UK Nissan e-NV200 / Leaf 14kw Powerwall 14s4p

BigDav

Member
Joined
Nov 5, 2018
Messages
39
In January 2015 I got 12x Solar panels installed on my roof giving me 3.18kwh power using my SolarEdge inverter. After a few years of having solar,it has pained me to see how much energy that I don't use getting exported to the grid even though I have an Immersun Hot Water Heater and Zappi Car Charger soaking up lots of the excess power. I had been on the market for an off-the-shelf battery solution like the LG Chem or Tesla Powerwall but had started harvesting 18650 cells with a though of maybe going down that route.

So about a year ago a friend of mine contacted me advising thatan EV car shop had 28x 2011 Nissan e-NV200Generation 1 batteries for sale which are the same batteries as the Nissan Leaf. I had watched a lot of videos on YouTube and discovered this website. After spending countless hours watching videos and reading other threads of leaf powerwall builders,I decided to take the plunge and traveled to the Republic of Ireland and picked up the batteries and brought them home. I was not expecting the 24x modulepack to be so heavy. It was so heavy that 2 of us struggled to lift them out of the boot of my car. We just about managed to carry it from my car to the garageafter some almighty swearing.

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Now thatwe gotthe 28 moduleshome, it was time to start taking them apart. The photos show the stages I took in unbolting the packs. I stacked themodules up in preparation for assembly. I kept all the accessories that came from the pack as I wanted to reuse as much of the original hardware as possible.

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My original plan and design for my pack has changed significantly since last year. I am going to document each stage on this thread knowing that these where not the best methods but just want to document my mistakes so that others coming after me do not make the same mistakes as I did.


My initial plans was to compress each 4 parallel modules between MDF wood

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But after posting on another thread, I was advised by a number of other Powerwall builders that this was not safe. So it was back to the drawing board.
I was offered a second hand network cabinet but the shape did not suit.

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I also had access to old medical cabinets but once again I choose against this idea

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In the end I decided for a lockable smaller network cabinet. Perfect!

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So now that I had found my cabinet, I discovered it was quite a weak structure and certainly could not hold the weight of the 28 modules without adding extra support in the base of the cabinet. I used some wood offcuts and cut the pieces to pack out the base of the cabinet.

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I used the original base plate of the smaller 4 module pack for my base. It had to be grinded down a few millimetres in order to get it to fit properly in the cabinet

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Next I got a rubber mat and cut it to size to insulate the bottom of the cabinet.

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I bolted the base plate on top of the rubber mat

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and then added theM6 threaded bars tobolt the modules together.

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The next stage of my build is the assembly of the modules inside the cabinet.
In order for the cells to be the right way around I had to stack the right hand stack upside down as you can see in the picture below

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The last stack of4 modulesgave me a problem. Because of the orientation of the cells they where not matching cell polarity cell layout so I had to improvise and out 2 modules upside down to match up the polarity. I had to build a made shift plate to put in between the modules to allow for proper compressionof the stack. It may look a little out of place, but it works.

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I'm so jealous (I'm at 8000+ 18650 and too late for me). Fantastic work/pics, thanks for sharing!
Upside down a "little out of place"... no problem as your cabinet door does not have a window - who will notice? :)
 
My next stage of the project was to cut the copper busbars to size and drill the holes
The copper bars I used was Copper flat bars Grade 101 which was 1"wide (25.4mm) and 3/6" thick (4.76mm). I cut
I was advised this is overkill, but I would rather over spec everything than have to rebuild it again in the future.
Cutting the copper was a slow and tedious task using a jagsaw which is all I had to hand. I cut21 bars to 125mm in length
Once the bars where all cut, drilled the holes which where spaced approx 32.5mm apart

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Each hole had to deburred which I did by hand using a deburring tool
Once I had the first 3 bars drilled and deburred and bolted them onto the first parallel set of modules

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I continued drilling and preparing the busbars for the remaining 6 parallel packs

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It was my intention to cut small 60mm busbar lengths to attach each parallel pack up in series but I had not ordered enough copper originally.
It was then when I realised I had made another fatal mistake. The final 3 busbars for the top stack will not fit due to the additional makeshift plates added for compression purposes. This added an additional 5mm to the busbar requirements making these 3 busbars excess to requirement.
Unfortunately this meant that I had to place another order for copper. After some sleep I decided that instead of using small 60mm lengths of copper to connect each parallel pack in series, that instead to make the build neater, I should replace most of 125mm busbars with 260mm busbars as seen below

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I then cut a busbar to 178mm and used it to connect the bottom stacks together in series

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The final pack required 2x 130mm busbars and one 265mm busbar to connect the final parallel stack.


So it was at this stage when my Batrium Watchmon 4 and 7x Leafmons arrived (before I had attached my final 3 bus bars)

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As you can imagine I could not wait to get them setup so I started to put on a few of the leafmons to work out their best location

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I cut the final few busbars and drill their holes and get them attached up to the pack

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I've went and gotmyself a couple of cool stickers for the front of the network cabinet to keep anyunauthorised hands away from the battery

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Next I setup the Watchmon 4 network connecting all the cables in series around the cells

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Next stage was to install the shunt

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So this is up to present day.
I have ordered a Victron Multiplus II GX 48v3000 Inverter and it is due to arrive in the coming days. As my battery is stored in a detached garage, I have decided to usetheZigBee adaptors for wireless communication from my main fuseboard which will have a ET112 Energy Meter installed.


OffGridInTheCity said:
I'm so jealous (I'm at 8000+ 18650 and too late for me). Fantastic work/pics, thanks for sharing!
Upside down a "little out of place"... no problem as your cabinet door does not have a window - who will notice? :)
I only had a few hundred 18650's harvested so it wasn't a big deal to move over to the Nissan cells.
Noone will see the batteries other than myself and anyone reading this thread so I don't care if they are upside down or not :cool:
 
That is awesome bud! looking forward to see how the project progresses
 
Yeah, me too. I'm in the UK and this is pretty much exactly what I want to build. Looks awesome! Looking forward to more updates.
 
pau1phi11ips said:
Yeah, me too. I'm in the UK and this is pretty much exactly what I want to build. Looks awesome! Looking forward to more updates.
Have you got your batteries yet? Where did you source them?
My Victron Multiplus II GX inverterarrives on Thursday so updates coming soon
 
BigDav said:
Have you got your batteries yet? Where did you source them?

No, not yet. Just been looking at listings on eBay. 7 Gen 2 modules for ~500 or a complete 24kW 48 module pack for ~3,200.

Where did you get yours?
 
pau1phi11ips said:
BigDav said:
Have you got your batteries yet? Where did you source them?

No, not yet. Just been looking at listings on eBay. 7 Gen 2 modules for ~500 or a complete 24kW 48 module pack for ~3,200.

Where did you get yours?
I found mine on an Facebook ad for an electric car dealer in Kildare in Ireland. I paid 1200 for 28 Gen 1modules


So my Multiplus II GXInverter arrived today and I got stuck into the installation with the assistance of a qualified electrician for the consumer unit connection

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Firstly the inverter was mounted to the wall.

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Wethen installed the AC isolator and 32 amp breaker in the consumer unitand run 4mm twin and earth cable to theinverter. We alsomounted the Mersen Fused Multibock on the wall and connected the ZigBee to USB converter for wireless communication to my ET112 energy meter

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So then I crimped some M8 lugs onto 70mm copper cable and connected the positive and negative terminals from thebattery to the inverter.

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The electrican then connected the ET112 energy meterat my main consumer unit to monitor my energy usage and setup the ZigBee to RS485 converter. The ZigBees connected right away without the need to go through a pairing procedure which was nice.

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After a few safety checks we where ready to switch on the inverter. It went straight into charge mode as we have not enabled the ESS mode yet.
The Victron firmware was then updated to version 2.42 and ESS mode enabled
We discovered a fault with the Victron very early in the process. The display was not working at all. After searching online unsucessfuly, I decided to remove the front panel of the inverter to see if the ribbon cable had become detached in transit and it had! I reconnected the ribbon cable and put the cover back on.
And that's me up to date for now. More updates coming soon...

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So I have been trying to get to understand how the Victron Multiplus-II GX should be configured for my application and I have hit a few problems.
The main concern is when I switch on the inverter it trips the RCD in the fuse box meaning that the garage is running in UPS mode with power supplied from the battery and not the grid.I cannot reset the RCD while the inverter is switched on. If the inverter is on CHARGER ONLY mode the RCD will not trip, although I cant work out how start charging?

Next problem is thatI cannot register onto the VRM portal using my VRM ID which is still ongoing.I will update soon on this.

Sowhen using theBatrium with my Victron, I am not sure if I need to use ESS mode or DVCC to allow the Batrium to be in control of voltages. More reading of the manuals required and any assistance would be much appreciated
 
Can you make a schematic diagram of the wiring. I think that'll help to figure out what you're doing wrong.
 
We are fully operational. The VRM portal issue was due to a corrupt configuration file which Victron support was able to fix remotely.
I have rewired my Victron so that the AC-In is now connected to the mains and not AC-OUT1 which it states in the manual. I do not have a critical load configuration in my system for now.
With regards the Batrium side of things, I am currently using ESS and not DVCC and it seems to be working as per the batrium specifications.


pau1phi11ips said:
Can you make a schematic diagram of the wiring. I think that'll help to figure out what you're doing wrong.
I will get a schematic diagram drawn up soon and posted here
 
That looks really good. Have you done a capacity test to see what you are getting out of the used leaf batteries?
Will
 
w0ss said:
That looks really good. Have you done a capacity test to see what you are getting out of the used leaf batteries?
Will
I haven't done a capacity test as I do not have the equipment to test. Any recommendations that should work with leaf batteries (that wont break the bank)?
 
Fantastic!
Im working on a Nissan Leaf system using the same Multiplus GX. Using 2 leafmodules in parallel so smaller than your system. Any chance you can share your VE Config file?

Regards,
Mike
 
nzmikec said:
Fantastic!
Im working on a Nissan Leaf system using the same Multiplus GX. Using 2 leafmodules in parallel so smaller than your system. Any chance you can share your VE Config file?

Regards,
Mike
Please see attached as requested
 

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  • 0281ff00f170_inst_ttyS3_Interfaces_Mk2_Tunnel.zip
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BigDav said:
We are fully operational. The VRM portal issue was due to a corrupt configuration file which Victron support was able to fix remotely.
I have rewired my Victron so that the AC-In is now connected to the mains and not AC-OUT1 which it states in the manual. I do not have a critical load configuration in my system for now.
With regards the Batrium side of things, I am currently using ESS and not DVCC and it seems to be working as per the batrium specifications.


pau1phi11ips said:
Can you make a schematic diagram of the wiring. I think that'll help to figure out what you're doing wrong.
I will get a schematic diagram drawn up soon and posted here




Hi BigDav,
Any update on your wiring schematic? I'm also about to embark on a similarsystem using up to 48 xLEAF batteries, Victron Multi-Plus II GX and Batrium WotchMon Plus. What are your thoughts on the "best"battery voltage to configure the LEAF batteries and also the Batrium Plus rather than using the WM4 with LeafMon?

Looking forward to your next updates :)
 
angusc said:
BigDav said:
We are fully operational. The VRM portal issue was due to a corrupt configuration file which Victron support was able to fix remotely.
I have rewired my Victron so that the AC-In is now connected to the mains and not AC-OUT1 which it states in the manual. I do not have a critical load configuration in my system for now.
With regards the Batrium side of things, I am currently using ESS and not DVCC and it seems to be working as per the batrium specifications.


pau1phi11ips said:
Can you make a schematic diagram of the wiring. I think that'll help to figure out what you're doing wrong.
I will get a schematic diagram drawn up soon and posted here




Hi BigDav,
Any update on your wiring schematic? I'm also about to embark on a similarsystem using up to 48 xLEAF batteries, Victron Multi-Plus II GX and Batrium WotchMon Plus. What are your thoughts on the "best"battery voltage to configure the LEAF batteries and also the Batrium Plus rather than using the WM4 with LeafMon?

Looking forward to your next updates :)


I have my minimum voltage set to 3.5v per cell and a max voltage of 4.1v to preserve the battery life. (49v-57.4v)
With regards the Batrium, I went for the WM4 and leafmons,simply as that's what most of the other leaf builders recommended to me when I first decided I was going to build a powerwall. The leafmons are custom made for the leaf batteries and even Batrium support recommended the WM4 over any of their other products for my build.
If I get a chance over the weekend I will try and draw a schematic diagram (I can barely draw a straight line with a ruler)
 
Here is my charge curve for a new Gen2 module that I did on my Icharger 4010 3.2-4.15v It really sucks up the juice on the higher end of the voltage range. I dont think i'll bother going below 3.7.

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I have 58 new gen 2 cells to put into a powerwall. I'm thinking 18P3S for my 24V system and going 3.7-4.1 (maybe 4.15) I'll have them in a conditioned shop, so they should not get any extreme temperatures

Bigdav. In one of your first post, you were going to bolt the modules together with MDF. You didn't say why you were advised against that?
 
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