Just finished my first project, and wanted to share. I certainly made some mistakes along the way, and there are things I would change if I did it again, so I'll share those too in case people find it useful. Also looking for some advice, which I'll ask at the end.
The finished project:
I installed a Sol-Ark 12K with 56 used leaf cells. The pack is giving me right at 17kWh with the voltage range 46-57v in a 7s8p (I mean, technically each module is 2s2p so... maybe 14s16p?) configuration and is running my entire house (save for the 2 electric car chargers) over night.
The Sol-Ark is awesome. Ridiculouscustomization and their support is top notch when I had programming questions. My only complaint is the remote monitoring software has a long way to go to catch up to some of the competitors, but it's there and it works (mostly).Would recommend, despite the price, but I would suggest you install it as part of a solar installation and use it as an all in one system. I'm wasting quite a bit of it's capability because my solar is A/C coupled.
I used a complete 7s BMS setup I found on ebay specifically for leaf cells,which essentially makes each stack it's own usable battery. I like the circuit board connection, but the BMS is the cheap chinese ones we see everywhere, and the set points are very inconsistent, as is the voltage measuring display. Also, in speaking with the seller they represented the BMS as having a cut off feature, but it does not, just an audible alarm. Wasted a few hundred bucks here in my opinion.
If I were to do it again here's what I would change:
1. Not use those BMS systems. Almost useless honestly, but they are nice and neat...
2. I should have used a deeper gutter (8" instead of 6") and left more space between the Sol-Ark and gutter. It was tough to work in the 2" space, and I can't use the solar cut off (my solar is all A/C coupled so I don't need it at this time anyways)
3. Doubled the size of the battery from the start
Question that I have:
1. Do I need to balance between the parallel stacks or would that be handled by the fact they are all connected?
2. Should I add a BMS for the whole pack?
3. Is CANBUS a universal protocol or just a connection method (I'm wondering if Batrium can interact with the Sol-Ark, it supports CANBUS and RS-485 for BMS communication)
Thanks for reading!
The finished project:
I installed a Sol-Ark 12K with 56 used leaf cells. The pack is giving me right at 17kWh with the voltage range 46-57v in a 7s8p (I mean, technically each module is 2s2p so... maybe 14s16p?) configuration and is running my entire house (save for the 2 electric car chargers) over night.
The Sol-Ark is awesome. Ridiculouscustomization and their support is top notch when I had programming questions. My only complaint is the remote monitoring software has a long way to go to catch up to some of the competitors, but it's there and it works (mostly).Would recommend, despite the price, but I would suggest you install it as part of a solar installation and use it as an all in one system. I'm wasting quite a bit of it's capability because my solar is A/C coupled.
I used a complete 7s BMS setup I found on ebay specifically for leaf cells,which essentially makes each stack it's own usable battery. I like the circuit board connection, but the BMS is the cheap chinese ones we see everywhere, and the set points are very inconsistent, as is the voltage measuring display. Also, in speaking with the seller they represented the BMS as having a cut off feature, but it does not, just an audible alarm. Wasted a few hundred bucks here in my opinion.
If I were to do it again here's what I would change:
1. Not use those BMS systems. Almost useless honestly, but they are nice and neat...
2. I should have used a deeper gutter (8" instead of 6") and left more space between the Sol-Ark and gutter. It was tough to work in the 2" space, and I can't use the solar cut off (my solar is all A/C coupled so I don't need it at this time anyways)
3. Doubled the size of the battery from the start
Question that I have:
1. Do I need to balance between the parallel stacks or would that be handled by the fact they are all connected?
2. Should I add a BMS for the whole pack?
3. Is CANBUS a universal protocol or just a connection method (I'm wondering if Batrium can interact with the Sol-Ark, it supports CANBUS and RS-485 for BMS communication)
Thanks for reading!
