Outdoor Power Control Box 1a (250ah 48v Leaf Pack)

[zurkeyon]

Hello Everyone!

Steve here with Million Acre Farms in Punta Gorda Florida, and I wanted to show the initial mockup of my Outdoor Leaf Cell Power Station.

This build is an Outdoorpower stationfor operating the small construction office we will be using whilebuilding our farm.

As it will Take Florida Power and Light 2+ months to get our power to us. This moves our calendar up, and when done, we can use it as a big UPS to keep our Irrigation pumps running when the power goes out.

The unit is housed in an Aluminum Outdoor Traffic Control Cabinet. Weatherproof, Super Tough, Secure, and Built to Last. (Bought it used off of Craigslist.)

Which I will be Internally and Externally Insulating to a Factor of R40-45 Almost a foot thick. (Rock, Earth, and Sand in the Blocks, with Foam insulation in the Cabinet)

Being in Florida, heat is certainly an issue.

So I have decided to use a small Concrete slab, Vented with a large pipe from underneath, a Solar Shade Pavilion,and a Cinder Block Enclosure filled with sand to help insulate the unit.

With the 2 Panels above shading the Enclosure, Ill be using one to power the 3000CFM DC Fans that will help cool the unit, and the other will run mysmall DC Water pump for my hand washing sink, and toilet facilities in the office.

The vent pipe coming in from bottomofthe enclosure, will be 6" PVC and will have 2 purposes. For runningwire to and from the Enclosure and office, as well as to Bring in Cool air from underneath the Office. It will be poured into the Slab, and the Control Cabinet will be Bolted to Studs that will be poured into the slab when it is constructed.

The pipe will be buried 3 feet down to help do a bit of geo-cooling to the unit as well.

If all else fails, I will use one of these little guys to assist in the hottest months...
https://www.rigidhvac.com/blog/dc-air-condition
or a telecom AC unit...
https://www.alibaba.com/showroom/3000-btu-air-conditioner.html

Both are 300-450$ and draw about 350-500 watts.

Either should be able to cool the small space quickly, only needing to run for a few minutes at a time. IF its needed at all.

The design of the enclosure and its surrounding structure, should help keep me at 80F or below, even when its approaching 100 outside. But until I have built it and tested it, that remains to be seen.

All of this was done to keep this battery and the electrical danger associated with it, away from my employees, and OUT of my office.

As this is my first Powerwall type battery, I wanted MAXIMUM Safety for my Employees and Myself.

Also, there will be times when we aremeeting partners and customers in the office, as well as using the latter half for the storage of expensive tools and farming equipment that we don't want damaged.


-----------------------------------------------------
The Build So Far:

- 28 Nissan Leaf, 7.2v 64ah LiPoly Cells, Configured into a 7s4p Pack. (Each Leaf Cells internal configuration actually makes this a 14s8p, but thats for another forum post. LoL)
- x8 -300Watt 37v 4'x8' Panels (Higher Quality, Don't have the Specs Handy, Will Edit Post Later)
- 60 Amp Offbrand Chinese MPPT Charge Controller, 3000 Watts Max at 48v(Well reviewed, and I intend to rework the internals and make sure its solid)
- AIMS Power 6000 Watt / 18000 Watt Peak Pure Sine Inverter Charger, with Split Phase 120/240
- Midnight Solar Combiner Box with x6 DC Breakers at 30 Amps Each
- x2 Sealed Lead Acid Batteries to run the pumps and fans, and a Cheapo PWM 12v Charge controller for those...
- 100 Amp 150V Main Breaker/Disconnect Switch for the Pack (Heavy DutyMarine Type)
- Grounding Rod
- 3300CFM 12vdcair cooling
- Copper Bus Bar
- T8 LED Fixture for cabinet lighting
- 12v Digital Thermostat and Relay for Fan Control
- Batrium Leafmon BMS to balance and manage the pack

And likely some other things I can't think of right now.

I will be using 2 Panels in parallel to get a Max charge voltage of 74vdc, into my MPPT controller, and using 4 banks of 600 Watts to get a max in wattage of 2400 watts charge.

Hopefully, I have done all my homework correctly, and I am not making a total arse out of myself with this setup, and with the configuration I intend to use.

If there are ANY Glaring issues, or errors that you guys can see, please do point them out.

I would rather fix it now, and do it right the first time.


Pics:

The Office








Enclosure Pavilion 3D Design Draft




Enclosure internalmockup




Right Side



Left Side
[diy]undefined[/diy]

Inverter




So....
Tell me what you think!

Try not to be too rough on me, remember, first Powerwall build ever!

Thanks for Reading!

Steve Jackson
LifelongNerd /Farmer / Aquaculturist / Maker

 

[Sean]

What's your anticipated daily pack throughput in KWh ? (in and out)

 

[zurkeyon]

What's your anticipated daily pack throughput in KWh ? (in and out)

This unit will be running the following items for 4-5 hours per day on AC power....

4000BTU window unit. (Infrequent use, mostly the windows will be open)
Small NUC style i5 PC and 22" Monitor
Unifi Mesh Outdoor POEAccess Point
Dorm Fridge
x6 LED T5 Tube lights
Box Fan
Air Compressor (Smaller unit, Infrequent use)
General Battery Operated and Power Tools
Table Saw (Infrequently)

And ultimately, it will act as a backup for our irrigation pumps in the field. I will have backup IBC tanks made up like water towers, that can irrigate my fields for up to a week in the event of a long term power loss like we had during Hurricane Irma.

Hope that helps fill in the applicationuse details. Sorry, guess that info is also helpful

Thanks!

 

[Sean]

Have you worked out what everything is going to consume /day ?

I'm just trying to understand if you've accurately worked out what the site consumption will be, and then decided on the battery capacity, or done what most folks do which is decide what battery the are having and then (when the battery isn't lasting long enough) work out what size battery they really need.

I don't know where the site is but it's certainly not sunny here everyday, so perhaps you'll be wise to allow for a period of low PV input.

Edit, Florida seems a fairly sunny place.

 

[zurkeyon]

Have you worked out what everything is going to consume /day ?

No, but I am hoping that I aimed high enough with that value, to be well within what I might use on a particular day.

With Florida sun averaging 4.5 to 5.5 good hours per day, I assume that 2400 Watts in at 72vdcwill translate to more than enough for what I intend.

The whole office only has a single 30 Amp AC Breaker in it, and Not all of this stuff will be running all the time.

2-3 items at any given time, with a few hours of AC use per day.

That AC unit has a starting current of 6.8 amps, and runs less than 2 during operation.


So I am hoping 2-3 hours of meetings with architects and building inspectors, on a bad day, would still be way under what this will make.

Either way, I left enough breakers in the combiner box to split 2pair of 30 amp breakers off for my current amount of panels, and use thoseto add another 6 panels.

That should top me out, Though I would have to get the Aims 100 amp Charge controller at that point.

Which is not a big deal.

Hopefully, that leaves me an out in case I underestimated my use from what you see above.

Let me know.

Again, I am very new at this.


Thanks!

 

[Redpacket]

Like suggested already above, doing a power use budget is pretty essential.
The 6x lights & fridge (24hrs) will be the key ones & the aircon unit when used.
Make an excel spreadsheet, watts x hours used = kWhrs.

You've got 8x 300 = 2.4kW (realistically a bit less) input from the panels for say 9am to 3pm & maybe half that for 2 hrs each side.
So (2400 x (derating) 0.8 x 6) + = approx (11.5 + 3.8) = 15 ish kWhrs input

Sounds like you'll be fine so far. If you run the a/c unit, much closer to limits.

 

[Sean]

Have you worked out what everything is going to consume /day ?

No, but I am hoping that I aimed high enough with that value, to be well within what I might use on a particular day.

Fingers crossed eh .....

You'll likely be fine, just build the leaf packs such that you can add more to each parallel stack.

The installation and setup of the BMSyou have selected isn't a trivial task.

 

[zurkeyon]

Have you worked out what everything is going to consume /day ?

No, but I am hoping that I aimed high enough with that value, to be well within what I might use on a particular day.

Fingers crossed eh .....

You'll likely be fine, just build the leaf packs such that you can add more to each parallel stack.

The installation and setup of the BMSyou have selected isn't a trivial task.

Hopefully, being in IT for 28+ years will help me there.

I can build and configure a 3D Printer from scratch, So I am assuming its at about that level of complexity.

As long as I don't need to do any coding, I think I have what it takes.

But then again,I could be SO wrong here

 

[BestboySparky]

Check out the inverters from sigineer dot com.
They OEM most of the good Chinese inverter/charger/transfer switches and have a custom unit matched closely to 48Vdc EV lithium packs.

I'm going to use this one to work with 444-cell, 24V Tesla 5.2KWHr packs in a 2S 2P configuration.

See their 12000-watt-pure-sine-wave-inverter-charger-48volt-to-120240vac-split-phase model.

 

[zurkeyon]

Check out the inverters from sigineer dot com.
They OEM most of the good Chinese inverter/charger/transfer switches and have a custom unit matched closely to 48Vdc EV lithium packs.

I'm going to use this one to work with 444-cell, 24V Tesla 5.2KWHr packs in a 2S 2P configuration.

See their 12000-watt-pure-sine-wave-inverter-charger-48volt-to-120240vac-split-phase model.

I like the Sigineer product.

Before going with Aims, I was about to buy a 24kwsurge Split phase unit from them. It may even be the one you mention. I think it was 12kw nominal.

However, If you look at the two companies.... You will see that they have VERY similar product lines.

AND, Aims has a US arm that I can sue if they screw me. Sigineer is overseas, and out of reach.

Additionally, the 12kw unit is too large to fit into my cabinet, and somewhat overkill for my needs.

Even the 6000/18000 unit I bought, is likely overkill for my small needs. But its an acceptable amount of overkill

But the biggest factors were shipping times, location, and size considerations.

It would have taken 3 weeks to get one to the states.

Aims was here in 2 days.

And again, they are VERY similar product.

Aims may even be buying their stuff re-branded, FROM Sigineer.

The case styles are nearly identical.

But, I have nothing bad to say about Sigineer stuff.

Everything I have seen from them, and the Reps I spoke with, were top notch.

But as this was time-sensitive, That was most likely the BIGGEST factor for me.

 

[Sean]

 

[jdeadman]

Very Sexy

 

[Redpacket]

Nice looking busbars & Batrium work there

 

[Sean]

Nice looking busbars & Batrium work there

Ta, shame it doesn't do what it says on the tin (anyone remember where that phrase came from ?)

 

[Redpacket]

Nice looking busbars & Batrium work there

Ta, shame it doesn't do what it says on the tin (anyone remember where that phrase came from ?)

LoL, probably should remember (being of mildly senior years here), go on tell us!

Did you have a thread on what yourBatrium system isn't doing ATM?

 

[Sean]

There's a few threads, more notes for myself and others.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Does_exactly_what_it_says_on_the_tin

 

[chuckp]

Nice looking busbars & Batrium work there

Ta, shame it doesn't do what it says on the tin (anyone remember where that phrase came from ?)

I think it wasRONSEALadvertisements. I don't ever recall hearing it before them.

 

[zurkeyon]

UPDATE:

Build so far, only configured for testing.

Not all hardware / wiring is present.

Batrium Leafmon has arrived.

Pack reads 52.4VDC at this time and looks like its gonna work out. Even leaving room for additional cells later on.

The cabinet shelving being reconfigurable is a super bonus for this reason.

Tell me what you think so far!

-Z-

 

[Bubba]

Looks really nice!

I noticed a lot of wood?

 

[zurkeyon]

Looks really nice!

I noticed a lot of wood?

The control cabinet is an Aluminum traffic cabinet.

And, in this scenario, we have 320 lbs of lithium.

If I end up with a fire, the presence of wood will be the least of my problems

The cabinet will be actively cooled, and about 10+ feet from any trees or structures.

Just in case.

Plus the cabinet should contain any fire to the immediate area for a short while.

Hopefully long enough for emergency service to address any serious failures.

All burnable items will be removed from the immediate area as well.

Plus it will be mounted to its own concrete slab.

Should keep me somewhat safe.

Plus the aluminum, shelving that came with the cabinet was just far too weak to hold the weight of the batteries, or the Inverter.

Wood was the next best, easiest to shape, cheapest option available to me.

It should be fine.

And thank you for the compliment