Quote:
Originally Posted by creeky
Might I suggest some reading on lithium? I see posts based on an inadequate level of knowledge. By ex. I read "Lithium batteries are made of small individual cells". While in fact there are 1000ah battery cells readily available. Also there seems to be a lack of understanding what a BMS is ... Assumptions based on poor research are rarely pretty to read.
I would like to share a story if I might. Over the last 12 months I've seen two people go off grid. One guy put in a 4,000 dollar pb battery. He didn't go lithium because of confusing reports. This is very sad as he has no real technical training. This battery pack is unlikely to last more than 3 years. Right from purchase the pack sat untended and uninstalled for six months. Ouch right.
Of course with a lithium pack, which would have cost 50% more but given him more capacity and at least double and probably 4 times the lifespan ... no problem.
The second fellow put in 5,000 lbs of pb based battery. Again he did so because lithium is being inundated with PR flack hack bs. He thought, better safe than sorry. His installer, getting a nice commission on the pb battery and none off lithium of course also pushed for that option.
Unfortunately, by the time he built a special addition to his house for the huge battery the cost was pretty comparable to lithium. But having no experience with lead he has no idea the pain in the derriere he has let himself in for. The poor performance. The constant maintenance. Etc.
PS-One might look at
BMS (battery management system) Rec and "mini bms" are neat systems.
lifepo4
SMA inverter sunny boy (some amazing products for off grid/grid tie-even a new inverter designed for high voltage lithium systems)
victron (excellent stuff for smaller systems)
balqon (beautiful lifepo4 batteries for the plug and play crowd)
also you might have a look for posts using
off grid system leaf battery
off grid system volt battery
some neat stuff happening. off grid tech is improving so fast. it's a wonderful time to watch and learn.
|
From what I've seen here I'm assuming Lithium in both large and small formats are copping some bad press in the states , this is very much the opposite here in Aus with access to large format very convenient, pre packaged small format high voltage less abundant with the Power wall units just arriving this month .
Cost for Lithium here in any quality cell is pricey , more so than prices in the states by a good margin, mostly due to volumes imported here (we only have a population of 22 million for the whole country ....
Yet I see BMS are better understood here than over your side of the world , or so it seems by the average punter.
Even with the high prices we currently have I see lithium in large format very competitive with lead acid , I'm just lucky to have access to cheap lead acid.
Volumes of electric and hybrid cars here is low , battery packs will be priced very high for some time here. Parting out crashed cars to to assist in cost recovery then claim the battery might be an option , But not for me yet.