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Old 12-02-16, 09:03 PM   #61
creeky
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Fun with heat

Having fun with keeping the batteries warm. Turned out I had a huge hole in my insulation. Got that fixed. Redid the lid. Etc. Will post an update in a few days on what temp the batteries are staying at.

So at below 0C the batteries "plating of metallic lithium can occur on the anode"? I've been pretty close to 0C. So far so good though. The inverter as a heater is working at least for late fall/early winter.

Yup, I did it again

Lucked out. 2015 pack this time. 17kw of goodness. The battery packs appear identical to the previous gen. So not sure what or where the .5kw comes from.

Next I'm planning to try a high voltage install. Something around 120v. Maybe Sunny Boy? Hmmm. All to drive a minisplit. Should be a fun experiment.


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Old 12-03-16, 12:00 PM   #62
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This is very cool. Each year after 2012 they made the battery pack a little more dense. They did not list this because they did not redo the EPA estimate. But each year had a little more range.
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Old 12-03-16, 12:23 PM   #63
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I can find a lot of posts where folks are assuming the 17.1kw was a software tweak but LG appears to say they updated the chemistry. I'll go with that.

What I find amusing: My 2014 battery was dated May 2014. My 2015 pack was dated August 2014. Ah model years!

The 2015 pack was perfectly balanced. That was really cool to see. 3.71. I reset my reader to three decimal points just to see how far that goes. But as of right now. 96 cells at 3.71.

Hopefully I can find a 2016 pack. Would love to tear that down.
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Old 12-03-16, 01:30 PM   #64
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How much for this recent pack of cells?


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Old 12-03-16, 02:53 PM   #65
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Gee. I'm starting to feel a bit guilty about the cost of these things. And wonder if I shouldn't be keeping my big mouth shut ...

This pack is in, torn down and verified for something around 120/kwh. The economics is real good. Tho. This is not including labour. Only material costs. Battery, shipping, incidentals (ie. supper out for she who is patient).

So let's keep this on the down low. Grin (is there anything worse than an olde guy misusing slightly out of date slang?)
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Old 12-03-16, 06:34 PM   #66
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Creeky

Information for you.! You can discharge while the pack is -25 Deg C. but don't ever charge until the batteries are above 0 Deg. C . Metallic plating of the anode happens only while charging below zero. Discharging is fine at sub-zero temps.

While the pack is discharging the cells will produce a little bit of heat. Albeit with reduced capacity.

Enlist the services of the arduino to warm the space before any effort is made to charge. The batteries should last a long long time.

FYI with a little shopping and negotiating I got mine for a little less.

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Last edited by randen; 12-03-16 at 06:42 PM.. Reason: grammer
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Old 12-04-16, 04:04 PM   #67
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Thanks Randen. The temp info is important for anyone considering this project.

My price is $C. And includes shipping/taxes etc. The first pack I bought worked out at under 100/kw. This second one. They're just so rare. I didn't mind coughing up a bit more for the 2015 an hour from home. Sadly I don't have access to the US wholesale market. Those guys have lots of batteries. More likely to move on price.

How'ze your truck doing? Burned any rubber yet?
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Last edited by creeky; 12-08-16 at 10:03 PM..
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Old 12-10-16, 06:21 PM   #68
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Creeky

Yep made some very good progress. Both Chevy Volt packs are in. I had some trouble with the DIY motor controller and that kept me scratching my head for a few weeks. I'm happy to report that issue is wrestled to the ground.

In the photos is the installed pack. Painted and sealed ready for action. I like to utilize aircraft hardware, nutplates and other fasteners just seem more user friendly and robust. (better for mantainance) The large connector with the 1/2 twist lock is used for aircraft batteries, that will handle some current!! The truck box was re-installed and all is back to original condition.

The truck was introduced in 1997 along with the famed EV-1. As it rolled of the assembly line it had a lead acid pack at 16Kwh and 1400 lbs. (a true lead sled) This was later up-dated with a Nimh pack at 29Kwhs and 1043Lbs.

Today the numbers are Lithium Ion at 34Kwh and 875Lbs.

Couldn't resist went for a little drive. The parameters for the motor controller are yet to be tuned. Sounds funny tuning an electric motor.??

Its kinda spooky backing out of the garage with absolutely no sound.

The truck is currently charging to ready for tomorrow for a couple hours of tuning the parameters. THEN maybe some rubber toasting.

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Last edited by randen; 12-10-16 at 09:39 PM.. Reason: Corrected battery weights
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Old 12-10-16, 09:00 PM   #69
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I'm lookin' for some smoke ... off the tires that is.

I just shut down the farm. It's going to be tough living in the city. Hydronic floor heat. 24/7 grid power that I didn't make. No wood chopping. No morning fire in the woodstove. No long cold walks. No howling coyotes. Sigh.

Anyway. The last two days as I shut down the systems the batteries were in their box with the inverter on "idle." Initial temp was 5C. By day two they were down to -2.

The inverter doesn't generate enough heat to keep the batteries above 0 with no load. It was also quite cold. The past two days saw a high of 0. Low last night was -10.

The battery box never did get finished. I had 3 sides at R30. And 3 sides at R12-15. So there is that.

If I decide to go back to full four season use I will add an electric heater. And a charger. I would be able to charge and heat for say an hour every few days off the generator just to keep things tidy.

Having said that. The lowest fall/early winter voltage level was that 43.6 I think I reported earlier. And I went 5 days several times without making it to full charge.

All without using the generator or an alternate charge source.

So I consider this a stupendous success. My previous lead acid battery required charging virtually every day during this time of year. The reasons are not just the shorter days. Its the very cloudy weather we get here.

Now I await spring. The battery after two days on "idle" is at 47.25. This is too high. I was hoping to get it down to 3.8 or 3.7/cell (not 3.9). So I may hop out to the farm now and again and just turn on some lights. Use the inverter. Enjoy a "ski" day.

Now to start the "solar boat" plan. And build a few high voltage systems with the new pack. Happy holidays to all.

Lithium rules!
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Old 03-04-17, 11:05 AM   #70
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The new 12s monitors are in and tested.

Well. I have to say these things look way better than I had hoped. And how nice is it to be able to measure all 12 cells at once.

After testing I find them very sensitive and accurate. tho, to be fair, the gauges of their accuracy are probably less accurate than this new monitor itself.

So 'nuff talk. On to the test:

taking a 6s 24v cell I attach the monitor.

I watch for two days to see if its drawing down any one cell more than another. After two days my conclusion is: not that I can see.

I then attach a 24v battery charger from an electric lawnmower. Hook up and begin charging. As I charge all cells to 4v. I notice that cell 1 is consistently .02 lower than the other cells. Is this an indication that cell 1 is carrying the monitor load?

Note: I have set the monitor to light an led at a cell voltage of 4.00

As the charger brings the cell voltage up (9-10 hour process, this charger isn't very powerful) I check in from time.

At 9 that night my girlfriend yells up the stairs "your monitor is flashing" I go down, one cell is flickering to 4 down to 3.8 up to 4. Battery voltage is 23.8. I leave the battery on charge for another hr. Most cells are now 3.99 to 4.02. Lot of flickering up and down of the indicated voltages. Battery voltage is 24. I disconnect the charger.

The next morning battery voltage is 23.9

I leave the monitor on for a week watching the cells. Cell one is .02 lower than the others. After a week its .04 lower than the others. Most of the cells are showing some decline (.02) in voltage. Whether that is settling or what I don't know. Cell 6 is still at 4. And the led is still lit. Indicating that the battery voltage is fully charged.

Result: it only takes one cell v to trigger the led. the monitor works well as a warning device of cell imbalance.

I will look at how the 8M cell monitor users dealt with the monitor drawing all the power from one cell and modify.

that's it. Huzzah. Another step forward in lithium cell tech for off grid use.

PS-I had to buy 5 to get one. Took over 6 months to find a supplier. anyone want one?

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