Fastest Large Scale Battery Build, 30+ KWH, Power Whole House Cheap
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- Опубликовано: 17 мар 2021
- 30+ KWH LiFePO4 from Signature Solar
This is the fastest large battery build I've ever done. In just one hour I was able to load the batteries, wire up and be ready to go.
If you buy from Signature Solar please use the discount code DAVIDPOZ This will get you 5% off, and tracks the affiliate program which will help the channel.
This is comprised of 6 battery modules. Each module is 5.12kwh Gyll LiFePO4 battery with it's own BMS and circuit breaker. For more details on the single Gyll Battery Module check out my previous video: • Cheapest 48 volt LiFeP...
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Growatt 5000W Inverter with 450V MPPT Charge Controller 5000ES: signaturesolar.com/growatt-48...
Auto-Transformer, 5000ES: signaturesolar.com/growatt-5k...
EG4 Battery, 48V, 100Ah, 5.12kWh, LiFePO4, Server Rack design: signaturesolar.com/shop-all/b...
Waterproof EG4 battery: 48V LiFePO4 Lithium Battery with Bluetooth, EG4 Brand: signaturesolar.com/eg4-wp-lit...
Disclaimer:
My videos are in no way intended to be instructional "how-to" lessons. I am simply documenting my project for informational purposes. Property damage, personal injury, or death may result, even when following manufacturer's instructions. I cannot be held liable for such damage or injury. It is YOUR OBLIGATION to ensure that you are complying with any local and federal laws as well as code and permit requirements.
David Poz, LLC 
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Great build, Dave. Thanks for showing us the math.
On a tangential topic, you have become so smooth and confident in your delivery, compared to how you started. Great work.
Thank you for the kind words. I'm glad it's getting better.
Seconded - have only watched two videos but you are speaking very well. Very natural and clear, no "hyper" shouting at your viewers like you're scared they might get distracted.
Man, love to see you take time to let the little girl try to help you, then help her with her battery. Some would have just said later.. No matter what I was doing I always let the be apart of whatever I was doing.. Great for you !!!!!!!! Now are you giving away that battery system ?? Chose me. LOL LOL Great video. You became my go to person to learn about solar..
Awesome David! My GYLL for my off grid cabin is coming next week. (Used your coupon code and saved almost the entire cost of shipping! Thanks for that!) Also, I really do miss the days of my kids helping me out on any project I had going on. Please enjoy these days with her...time just goes by way too fast!! Thanks again David.
Love the rack mount idea. Thinking of getting one to put in my rack. Please spend extra time on the details of this build
Great Helper !!
Enjoyed the video.
As a service technician,
On-call at 2am, visiting your site to look at this:
I'd make this wireless.
Just lay my laptop up there, or log into it from the truck.
485 converter or whatever it'd take from Black Box.
Put all the jumper cables on one side (left) so at 2am I can GLANCE they are there and in the right positions.
Easy to tug on in and out to break any oxidation. I use gray anti-seize or a no-ox jell for aluminum and copper. I put it in the hole and plug in the cat termination. Coat the pins.
Keep moisture off these.
Also because not all competitors' technicians or salesmen visiting at a site will keep their hands to themselves, they will want to move those dip switches. Use your silver marker to put dots above and below where they should be positioned.
Mark it somewhere else too.
Take a picture and put that in your records. Leave a copy of your service or install manual and mark it up for all the positions and bays. Throw it in the cabinet in a nice large plastic bag. It's 2am. I am not thinking, I'm doing. You are cold and the electric is off. Easy stuff first.
Then I put magic scotch clear tape over the dots and the hole covering the switches. Keeps the honest people honest, bugs, dust and dirt out. You'll thank yourself.
I would have used the charged battery to charge the others
;) wonder how many it could charge before throwing the breaker?
Re-Tap ( size )the striped out copper hole? Naah.
Put (fold over) several more copper strands in the hole.
Put the screw in. Be done with it.
Test it out in a video. See if that has the bite strength and current capacity if in doubt? That'd be fun to see.
You are exactly correct with the hex head bolts/screws.
Remember lock washers (split washers) are your friends!
I would have never manufactured that copper bar as a tapped copper bar. Bolt and nut.
Plus no-ox. Moisture is not your friend. It will cause problems. Coax seal works pretty good.
Anything to keep good conductivity clean and dry.
For HIGH currents I'd consider
a tac of silver solder. It makes me cringe seeing crimps not soldered.
Seen too much.
Super video, really liked the project, the screw driver, and learned some stuff too!
Looking forward to seeing you grunt on this battery system...
some hot water making and home heating.
David, THANK YOU SO MUCH for ALL of your fantastic videos! I'm in the process of putting together my solar system - which includes 4 the newer "EG4 Lifepower" 48v 100ah batteries from signature solar. This video - specifically - has answered multiple questions in how to set them up in parallel. (and-thx for the DAVIDPOZ25 discount codes!). I also appreciate how you incorporate your daughter into your videos. As a dad myself, I definitely appreciate it - and cool to see her grow throughout your video series. Keep up the excellent work, and God Bless!
Soo cool to see your little helper learning!
My little girls are all grown up, young ladies,
Thanks for sharing your knowledge,
God Bless you and yours!
Your an awesome Dad!! If only we had more good fathers like yourself.
Great vid Dave, I feel your pain with the USB to 485 cable. You might look into an Ethernet to 485 protocol converter, hard wire to the batteries, put on your home network. I've had good luck with equipment from Moxa. I like the casters for set up but would probably find some leveling feet for permanent location, appears the cabinets are drilled and tapped ready to accept them.
Keep us up to date, I really like those Gyll batteries.
like father , like daughter she's learning well . The rack makes those batteries look so awesome . You are the solar battery king .
Nice product. I love that Eleanor was able to help too! Great job David !!!!
This is the 1st video of yours I've caught. Very informative. And a great assistant too!
Those little hands are so cute. Great for helping out put things together
We all know that Elenore is the brains of this operation. She just plays that she doesn't know to make her dad feel great. She is a little angel. An engineer in the making 🙂
I bought 4 of them in December from signature solar, but haven't been able to install them yet. Thanks for the walk through ahead of time!
I can't recommend signature solar and this battery enough. I bought one of the 12v 400ah batteries because of your last video on them, never heard of them before, and the battery got to my door quicker then expected. My poor ups driver, I thought he was going to have a hernia bringing it to the door. They are really nice to work with on the phone and sales went above and beyond to fix my one and only problem which wasn't even their fault.
That looks amazing!! Thanks for showing it to us
David good job! For kicks and grins you should have given a PRICE breakdown for the project!
Cabinet is 500 bucks. Battery packs are 1500 each. Plus whatever else you add/need to finish.
Title says it all, cheap
I dunno about cheap. That's less than one week's power consumption for a house with all electric appliances and refrigerated air, and 60amp heat strips for backup in winter. But I do like the idea of formed cells vs 1000 18650s in an array.
@@nickandrews4545 if u consider ROI over 7 years and compare to conventional energy pricing….I wonder if it is expensive
Besides the content being awesome for the subject I was searching....As a father of two girls, who are now 19 & 16, i love that you are involving your daughter in this and down the track you will be watching a video of some young fellah doing whatever with his daughter and your own memories will come flooding back.
Cheers, great work.
Thank David, Always good to get great help. Nice looking system.
Today’s word boys and girls is “covet”. Nice video, looking forward to the next one where you show input/output connections and ultimately usability.
Now we need a server rack style Charge Controler and Inverter.
Really dig your channel, content, and approach. Great job! Great info! 👍Please keep it up, captain.
I like the way you do things, you set a good example of how things should be done.
Hey look a product I had before you. lol. My electrical room is self cooled too. I have a sol-ark, one of these batteries and a heat pump water heater in a 10x8 utility room. Keeps the room about 70 degrees with no ducts to the room. The heat from the solar gives heat to the water heater and the water heater cools the batteries and solar.
Id love to see a video of your set up
That sounds brilliant.
USE that heat!
I would like to hear more about the heat pump water heater. Trying to figure out if that is worth the money, or to change to a gas. The problem is I have to get propane and not sure it is a cheap as natural gas would be, which is not available. Feel free to email me a_w_i_l_b_o_u_r_n@ g m a i l, I think you can see I put spaces and did not complete to help from something that will harvest data from the chat. Remove the underscore for the first part and spaces from second. I loved this video, but they are sold out as a result. Just want to figure out how to have a bank like this to add to my house and tie to my solaredge inverter, looking for any help there from anyone.
Having loaded many a server cabinet, I'd strongly recommend getting some sort of lift to help you load the individual modules.
Even a ~$200, x-lift table from Harbor Freight will be a big help.
Considering the cost of this entire setup, an extra $200 is worth it and your back will thank you.
Nice to see the Boss helping you put it together. very informative thanks for posting.
Love it Dave, excellent video and so nice to see you involving your little girl.
I only put a thumbs up because of that little cutie pie and her little EE skills
Man…makes me want to start a youtube channel and work my hind end off for several years in hopes of getting a battery deal 😂
batteries are costing as much as cars nowaday
Yes, but I think regular pole to home will be going up. This system will take awhile to pay off, but once its paid for, it will start paying you back.
@@CATownsend777 my thoughts exactly. 30k for a solar set up....people say "oh it's too much" then go out and spend 50k on a car that will depreciate and they get rid if in 5 years.
Proper set up and cycling...no reason this system can't last for at least 20 years.
Looks like a nice bank and great work on the review and unboxing. One tip though, remember to turn off the charger when checking the voltage so you can get the actual battery voltage.
Man you're a good Dad! Great video. Thank you.
Always mount the rack nuts horizontally, not vertically - so they don't snap out when they get weight on them (no problem in your case as the weight is held by the angle rails). From an "old" server rack builder ;-)
I use a torque screwdriver for my bikes, guns, etc. 4 ft lbs shouldn't be taking as much effort as you're putting in. I would highly recommend getting the mechanical version (non electric) as it freely rotates when you hit the torque spec.
Your daughter screwing in the screw hit me good. My dad let me wire up a bunch of stuff like switches and outlets when I was like 2 years old. He didn't included the plug for it till I had a working setup. One of them was a photo cell for a spot light. We tested it and it worked and it changed me. I was no older than 3 years old. It is never too early to start.
Great job David love mine adding a box of three more on top of 6
im totally jealous. I built that in my shopping cart a few times.
Worth it. Awesome!
I like that you showed the mistake. I deal with the dip switches a lot and I some times misread the switches. Good job.
That is a nice set-up. Great job on the video! Thanks.
I liked for the metric system ( and for the great content) thanks!
Did anyone peep him putting the nut in the piece of tape so that he didn't drop it while it was behind the bus bar. That's top-notch intelligence👌
more likely lesson-learned
Great vlog. Very nice to see the apprentice enjoying her job :-)
after doing some research online i found the setup ... 11k$ (inc. tax) for 30kwh battery setup is not cheap, however much more affordable then some! thnx for the vid
You’ve pretty much sold me on these batteries David. Thank you.
One question I have is I made a mistake going with a Big Battery 48v 100amph and I think the cells are A123 and they say they can’t get those anymore so I’m stuck with this battery and I’m told I can’t add to it because of different chemistry. I would appreciate any thoughts of ideas? BB also keeps raising their prices and i don’t feel they’ve been completely honest either.
Thanks
Bob
p.s. you’re blessed with that little one.
Hi Bob Levey, I don't know what chemistry your current battery is. A123 is a brand that makes several types of batteries. I can buy A123 Li-NMC, and I can buy A123 LIFePO4. Your battery might be a different chemistry, but I don't have enough information from your comment to confirm that.
These Gyll batteries are LiFePO4. In a perfect world, they would be paralleled only with LiFePO4. But they can be paralleled with other chemistries like Li-NMC so long as certain precautions are taken. My current battery pack is a mix of both.
If you don't want to parallel, or can't parallel, then could you sell your current battery? Or perhaps use your current battery for some other application, like a mobile one in your car, or just to power a shed?
Great video.
I'm sure it is worth the $10,000 or so that it cost, but that is a significant investment.
Certainly a very clean installation.
NOTHING...IF YOU ARE PAYING 800 DOLLAR ELECTRIC BILL
Like a LOT!!! this video, just what i am looking for, a huge thankss David!!!, thanks!! and for Signature Solar too!!
141K subscribers, congratulations 🇨🇦
They really should insulate those busbars in between the screw connections. Wouldn't take much to drop a metal tool between the bar and the chassis.
Nice set up. I'm pretty sure those two bus bars need to have some sort of platic protection/covers just like the battery terminals have the clear plexi it would be safer.
It’s crazy to see open and unprotected bus bars which you could touch both the plus and minus pole at the same time. Absolutely insane…
You’d have to be an absolute idiot to get in between those bus bars.
Was thinking the same. Am I missing something or is this a bit dangerous?
this cabinet is what this solar industry needed for a clean way to store batteries but also expandable. modifiable without using 2x4 lumber or a welder
Excellent design... Well Done Signature Solar.
Opens bag of popcorn!
Cool, though that's a retrofitted server rack, and they've got the batteries racked in what would normally be considered "reverse". They need to have this swapped and loaded from the front and wired on the rear. Servicing this thing would be super dangerous with exposed bus bars.
They should have an insulated cover for it. Just opening the door you could brush your hand against it then ⚡️
Humbug!
I was getting nervous for him every time he would wave his hand close to the bus bar while looking at the camera...
First off, reversing the direction would be bad because the typical rack has near zero space in front. This is because connections are generally made to the back of servers and storage etc. So the orientation is correct for these style of batteries.
As to the exposed bus bars, I would agree generally that having them exposed is a potential risk, however they are approximately 20 inches apart and both are isolated from the rack itself. There is near to zero risk of say a screwdriver crossing both bars. The highest risk would be grabbing the inside of the rack to pull it for example and grabbing both bars. Just touching one of the bars wouldn't be an issue.
And the rack has doors with a lock. It should end up closed and locked and live 99.99% of it's life that way. Additionally it should be labeled as containing dangerous voltage.
Not with breakers in there. And a quick sweep of some 2" capton tape would insulate the positive bus easily.
Wow that would power my new homestead nicely. Very nice and compact design. I wish the batteries were more serviceable though. Nice video brother.
Looks like any server rack I have worked with over the last 30 years. Notable difference are the support rails. Servers generally just bolted in from the front only except in rare cases. To save some money I am sure you can find surplus server cabinets and modify to your setups.
I'm not going to lie for a battery system that looks the cleanest that I've ever seen out of any system. Those server racks are just meant to be. But you should definitely take some of those battery for That Power Wheels, and convert it and charge it off of solar.
I mean, The tesla powerwall looks pretty sleek xD
Great job super sweet.
Thanks
$300+/kWh for battery module only (for those curious, as of 01/2022). I think the value will be in the tidy package that can be (more easily) sold with a home or moved to another one. And the warranty, provided the company is solid. Nice video.
8+ months setup on my BYD batteries, here Davids like a couple hours done! Haha.
Love tech....
Batrium update on my BYD side. SOC seems to get out of whack every six months; other than that, I've consumed a total of 130KWh and Produced 51KWH this year! Nice to have 1/3rd off grid Refridgeration. :)
I am not surprised one of the bus taps was stripped. A tapped hole in capper is going to strip pretty easily.
copper ;-)
So... About $10K USD 30KWH for that setup David... Can't wait for the tests.
Just imagine the price in another 5-10 years...great deal now but I think I'll build something for half the price when I need it in 7 years with my system.
Damn good price
Awesome video and batteries! Cant wait to see the next. Insta-powerwall!!!
Instantly subscribed as soon as you put the metric, thank you..
Love what I'm seeing about this product and company... they could have easily jacked up the price on that rack if the individual components come out 200 more than what they're offering it for... good to see that there are still companies out there that don't just maximize their profits, but give their customers a real amazing deal!
Pretty nice setup there. As a DIYer, I'm not a fan of the cost - but it's a great value for someone whom doesn't want to DIY their own batteries (most "normal" people don't lol).
I got $300/kwh for just the batteries. It's not Battleborn expensive, but it's definitely up there
How do you diy your own batteries?
Absolutely amazing TIME! ONE HOUR! Crazy fast... I started learning solar with Will Prowse, but I must say I enjoy the detailed effort you put into your videos!! Thanks so much for sharing here .. Extremely helpful!! btw... adorable daughter!
Thank you for checking out my channel. Yes, I try to make sure the details are here.
I pretty much need to order this whole kit. Nice!
Love it 💕
Hi from Puerto Rico
I think this was a great build. The only shortcoming(not yours) is the RJ45 to the USB. 1500 per unit and they don't supply a prefabricated cable?
Seems they could have used something like USB C jacks and allowed a more easily available cable to be used for the interconnects. Though that maybe confusing to someone too, since it's not a USB or Ethernet interface either way.
@@wingerrrrrrrrr RJ45 (Ethernet) cables are stupid cheap and widely available. The cable they screwed up was as DX GI mentioned is the USB to RJ45 cable which actually are also extremely common. As a computer guy I probably have a half dozen varieties laying around here, each one supplied with a piece of equipment. Sadly the pinouts of the RJ45 side are not all the same so they are not universally interchangeable.
Rack mounted devices are designed this way
It's not a cable. USB and Serial are different. USB to Serial adapters are readily available. Plus it seems the company provides them.
David - The cameo by your daughter is awesome!
Oh reading comments below, might think about larger rack wheels for that heavy rack,
or keep a good sweep broom around when you move it !
A quick test you can perform on RS485 transmission lines. With the entire system powered down, measure the resistance between the A and B wires. It should be 50 to 60 ohms indicating 2 terminators, hopefully one at each end. If it's less there are to many terminators If it's 120 or more you're missing one or both. Also make sure neither wire is shorted to ground.
$10k+ and 1000lbs to hold roughly the energy equivalent of 1 gallon of gasoline. We have a long way to go to make this practical.
heh...now how many times do you get to burn that gallon of gas?
Really perfect system 😃thank you for inspiration and greetings from Germany😃👍🏽
That’s nice scalable set up!
Looks nice! Why did you need to wait until 53v on the busbar to throw the switch on the top battery?
If there is too much of a difference in voltage, than the highest voltage battery will try to discharge into the lower voltage battery. It can potentially do this at hundreds of amps, which would cause the BMS to fault out. Waiting for them to be close to each other in voltage keeps the amps moving low.
@@DavidPozEnergy Gotcha! Thanks for explaining. Eager to see part 2!
@@DavidPozEnergy Can powering on the unit be controlled by software?
@@DavidPozEnergy hey I know this is old, but don’t these batteries have some kind of resistor inline to avoid that kind of thing? Or is that only for when you connect it to the charge controller or turn it on to the inverter or something
just might have to get this, but can't afford more than one at a time, baby steps :)
what's the reasoning behind getting these vs getting a battleborn or a Smart CHIN for much cheaper?
"If signature solar is watching, I'd rather these be a hex head like on the battery" - I'm setting this up now, a year after your video, and looking at my bus bars. Looks like they're watching, because mine are hex heads! Signature Solar is stupendous. Customer service for the win.
Also fantastic video, thanks for making this!!
Yes, they are willing to make improvements based on customer feedback. It's really nice.
Awesome. They look like computer server racks converted to fit the array.
because they are.
It’s so simple to assemble even a 3 year old can do it.
only if someone watching knows what things to watch for. bring a wrench into the wrong place and the room will light up fast
Each battery costs just over what I spend a year on electric and gas for my house. Really wish I could justify. Wouldn't even break even inside the warranty period.
In a few years, when harsher regulations hit energy providers nationwide, we'll see if this is still true.
No when the power gets hacked and goes down - by the elite - 9-11.
Much more - you hungry ?
So here we are in Aug 2023, just had the hottest July in recorded history. The cries to abandon fossil fuels are getting louder, what happens to electricity prices then? Just got my 20kWh kit from Signature Solar, $15,500 for four batteries, 2 6500 inverters, and 11000 watts of panels. Probably cost a few grand for wiring and I am doing a ground mount install myself. Cost is no object to me, I am in Florida and who knows when the next storm will hit.
Yea dude i have serious respect for a dad that learns his children diy stuff
No matter what that kid will always outsmart everyone if he keeps learning her these things
Thanks.
David, while your information is fantastic and I enjoy your videos.... Let's be honest, the star of if video is your adorable daughter! May she grow up with your love for insulation and DIY power!
That setup is very reasonably priced for non DIY and looks great too. Gain Solar did point out that he is a viewer of your channel also and that these units are not UL certified if your home insurance requires this to be covered but of course a DIY battery isn't UL certified either.` My terminology may be a little off without going back to look it up.
A good reason to put everything in an outbuilding if you can. If it does have a problem it doesn't take out the residence. Certainly not the easiest thing to do as a remod but if you are starting from scratch its something to consider. For the property I'm developing now all the utilities will first go to a power house for distribution to the main buildings.
@@TrackGeeks Yeah that is the only way I would do it.. These people putting DIY packs in their homes are just asking for trouble..
@@FJB2020 If the manufacturer claims are correct, lithium iron phosphate batteries presumably never catch fire, even under abusive overcharge or short circuit fault conditions.
House fires are a consequence of building houses out of wood, with paper coated "drywall" walls, and then filling them with wood furniture combined with wood kitchen cabinets that surround the range/oven. House fires are also sometimes caused by rats or mice chewing on "exposed" electrical wires strung arbitrarily through the attic and walls without use of a non-chewable protective conduit like EMT.
Wood is the most flammable of all the structural building materials known to humans, and yet, in the United States, home builders and the government consider building houses out of wood and paper coated walls to be a totally acceptable practice, fully within all building code requirements. Meanwhile, home owners and home buyers generally could care less about this fundamental design flaw to their current or future house.
If at some point in the future, your house burns down to the ground, it won't be because you had a DIY lithium iron phosphate solar battery pack inside. If your house burns to the ground, it was because it was made out of wood and paper. Houses built out of masonry, metal studs, glass, fiberglass, and self extinguishing plastics, simply don't burn to the ground, regardless of how many and what type of batteries you install in the house.
I would think Signature Solar could spend a couple bucks to have a proper USB cable manufactured instead of making people Micky Mouse something that is unreliable at best...
I think it was his decision to Mickey Mouse it. It looks like it’s just a ‘rollover’ cable and there are premade cables that are pretty cheap for this specific purpose. Bring a serial connection is pretty cool in my opinion. It doesn’t put the vendor between the consumer and the battery.
But yeah, You can get cheap serial to usb cables pretty easily.
This is the cleanest and cheapest 30.72 kWh LiFePO4 system I have seen.
Hey David, I hope all is well with you and family. Thank you for your code, it helped a lot on my purchase. Just wanted to thank you for your hard work and sharing your knowledge with us all. God bless
Those bus bars should use Nut/bolt its copper not steel. I would have numbererd them 1 bottom, 6 top like a building!! lol
I'll agree with you on the nuts (and use some anti-corrosion compound) but not with the numbering. The first one in the chain (this case the top) should be zero and the last one should be five.
EDIT: I should also point out I'm numbering them in the direction we read. Most of the time we count from the top down.
or Robertson/square head instead of the Philips which so easily slips out
Designed to cam out on purpose, such a terrible thing to have as the "US Standard"
Awesome battery setup
Great video. This will make much more sense in California where KWH charges at .30 plus.
By adding an extension to your torque screwdriver, you effectively skew the torque value due to the torsion of the extension, so it may not be accurate anymore.
no
3:26 You could get a half height server cabinet for under $150 easy. Which is what that is, just a modded half-height server cabinet.
Still not a bad deal though.
Best greetings from Morocco, I like your videos thank you bro and God bless your daughter
Thanks a lot I figured out how to ID the batteries from your video. Thanks again
As an IT guy, I like the 19" rack mounting, I could see using these for backup power or remote solar-powered relay sites. It is too bad they went with RS485 rather than RS232 because those console cables are cheap and available as they are used with older routers and switches. That cabinet is probably a good enough price for being already setup, I would like to see better connections to the power rails and something covering them even heat shrink with cutouts for the connections would keep things from bumping them. The teardown video was good to see they are good inside for being made in China.
RS485 is a two-wire bus, enables many units ganged together, while RS232 could only serve one battery unit.
Just a moded 24U network rack....?
It’s a server rack, not network. Network racks only have one set of mounting rails in the front, no rear rail.
Right on Dave!!
Great video. You should plug your red and black higher up on the bus bars. If you have to pull out a unit, the cable for the battery above will not be in your way.