A 14,500wh battery we built

[RogerIvy]

This is a 48v LifePO4 battery built with 16 304ah cells.
Weighs just over 100Kg.
It‘s the equivalent of around 22 100ah lead acid batteries. A bit like a 1200ah 12v battery.
Built in a specific configuration to fit in his locker.
It has a 200A BMS so can power a 15Kw inverter as long as the voltage stays above 50v

We‘ve done a few similar batteries for boats where they want to get rid of the engine (get rid of ICE engine).
This is gonna be one heck of an offgrid system In a motorhome!

 

[Wissel]

Love it

Would you mind sharing the rough build cost?

 

[PaulyP]

Love it

Would you mind sharing the rough build cost?

And the weight.

 

[PaulyP]

And the weight.

Just re read it and seen the weight.

 

[TheBig1]

And the weight.

weight in the OP is 100kg

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[autorouter]

Impressive, that's twice the capacity of my setup. How do you intend to keep it filled up?

 

[cyberyacht]

It's not the build cost, at 100Kg, it's the osteopath's bills you should be thinking about.

 

[Otter Spotter]

Will it power the Fork lift you’ll need to lump it around?

 

[SpeedyDux]

I suppose you can offset some of the extra weight of these batteries by going on a crash diet.

 

[Wissel]

Loving the weight comments

4 x 100Ah lead acid leisure batteries = around 100kg. Usable power, around 200Ah

1 x 1200Ah LiFePO4 as shown = around 100kg. Usable power, around 1050Ah

If you need the power....

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[RogerIvy]

Love it

Would you mind sharing the rough build cost?

BMS
The Daly BMS costs around £156 if purchased from stock in the UK, you can buy direct from Daly in China and it would cost roughly £110 landed (not taking into account specials - and there is one on the go right now). As usual, if you get direct from China and if something goes wrong you'd need to pay for return of faulty goods etc. If you're lucky AliExpress or Alibaba would offer a reasonable refund. There are of course other BMS and prices vary, but we've found that any BMS bought from China has risk (we just tried a JK BMS which had physical damage - we were only offered a partial refund of about 50%).
Cells
The set of 16 cells cost around £247 per cell (£3960 for 16 cells). Again, you can get them for much cheaper on AliExpress but with significant risks. In the last few years we've tested cells from about 20 different suppliers (we do it for fun and as part of our Youtube channel), it's very hit 'n miss. The worst we had was when cells sold as 420ah came out at 240ah. That cost us £100 to send back, originally those cells cost around £450 landed. We were given a full refund, so the final cost to us was £100 for the lovely experience (and to be honest increased traffic on our Youtube channel). About 50% of the time the cells we test meet capacity, and of those about 20% have unreasonable swelling (you'd never install that in your motorhome).
Other materials
Thread bars (Screwfix) around £25
Connector nuts (Screwfix) around £3
Plastic tubing (to cover the thread bars) around £10
Ply wood (we used 18mm good quality stuff) prob around £50
Paint, screws, lugs around £20
Bus bars around £20

Material Total: roughly £4230

Buying from China?
Buying direct from China is definitely cheaper. Sometimes MUCH cheaper!
But .... You can't really argue with AliExpress or Alibaba .... they prefer to support their sellers (unlike Amazon who almost always support the customer).
In this particular case the cells (they bought from our UK warehouse) are definitely made by EVE and are definitely grade A - and our customer decided not to take the risk. I think many people would take the risk on a set of 4 cells, but not 8 or 16.
Our supplier of cells doesn't argue when we tell them that we have problems (only ever happened once when a cell that was turned upside down leaked stuff), but then we buy hundreds at a time. Even our supplier may not be as accommodating for a single one-time-only purchase (you would need to send them back).
The same with Daly for BMS, we buy hundreds at a time and when we say there's a problem they jump around.
Interesting: shipping from China to you costs way less than the return of faulty items (apparently China subsidise shipping to you)

 

[RogerIvy]

It's not the build cost, at 100Kg, it's the osteopath's bills you should be thinking about.

Lol

When he told us the size of the locker we asked two "important" questions:
1. How are you going to carry it through the narrow door?
2. How are you going to lower it into the locker?

His answer: he's hiring some heavy lifters to get it into place. Good idea! ... let them visit the osteopath!

We've given him some serious handles which should allow three people to lower it into place.

 

[RogerIvy]

Will it power the Fork lift you’ll need to lump it around?

Haha

My son (nigelivy) and I carried it to the pallet just to see how bad it could be carrying it into a van. Worked up a bit of a sweat we did (or at least I did!)