bank you have. Thinking the same myself, although perhaps not 40Kwhr - more like 20Kwhr.

slave1

The grid is not a battery, it does not store our exports, it just distributes at easy profit

Evd-Burner

Hi All,

I had intended to order batteries back in October/November but one thing led to another and funds ended up being required for going up/down the chimney :).

I am now ready to order, ordering 32PCS of these. Price is about 2900 euro after vat for the lot. Was going to wait for an offer but it may not come and it will could end up prolonging the whole thing, or the money may end up being spent elsewhere again so not going to hold off.

I am also ordering a Sofar ME3000 to London from tradesparky, my uncle lives there and will bring over in February when he is driving back to Ireland for a few weeks.

What amperage BMS do I need, I am assuming 100A (48V) will do as the Sofar can only charge at 65A anyway, and it is better to slightly oversize the BMS. Does anybody have a link to reputable supplier of AE?

Cheers.

slave1

Might be an idea to get battery cables from the sparky place while you are at it, you'll need two sets, one from SOFAR/DC isolator to BMS and one from BMS to battery pack. If you know you cable runs you might get away with just a single set (one black, one red).

Lots use Seplos BMS on here, I have the 100a and as you said it's 65A so can't see an issue.

Evd-Burner

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120073556#Comment_120073556

Cheers, do you have a link to the supplier you used? Was hoping they would be on AE.

slave1

I got mine in a convoluted way through Facebook (which I don't use) and a phone call, better off through Ali, other's may follow with links

unkel

@Evd-Burner - "funds ended up being required for going up/down the chimney :)"

I know exactly what you are saying. I sold a load of batteries, including all the batteries from my car 😮 to pay for the Christmas 😁

You've done your research, all good. All reasonable prices. Lots of knowledge in the forum with the CALBS / ME3000SP combo. And for that reason I would suggest going Seplos BMS. Personally I'm no fan of it, but several forum regulars have loads of experience with these which will greatly help you if you have any issues getting started. PM @championc, he might even have a spare one you could buy

Geeyfds53573

Do wait a week or two there will be sales for the Chinese new year and get a Bluetooth Seplos while you are at it for remote app.

Evd-Burner

Do you have the Bluetooth one? If so any links to where you got it and what the advantages are?

Evd-Burner

What do you all think of this?

US $464.94 40%OFF | LiFePo4 Battery Case 48V DIY Kit Box 16S 150A 200A BMS BT CAN RS485 to Inverter For EVE 280Ah CATL 304 LF 280 Stack type no cell

https://a.aliexpress.com/_mqXaP9s

Would make building easier me thinks, I know it will costs me and extra 500 but it would be much mote portable and I could save about 100 to 150 on other tools and parts i wouldn't need.

Would likely not go with calb cells though if I went this case route.

E30M3

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120075378#Comment_120075378

Shipping is saucy on top!

con747

Duty and vat as well maybe.

unkel

Yep duty and VAT too plus customs charges. That adds another 35% or so. On the price plus shipping!!!

I'd rather double the battery for not much more. Also if you want to expand, you'd have to buy the same again, needlessly spending money on another BMS. With just cells, you can parallel them and use the one and only BMS, no matter how big you go

But if you're really keen, Andreas from the off grid garage has built and reviewed several of these

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPDpCfAc_t8

Jonathan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120073683#Comment_120073683

Red Arrow no longer then? 🚗

Evd-Burner

Screw that case then, will stick with the CALBs. Without the extra 35% I'd consider it worth it.

I love this boards group for all the great active advice. Helps make much better informed decisions.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120075681#Comment_120075681

I've Googled, but I still have no idea what the Red Arrow reference means :P

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120075681#Comment_120075681

Oh no, the Red Arrow is fine, NCT appointment by the end of next month. Couldn't refuse the offer on the batteries though and this gives me the opportunity to do something new, it is after all a hobby these days. Thinking a PHEV battery pack would be perfect for it. Should fit easily enough as I have loads of space, the limited capacity is no problem as this is and was and will be a small range car. Which suits me fine. And of course the most important thing - cost. The Red Arrow must stay a low budget EV. The big benefit of PHEV packs is that they are of no interest to people building power walls, so they are the only type of lithium car batteries that are decent value for money.

If anyone hears of one for sale for a very reasonable price, please contact me. Any PHEV pack considered, but ideally a BMW pack out of a 530e / 740e. These are high voltage, but have 6 internal packs in series, which I would split up to 3 in series and 2 in parallel, for a voltage that is suitable for the car and also for my current on board charge point. Which is anywhere between 120V and 240V really

spose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120073579#Comment_120073579

have bought from AE and direct from seplos…link below. Would recommend going direct to seplos. In the event of any issues have better chance of them replacing it than you do with AE.

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Seplos-50A-100A-150A-200A-24V_1600246972725.html

championc

The best solution for battery cell monitoring is to use the Seplos-MQTT script and combine that with all other data into HA or Node-Red.

Why would anyone want two, three, more apps and dashboards. Keep everything in the one

Geeyfds53573

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120075378#Comment_120075378

wow a €16 box from Homebase would do you 😂 - I have seen the Bluetooth Seplos for sale on Ali I don’t have one - but ask when buying direct from Seplos

Evd-Burner

I have placed the order for 32 x CALB cells. Worked out at 2838 euro in total. I know I could probably get further discounts if I waited for new year specials etc but I also think if I am to wait that the delivery could likely take longer and the longer I do without the more I have to pay for electricity etc.

So decided to bite the bullet and just go for it, now to order everything else :P

unkel

That's really not a bad price now. Sale price would have saved you maybe €140 more tops. You have about 60 days to figure out how it all works 😁 Best of luck!

And think of it like this. For what you are spending for your 20kWh in top notch cells, you could barely get a premade 5kWh battery now...

Evd-Burner

When I have the battery in I will have 4.5kWp solar and 20kWh batteries for less than 8000. DIY is the way to go for lower payback.

With current prices I'm looking at about a 5 year payback in total. The savings are almost paying off the loan repayments.

No other investment could I get those kind of returns. My electricity will be around a 1000 year for 2 adults with a lot of working from home, up to 6 kids at any one time (blended family) and 2 electric cars.

Will eventually have more solar, more batteries and heating by electricity with even less than 1000 a year in electricity only. This stuff gets addictive :)

randombar

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120076300#Comment_120076300

Soooo do you have a sample config.yml for the Seplos MQTT, I think I've the data being sent to HA :D

randombar

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120079630#Comment_120079630

Scratch that found the configuration.yaml

https://capture.dropbox.com/G4VfaqngGzVDJOGI

Need to figure out a way of combining configuration files now without having to split them up into the master.

jkforde

is this legit? unfortunately common sense says no

unkel

@jkforde - it would help if you added a link to that. Now it's just a screenshot and we have no idea where that came from

jkforde

https://m.aliexpress.com/item/1005005120006164.html

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120080086#Comment_120080086

0 feedback.. not a good sign

unkel

Bogus. I've fallen for that a few times. Very little risk, you'll get your money back from AliExpress, but it could easily take 3 months. Best bet for decent value brand new Pylontechs is adverts.ie

Mr Q

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120075378#Comment_120075378

I priced these recently on Alibaba. Worked out at 650 Euro each delivered including all customs and fees with a 200A BMS.

But I priced for 2 so not sure how much for just one.

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120081173#Comment_120081173

But when you go to pay for them, the VAT is removed. And somehow these cells go from China to Poland (where EU VAT should be paid) and then to Ireland and nobody here receiving them ever pays any VAT as they came from within the EU, so no VAT is due. I doubt the VAT was ever paid in Poland, but that is not our concern.

That's the beauty of these. And that's why we all keep going back for more 😁

Mr Q

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120081322#Comment_120081322

This is for Seplos Mason battery boxes though, not cells. And the VAT is paid with this seller, it is on Alibaba, not Aliexpress.

Still too expensive for a nice box though.

noelocon

So update on the state of my battery pack that I managed to wire wrong and start a fire.

I cleaned off the burned bits, fixed the BMS leads and bolts, top balanced the entire thing, wired it up and it seems to be working ok.

56.91V & 98% SOC , all cells at 3.56V and I managed to convince my better half to keep going with it.

I'm right back to where I started which was the Seplos going into short circuit protection mode on discharge 😫

thanks for all the help and encouragement to put it back together, much appreciated.

Now if anyone know how to fix or what causes a SCP warning on seplos I'd appreciate some advice

championc

Post a copy of your parameter file. Maybe you mis-set something.

Does it trip immediately or maybe when the load increases ?

What size are your DC cables from the batteries to the Seplos, and from the Seplos to the Inverter ?

Personally, I only connected the positive from the battery to one of the two positive busbar connector points. The same for the connection to the inverter. I'm using DC 10mm cable for these links.

noelocon

The cables are 3AWG/25mm from the battery->bms->inverter

I managed to get 1-2 amps but the BMS quickly (5-10 seconds) shuts down with the SCP issue on discharge.

I've attached the parameters that I downloaded before the rebuild

Parameter 20221204_1509.xml.txt

spose

If you go in to the log you can see if it is one alarm or if something else going on with it and if the cell voltage readings are holding stable

championc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120087580#Comment_120087580

Well Notepad++ told me immediately that your settings file and mine are identical - so nothing there amiss

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120087448#Comment_120087448

Photo of the seplos? Might be something straight forward

noelocon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120087969#Comment_120087969

PXL_20230110_094136479.jpg

PXL_20230110_095918709.jpg

So I think there's an issue with the BMS. When I looked this morning it was saying that the pack was at a high state of charge 97%+

I then disconnected the battery to ensure that everything was wired correctly to the inverter and when I reconnected the BMS the SOC had dropped to 10%.

Here's the events that were captured during at the time (ignore the timestamp as its incorrect)

Screenshot from 2023-01-10 11-50-07.png

Once it hit this the inverter started charging the pack and then I started getting a high pressure and a monomer high voltage alarm.

I'm gonna contact seplos and see if there's a new firmware that can help with this.

championc

I'd let them charge. Just because it dropped to 10% doesn't mean that it's faulty. As it hits the monomer high values, it will back off and try balancing a few times, and then change the SOC to 100%