looks like a recycled batteyr pack form an EV. as long as its setup properly with a bms, they are a great source of cells, the biggest question is what type of lithium cell? ( Lithium titanate, NCA, NMC, or li-Poly? ) this will determine its charge profile, and its eventual safety. I invite you to join the DIy solar forum I am on, lots of good information and lots of interesting characters (Of which I profess to being one )

this one looks like a premade server rack style battery so all i can say is it depends on maker. jump in the forum and soon you will be as bat**** crazy as i am.

edit: gonna have to look this one up some, its too big for a server rack. thats a full palelt its sitting on. bus battery?

 

uhmm me getting my pee pee smacked for cluttering up another thread

 

keep them well charged, well watered, and equalize charge them at least once a month and you could get up to 10-12 years depending upon the maker of the cells. what brand (please sweet baby Jesus say rolls surrete)(these are the gold standard).

 

guess I should state my creds for folks that are curious. started playing with solar over a decade ago for my camper, and then graduated to a whole house system for my cabin when I bought it. currently the cabin only has solar, and it powers the cabin 800 sq' and shop 1600 sq' .... that is a fridge and freezer 24-7 and I leave the a/c on 24-7 form May-early october due to humidity and stinky cabin syndrome if you do not keep it dry. battery bank currently allows for four-five days with no solar charging in the summer running the a/c, or four days int he winter with no charging. as long as I have the panels on and charging i can run indefinitely for free.

I started with AGM due to the mobile nature of my camper and stuck with it for my cabin, but switched to Lithium about 4 years ago (started studying it about 2 years prior to ensure proper performance).

currently in the building stage of a solar powered hot water diversion dump load boiler, that will heat my cabin without my lazy backside needing to cut firewood.

5 P's folks, Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance, hence my coming to this forum and sucking your brain cells dry with a million questions about my 7.3... My turn to offer help.

My system:

Magnum MS-PAE 4448 x 2 for 8800 watts continuous and one spare
Morningstar TriStar MPPT 60 x 3 plus one spare
all breakers are mdinite solar dc rated breakers,
3p16s (48) CALB Se180 LiFePo4 cells
16s (16) Winston TSW-400 lifepo cells x 2 banks
12 sharp 200 watt panels (used from solar farm) +(8 more for other projects)
16 JA solar 200 watt panels (NOS/NIB) + 2 spares for other projects
Bogat engineering smart shunt
midinite solar SPD x 9 (lightening protection)
sigineer M5000H inverter x 2 for solar water heating project (currently installing)

 

I'll be curious to know if that can keep up with the parasitic loads being that it only outputs 5 watts in ideal conditions. The reviews are mostly good though. Have you measured the parasitic load on the Raptor when it is sleeping?

 

This right here. We got quoted 85k to add solar to the house, without battery backup. That was an immediate NO.

Generac quoted us 12k to install a propane generator with complete transfer switch and everything. Seemed like the much better option to go with a 500 gallon propane tank.

 

I agree with the backup power portions of your statement but I desperately need solar here to mitigate my summertime electricity bills. I do have a 6,500W propane generator that I use for my race trailer that would be good for emergency power though. I will have to get a transfer panel installed.

 

a diesel or propane genset would get my vote for emergency backup in the front country. Heck I use a denyo diesel 10k as my back up and for 3 phase power (lift, welder, compressor in the shop.) Only issue I have is that being three phase I have to use two legs at 120 which means I cannot run the a/c as its split phase 240.

 

not yet, I just inherited the truck. it belongs to my sister, she lived on a Farm up in Utah....
the truck sat all by its' lonesome, she quit life when her husband died a year ago, I went up there Dec 28, 2023 to rescue her from the hospital, I had called a neighbor for a Health and Welfare check, she quit answering the phone....

he called the sheriff, who called the EMTs, who took her to the hospital....
when I got up there, the Raptor battery was dead....
Put a big 5 amp Battery Tender on it, and the battery recovered.... for how long? dunno, but it is still working...

I have a Clamp On ammeter, need to find out how much juice that thing is pulling when the truck is asleep.

I stayed with her for 8 weeks trying to get her health well enough to survive a drive to my home..... took us 4 days to make 1500 miles.... not fun, but i got her here safely.... my daughter makes sure she eats well.

 

Ken,
I joined up there today, looks like a good place to hang out once in a while.
you will recognize my username

 

Hey just remember, some people pay extra for that kind of thing. Around here it's just all part of the service.

 

I am a member over there and I think I use the same user name as here. I started my own thread on adding backup batteries a year or more ago but I didn't find what I was looking for. My installer is also a member there but I don't know his user name. The battery pack came out of a container that was dropped at the port and a well known battery company in Bensalem, PA, bought them and salvaged them and my installer bought a few of them. I do not remember their name but their shirts are black with neon green print. AFAIK, the batteries are LiFePO and the base they sit on is a cooling manifold as well but I don't use it for that. It is sitting on a 40"x48" pallet but I took it off the pallet when I tucked it up onto the wall, between the support posts. For some reason, I think the container was full of these in racks for a big backup system but I don't know why I think that. He gave it to me for $8500, which is a steal for what it is. It does have a BMS, three of them actually, with bluetooth connectivity.

All told, the backup system cost me $18K but the price for SolarEdge and Tesla was much more for a lot less battery.

 

I bought SOK for the truck camper, and will be buying a few for the boat. The SOK is great for the DIYer - fix it instead of toss it if things go wrong.
https://www.us.sokbattery.com/produc...ed-plastic-box

Battleborn is the premium made in USA LiFePO4 battery, but they are damned proud of it - it's reflected in the price.

Now the solar for RV/Marine:

1. Roof mounting of solar panels on an RV doesn't always make sense. Who's gunna park your home in the sun if you have the option to park in the shade? Even if you mount on the roof, it's good to have portable units with a loooong cable. Boats have no trees to park under.
2. Volts, not amps. First, make sure you get the type of solar panels with bypass diodes, this helps if one or more unit is in partial/full shade. Second, make sure they make the same amperage if wired in series, or same voltage if parallel. Ideally, get identical panels no matter what. Connection in series (to the MPPT solar charge controller) give you higher volts while keeping the amps low. High amps require bigger wire - a lot bigger. Very expensive.
3. Put the MPPT solar charge controller (converts big volts to big amps) very close to the battery, to keep the big wire run short.

I have an MPPT solar charge controller that I ended up not using yet. It handles 100 volts in max, and can put out 50 amps max. (4) 180-watt solar panels wired in series in full sun can reach 80% input capacity of the MPPT controller, giving me 45+ amps out at LiFePO4 charge voltage. That's pushing the charge controller pretty hard, but it's only during full sun. I prefer to over-rate the charge controller to keep it cool. (4) 100-watt solar panels would be better suited for that charge controller - and I get 25+ amps charge current. The SOK battery mentioned above can take everything the charge controller can dish out, that's why I chose that one.

 

For the record, no one got smacked.

Especially down there. That sort of service isn't offered here.

And this turned out to be a hot thread.

Indeed, an electrifying read.

Carry on...

 

there is now a process for recovering Lithium

https://newatlas.com/energy/microwav...ium-recycling/