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I was looking into EG4LL lifepo4 batteries. They're around 1700 for 100AH @48v. Anyone have any experience or thoughts? I'm looking into buying some off grid property in Eastern Tennesee or Western North Carolina. Probably TN as I hate state income tax. Money really isn't an issue, reliability is. They're warrantied for 10 years and the manufacturer says they should last 20+ years is not cycled to the max.
Looking at having 600AH worth of storage. Might buy some batteries and a spare inverter and putting them into a faraday cage....I feel something will be coming in my lifetime that will warrant off grid living and self sufficiency.
Some of those 48V rack batteries can do tricks that make multiple batteries in parallel easier to work with. Usually they are based on the Meritsun BMS or copy of. This is not the typical style BMS people are used to. A typical BMS can only turn off charging in the face of too high current or over temperature. The Meritsun style has a switching regulator onboard that allows it to limit current flows to a given level.
When parallel charging batteries slight differences in capacity will see one battery rise to fully charged before another. The higher SOC batteries will draw less current allowing the lower SOC ones to draw more from the total provided by the charger. Eventually this could be well in excess of what is desired potentially to the point of tripping the usual style BMS while the Meritsun style will simply regulate at 100A or what ever value the user has configured the BMS for. This is good for longer battery life. Likewise the BMS can simply reduce charging current in the face of climbing cell temperatures rather than wait for over temperature and simply turning off charging totally.
It also allows for one or more batteries to be removed from service temporarily without having to reconfigure the charger to limit charging current to account for the lower battery count. This is similar but superior to what I have done with my own setup where I monitor battery current and adjust the charger config on the fly. This does allow me to limit max amps to any given battery but it also results in a slightly slower overall charging rate. The Meritsun style BMS will allow the maximum charging speed across all batteries in the bank.
A lot of solar / off grid Youtubers simple do not understand these concepts so you don't get proper appreciation of the capabilities of these batteries in their reviews (paid for or not).
There are additional capabilities but that involves the charger/inverter being able to talk with the batteries. All up if I were to start from scratch today I'd be using decent Mertisun style BMS based 48V rack batteries.
Thanks, that is what I was thinking. Although I am capable of building my own I figured at that price point it would be as cheap (cheaper considering the warranty) as building a similar setup and getting all the parts to work together. Plus the ease of expanding if I needed to in the future and having spares that could be dropped in and just work together without having to go through the hassle of getting everything setup again.
A little off topic, but could you get to this remote property at time of need? I'm a bit of a prepper, but have built my little off-grid system at home.
This property would be my full time residence. I live in the deep south currently and summertime is a bear for power usage. Where I am looking to relocate will be I. The 50's to 60's overnight and in the 80's during the day. It was 102 here today...actual temp not feel like.....where I want ro live is 20 degrees cooler.
1 hour ago, Nilao said:This property would be my full time residence. I live in the deep south currently and summertime is a bear for power usage. Where I am looking to relocate will be I. The 50's to 60's overnight and in the 80's during the day. It was 102 here today...actual temp not feel like.....where I want ro live is 20 degrees cooler.
I live in California's San Joaquin Valley, and it was 104° today, but 13% humidity. My evaporative cooler performed very well. With my little 24V system, I can run that, and a refrigerator off grid, if need be.
1 hour ago, RobertM said:I live in California's San Joaquin Valley, and it was 104° today, but 13% humidity. My evaporative cooler performed very well. With my little 24V system, I can run that, and a refrigerator off grid, if need be.
Yeah, If I had low humidity that would be great. But alas here in Florida we typically have most days with very high humidity...the kind of constant damp that makes moss grow in places it shouldn't if ya get my drift lol. And we have maybe 3 months that don't need A/C running. Heck we run the A/C here in January sometimes.
I am a bite slow after a long year finally realizing my 3000 Powmr 24v does not start charging under 30v , I was wondering if I mix a few panels in series some 18v with 12v will I achieve better results?
I just ordered 4 panels from Amazon got 2 German Dokio 18v to try and see…..yet a very good deal 2 Weize 12v 100 for $99. and a $250 Java battery 100amp. The Chinese are flooding the market with these deal , they must have a hub warehouse at the Great Walnuts California . My new Java has just arrived looking pretty good , very good packaging and a professional looking manual .looking forward to see how it performs.
Yeah, If I had low humidity that would be great. But alas here in Florida we typically have most days with very high humidity...the kind of constant damp that makes moss grow in places it shouldn't if ya get my drift lol. And we have maybe 3 months that don't need A/C running. Heck we run the A/C here in January sometimes.
Only sometimes? Mid March and we are a 66° with a 94% humidity. I'm lucky if we get 3 days that the A/C isn't running in a row.