How Can We Afford Lithium Batteries?

Every time I come across RVers who have switched to lithium batteries, the first question that comes to mind is: how the heck can they afford lithium batteries? It&#;s no secret that they are expensive! Lithium batteries can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $8,000. So then, how the hell did we afford them?

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Two things: Jerud and Electric Car Parts Company.

JERUD

With a mechanical engineer background, Jerud is a hands-on, do-it-yourself, I-love-projects type of person. It&#;s because of him and his brain that we&#;re living in an all-solar rig without having spent an insane amount of money.

The $5,000 - $8,000 I mentioned above is the cost for an RV solar installer to design, supply all the materials, and install the batteries. To save us a lot of money, Jerud did all that himself.

Hi Jeff;
As a solar off-grid newbie, I&#;ve been a member of his site for several months. Jason and Sparky are very knowledgeable and have been super helpful.

SUNJ ENERGY contains other products and information you need, so please check it out.

Been reading your msg thread and I get the impression that you have budget constraints and want more info on building your own 48V (LFP) battery pack(?). If I have misunderstood, then you can ignore the rest of this msg.

Before taking the plunge and installing my own off-grid system, I watched a ton of Youtube videos of other DIY&#;ers building packs from individual cells. If you are intent on building your own LFP pack and can accept the inherent risks, I found the earlier vids by &#;Will Prowse&#; and &#;David Poz&#; very informative and instructional.

However to avoid any misrepresentation, in the end, I did opt to buy pre-built 48V 200AH LFP packs, as I had sufficient budget and more importantly was fully preoccupied with building my retirement house.

FYI the packs are from &#;Blue Carbon Tech&#;. They were not too expensive (approx USD/battery), use BYD LFP cells and have worked without any problems for the past 3+ months. Also bought an &#;all-in-one&#; 5KW hybrid charger-inverter from MPP Solar for USD1K. Growatt also offers an almost identical (rip-off?) version. They are really nifty, relatively simple and quick to install. I don&#;t know how long they will operate but at this low price one can afford to buy a second unit as a stand-by/spare for less than the price of one Victron.

Note that the BCT batteries do NOT have any comms port on their BMS, so cannot be connected to the charger-inverter or monitored remotely. I just check the battery pack voltages a couple of times each day to get a rough indication of their SOC. Not technically elegant nor a state-of-the-art design, but good enough for a retired pensioner like myself with time on his hands. Not sure if this is helpful but throwing it out there in the spirit of sharing with other fellow solar newbies.

Good luck and apologies to Sparky for barging into this thread uninvited&#;
William

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