Great Helper !! Enjoyed the video. As a service technician, On-call at 2am, visiting your site to look at this: I'd make this wireless. Just lay my laptop up there, or log into it from the truck. 485 converter or whatever it'd take from Black Box. Put all the jumper cables on one side (left) so at 2am I can GLANCE they are there and in the right positions. Easy to tug on in and out to break any oxidation. I use gray anti-seize or a no-ox jell for aluminum and copper. I put it in the hole and plug in the cat termination. Coat the pins. Keep moisture off these. Also because not all competitors' technicians or salesmen visiting at a site will keep their hands to themselves, they will want to move those dip switches. Use your silver marker to put dots above and below where they should be positioned. Mark it somewhere else too. Take a picture and put that in your records. Leave a copy of your service or install manual and mark it up for all the positions and bays. Throw it in the cabinet in a nice large plastic bag. It's 2am. I am not thinking, I'm doing. You are cold and the electric is off. Easy stuff first. Then I put magic scotch clear tape over the dots and the hole covering the switches. Keeps the honest people honest, bugs, dust and dirt out. You'll thank yourself. I would have used the charged battery to charge the others ;) wonder how many it could charge before throwing the breaker? Re-Tap ( size )the striped out copper hole? Naah. Put (fold over) several more copper strands in the hole. Put the screw in. Be done with it. Test it out in a video. See if that has the bite strength and current capacity if in doubt? That'd be fun to see. You are exactly correct with the hex head bolts/screws. Remember lock washers (split washers) are your friends! I would have never manufactured that copper bar as a tapped copper bar. Bolt and nut. Plus no-ox. Moisture is not your friend. It will cause problems. Coax seal works pretty good. Anything to keep good conductivity clean and dry. For HIGH currents I'd consider a tac of silver solder. It makes me cringe seeing crimps not soldered. Seen too much. Super video, really liked the project, the screw driver, and learned some stuff too! Looking forward to seeing you grunt on this battery system... some hot water making and home heating.
Besides the content being awesome for the subject I was searching....As a father of two girls, who are now 19 & 16, i love that you are involving your daughter in this and down the track you will be watching a video of some young fellah doing whatever with his daughter and your own memories will come flooding back. Cheers, great work.
after doing some research online i found the setup ... 11k$ (inc. tax) for 30kwh battery setup is not cheap, however much more affordable then some! thnx for the vid
Man, love to see you take time to let the little girl try to help you, then help her with her battery. Some would have just said later.. No matter what I was doing I always let the be apart of whatever I was doing.. Great for you !!!!!!!! Now are you giving away that battery system ?? Chose me. LOL LOL Great video. You became my go to person to learn about solar..
Soo cool to see your little helper learning! My little girls are all grown up, young ladies, Thanks for sharing your knowledge, God Bless you and yours!
Great build, Dave. Thanks for showing us the math. On a tangential topic, you have become so smooth and confident in your delivery, compared to how you started. Great work.
Seconded - have only watched two videos but you are speaking very well. Very natural and clear, no "hyper" shouting at your viewers like you're scared they might get distracted.
We all know that Elenore is the brains of this operation. She just plays that she doesn't know to make her dad feel great. She is a little angel. An engineer in the making 🙂
Your daughter screwing in the screw hit me good. My dad let me wire up a bunch of stuff like switches and outlets when I was like 2 years old. He didn't included the plug for it till I had a working setup. One of them was a photo cell for a spot light. We tested it and it worked and it changed me. I was no older than 3 years old. It is never too early to start.
$300+/kWh for battery module only (for those curious, as of 01/2022). I think the value will be in the tidy package that can be (more easily) sold with a home or moved to another one. And the warranty, provided the company is solid. Nice video.
I dunno about cheap. That's less than one week's power consumption for a house with all electric appliances and refrigerated air, and 60amp heat strips for backup in winter. But I do like the idea of formed cells vs 1000 18650s in an array.
Awesome David! My GYLL for my off grid cabin is coming next week. (Used your coupon code and saved almost the entire cost of shipping! Thanks for that!) Also, I really do miss the days of my kids helping me out on any project I had going on. Please enjoy these days with her...time just goes by way too fast!! Thanks again David.
I can't recommend signature solar and this battery enough. I bought one of the 12v 400ah batteries because of your last video on them, never heard of them before, and the battery got to my door quicker then expected. My poor ups driver, I thought he was going to have a hernia bringing it to the door. They are really nice to work with on the phone and sales went above and beyond to fix my one and only problem which wasn't even their fault.
Hey look a product I had before you. lol. My electrical room is self cooled too. I have a sol-ark, one of these batteries and a heat pump water heater in a 10x8 utility room. Keeps the room about 70 degrees with no ducts to the room. The heat from the solar gives heat to the water heater and the water heater cools the batteries and solar.
I would like to hear more about the heat pump water heater. Trying to figure out if that is worth the money, or to change to a gas. The problem is I have to get propane and not sure it is a cheap as natural gas would be, which is not available. Feel free to email me a_w_i_l_b_o_u_r_n@ g m a i l, I think you can see I put spaces and did not complete to help from something that will harvest data from the chat. Remove the underscore for the first part and spaces from second. I loved this video, but they are sold out as a result. Just want to figure out how to have a bank like this to add to my house and tie to my solaredge inverter, looking for any help there from anyone.
Having loaded many a server cabinet, I'd strongly recommend getting some sort of lift to help you load the individual modules. Even a ~$200, x-lift table from Harbor Freight will be a big help. Considering the cost of this entire setup, an extra $200 is worth it and your back will thank you.
"If signature solar is watching, I'd rather these be a hex head like on the battery" - I'm setting this up now, a year after your video, and looking at my bus bars. Looks like they're watching, because mine are hex heads! Signature Solar is stupendous. Customer service for the win.
I use a torque screwdriver for my bikes, guns, etc. 4 ft lbs shouldn't be taking as much effort as you're putting in. I would highly recommend getting the mechanical version (non electric) as it freely rotates when you hit the torque spec.
David, THANK YOU SO MUCH for ALL of your fantastic videos! I'm in the process of putting together my solar system - which includes 4 the newer "EG4 Lifepower" 48v 100ah batteries from signature solar. This video - specifically - has answered multiple questions in how to set them up in parallel. (and-thx for the DAVIDPOZ25 discount codes!). I also appreciate how you incorporate your daughter into your videos. As a dad myself, I definitely appreciate it - and cool to see her grow throughout your video series. Keep up the excellent work, and God Bless!
David, while your information is fantastic and I enjoy your videos.... Let's be honest, the star of if video is your adorable daughter! May she grow up with your love for insulation and DIY power!
Great vid Dave, I feel your pain with the USB to 485 cable. You might look into an Ethernet to 485 protocol converter, hard wire to the batteries, put on your home network. I've had good luck with equipment from Moxa. I like the casters for set up but would probably find some leveling feet for permanent location, appears the cabinets are drilled and tapped ready to accept them. Keep us up to date, I really like those Gyll batteries.
If you need to retrofit a server rack for this purpose. You can buy used 42U rack from server monkey in Houston for 300.00. I have used the 42U rack for UPS battery backup units for large companies to keep their network and servers running during a power outage. The one he is showing you looks like a 24u or a half height rack. The bus bars can be fitted into there and are supplied from a number of retailers.
factory equipment or something else? seems like it could be a blessing and a curse. great tech but can still be a nightmare to find a break in a wire. I've only experienced it with the arduino and other such parts.
Nice set up. I'm pretty sure those two bus bars need to have some sort of platic protection/covers just like the battery terminals have the clear plexi it would be safer.
Always mount the rack nuts horizontally, not vertically - so they don't snap out when they get weight on them (no problem in your case as the weight is held by the angle rails). From an "old" server rack builder ;-)
I'm not going to lie for a battery system that looks the cleanest that I've ever seen out of any system. Those server racks are just meant to be. But you should definitely take some of those battery for That Power Wheels, and convert it and charge it off of solar.
Cool, though that's a retrofitted server rack, and they've got the batteries racked in what would normally be considered "reverse". They need to have this swapped and loaded from the front and wired on the rear. Servicing this thing would be super dangerous with exposed bus bars.
First off, reversing the direction would be bad because the typical rack has near zero space in front. This is because connections are generally made to the back of servers and storage etc. So the orientation is correct for these style of batteries. As to the exposed bus bars, I would agree generally that having them exposed is a potential risk, however they are approximately 20 inches apart and both are isolated from the rack itself. There is near to zero risk of say a screwdriver crossing both bars. The highest risk would be grabbing the inside of the rack to pull it for example and grabbing both bars. Just touching one of the bars wouldn't be an issue. And the rack has doors with a lock. It should end up closed and locked and live 99.99% of it's life that way. Additionally it should be labeled as containing dangerous voltage.
@@CATownsend777 my thoughts exactly. 30k for a solar set up....people say "oh it's too much" then go out and spend 50k on a car that will depreciate and they get rid if in 5 years. Proper set up and cycling...no reason this system can't last for at least 20 years.
this cabinet is what this solar industry needed for a clean way to store batteries but also expandable. modifiable without using 2x4 lumber or a welder
I bought 48v 100 tess electric batteries for $1200. look almost 100% the same but white color they have cool lcd screen and 2 extra ports can bus. looks like cabinet fits for it .
Really a nice Video. Thanks for the Tour of this Case and the Batterys For Me I see potential of a Risk in the "open" Bus Bars. They are locked in the cage and isolated but man.... The Risk when the door is open... I saw at work a product of a german industy battery supplier, which i liked a little better. The Racks had integrated wireing which was completeley done with isolated PCV wires and the batterys were connected to these wires by HARTING Connectors. This was a real sweet and clean solution. No anger with "open" potencials and stripped out threads :) but for home use they are way too expencive.
You’ve pretty much sold me on these batteries David. Thank you. One question I have is I made a mistake going with a Big Battery 48v 100amph and I think the cells are A123 and they say they can’t get those anymore so I’m stuck with this battery and I’m told I can’t add to it because of different chemistry. I would appreciate any thoughts of ideas? BB also keeps raising their prices and i don’t feel they’ve been completely honest either. Thanks Bob p.s. you’re blessed with that little one.
Hi Bob Levey, I don't know what chemistry your current battery is. A123 is a brand that makes several types of batteries. I can buy A123 Li-NMC, and I can buy A123 LIFePO4. Your battery might be a different chemistry, but I don't have enough information from your comment to confirm that. These Gyll batteries are LiFePO4. In a perfect world, they would be paralleled only with LiFePO4. But they can be paralleled with other chemistries like Li-NMC so long as certain precautions are taken. My current battery pack is a mix of both. If you don't want to parallel, or can't parallel, then could you sell your current battery? Or perhaps use your current battery for some other application, like a mobile one in your car, or just to power a shed?
Pretty nice setup there. As a DIYer, I'm not a fan of the cost - but it's a great value for someone whom doesn't want to DIY their own batteries (most "normal" people don't lol).
3:26 You could get a half height server cabinet for under $150 easy. Which is what that is, just a modded half-height server cabinet. Still not a bad deal though.
Just got mine. The current rack does not come with top/bottom/front or back panels. The buss bars are now covered with Open Slot Wiring Raceway. The bolts on the buss bars now have hex bolts.
Just imagine the price in another 5-10 years...great deal now but I think I'll build something for half the price when I need it in 7 years with my system.
That setup is very reasonably priced for non DIY and looks great too. Gain Solar did point out that he is a viewer of your channel also and that these units are not UL certified if your home insurance requires this to be covered but of course a DIY battery isn't UL certified either.` My terminology may be a little off without going back to look it up.
A good reason to put everything in an outbuilding if you can. If it does have a problem it doesn't take out the residence. Certainly not the easiest thing to do as a remod but if you are starting from scratch its something to consider. For the property I'm developing now all the utilities will first go to a power house for distribution to the main buildings.
@@FJB2020 If the manufacturer claims are correct, lithium iron phosphate batteries presumably never catch fire, even under abusive overcharge or short circuit fault conditions. House fires are a consequence of building houses out of wood, with paper coated "drywall" walls, and then filling them with wood furniture combined with wood kitchen cabinets that surround the range/oven. House fires are also sometimes caused by rats or mice chewing on "exposed" electrical wires strung arbitrarily through the attic and walls without use of a non-chewable protective conduit like EMT. Wood is the most flammable of all the structural building materials known to humans, and yet, in the United States, home builders and the government consider building houses out of wood and paper coated walls to be a totally acceptable practice, fully within all building code requirements. Meanwhile, home owners and home buyers generally could care less about this fundamental design flaw to their current or future house. If at some point in the future, your house burns down to the ground, it won't be because you had a DIY lithium iron phosphate solar battery pack inside. If your house burns to the ground, it was because it was made out of wood and paper. Houses built out of masonry, metal studs, glass, fiberglass, and self extinguishing plastics, simply don't burn to the ground, regardless of how many and what type of batteries you install in the house.
Great video. You should plug your red and black higher up on the bus bars. If you have to pull out a unit, the cable for the battery above will not be in your way.
Seems they could have used something like USB C jacks and allowed a more easily available cable to be used for the interconnects. Though that maybe confusing to someone too, since it's not a USB or Ethernet interface either way.
@@wingerrrrrrrrr RJ45 (Ethernet) cables are stupid cheap and widely available. The cable they screwed up was as DX GI mentioned is the USB to RJ45 cable which actually are also extremely common. As a computer guy I probably have a half dozen varieties laying around here, each one supplied with a piece of equipment. Sadly the pinouts of the RJ45 side are not all the same so they are not universally interchangeable.
A quick test you can perform on RS485 transmission lines. With the entire system powered down, measure the resistance between the A and B wires. It should be 50 to 60 ohms indicating 2 terminators, hopefully one at each end. If it's less there are to many terminators If it's 120 or more you're missing one or both. Also make sure neither wire is shorted to ground.
You should nut every battery terminal to the bus anyways. Bus bars are typically soft metal and over time will loosen up, a lock nut / washer will ensure you keep everything tight. Pulling that kind of amps thru a loose connection just causes trouble down the line.
Love what I'm seeing about this product and company... they could have easily jacked up the price on that rack if the individual components come out 200 more than what they're offering it for... good to see that there are still companies out there that don't just maximize their profits, but give their customers a real amazing deal!
Each battery costs just over what I spend a year on electric and gas for my house. Really wish I could justify. Wouldn't even break even inside the warranty period.
So here we are in Aug 2023, just had the hottest July in recorded history. The cries to abandon fossil fuels are getting louder, what happens to electricity prices then? Just got my 20kWh kit from Signature Solar, $15,500 for four batteries, 2 6500 inverters, and 11000 watts of panels. Probably cost a few grand for wiring and I am doing a ground mount install myself. Cost is no object to me, I am in Florida and who knows when the next storm will hit.
I just ordered a single G4-LL and can't wait to get started building a serious off grid backup system, but at $1750 a pop, it's gonna take me some time to get to 30.72kWh worth of backup. I'm a little leery about having an exposed bus bar with that much juice on it though, especially with over 50 volts. Anything with over 50 volts can easily overcome the bodies resistance and stop your heart.
There are two types of batteries from Signature Solar. One is less expensive at $1499, and is the one I bought. signaturesolar.com/eg4-lifepower4-lithium-battery-48v-100ah/?ref=4_rHcgZ9x-TiF- That will save you $250 per battery. The less expensive one is still UL, and still rated for 7000 cycles, but you give up the little screen. Personally, I don't care about the screen. The new rack Signature Solar sells now has an added plastic cover over the bus bars.
Absolutely amazing TIME! ONE HOUR! Crazy fast... I started learning solar with Will Prowse, but I must say I enjoy the detailed effort you put into your videos!! Thanks so much for sharing here .. Extremely helpful!! btw... adorable daughter!
I'll agree with you on the nuts (and use some anti-corrosion compound) but not with the numbering. The first one in the chain (this case the top) should be zero and the last one should be five. EDIT: I should also point out I'm numbering them in the direction we read. Most of the time we count from the top down.
As an IT guy, I like the 19" rack mounting, I could see using these for backup power or remote solar-powered relay sites. It is too bad they went with RS485 rather than RS232 because those console cables are cheap and available as they are used with older routers and switches. That cabinet is probably a good enough price for being already setup, I would like to see better connections to the power rails and something covering them even heat shrink with cutouts for the connections would keep things from bumping them. The teardown video was good to see they are good inside for being made in China.
By adding an extension to your torque screwdriver, you effectively skew the torque value due to the torsion of the extension, so it may not be accurate anymore.
If there is too much of a difference in voltage, than the highest voltage battery will try to discharge into the lower voltage battery. It can potentially do this at hundreds of amps, which would cause the BMS to fault out. Waiting for them to be close to each other in voltage keeps the amps moving low.
@@DavidPozEnergy hey I know this is old, but don’t these batteries have some kind of resistor inline to avoid that kind of thing? Or is that only for when you connect it to the charge controller or turn it on to the inverter or something
8+ months setup on my BYD batteries, here Davids like a couple hours done! Haha. Love tech.... Batrium update on my BYD side. SOC seems to get out of whack every six months; other than that, I've consumed a total of 130KWh and Produced 51KWH this year! Nice to have 1/3rd off grid Refridgeration. :)
Looks like any server rack I have worked with over the last 30 years. Notable difference are the support rails. Servers generally just bolted in from the front only except in rare cases. To save some money I am sure you can find surplus server cabinets and modify to your setups.
Great rack. I would just rotate one bus bar upside down so the whole loop length from each battery to inverter is same length. Keeping it like this (assuming inverter or other equipment is fed from the top) would put more wear and tear on top battery. Even few miliohms with that chunky bus bar matter when your start running 100s of amps.
I ran it over a year like this and showed that all the batteries are aging equally. Not saying it's a bad thing to flip a bus bar, but I proved after a year of daily cycling that it's not necessary. I welcome someone else to go through the effort of daily cycling a battery over a year to prove me wrong.
@@DavidPozEnergy Okay, no need to be aggresive about it xD. Just saying it from fully theoretical point of view. Glad it works okay for you. Have a nice day
Great Helper !!
Enjoyed the video.
As a service technician,
On-call at 2am, visiting your site to look at this:
I'd make this wireless.
Just lay my laptop up there, or log into it from the truck.
485 converter or whatever it'd take from Black Box.
Put all the jumper cables on one side (left) so at 2am I can GLANCE they are there and in the right positions.
Easy to tug on in and out to break any oxidation. I use gray anti-seize or a no-ox jell for aluminum and copper. I put it in the hole and plug in the cat termination. Coat the pins.
Keep moisture off these.
Also because not all competitors' technicians or salesmen visiting at a site will keep their hands to themselves, they will want to move those dip switches. Use your silver marker to put dots above and below where they should be positioned.
Mark it somewhere else too.
Take a picture and put that in your records. Leave a copy of your service or install manual and mark it up for all the positions and bays. Throw it in the cabinet in a nice large plastic bag. It's 2am. I am not thinking, I'm doing. You are cold and the electric is off. Easy stuff first.
Then I put magic scotch clear tape over the dots and the hole covering the switches. Keeps the honest people honest, bugs, dust and dirt out. You'll thank yourself.
I would have used the charged battery to charge the others
;) wonder how many it could charge before throwing the breaker?
Re-Tap ( size )the striped out copper hole? Naah.
Put (fold over) several more copper strands in the hole.
Put the screw in. Be done with it.
Test it out in a video. See if that has the bite strength and current capacity if in doubt? That'd be fun to see.
You are exactly correct with the hex head bolts/screws.
Remember lock washers (split washers) are your friends!
I would have never manufactured that copper bar as a tapped copper bar. Bolt and nut.
Plus no-ox. Moisture is not your friend. It will cause problems. Coax seal works pretty good.
Anything to keep good conductivity clean and dry.
For HIGH currents I'd consider
a tac of silver solder. It makes me cringe seeing crimps not soldered.
Seen too much.
Super video, really liked the project, the screw driver, and learned some stuff too!
Looking forward to seeing you grunt on this battery system...
some hot water making and home heating.
Besides the content being awesome for the subject I was searching....As a father of two girls, who are now 19 & 16, i love that you are involving your daughter in this and down the track you will be watching a video of some young fellah doing whatever with his daughter and your own memories will come flooding back.
Cheers, great work.
like father , like daughter she's learning well . The rack makes those batteries look so awesome . You are the solar battery king .
after doing some research online i found the setup ... 11k$ (inc. tax) for 30kwh battery setup is not cheap, however much more affordable then some! thnx for the vid
Man, love to see you take time to let the little girl try to help you, then help her with her battery. Some would have just said later.. No matter what I was doing I always let the be apart of whatever I was doing.. Great for you !!!!!!!! Now are you giving away that battery system ?? Chose me. LOL LOL Great video. You became my go to person to learn about solar..
Soo cool to see your little helper learning!
My little girls are all grown up, young ladies,
Thanks for sharing your knowledge,
God Bless you and yours!
Great build, Dave. Thanks for showing us the math.
On a tangential topic, you have become so smooth and confident in your delivery, compared to how you started. Great work.
Thank you for the kind words. I'm glad it's getting better.
Seconded - have only watched two videos but you are speaking very well. Very natural and clear, no "hyper" shouting at your viewers like you're scared they might get distracted.
Your an awesome Dad!! If only we had more good fathers like yourself.
We all know that Elenore is the brains of this operation. She just plays that she doesn't know to make her dad feel great. She is a little angel. An engineer in the making 🙂
Your daughter screwing in the screw hit me good. My dad let me wire up a bunch of stuff like switches and outlets when I was like 2 years old. He didn't included the plug for it till I had a working setup. One of them was a photo cell for a spot light. We tested it and it worked and it changed me. I was no older than 3 years old. It is never too early to start.
I only put a thumbs up because of that little cutie pie and her little EE skills
$300+/kWh for battery module only (for those curious, as of 01/2022). I think the value will be in the tidy package that can be (more easily) sold with a home or moved to another one. And the warranty, provided the company is solid. Nice video.
David good job! For kicks and grins you should have given a PRICE breakdown for the project!
Cabinet is 500 bucks. Battery packs are 1500 each. Plus whatever else you add/need to finish.
Title says it all, cheap
I dunno about cheap. That's less than one week's power consumption for a house with all electric appliances and refrigerated air, and 60amp heat strips for backup in winter. But I do like the idea of formed cells vs 1000 18650s in an array.
@@nickandrews4545 if u consider ROI over 7 years and compare to conventional energy pricing….I wonder if it is expensive
Man you're a good Dad! Great video. Thank you.
Awesome David! My GYLL for my off grid cabin is coming next week. (Used your coupon code and saved almost the entire cost of shipping! Thanks for that!) Also, I really do miss the days of my kids helping me out on any project I had going on. Please enjoy these days with her...time just goes by way too fast!! Thanks again David.
I can't recommend signature solar and this battery enough. I bought one of the 12v 400ah batteries because of your last video on them, never heard of them before, and the battery got to my door quicker then expected. My poor ups driver, I thought he was going to have a hernia bringing it to the door. They are really nice to work with on the phone and sales went above and beyond to fix my one and only problem which wasn't even their fault.
Hey look a product I had before you. lol. My electrical room is self cooled too. I have a sol-ark, one of these batteries and a heat pump water heater in a 10x8 utility room. Keeps the room about 70 degrees with no ducts to the room. The heat from the solar gives heat to the water heater and the water heater cools the batteries and solar.
Id love to see a video of your set up
That sounds brilliant.
USE that heat!
I would like to hear more about the heat pump water heater. Trying to figure out if that is worth the money, or to change to a gas. The problem is I have to get propane and not sure it is a cheap as natural gas would be, which is not available. Feel free to email me a_w_i_l_b_o_u_r_n@ g m a i l, I think you can see I put spaces and did not complete to help from something that will harvest data from the chat. Remove the underscore for the first part and spaces from second. I loved this video, but they are sold out as a result. Just want to figure out how to have a bank like this to add to my house and tie to my solaredge inverter, looking for any help there from anyone.
I love a steel cabinet that has 2 exposed bus bars and enough power to blow your heart across the street !!!
Having loaded many a server cabinet, I'd strongly recommend getting some sort of lift to help you load the individual modules.
Even a ~$200, x-lift table from Harbor Freight will be a big help.
Considering the cost of this entire setup, an extra $200 is worth it and your back will thank you.
"If signature solar is watching, I'd rather these be a hex head like on the battery" - I'm setting this up now, a year after your video, and looking at my bus bars. Looks like they're watching, because mine are hex heads! Signature Solar is stupendous. Customer service for the win.
Also fantastic video, thanks for making this!!
Yes, they are willing to make improvements based on customer feedback. It's really nice.
Love the rack mount idea. Thinking of getting one to put in my rack. Please spend extra time on the details of this build
This is the 1st video of yours I've caught. Very informative. And a great assistant too!
Those little hands are so cute. Great for helping out put things together
I like that you showed the mistake. I deal with the dip switches a lot and I some times misread the switches. Good job.
I use a torque screwdriver for my bikes, guns, etc. 4 ft lbs shouldn't be taking as much effort as you're putting in. I would highly recommend getting the mechanical version (non electric) as it freely rotates when you hit the torque spec.
Great video. This will make much more sense in California where KWH charges at .30 plus.
David, THANK YOU SO MUCH for ALL of your fantastic videos! I'm in the process of putting together my solar system - which includes 4 the newer "EG4 Lifepower" 48v 100ah batteries from signature solar. This video - specifically - has answered multiple questions in how to set them up in parallel. (and-thx for the DAVIDPOZ25 discount codes!). I also appreciate how you incorporate your daughter into your videos. As a dad myself, I definitely appreciate it - and cool to see her grow throughout your video series. Keep up the excellent work, and God Bless!
Best part of the video is the little girl. Reminds me of my daughter
Now we need a server rack style Charge Controler and Inverter.
David, while your information is fantastic and I enjoy your videos.... Let's be honest, the star of if video is your adorable daughter! May she grow up with your love for insulation and DIY power!
Great vid Dave, I feel your pain with the USB to 485 cable. You might look into an Ethernet to 485 protocol converter, hard wire to the batteries, put on your home network. I've had good luck with equipment from Moxa. I like the casters for set up but would probably find some leveling feet for permanent location, appears the cabinets are drilled and tapped ready to accept them.
Keep us up to date, I really like those Gyll batteries.
If you need to retrofit a server rack for this purpose. You can buy used 42U rack from server monkey in Houston for 300.00. I have used the 42U rack for UPS battery backup units for large companies to keep their network and servers running during a power outage. The one he is showing you looks like a 24u or a half height rack. The bus bars can be fitted into there and are supplied from a number of retailers.
Where can you get the standoffs? Was looking around for them.
They really should insulate those busbars in between the screw connections. Wouldn't take much to drop a metal tool between the bar and the chassis.
Love it Dave, excellent video and so nice to see you involving your little girl.
Today’s word boys and girls is “covet”. Nice video, looking forward to the next one where you show input/output connections and ultimately usability.
RS485 brings back some fond memories
factory equipment or something else? seems like it could be a blessing and a curse. great tech but can still be a nightmare to find a break in a wire. I've only experienced it with the arduino and other such parts.
Nice set up. I'm pretty sure those two bus bars need to have some sort of platic protection/covers just like the battery terminals have the clear plexi it would be safer.
It’s crazy to see open and unprotected bus bars which you could touch both the plus and minus pole at the same time. Absolutely insane…
You’d have to be an absolute idiot to get in between those bus bars.
Was thinking the same. Am I missing something or is this a bit dangerous?
Looks like a really nice product. Just trying to find out how to get a battery pack sent to Germany without using Concorde.
Get Pylontech for Europe
@@TheDeano4000 Is pylontech the same batteries
Thank You for All that you are doing for World Peace and for our Planet...
Peace.. Shalom.. Salam.. Paz.. Namaste ..
🙏🏻 😊 🌈 ✌ ☮️ ❤️ 💐 🕊
Always mount the rack nuts horizontally, not vertically - so they don't snap out when they get weight on them (no problem in your case as the weight is held by the angle rails). From an "old" server rack builder ;-)
This is the cleanest and cheapest 30.72 kWh LiFePO4 system I have seen.
I liked for the metric system ( and for the great content) thanks!
Wow, so amazing sir yor system and setup,, very impressed for me to see,, your daughter also very smart..
I'm not going to lie for a battery system that looks the cleanest that I've ever seen out of any system. Those server racks are just meant to be. But you should definitely take some of those battery for That Power Wheels, and convert it and charge it off of solar.
I mean, The tesla powerwall looks pretty sleek xD
Nice to see the Boss helping you put it together. very informative thanks for posting.
Cool, though that's a retrofitted server rack, and they've got the batteries racked in what would normally be considered "reverse". They need to have this swapped and loaded from the front and wired on the rear. Servicing this thing would be super dangerous with exposed bus bars.
They should have an insulated cover for it. Just opening the door you could brush your hand against it then ⚡️
Humbug!
I was getting nervous for him every time he would wave his hand close to the bus bar while looking at the camera...
First off, reversing the direction would be bad because the typical rack has near zero space in front. This is because connections are generally made to the back of servers and storage etc. So the orientation is correct for these style of batteries.
As to the exposed bus bars, I would agree generally that having them exposed is a potential risk, however they are approximately 20 inches apart and both are isolated from the rack itself. There is near to zero risk of say a screwdriver crossing both bars. The highest risk would be grabbing the inside of the rack to pull it for example and grabbing both bars. Just touching one of the bars wouldn't be an issue.
And the rack has doors with a lock. It should end up closed and locked and live 99.99% of it's life that way. Additionally it should be labeled as containing dangerous voltage.
Not with breakers in there. And a quick sweep of some 2" capton tape would insulate the positive bus easily.
David - The cameo by your daughter is awesome!
I am not surprised one of the bus taps was stripped. A tapped hole in capper is going to strip pretty easily.
copper ;-)
141K subscribers, congratulations 🇨🇦
Man…makes me want to start a youtube channel and work my hind end off for several years in hopes of getting a battery deal 😂
batteries are costing as much as cars nowaday
Yes, but I think regular pole to home will be going up. This system will take awhile to pay off, but once its paid for, it will start paying you back.
@@CATownsend777 my thoughts exactly. 30k for a solar set up....people say "oh it's too much" then go out and spend 50k on a car that will depreciate and they get rid if in 5 years.
Proper set up and cycling...no reason this system can't last for at least 20 years.
Nice product. I love that Eleanor was able to help too! Great job David !!!!
Did anyone peep him putting the nut in the piece of tape so that he didn't drop it while it was behind the bus bar. That's top-notch intelligence👌
more likely lesson-learned
this cabinet is what this solar industry needed for a clean way to store batteries but also expandable. modifiable without using 2x4 lumber or a welder
That looks amazing!! Thanks for showing it to us
I bought 48v 100 tess electric batteries for $1200. look almost 100% the same but white color they have cool lcd screen and 2 extra ports can bus. looks like cabinet fits for it .
Great video.
I'm sure it is worth the $10,000 or so that it cost, but that is a significant investment.
Certainly a very clean installation.
NOTHING...IF YOU ARE PAYING 800 DOLLAR ELECTRIC BILL
Really a nice Video. Thanks for the Tour of this Case and the Batterys
For Me I see potential of a Risk in the "open" Bus Bars. They are locked in the cage and isolated but man.... The Risk when the door is open...
I saw at work a product of a german industy battery supplier, which i liked a little better. The Racks had integrated wireing which was completeley done with isolated PCV wires and the batterys were connected to these wires by HARTING Connectors.
This was a real sweet and clean solution. No anger with "open" potencials and stripped out threads :)
but for home use they are way too expencive.
You’ve pretty much sold me on these batteries David. Thank you.
One question I have is I made a mistake going with a Big Battery 48v 100amph and I think the cells are A123 and they say they can’t get those anymore so I’m stuck with this battery and I’m told I can’t add to it because of different chemistry. I would appreciate any thoughts of ideas? BB also keeps raising their prices and i don’t feel they’ve been completely honest either.
Thanks
Bob
p.s. you’re blessed with that little one.
Hi Bob Levey, I don't know what chemistry your current battery is. A123 is a brand that makes several types of batteries. I can buy A123 Li-NMC, and I can buy A123 LIFePO4. Your battery might be a different chemistry, but I don't have enough information from your comment to confirm that.
These Gyll batteries are LiFePO4. In a perfect world, they would be paralleled only with LiFePO4. But they can be paralleled with other chemistries like Li-NMC so long as certain precautions are taken. My current battery pack is a mix of both.
If you don't want to parallel, or can't parallel, then could you sell your current battery? Or perhaps use your current battery for some other application, like a mobile one in your car, or just to power a shed?
I like the Jeep. That what my PowerWheel Racer has for a body. Fix the jeep up to run on 48 volts.
Pretty nice setup there. As a DIYer, I'm not a fan of the cost - but it's a great value for someone whom doesn't want to DIY their own batteries (most "normal" people don't lol).
I got $300/kwh for just the batteries. It's not Battleborn expensive, but it's definitely up there
How do you diy your own batteries?
3:26 You could get a half height server cabinet for under $150 easy. Which is what that is, just a modded half-height server cabinet.
Still not a bad deal though.
So it's a standard 19" 23U server rack, with added busbars. Neat.
Yes, it fits 19" racks. If you have an old server rack then add your own shelves and bus bars.
im totally jealous. I built that in my shopping cart a few times.
Just got mine. The current rack does not come with top/bottom/front or back panels. The buss bars are now covered with Open Slot Wiring Raceway. The bolts on the buss bars now have hex bolts.
So... About $10K USD 30KWH for that setup David... Can't wait for the tests.
Just imagine the price in another 5-10 years...great deal now but I think I'll build something for half the price when I need it in 7 years with my system.
Damn good price
Best greetings from Morocco, I like your videos thank you bro and God bless your daughter
That setup is very reasonably priced for non DIY and looks great too. Gain Solar did point out that he is a viewer of your channel also and that these units are not UL certified if your home insurance requires this to be covered but of course a DIY battery isn't UL certified either.` My terminology may be a little off without going back to look it up.
A good reason to put everything in an outbuilding if you can. If it does have a problem it doesn't take out the residence. Certainly not the easiest thing to do as a remod but if you are starting from scratch its something to consider. For the property I'm developing now all the utilities will first go to a power house for distribution to the main buildings.
@@TrackGeeks Yeah that is the only way I would do it.. These people putting DIY packs in their homes are just asking for trouble..
@@FJB2020 If the manufacturer claims are correct, lithium iron phosphate batteries presumably never catch fire, even under abusive overcharge or short circuit fault conditions.
House fires are a consequence of building houses out of wood, with paper coated "drywall" walls, and then filling them with wood furniture combined with wood kitchen cabinets that surround the range/oven. House fires are also sometimes caused by rats or mice chewing on "exposed" electrical wires strung arbitrarily through the attic and walls without use of a non-chewable protective conduit like EMT.
Wood is the most flammable of all the structural building materials known to humans, and yet, in the United States, home builders and the government consider building houses out of wood and paper coated walls to be a totally acceptable practice, fully within all building code requirements. Meanwhile, home owners and home buyers generally could care less about this fundamental design flaw to their current or future house.
If at some point in the future, your house burns down to the ground, it won't be because you had a DIY lithium iron phosphate solar battery pack inside. If your house burns to the ground, it was because it was made out of wood and paper. Houses built out of masonry, metal studs, glass, fiberglass, and self extinguishing plastics, simply don't burn to the ground, regardless of how many and what type of batteries you install in the house.
Great video. You should plug your red and black higher up on the bus bars. If you have to pull out a unit, the cable for the battery above will not be in your way.
Worth it. Awesome!
Like a LOT!!! this video, just what i am looking for, a huge thankss David!!!, thanks!! and for Signature Solar too!!
Great job super sweet.
Thanks
I like the way you do things, you set a good example of how things should be done.
Opens bag of popcorn!
Oh reading comments below, might think about larger rack wheels for that heavy rack,
or keep a good sweep broom around when you move it !
I think this was a great build. The only shortcoming(not yours) is the RJ45 to the USB. 1500 per unit and they don't supply a prefabricated cable?
Seems they could have used something like USB C jacks and allowed a more easily available cable to be used for the interconnects. Though that maybe confusing to someone too, since it's not a USB or Ethernet interface either way.
@@wingerrrrrrrrr RJ45 (Ethernet) cables are stupid cheap and widely available. The cable they screwed up was as DX GI mentioned is the USB to RJ45 cable which actually are also extremely common. As a computer guy I probably have a half dozen varieties laying around here, each one supplied with a piece of equipment. Sadly the pinouts of the RJ45 side are not all the same so they are not universally interchangeable.
Rack mounted devices are designed this way
It's not a cable. USB and Serial are different. USB to Serial adapters are readily available. Plus it seems the company provides them.
I bought 4 of them in December from signature solar, but haven't been able to install them yet. Thanks for the walk through ahead of time!
A quick test you can perform on RS485 transmission lines. With the entire system powered down, measure the resistance between the A and B wires. It should be 50 to 60 ohms indicating 2 terminators, hopefully one at each end. If it's less there are to many terminators If it's 120 or more you're missing one or both. Also make sure neither wire is shorted to ground.
You should nut every battery terminal to the bus anyways. Bus bars are typically soft metal and over time will loosen up, a lock nut / washer will ensure you keep everything tight. Pulling that kind of amps thru a loose connection just causes trouble down the line.
Love what I'm seeing about this product and company... they could have easily jacked up the price on that rack if the individual components come out 200 more than what they're offering it for... good to see that there are still companies out there that don't just maximize their profits, but give their customers a real amazing deal!
Hi from Pakistan love your work bro you are my teacher.
Each battery costs just over what I spend a year on electric and gas for my house. Really wish I could justify. Wouldn't even break even inside the warranty period.
In a few years, when harsher regulations hit energy providers nationwide, we'll see if this is still true.
No when the power gets hacked and goes down - by the elite - 9-11.
Much more - you hungry ?
So here we are in Aug 2023, just had the hottest July in recorded history. The cries to abandon fossil fuels are getting louder, what happens to electricity prices then? Just got my 20kWh kit from Signature Solar, $15,500 for four batteries, 2 6500 inverters, and 11000 watts of panels. Probably cost a few grand for wiring and I am doing a ground mount install myself. Cost is no object to me, I am in Florida and who knows when the next storm will hit.
Awesome video and batteries! Cant wait to see the next. Insta-powerwall!!!
$10k+ and 1000lbs to hold roughly the energy equivalent of 1 gallon of gasoline. We have a long way to go to make this practical.
heh...now how many times do you get to burn that gallon of gas?
I just ordered a single G4-LL and can't wait to get started building a serious off grid backup system, but at $1750 a pop, it's gonna take me some time to get to 30.72kWh worth of backup. I'm a little leery about having an exposed bus bar with that much juice on it though, especially with over 50 volts. Anything with over 50 volts can easily overcome the bodies resistance and stop your heart.
There are two types of batteries from Signature Solar. One is less expensive at $1499, and is the one I bought. signaturesolar.com/eg4-lifepower4-lithium-battery-48v-100ah/?ref=4_rHcgZ9x-TiF- That will save you $250 per battery. The less expensive one is still UL, and still rated for 7000 cycles, but you give up the little screen. Personally, I don't care about the screen. The new rack Signature Solar sells now has an added plastic cover over the bus bars.
It’s so simple to assemble even a 3 year old can do it.
only if someone watching knows what things to watch for. bring a wrench into the wrong place and the room will light up fast
Absolutely amazing TIME! ONE HOUR! Crazy fast... I started learning solar with Will Prowse, but I must say I enjoy the detailed effort you put into your videos!! Thanks so much for sharing here .. Extremely helpful!! btw... adorable daughter!
Thank you for checking out my channel. Yes, I try to make sure the details are here.
Those bus bars should use Nut/bolt its copper not steel. I would have numbererd them 1 bottom, 6 top like a building!! lol
I'll agree with you on the nuts (and use some anti-corrosion compound) but not with the numbering. The first one in the chain (this case the top) should be zero and the last one should be five.
EDIT: I should also point out I'm numbering them in the direction we read. Most of the time we count from the top down.
Really perfect system 😃thank you for inspiration and greetings from Germany😃👍🏽
just might have to get this, but can't afford more than one at a time, baby steps :)
what's the reasoning behind getting these vs getting a battleborn or a Smart CHIN for much cheaper?
Nice I'm planning on ordering a couple of these as soon as my MPP LVX6048 ships
I am looking now also too the lvx 6048
Do you find any reviews on the lvx 6048
@@patrickgeers1 I have not. I was surprised they let me order one. I didn't know it was even out yet.
As an IT guy, I like the 19" rack mounting, I could see using these for backup power or remote solar-powered relay sites. It is too bad they went with RS485 rather than RS232 because those console cables are cheap and available as they are used with older routers and switches. That cabinet is probably a good enough price for being already setup, I would like to see better connections to the power rails and something covering them even heat shrink with cutouts for the connections would keep things from bumping them. The teardown video was good to see they are good inside for being made in China.
RS485 is a two-wire bus, enables many units ganged together, while RS232 could only serve one battery unit.
Excellent design... Well Done Signature Solar.
By adding an extension to your torque screwdriver, you effectively skew the torque value due to the torsion of the extension, so it may not be accurate anymore.
no
Love your kid! Reminds me of mine.
Looks nice! Why did you need to wait until 53v on the busbar to throw the switch on the top battery?
If there is too much of a difference in voltage, than the highest voltage battery will try to discharge into the lower voltage battery. It can potentially do this at hundreds of amps, which would cause the BMS to fault out. Waiting for them to be close to each other in voltage keeps the amps moving low.
@@DavidPozEnergy Gotcha! Thanks for explaining. Eager to see part 2!
@@DavidPozEnergy Can powering on the unit be controlled by software?
@@DavidPozEnergy hey I know this is old, but don’t these batteries have some kind of resistor inline to avoid that kind of thing? Or is that only for when you connect it to the charge controller or turn it on to the inverter or something
8+ months setup on my BYD batteries, here Davids like a couple hours done! Haha.
Love tech....
Batrium update on my BYD side. SOC seems to get out of whack every six months; other than that, I've consumed a total of 130KWh and Produced 51KWH this year! Nice to have 1/3rd off grid Refridgeration. :)
or Robertson/square head instead of the Philips which so easily slips out
Designed to cam out on purpose, such a terrible thing to have as the "US Standard"
Looks like any server rack I have worked with over the last 30 years. Notable difference are the support rails. Servers generally just bolted in from the front only except in rare cases. To save some money I am sure you can find surplus server cabinets and modify to your setups.
Just a moded 24U network rack....?
It’s a server rack, not network. Network racks only have one set of mounting rails in the front, no rear rail.
Great rack. I would just rotate one bus bar upside down so the whole loop length from each battery to inverter is same length. Keeping it like this (assuming inverter or other equipment is fed from the top) would put more wear and tear on top battery. Even few miliohms with that chunky bus bar matter when your start running 100s of amps.
I ran it over a year like this and showed that all the batteries are aging equally. Not saying it's a bad thing to flip a bus bar, but I proved after a year of daily cycling that it's not necessary. I welcome someone else to go through the effort of daily cycling a battery over a year to prove me wrong.
@@DavidPozEnergy Okay, no need to be aggresive about it xD. Just saying it from fully theoretical point of view. Glad it works okay for you.
Have a nice day