Earlier this year, I bought 134 LF280K cells from Jenny Wu. The reason is because of this channel and Ray's recommendation. I then purchased separately 8 JK BMS's from Jenny. I am now dialoging with Jenny for cases, now that I realize that I don't have the time to make my own cases like Ray did. Looking back, I would have gone straight to Jenny to buy it all as a single purchase. I expect one reservation you have may be uncertainty of wiring money to Hong Kong before product(s) are shipped out. I had the luxury of buying my cells from her via wire transfer, waiting a few days, then going to a Houston/Katy warehouse to pick them up at a price higher than if I waited for shipping from China. Jenny is very reliable, and I would recommend her over any other overseas source.
@@bobblack3870 I contacted Jenny yesterday on Ray's recommendation and asked which payment sources she uses and she replied Paypal, credit card, and wire transfer. I was under the impression that only wire transfer was permitted. What payment form would you guys recommend?. Gave me what I thought was a great price on 16 MB31s and an Apexium case complete with cables.
Glad your back bro. I upgraded from lead/acid to Chinese LFP last summer and your videos were very helpful on setting everything up. Fact is without youtubers like you it would have never happened. Especially you and this little Australian guy. Forever grateful :)
Just to let you know that I am following you from up north in Oslo, Norway. Last friday I place an order with Jenny Wu, and I am very pleased by the service she is giving. I am also retired, spendt a couple of years in Santa Fe in the late 60ties, and like you had a serious fracture on the tip of my thight bone (femur) some years ago forcing me to give up offroad biking. I really admire your motivation and how you reflect on all the practical issues. Good luck with the horses!
Hi Ray, I have been worried about you. Very glad to see you back. Don't worry about confining your video topics to what you think people might like. Show what you like - you may be pleasantly surprised if you inspire somebody else to pursue a new hobby!
I've been purchasing from Jenny since I first saw your videos. The new EVE series is great. I've been ordering recently and the experience has been as good as ever. They also supply DIY Seplos boxes like you said for great prices. Saves a lot of time building batteries. Thanks for a great video! You're still one of the kindest people I've ever had the honour to watch on YT!
You're a man's man. Riding, diving, reloading, electrical, building.. You'd be a cool friend. Glad you're healing - sounded a little rough for a while.
Last year I ordered some 304 Ah cells from Jenny. They shipped quickly to north of Sweden from EU stock.. Jenny's service and the quality of cells are impeccable.
Thanks for the transparency and courage to expose yourself. My wife work with horses and I reached 48 years old this year. Your testimony inspire me to take care of myself. Greetings from Brazil.
Ray! Im so happy i found your Chanel, you are such a likable person. I really enjoy learning about batteries from you! Going to build a house battery soon, so your knowledge is really helping me along. Thank you so much for your work!
My order of 16 280ah batteries from Jenny worked out perfectly just like you said it would. Your right about using the email because I have heard stories of scammers claiming to be her. I think people need to understand that shipping these batteries back to China will cost more then what it cost to buy new ones so when you order them from China there is no way to return them.
Thanks for another great video and for keeping the DIY solar community informed of great deals like this! I contacted Jenny yesterday and am ordering 8 MB31 cells - looking forward to building my next 24v pack (in 2 months when they finally arrive :) Thanks again Ray!
Ray glad your back and in good health! I hope your journeys take you everywhere y’all want to go! PS Ray yeah we started coming here to learn about batteries but we care about you as a person also, thanks for the channel.
So good to see you my TX friend. Been worried that you have been having serious health issues, and so glad you were able to pop on and share. I have to build my solar system but have panels and a single Apexium DIY from Jenny last year. I mentioned you. Blessings to you!
Welcome back. We miss your thoughtful insights and wealth of experience. What you said about Jenny Is is absolutely true.I dealt with her only after listening to your recommendations and she.hasn't disappointed.
Welcome back, Ray. It's good to see you looking so fresh and healthy again. I am also looking forward to seeing the new video on your RV battery installation. Regards. Mike Irish.
and thanks Ray I have one of those battery testing tools to measure the tiny resistance between battery terminal and bus bar because of you. I use it for everything now, any type of connection that will carry anything more then a few amps i test the resistance to make sure everything has a good contact. I am surprised I never see one used on any other channels.
Hi Ray, I'm Argie from the Philippines and I've been watching you and subscribed to your channel 2 years ago since I got interested in your journey of buying, testing, and building eve cells to Battery bank modules. I would like to thank you for your dedication to sharing your knowledge about Legitimate suppliers in China like Jenny Wu. I am very happy to know about the new generations of the EVE cells and am hoping for more content about these.
I bought 64 cells from Jenny Wu and built those wood battery boxes just like your video showed. Everything is working awesome. Thank you so much for the videos that you do. I appreciate it!! My house runs on solar during the day and batteries at night. Couldn't be happier. FYI the second set of 32 batteries showed up in about a week. Wow!
Hey Ray, nice to hear your fine.....well ageing is not for sissies... 😊 I bought a 48v Battery now from China...and I am really happy with...good quality, good support of the seller as I faced a communication problem with the BMS....I stopped building on my own...saves time...and the price was 2400 USD...including shipping to Germany...battery is sized to fit in a 19 rack...15.3 KWH is also a good number. It's stackable...BMS up to 200 A....By now there is really nothing to worry about. I am happy that I've learned a lot from your and other channels about building batteries...so I feel able to check on ready built systems too... Interesting horsetrailer that you talked about...May you like to share a short video? All the best to you... Frank
I am A big fan of your channel and all the great information you provide on it. I just set up three Apexium DIY boxes that i got from Jenny Wu. It works good so far and was a lot of fun to build. Now my family can enjoy reliable power for many years to come. Thanks Ray!
Looking forward to the new set of videos. I have a travel trailer that I’m planning on putting a bunch of panels and build a decent battery bank to be able to fully boondock as needed.
Really nice to see you back Ray. I think I’m going to have buy some of these for my RV! Thank you and G’day again from Oz 🇦🇺 Great advice on the health front- there is so much that I used to do that’s now just too hard, but every day above ground is a good day. Cheers
thankyou for your time and patience. i regret making somewhat critical comments a few months ago on your videos. as a doctor, i am very bothered by what you described healthwise... pretty sure i can read between the lines. keep doing what you like to be doing man. thanks for the update. hopeing the new sanctions+tarrifs wont mess stuff up too much for off grid supplies.
just bought my first 16 cells from Jennywu today easy transaction the cells i got are in US warehouse so should be here in7-10 days guess i need to get to building a box Thanks Ray I did give her your info so you should see a commission. This is my way of thanking you for the work you put into making the videos for us to learn from. keep up the good work. hope the ankle gets better I broke mine and ended up having 4 surgeries to get it fixed ended up having a fusion due to traumatic arthritis that was over ten years ago been going strong.
Thanks so much Steven You caught me working on my next little project. Hopefully I can get a video out about it before too long. It is going to be the process I’m going through to convert the living quarters of our horse trailer to operate on one of these batteries so that I don’t have to run the generator when I’m away from power. Hope you have an easy time with your project and I look forward to hearing about your success with it.
Have you tried any boxes upright I was thinking about trying that with a little modifications to put on end fed ex says tomorrow they will be here Jenny is great
Hi Ray, first time on your channel and have already learned some useful things. Forgive my ignorance but I have a question about building a battery using the mb31. 8 batteries would give me the desired 24 volts (so I can use my 3000 watt, 24 volt inverter) but when all is said and done, would it be 330 ah? Would Jenny know what bms would be best for this configuration? Could you perhaps steer me to the correct bms direction? Thanks!
Excellent results Ray and thank you for sharing your experience. Jenny did inform me about the new batteries and prices and she also must have come across (don't know how) the video clip of my finished battery based on your valuable instructions because she contacted me complimenting about it so thanks again for all your tips 'n tricks that made us all more successful at this game 🙏
I just commented on one of your vids and checked out you channel and seen your review on sun fun so I have decided to not go that direction. ill give jenny a shout. good to see you recovered. im getting up there myself, we cant heal as fast as we did in our youth. Question for ya. can I pick up from the Houston WH if I order from her? im about 45 mins outside of Houston. PS def KEEP the hair LOL im a long hair after a life of short and getting into HD (been into bikes my whole life too.) would love to see some bike stuff and i see you reload also. a vid about that would be cool to throw in. Im just now getting into large scale solar (still small compared to your setup) but i have 5K of panels and inverter but i only have 50 aH of battery so i need more.
I have picked up from the Houston warehouse. I won’t be making any reloading videos but I have been involved in competitive precision accuracy. I may make a video about how the trailer is working. It has been working off grid for over two weeks now.
So glad to see you back and healthy! Energy independence is becoming more important to more people these days so your lessons on safely building batteries are greatly valued! Montana trail riding sounds like a great idea to escape the Texas summer months! 👍☀️⚡️🔋🤩
7 месяцев назад+1
I agree since my cost per KWH of grid has doubled in the past 3 years.. Smart meters to detect back feed because the power company does not want power from private homes, deregulation fees, a monthly fee because I have solar which I am guessing is to pay them to watch me with that smart meter so they can fine me if my generated power goes the wrong way.. Home owners insurance canceled, no State rebate for building it and the thought that if the SHTF the government might come and confiscate the system for their use..
Thanks for the info Ray. Have you tech info on a 96v system (200-300ah). Most batteries with BMS's are limited to 48v.. Any help and advice would be great.
Including the separators is such a great idea. I just recently had to cut 250 of them myself. When I bought my batteries from Jenny a few years ago I paid about $111/kWh which was already a good deal. They're now down to $67/kWh. I wish I had more projects that needed them. I've been thinking about starting one of those federal community solar projects with battery backup just because the California Net Metering 3.0 rules are so lucrative for big battery owners. I think solar and LiFePO4 have both hit rock bottom. I don't think they'll be any cheaper than they are today. Its a great time to do a big project.
You paid $67 per kwh, and a 300Ah is 3.2 volts, or 0.96 kwh,that means you'd pay $64 for one battery? $514 per 8; $1029 for 16 cells? thanks, because it seems no one here mentions the most important thing, prices.
Missed you man! Glad you’re back. And I plan to buy from Jenny the apexium box and new Eve cells soon. Have you heard about the new tariff on Chinese imports to be added soon? Prices are probably lowest right now than they’ll ever be!
Hi Ray, I've been following your video's for quite some time and made plans to build a battery system. Recently I got a good deal on some Sunny Island inverters and I took the plunge with Jenny Wu. Now let's see how the build will turn out.
I can’t really say. They both test really well. If one lasts longer than the other, it will probably be a long time before we would know. I go with which one is available. I wish all my cells were this good but such is the way of progress.
I've three of the V2 Seplos Mason boxes. They are pretty solid but a little expensive. The published assembly instructions are not very good and it took me ages to get the first one assembled correctly but the final unit was good so I ended up buying a couple more. I found I had to pack the rear of the battery compartment with a bit of 12mm plywood in order to enable the screws to tighten up and compress the cells properly - probably the current cells are fractionally thinner than when the box was designed. I got all of them through Jenny Wu.
The last batch I bought from any zheng had the same packaging and came with the spacers and the Little Black Caps on top as well as the bus bars. I was very happy with them 👍16 304ah cells. I didn't get to do a capacity test but so far so good!
Ray. I sure could use your help on setting me up with a parts list to make my very own power system for boondocking in my sprinter van I like the eco flow power kit But it’s so pricey
It's good to see you back Ray. I would be interested in knowing how, if it is possible to do so safely, to connect two batteries to my inverter that are same chemistry, but different capacity.
Connecting two batteries of different capacities is not an issue. I like to use fuse or other circuit protections to protect the wiring, but an adequately sized busbar will allow the batteries of different capacities to stay balanced based on their voltage. If you need more of an explanation. I’ll be happy to do so just respond to this question here.
@@RayBuildsCoolStuff I've been told that I could not combine batteries of differing capacities, even if the chemistry and voltage are identical. I have several 3.3 kWh packs storing my excess solar power and would like to add a couple of 5.5 kWh packs, same voltage, same chemistry. This isn't a problem as long as busbars are adequate? Thank you for any clarification you can add.
Yes, it will work fine. Think of voltage as pressure. Imagine two containers of water of two different sizes. If they are connected by a hose and one is drained, the level will stay equal as they drain with a potential for a very small difference due to resistance in the connection. Monitor your setup and I look forward to hearing about your success.
The reason that the recent solar event that we had caused so little disruption is that, believe it or not, utilities have been prepping their systems to be less vulnerable. Simple measures like swapping the positions of lines every few thousand feet, so that voltages induced in one location are canceled by the inductions where the wires are in different positions. Geomagnetic storms induce large low frequency swings across long distance lines. Some pathways between generators and transmission lines and substations are coupled through capacitors that pass the 50/60 Hz mains power, and block the much lower frequency swings induced in the lines by the interaction of coronal mass ejections and the Earth's magnetic field. Most transmission lines now have surge supressors as well - very high voltage versions of the surge absorbers built into our domestice power strips.
Hello, you building this type of bayteries for 2 years, how does they lasting ?, How about degradaition ? Does there are batteries you already teplaced ?
Great to see you back... One question are thesee new batteries the same size as the 230-280ah ones??..I would like to stuff them into a seplos diy kit if i can.
@@9111logic I always test by charging to 3.65 volts and letting the amperage taper down to one amp. I then wait for 30-60 minutes to rest and then discharge to 2.5 volts.
I'm building a boat and need 96v to power the motors. I'm searching for the info on how to build the system. I need info on BMS and charging systems for 96v.
7 месяцев назад+1
In the USA it seems we are required to have an import license which requires a $2,500 bonding fee through an import manager so tariffs, fees and other taxes can be taken by the government and bonding house for anything over a few dollars.. This makes it hard to order direct from here.. I had to go with a company that already had US stock imported for a much higher price.. There are a couple US based companies now producing lower cost high tech Li and So cells but it is going to be quite a while before they become available for most of us consumers here..
I haven’t found that to be the case. Also, Jenny Wu has a warehouse in Houston that you can order from.
7 месяцев назад
@@RayBuildsCoolStuff Any purchase over $70 direct from China requires import taxes or duties paid.. I found this out the hard way after twice attempting to order JK BMS's direct from China purchased on Ali that were rejected by US customs at the international shippers warehouse.. Yes, Wu has setup an import license just like Gobal who ships out of California.. I got EVE 280+ A cells for $96 a piece which is $30-ish dollars more than the price on Ali so that includes the bulk shipping cost and duties just like the cells from Jenny Wu out of Houston.. So we all pay one way or another and with Joe Biden's new tariffs on solar and other things prices are sure to be going up for a couple of years until US based production of batteries of the Li or So or SS ramp up to the point surplus is available domestically.. I would have loved to have gotten cells for $50 a piece or 14kw assembled 50v batteries for $1,000 but it just is not going to happen.. Sorry if I had sounded to be negative on you or your video, this was not my intent.. Home building large solar storage batteries is still the cheapest rout to go since retail 5kw batteries are over $1,000 retail.. I figure I will have $4,000 invested into a completed dual 15kw battery setup when I am done which saves me $2,000 or more over prebuilt retail.. Would love to hear your thoughts on 17 or 18 cell batteries that would give 15kw or 15.5 kw although at 58v or 61v that keep an inverter above 48v at the bottom end of the cells charge of 2.9v..
I just placed an order with Jenny last week, 16 of MB31 along with JK-PB2A16S20P BMS. It was great chatting with her all around and she gave me a hint that we’d see new video from you soon, which got me very excited 😁👍 Welcome back brother, I’m glad you are able to not only continue with your hobby but add a new one 🙌
Hi Ray, congrats on the horse trailer. I have an RV in which I have installed a couple of Tesla Model S battery modules. Might I suggest you design your RV system around 24 volts instead of 48 volts. A couple of reasons are: 24v Inverters are less expensive, weigh less and are smaller and will fit into the Camper easier. However, the main reason I recommend 24v over 48v is because of Solar (I know you will want to add Solar), it is easier to get Solar panels configured to charge a 24v system than it is to charge a 48v system. I know that sentence may not make sense at first glance, however, when you consider that your Solar panels will be mounted on a flat roof and will seldom be pointed South, you will want them to start generating energy as early in the day as possible. A 24v system will generate more energy for longer in the day than a 48v system given the same orientation and irradiance. Here is why... Take my RV system as an example, I have 4, 305 Watt, Residential panels mounted on my RV roof. The panels are rated at 36 volts, I have them configured in 2S/2P, which sends 72 volts down to my Solar Charge Controller. In morning Sun (or other low light conditions) my panels only have to generate 26+ volts to begin charging my batteries, whereas, if I had a 48 volt battery bank, my panels would need to generate 50+ volts (out of the available 72v) to begin charging the batteries. The key is to have a fairly large Delta between the Solar panel voltage and the battery bank. With a small Delta you loose out on much of the Sun's power because your Solar Charge Controller needs higher voltage to operate. By-the way, with Solar, you will probably decide to get rid of the Generator. Good luck and let me know if you have any questions about RV Solar installations, I am quite familiar with RV installations.
i remember hearing that buy I don't want to give up the advantages of 48v. I have a lot of surface area if i go that way. I don't think I would ever get rid of an in place and working jenny system.
At the end of the day the cost of using cable with twice the cross sectional area is going to cost someone like Ray a lot of extra money. Not sure I see your point in a 24V bank vs a 48V bank being recharged by solar. Not all MPPT controllers are buck converters though most are
@@ericklein5097 hi Erick, my reason for recommending 24v, on an RV is that the number of Solar panels you can install on an RV is limited. If you have a 48v battery bank, your Solar panels need to generate at least 50v to start charging the batteries. If less than full Sun is hitting your Solar panels they will produce lower voltage. Consequently, in my example of a 72v Solar panel feed, you would need ~ 2x the amount of Sunshine hitting the panels to begin charging a 48v battery bank compared to the 24v bank. In practical terms, this might mean that your batteries start charging 60 to 90 minutes earlier in the day and can charge better on cloudy days with a 24v system. Of course you have the option of configuring your Solar panels with higher voltage, in my example the only option would be to use a 4S configuration; yielding 144v, but, as you can see from my example, your resulting voltage might be much higher than you want. In the case of an RV, with limited space for panels, you don't have a lot of options to add additional panels just to change the voltage. For example: in my case, if I were running a 48v system, logically, I could simply add two more panels and configure them as 3S/2P, this would increase my voltage and give me all the advantages that a series/parallel configuration has. This 3S/2P configuration would also keep me at a more reasonable voltage coming from the Solar panels (not 144v). My key point is that your Solar panel voltage needs to be much higher than your battery voltage in order to charge effectively. The closer your panel voltage is to your battery voltage the less effect the Solar panels will be in lower irradiance conditions. Note: I do agree that a 48v system is better than a 24v system in most cases, however, in the RV use case I think a 24v system is better for the reasons I stated above. Thanks for asking me to explain my reasoning.
great channel i discovered it over my off grid transformation that in starting so I want to put together a 9,000 amp battery from 30 lifep04 300amp cells but I dont know what system to use to mange this high of capacity of a battery because all the bmss that I've found are not capable of managing a function of the amount of the capacity thet this battery can hold i would love to get your take on that
I’m glad you discovered my channel. There are some basic concepts of electricity that will need to be understood in order for this to make sense. While I can’t give a thorough explanation here I will say that when you put together cells into a battery in series, you will add the voltages, but not the amperage When we build a 48 V battery we use 16 cells. Their nominal voltage is 3.2 V so that gives you a 51.2 nominal voltage battery. If the cells are rated at 300 A you will have a 300 amp battery. if you build two of these batteries from 32 cells and put those two batteries together in parallel, you will have an array that is still 51.2 V but will now be a combined 600 A. The individual batteries themselves are still only 300 A. if you were to put 30 cells together in parallel, you would have a 9000 amp hour battery at 3.2 V. In your situation, I would recommend buying 32 batteries cells and putting them together into two batteries, each with its own BMS. I won’t go further in my explanation here, but please watch mine and other videos to understand this. Also do a search for wiring fundamentals. Learn about the mathematics of amperage voltage and resistance in an electrical circuit. Best wishes.
@@idolumerman For 16 cells in series I use a Seplos 200 amp BMS. If however, you are for some reason talking about 30 cells in parallel then you do not need a BMS. I’m not sure what a 3.2 V battery would be good for though.
What's your trusted source?
Jenny Wu can be reached at Jennywu896@Gmail.com
Earlier this year, I bought 134 LF280K cells from Jenny Wu. The reason is because of this channel and Ray's recommendation. I then purchased separately 8 JK BMS's from Jenny. I am now dialoging with Jenny for cases, now that I realize that I don't have the time to make my own cases like Ray did. Looking back, I would have gone straight to Jenny to buy it all as a single purchase. I expect one reservation you have may be uncertainty of wiring money to Hong Kong before product(s) are shipped out. I had the luxury of buying my cells from her via wire transfer, waiting a few days, then going to a Houston/Katy warehouse to pick them up at a price higher than if I waited for shipping from China. Jenny is very reliable, and I would recommend her over any other overseas source.
@@bobblack3870 She really is great and I hear it over and over. Thanks for sharing your experience.
@@bobblack3870 I contacted Jenny yesterday on Ray's recommendation and asked which payment sources she uses and she replied Paypal, credit card, and wire transfer. I was under the impression that only wire transfer was permitted. What payment form would you guys recommend?. Gave me what I thought was a great price on 16 MB31s and an Apexium case complete with cables.
It must be a secret . It's pretty easy to add a link ,yet ,,,no link. no store. no sale.
Just bought 32 EVE mb31 cells and 2 vertical Apexium cases from her - thanks for the recommendation.
Thanks Ray and I hope you get better soon.
Your opening smile = awesome. Welcome back.
It's called "the boomer pause". Welcome back franky - EasyPowerwall
Glad your back bro. I upgraded from lead/acid to Chinese LFP last summer and your videos were very helpful on setting everything up. Fact is without youtubers like you it would have never happened. Especially you and this little Australian guy. Forever grateful :)
I want to thank you for your time helping.
Just to let you know that I am following you from up north in Oslo, Norway. Last friday I place an order with Jenny Wu, and I am very pleased by the service she is giving. I am also retired, spendt a couple of years in Santa Fe in the late 60ties, and like you had a serious fracture on the tip of my thight bone (femur) some years ago forcing me to give up offroad biking. I really admire your motivation and how you reflect on all the practical issues. Good luck with the horses!
Hi Ray, I have been worried about you. Very glad to see you back. Don't worry about confining your video topics to what you think people might like. Show what you like - you may be pleasantly surprised if you inspire somebody else to pursue a new hobby!
I've been purchasing from Jenny since I first saw your videos. The new EVE series is great. I've been ordering recently and the experience has been as good as ever. They also supply DIY Seplos boxes like you said for great prices. Saves a lot of time building batteries. Thanks for a great video! You're still one of the kindest people I've ever had the honour to watch on YT!
great stuff
You're a man's man. Riding, diving, reloading, electrical, building.. You'd be a cool friend. Glad you're healing - sounded a little rough for a while.
Great to see you again - welcome back Ray!
Last year I ordered some 304 Ah cells from Jenny. They shipped quickly to north of Sweden from EU stock..
Jenny's service and the quality of cells are impeccable.
how much were they, to you in Sweden from EU stock, thanks?
@@josepeixoto3384Don’t remember but they are cheaper now. Around $90/cell I think. 👍
Good to see you're back Ray. I bought my batteries from Jenny and yes I did let her know you recommended her.
Thanks for the transparency and courage to expose yourself. My wife work with horses and I reached 48 years old this year. Your testimony inspire me to take care of myself. Greetings from Brazil.
That is awesome!
Thanks for the info, glad you are back!
Been watching your videos for quite a while. I ordered 16 of the 304ah cells a year or so ago and haven’t had any issues. Love your videos
what of the price you paid, thanks?
@@josepeixoto3384 I want to say it was around 2300-2500 for 16 304 cells to my door
Ray! Im so happy i found your Chanel, you are such a likable person. I really enjoy learning about batteries from you! Going to build a house battery soon, so your knowledge is really helping me along. Thank you so much for your work!
Thanks and welcome
My order of 16 280ah batteries from Jenny worked out perfectly just like you said it would. Your right about using the email because I have heard stories of scammers claiming to be her. I think people need to understand that shipping these batteries back to China will cost more then what it cost to buy new ones so when you order them from China there is no way to return them.
hi ray, good to see you here
Hi Ray, it's great to see you back, sorry about your leg issues. I would love to see your Horse-box etc.
Hi Jeremy. Happy to see you too.
Thanks for another great video and for keeping the DIY solar community informed of great deals like this! I contacted Jenny yesterday and am ordering 8 MB31 cells - looking forward to building my next 24v pack (in 2 months when they finally arrive :) Thanks again Ray!
How much did she charge for shipping fee to the US? Thanks.
@@wsurfer2147 I'm in Canada - for shipping 8 cells to Toronto I was charged $207 USD ($25.88/cell)
Good to see you Ray!
Welcome back. You do you, a lot of will follow your adventure!
You were certainly missed, Ray. Glad you are back and I just emailed Jenny Wu for a price on some cells. We will see............
Hay Ray nice to see you back on, glad you are doing good an thanks for update stay safe. M
Ray glad your back and in good health! I hope your journeys take you everywhere y’all want to go! PS Ray yeah we started coming here to learn about batteries but we care about you as a person also, thanks for the channel.
Good to see you back! You do good things, we count on your knowledge. Thank you!!
So good to see you my TX friend. Been worried that you have been having serious health issues, and so glad you were able to pop on and share. I have to build my solar system but have panels and a single Apexium DIY from Jenny last year. I mentioned you. Blessings to you!
Great to see you James!
Welcome back. We miss your thoughtful insights and wealth of experience. What you said about Jenny Is is absolutely true.I dealt with her only after listening to your recommendations and she.hasn't disappointed.
Welcome back, Ray. It's good to see you looking so fresh and healthy again. I am also looking forward to seeing the new video on your RV battery installation.
Regards.
Mike Irish.
Just a new subscriber here from philippines!!!
Welcome back. Your videos are really useful
Just great stuff!
Dude welcome back, glad you are back on your feet. I enjoy and value your content. Stay well..
glad you back on the channel, warm cheers from Poland!
and thanks Ray I have one of those battery testing tools to measure the tiny resistance between battery terminal and bus bar because of you. I use it for everything now, any type of connection that will carry anything more then a few amps i test the resistance to make sure everything has a good contact. I am surprised I never see one used on any other channels.
Very cool
Hello again Ray! Thanks for the tip on the cells but more so for the insight into real life around it.
Hi Ray, I'm Argie from the Philippines and I've been watching you and subscribed to your channel 2 years ago since I got interested in your journey of buying, testing, and building eve cells to Battery bank modules. I would like to thank you for your dedication to sharing your knowledge about Legitimate suppliers in China like Jenny Wu. I am very happy to know about the new generations of the EVE cells and am hoping for more content about these.
Thank you Argie.
I bought 64 cells from Jenny Wu and built those wood battery boxes just like your video showed. Everything is working awesome. Thank you so much for the videos that you do. I appreciate it!! My house runs on solar during the day and batteries at night. Couldn't be happier. FYI the second set of 32 batteries showed up in about a week. Wow!
Hey Ray, nice to hear your fine.....well ageing is not for sissies... 😊
I bought a 48v Battery now from China...and I am really happy with...good quality, good support of the seller as I faced a communication problem with the BMS....I stopped building on my own...saves time...and the price was 2400 USD...including shipping to Germany...battery is sized to fit in a 19 rack...15.3 KWH is also a good number. It's stackable...BMS up to 200 A....By now there is really nothing to worry about.
I am happy that I've learned a lot from your and other channels about building batteries...so I feel able to check on ready built systems too...
Interesting horsetrailer that you talked about...May you like to share a short video?
All the best to you...
Frank
I am A big fan of your channel and all the great information you provide on it. I just set up three Apexium DIY boxes that i got from Jenny Wu. It works good so far and was a lot of fun to build. Now my family can enjoy reliable power for many years to come. Thanks Ray!
@@jacobstockinger4350 thanks for letting us all know. Congratulations on your successful project.
Looking forward to the new set of videos. I have a travel trailer that I’m planning on putting a bunch of panels and build a decent battery bank to be able to fully boondock as needed.
Really nice to see you back Ray. I think I’m going to have buy some of these for my RV! Thank you and G’day again from Oz 🇦🇺
Great advice on the health front- there is so much that I used to do that’s now just too hard, but every day above ground is a good day. Cheers
True that
Welcome back! Looking forward to your future adventures
Welcome back Ray. Mate, you are a gem. Thank you.
Welcome back… I was thinking of you today!!!
Welcome back Ray. Good health to you and looking forward to seeing more of your videos.
I'm glad to see you back and you could have made videos of everything you mentioned and it would be interesting.
Thanks for the information Ray! Great video. Thanks for the self care advice.
Great to see you back. Was wondering what you was up to.
Good to see you again. You look well. ATB from the UK
Hi Ray, great video.
Glad to see you are back Ray!
Time flies when you're having fun! Thanks for the update.
thankyou for your time and patience. i regret making somewhat critical comments a few months ago on your videos. as a doctor, i am very bothered by what you described healthwise... pretty sure i can read between the lines. keep doing what you like to be doing man. thanks for the update. hopeing the new sanctions+tarrifs wont mess stuff up too much for off grid supplies.
just bought my first 16 cells from Jennywu today easy transaction the cells i got are in US warehouse so should be here in7-10 days guess i need to get to building a box Thanks Ray I did give her your info so you should see a commission. This is my way of thanking you for the work you put into making the videos for us to learn from. keep up the good work. hope the ankle gets better I broke mine and ended up having 4 surgeries to get it fixed ended up having a fusion due to traumatic arthritis that was over ten years ago been going strong.
Thanks so much Steven
You caught me working on my next little project. Hopefully I can get a video out about it before too long. It is going to be the process I’m going through to convert the living quarters of our horse trailer to operate on one of these batteries so that I don’t have to run the generator when I’m away from power. Hope you have an easy time with your project and I look forward to hearing about your success with it.
Have you tried any boxes upright I was thinking about trying that with a little modifications to put on end fed ex says tomorrow they will be here Jenny is great
Welcome back!
Hi Ray, first time on your channel and have already learned some useful things. Forgive my ignorance but I have a question about building a battery using the mb31. 8 batteries would give me the desired 24 volts (so I can use my 3000 watt, 24 volt inverter) but when all is said and done, would it be 330 ah? Would Jenny know what bms would be best for this configuration? Could you perhaps steer me to the correct bms direction? Thanks!
@@sierrasurvivor1798 it would be a 330 ah battery. For your 3000 watt inverter, look for a 150 or 200amp inverter.
Heya ray, glad you're on the up and up again..
Excellent results Ray and thank you for sharing your experience. Jenny did inform me about the new batteries and prices and she also must have come across (don't know how) the video clip of my finished battery based on your valuable instructions because she contacted me complimenting about it so thanks again for all your tips 'n tricks that made us all more successful at this game 🙏
I just commented on one of your vids and checked out you channel and seen your review on sun fun so I have decided to not go that direction. ill give jenny a shout. good to see you recovered. im getting up there myself, we cant heal as fast as we did in our youth. Question for ya. can I pick up from the Houston WH if I order from her? im about 45 mins outside of Houston. PS def KEEP the hair LOL im a long hair after a life of short and getting into HD (been into bikes my whole life too.) would love to see some bike stuff and i see you reload also. a vid about that would be cool to throw in. Im just now getting into large scale solar (still small compared to your setup) but i have 5K of panels and inverter but i only have 50 aH of battery so i need more.
I have picked up from the Houston warehouse. I won’t be making any reloading videos but I have been involved in competitive precision accuracy. I may make a video about how the trailer is working. It has been working off grid for over two weeks now.
So glad to see you back and healthy! Energy independence is becoming more important to more people these days so your lessons on safely building batteries are greatly valued! Montana trail riding sounds like a great idea to escape the Texas summer months! 👍☀️⚡️🔋🤩
I agree since my cost per KWH of grid has doubled in the past 3 years.. Smart meters to detect back feed because the power company does not want power from private homes, deregulation fees, a monthly fee because I have solar which I am guessing is to pay them to watch me with that smart meter so they can fine me if my generated power goes the wrong way.. Home owners insurance canceled, no State rebate for building it and the thought that if the SHTF the government might come and confiscate the system for their use..
Thanks for the info Ray. Have you tech info on a 96v system (200-300ah). Most batteries with BMS's are limited to 48v.. Any help and advice would be great.
I only know 12v and 48v, sorry.
What do you use the compressed gas cylinders for? you don't see that setup in most garages.
@@1010tesla I fill my own scuba tanks and that set up allows me to create mixed gases for deep diving.
You have to do what makes you happy and if u put a video is great for us to see
I’m glad to see you back, very glad you are doing OK. Are those cells $70.00 each? Nice video and hope to see more.
Yes they are
Great to see you Ray👍
Thanks Patrick
Including the separators is such a great idea. I just recently had to cut 250 of them myself.
When I bought my batteries from Jenny a few years ago I paid about $111/kWh which was already a good deal. They're now down to $67/kWh. I wish I had more projects that needed them. I've been thinking about starting one of those federal community solar projects with battery backup just because the California Net Metering 3.0 rules are so lucrative for big battery owners.
I think solar and LiFePO4 have both hit rock bottom. I don't think they'll be any cheaper than they are today. Its a great time to do a big project.
You paid $67 per kwh, and a 300Ah is 3.2 volts, or 0.96 kwh,that means you'd pay $64 for one battery? $514 per 8; $1029 for 16 cells? thanks, because it seems no one here mentions the most important thing, prices.
calb Congratulations!
Missed you man! Glad you’re back. And I plan to buy from Jenny the apexium box and new Eve cells soon. Have you heard about the new tariff on Chinese imports to be added soon? Prices are probably lowest right now than they’ll ever be!
Hi! I'm hoping you can bring us with you on your horse journey.
Welcome back sir! I would stick close to home with those horses and not travel far.🐎🐎
I ordered from Jenny about a week ago.. waiting on notice of shipment.
Any updates on that yet?
@@HippocratesGarden she never replied to me, any luck?
Hi Ray, I've been following your video's for quite some time and made plans to build a battery system. Recently I got a good deal on some Sunny Island inverters and I took the plunge with Jenny Wu. Now let's see how the build will turn out.
That’s great. Best of luck on your project.
Welcome back Ray. Do you think either MB30 or MB31 is better if they are similarly priced? Thanks
I can’t really say. They both test really well. If one lasts longer than the other, it will probably be a long time before we would know. I go with which one is available. I wish all my cells were this good but such is the way of progress.
@@RayBuildsCoolStuff I can't decide which to go for as they both look good. Thanks got the reply 👍🏻
I've three of the V2 Seplos Mason boxes. They are pretty solid but a little expensive. The published assembly instructions are not very good and it took me ages to get the first one assembled correctly but the final unit was good so I ended up buying a couple more. I found I had to pack the rear of the battery compartment with a bit of 12mm plywood in order to enable the screws to tighten up and compress the cells properly - probably the current cells are fractionally thinner than when the box was designed. I got all of them through Jenny Wu.
Also order my cells and materials from Jenny. Would recommend for sure.
Just to get an idea , what is the cost of shipping ? Thanks again
If you doing boondocking, have you toyed with filling the trailer roof full of solar panels so you don't need to run the generator ?
yes, perhaps I forgot to mention that.
Welcome back.
These are the cells she sent me in January I think. They look great.
Sure would like to build a 48v 200ah
The last batch I bought from any zheng had the same packaging and came with the spacers and the Little Black Caps on top as well as the bus bars. I was very happy with them 👍16 304ah cells. I didn't get to do a capacity test but so far so good!
Ray. I sure could use your help on setting me up with a parts list to make my very own power system for boondocking in my sprinter van
I like the eco flow power kit But it’s so pricey
It's good to see you back Ray. I would be interested in knowing how, if it is possible to do so safely, to connect two batteries to my inverter that are same chemistry, but different capacity.
Connecting two batteries of different capacities is not an issue. I like to use fuse or other circuit protections to protect the wiring, but an adequately sized busbar will allow the batteries of different capacities to stay balanced based on their voltage. If you need more of an explanation. I’ll be happy to do so just respond to this question here.
@@RayBuildsCoolStuff I've been told that I could not combine batteries of differing capacities, even if the chemistry and voltage are identical. I have several 3.3 kWh packs storing my excess solar power and would like to add a couple of 5.5 kWh packs, same voltage, same chemistry. This isn't a problem as long as busbars are adequate? Thank you for any clarification you can add.
Yes, it will work fine. Think of voltage as pressure. Imagine two containers of water of two different sizes. If they are connected by a hose and one is drained, the level will stay equal as they drain with a potential for a very small difference due to resistance in the connection. Monitor your setup and I look forward to hearing about your success.
The reason that the recent solar event that we had caused so little disruption is that, believe it or not, utilities have been prepping their systems to be less vulnerable. Simple measures like swapping the positions of lines every few thousand feet, so that voltages induced in one location are canceled by the inductions where the wires are in different positions. Geomagnetic storms induce large low frequency swings across long distance lines. Some pathways between generators and transmission lines and substations are coupled through capacitors that pass the 50/60 Hz mains power, and block the much lower frequency swings induced in the lines by the interaction of coronal mass ejections and the Earth's magnetic field. Most transmission lines now have surge supressors as well - very high voltage versions of the surge absorbers built into our domestice power strips.
Hello, you building this type of bayteries for 2 years, how does they lasting ?,
How about degradaition ?
Does there are batteries you already teplaced ?
@@janinakandrotaite6296 so far so good. About 1% decline per year.
Welcome back. Are you back in your Halon room? (ref: the tanks in the background)
Welcome back Ray. Please make a video on putting together the server rack battery. Many thanks.
Great to see you back...
One question are thesee new batteries the same size as the 230-280ah ones??..I would like to stuff them into a seplos diy kit if i can.
Yes they are
Hi Ray, did you test them down to 1A or less like some do down to 0.1A? I guess it won't make that much difference but I'd like to know, please 🙏
@@9111logic I always test by charging to 3.65 volts and letting the amperage taper down to one amp. I then wait for 30-60 minutes to rest and then discharge to 2.5 volts.
Whatever happened to your battery system. Did you complete it?
yes and no. still things to do.
I'm building a boat and need 96v to power the motors. I'm searching for the info on how to build the system. I need info on BMS and charging systems for 96v.
In the USA it seems we are required to have an import license which requires a $2,500 bonding fee through an import manager so tariffs, fees and other taxes can be taken by the government and bonding house for anything over a few dollars.. This makes it hard to order direct from here.. I had to go with a company that already had US stock imported for a much higher price.. There are a couple US based companies now producing lower cost high tech Li and So cells but it is going to be quite a while before they become available for most of us consumers here..
I haven’t found that to be the case. Also, Jenny Wu has a warehouse in Houston that you can order from.
@@RayBuildsCoolStuff Any purchase over $70 direct from China requires import taxes or duties paid.. I found this out the hard way after twice attempting to order JK BMS's direct from China purchased on Ali that were rejected by US customs at the international shippers warehouse.. Yes, Wu has setup an import license just like Gobal who ships out of California.. I got EVE 280+ A cells for $96 a piece which is $30-ish dollars more than the price on Ali so that includes the bulk shipping cost and duties just like the cells from Jenny Wu out of Houston.. So we all pay one way or another and with Joe Biden's new tariffs on solar and other things prices are sure to be going up for a couple of years until US based production of batteries of the Li or So or SS ramp up to the point surplus is available domestically.. I would have loved to have gotten cells for $50 a piece or 14kw assembled 50v batteries for $1,000 but it just is not going to happen.. Sorry if I had sounded to be negative on you or your video, this was not my intent.. Home building large solar storage batteries is still the cheapest rout to go since retail 5kw batteries are over $1,000 retail.. I figure I will have $4,000 invested into a completed dual 15kw battery setup when I am done which saves me $2,000 or more over prebuilt retail.. Would love to hear your thoughts on 17 or 18 cell batteries that would give 15kw or 15.5 kw although at 58v or 61v that keep an inverter above 48v at the bottom end of the cells charge of 2.9v..
I just placed an order with Jenny last week, 16 of MB31 along with JK-PB2A16S20P BMS. It was great chatting with her all around and she gave me a hint that we’d see new video from you soon, which got me very excited 😁👍
Welcome back brother, I’m glad you are able to not only continue with your hobby but add a new one 🙌
Hi Ray, congrats on the horse trailer. I have an RV in which I have installed a couple of Tesla Model S battery modules. Might I suggest you design your RV system around 24 volts instead of 48 volts. A couple of reasons are: 24v Inverters are less expensive, weigh less and are smaller and will fit into the Camper easier. However, the main reason I recommend 24v over 48v is because of Solar (I know you will want to add Solar), it is easier to get Solar panels configured to charge a 24v system than it is to charge a 48v system. I know that sentence may not make sense at first glance, however, when you consider that your Solar panels will be mounted on a flat roof and will seldom be pointed South, you will want them to start generating energy as early in the day as possible. A 24v system will generate more energy for longer in the day than a 48v system given the same orientation and irradiance. Here is why...
Take my RV system as an example, I have 4, 305 Watt, Residential panels mounted on my RV roof. The panels are rated at 36 volts, I have them configured in 2S/2P, which sends 72 volts down to my Solar Charge Controller. In morning Sun (or other low light conditions) my panels only have to generate 26+ volts to begin charging my batteries, whereas, if I had a 48 volt battery bank, my panels would need to generate 50+ volts (out of the available 72v) to begin charging the batteries. The key is to have a fairly large Delta between the Solar panel voltage and the battery bank. With a small Delta you loose out on much of the Sun's power because your Solar Charge Controller needs higher voltage to operate.
By-the way, with Solar, you will probably decide to get rid of the Generator.
Good luck and let me know if you have any questions about RV Solar installations, I am quite familiar with RV installations.
i remember hearing that buy I don't want to give up the advantages of 48v. I have a lot of surface area if i go that way. I don't think I would ever get rid of an in place and working jenny system.
At the end of the day the cost of using cable with twice the cross sectional area is going to cost someone like Ray a lot of extra money.
Not sure I see your point in a 24V bank vs a 48V bank being recharged by solar. Not all MPPT controllers are buck converters though most are
@@ericklein5097 hi Erick, my reason for recommending 24v, on an RV is that the number of Solar panels you can install on an RV is limited. If you have a 48v battery bank, your Solar panels need to generate at least 50v to start charging the batteries. If less than full Sun is hitting your Solar panels they will produce lower voltage. Consequently, in my example of a 72v Solar panel feed, you would need ~ 2x the amount of Sunshine hitting the panels to begin charging a 48v battery bank compared to the 24v bank. In practical terms, this might mean that your batteries start charging 60 to 90 minutes earlier in the day and can charge better on cloudy days with a 24v system. Of course you have the option of configuring your Solar panels with higher voltage, in my example the only option would be to use a 4S configuration; yielding 144v, but, as you can see from my example, your resulting voltage might be much higher than you want. In the case of an RV, with limited space for panels, you don't have a lot of options to add additional panels just to change the voltage. For example: in my case, if I were running a 48v system, logically, I could simply add two more panels and configure them as 3S/2P, this would increase my voltage and give me all the advantages that a series/parallel configuration has. This 3S/2P configuration would also keep me at a more reasonable voltage coming from the Solar panels (not 144v). My key point is that your Solar panel voltage needs to be much higher than your battery voltage in order to charge effectively. The closer your panel voltage is to your battery voltage the less effect the Solar panels will be in lower irradiance conditions.
Note: I do agree that a 48v system is better than a 24v system in most cases, however, in the RV use case I think a 24v system is better for the reasons I stated above.
Thanks for asking me to explain my reasoning.
I just love quality gear that's underrated, horses .. Hmmm , Batteries yay 😁very cool to see you back Ray!
Good stuff Ray. Bring those ponies down to the Ozarks.
Any swelling with the 'grade a' mb cells? It looks to be an issue.
They come perfectly flat and I restrain my cells.
great channel i discovered it over my off grid transformation that in starting so I want to put together a 9,000 amp battery from 30 lifep04 300amp cells but I dont know what system to use to mange this high of capacity of a battery because all the bmss that I've found are not capable of managing a function of the amount of the capacity thet this battery can hold i would love to get your take on that
I’m glad you discovered my channel. There are some basic concepts of electricity that will need to be understood in order for this to make sense. While I can’t give a thorough explanation here I will say that when you put together cells into a battery in series, you will add the voltages, but not the amperage When we build a 48 V battery we use 16 cells. Their nominal voltage is 3.2 V so that gives you a 51.2 nominal voltage battery. If the cells are rated at 300 A you will have a 300 amp battery. if you build two of these batteries from 32 cells and put those two batteries together in parallel, you will have an array that is still 51.2 V but will now be a combined 600 A. The individual batteries themselves are still only 300 A. if you were to put 30 cells together in parallel, you would have a 9000 amp hour battery at 3.2 V. In your situation, I would recommend buying 32 batteries cells and putting them together into two batteries, each with its own BMS. I won’t go further in my explanation here, but please watch mine and other videos to understand this. Also do a search for wiring fundamentals. Learn about the mathematics of amperage voltage and resistance in an electrical circuit. Best wishes.
@@RayBuildsCoolStuff what kind of bms will be able to handle thet kind of capacity?
@@idolumerman For 16 cells in series I use a Seplos 200 amp BMS. If however, you are for some reason talking about 30 cells in parallel then you do not need a BMS. I’m not sure what a 3.2 V battery would be good for though.