Recent content by Trukinbear

Wow, if anyone is on the fence about taking the plunge on LiFePo4 batteries, here's what I wish I'd known years earlier. These things are so much more efficient than my old FLA that they're going to pay for themselves quite quickly. It turns out that nearly 50% of my energy was being wasted by...

Of course, I'll probably have to start over with this every time I add another 200 amp hours of battery, which should be two more times this summer

Victory! The (2)BMS, the SI6048, and the Whizbang Jr are showing SOC within 3% of one another

We're pretty efficient, I designed this place knowing id likely remain off the grid, plus our climate is very mild. That 2200# forklift battery, who knows how many gallons (barrels) of battery acid I had to heat and keep warm. It was in the back of my mind, yes but in more of an anecdotal way...

Cloudy and rainy today. Very overcast. Normally I'd be making only about 50% of the power I need, but I'm actually making about 20% more than I need

Putting the batteries in over a couple of months to spread the costs out - I thought I needed 600ah minimum, but what I'm seeing with the first 200Ah makes me believe that all my calculations based on my FLA system are WAY off, and 400Ah might be plenty

Looking back at my records that brand new picked up at the manufacturer forklift battery appears to have eaten over half my power from day one.

Wow! I wish I'd have gone LiFePo4 years ago - I thought I couldn't afford it. I was wrong because now I see that 50,ish % of my power went to heating up battery acid - I don't appear to actually use nearly as much power as I thought. Wow!

Hey, it's getting close - says 76% at 100% SOC

I wouldn't exactly call Aolithium cheap, or rather they aren't inexpensive. I opened one up to see if it was serviceable and it was full of flawless appearing Lazer welds, likey robotic. I think it's odd that the SI fails to even attempt to start when I choose the external BMS option. I still...

Yeah, I might have a problem with Mom's respirator, my BiPap, and my son's CPAP - we are totally off the grid. It IS catching up, now SI says 76% when the batteries are at 100%

Aolithium claims to speak those languages, and 4 others...

I would hope to have enough left over from selling my (2) SI6048, and (2) Classic 250 to buy another 200 Ah of batteries. However, I'd already come to the conclusion that the DIY wasn't up to task. The Rosie is outta my price range, but I love Midnite's tech support - they even speak English.

Anybody have experience with Midnite's MN5048DIY series inverters, and LiFePo4? Everything else except my inverter is Midnite Solar. Since it looks like it would replace my SI6048, AND both of my Classic 250's I would probably have money left over if I sold them, and bought the MN5048DIY...

(Krazy off the wall idea #43) What if I reverse the polarity of the sense leads from the shunt so the SI sees discharge as charge - let the batteries discharge until the numbers intersect... But it'll still show 50% SOC error, so that might not last long, but at least they could (maybe) start in...