Apexium DIY LifePO4 Battery Build 280AH

Рет қаралды 19,291

Күн бұрын

If you want to contact Jenny, her Facebook profile and email address are below. I have bought all 98 kwh worth of cells from her over the last 2 years. They recently released this DIY box and I grabbed 3 of them to finish off my system.
/ jennywu896
jennywu896@gmail.com

Пікірлер: 114

@notoshaapproved 9 ай бұрын

I use the same cells from Docan. Several orders, zero issues!

@BecomingOffgrid 9 ай бұрын

They have worked great for me for the last 2 years! Thank you for watching.

@afreemanreigns 9 ай бұрын

We use Ford C-Max (Energi) 7.6 Kwh per battery and we pay less then $75 per kilowatt and they are Panasonic made in Japan cells. Been using them since 2018 with no BMS and they run our home 24/7 and yes, I have checked the cell voltage a few times and they have stayed where they were when I purchased them so take it or leave it.

@BecomingOffgrid 9 ай бұрын

That is pretty cool. Do you have any videos of the pack?

@offgridd 16 күн бұрын

@afreemanreigns did you bottom balance these cells? What happens when one cell decides to die on you? And get reverse charged?....

@surferdudemi 9 ай бұрын

I've built two EEL cases and both times dropped a screw in the back, which fell through the slots. Try using the foam cutouts (scrap, for the battery vents) to block the slots in there before you install the balance lead bars with the screws in the back

@BecomingOffgrid 9 ай бұрын

This is a good tip.

@rjbass338 10 ай бұрын

good stuff and thank you for the video.👍👍

@BecomingOffgrid 10 ай бұрын

Thanks for watching!

@BecomingOffgrid 10 ай бұрын

Many apologies for the shaky video. My pixel does a much better job freehand.

@amshaq007CR7 10 ай бұрын

Dont worry you will learn and get better

@BecomingOffgrid 10 ай бұрын

That was very kind of you. Thank you for watching!

@stalwart56k 4 ай бұрын

Thanks so much for the video! How much do these units weight when assembled? Did you assemble in place or get a couple friends to lift and place the assembled battery pack before wiring it into the central bus bar?

@BecomingOffgrid 3 ай бұрын

I used my forks for my little tractor to move them around. They are too heavy for one person.

@evil17 10 ай бұрын

Good job & nice build, looks like a solid unit, I did notice it is missing the Confirm (yellow) button, or is that how it is meant to be? Would be nice to know more details of the BMS used, type, surge capacity, balancer type & current, etc… I would double check ur sequence for installing the balance leads & battery main leads, as I thought ur supposed to tighten down ur battery leads before plugging in ur balance leads because if ur 1st & last balance wires are mot making a good contact when you plug in the leads it can give a BMS error msg, but it may not be the case with this BMS. What an excellent build this is, been checking out ur other vids, good info. Cheers

@BecomingOffgrid 10 ай бұрын

The yellow button didn't fit because I put the sticker on crooked. The rest of the data you are asking for is straight from Apexium. The BMS is apexium and it includes a balancing function. Its a 200A BMS. Jenny would honestly be a better person to ask those super technical questions to. I don't really know all of those answers.

@terrahillfarm 10 ай бұрын

Fantastic! Was really looking forward to your build after you’d mentioned it in earlier video. Makes so much more sense if you’re going to power a whole house. Guess I’ll have to get me some. How low a percentage do you normally cycle these down to? ⚡️☀️👍

@BecomingOffgrid 10 ай бұрын

I try to stay above 20%, but the hard emergency limit is set at 10%

@terrahillfarm 10 ай бұрын

Is it possible to operate these Apexium battery boxes standing up vertically? Hadn’t seen anyone do it yet but if the cells are clamped down into the box I thought it might be possible? 👍

@BecomingOffgrid 9 ай бұрын

@@terrahillfarmYea they should be just fine running that way. Plenty of people out there have the cells laid flat in production systems. I would ask Jenny if there are any designed for vertical orientation coming down the pike. May be worth the ask and wait if they are.

@PersonalStash420 27 күн бұрын

@@terrahillfarm I was told by a rep. that they are not designed to be vertical but if you must, to secure it very well. There are boxes designed for vertical, EEL makes one.

@michaelcoghlan9124 Ай бұрын

Thank you for this video. M

@BecomingOffgrid Ай бұрын

You are very welcome

@jameseverhart5084 8 күн бұрын

I'm interested in knowing how easy it is to connect this to solar panels? Watching the build was really thorough I really appreciate what you did there.

@BecomingOffgrid 8 күн бұрын

Just hookup a 48v solar charge controller and that's it. Pretty simple

@McCuneWindandSolar 9 ай бұрын

be nice to see links to this stuff. Ilike to build 4 of these.

@BecomingOffgrid 9 ай бұрын

There aren't really any links that I know of. I got these from Jenny and she can send you all the details about the products. Her information is in the description.

@dominIKhs 8 ай бұрын

Hi, is the apexium bms an active one? Can You set Your own values like ovp/uvp?

@BecomingOffgrid 7 ай бұрын

Yea, you have full control over the values

@MacMcCabe2456 9 ай бұрын

I'd like to build a 36 volt battery for a echo golf cart. What components would you recommend ? Thanks

@BecomingOffgrid 9 ай бұрын

I like the EVE raw cells. As far as case and BMS, I don't know what is out there for a 36 volt configuration

@jl9678 10 ай бұрын

Thanks for the vid. What is the amp rating of the bms? Do you know what bms it is? Are the boxes stackable? Do you have an idea of the weight? About how long did it take to arrive? What was the cost? So many questions -thanks

@BecomingOffgrid 10 ай бұрын

Its an Apexium BMS 200A model. The boxes are stackable They are heavy - like need more than one person heavy Mine showed up quick as they have a USA Stock, but ask Jenny and she will tell you I don't want to share a cost, that locks Jenny (and you) into whatever price I put on here. It's not my place to say or speak on her behalf. I would ask her for pricing as this market is constantly shifting. I can say that the first round of cells I bought two years ago were quite a bit more expensive than the ones I just bought.

@picobyte 8 ай бұрын

Got me the 16 EVE 280Ah cells for less than €3k 16kWh battery going strong here!

@picobyte 8 ай бұрын

Buying stuff directly from China is not someting I would recommend to others.. It has some serious issues.

@BecomingOffgrid 8 ай бұрын

I prefer to use someone who knows how to speak English. I have a had a great experience with Jenny and that I why I made this video.

@jimthvac100 3 ай бұрын

You can get 16 brand new EVE 280ah cells from battery hookup for $1,640 plus tax and shipping. They have 24.6 KW of New Gotion 16S 52.2V modules for $2400 plus tax and shipping. And they guarantee everything they sell.

@godspainter28 Ай бұрын

Where can I buy the plugs to the negative & positive terminals (black & orange). And what do you call them ?

@BecomingOffgrid 25 күн бұрын

Amphenol connectors

@candro5510 8 ай бұрын

Good job. I am on my way to build myself one. I bough the DIY box kit from Cassie Zhang (I'm from Europe). Next month I will buy the cells. From what I saw, eye-shopping around, this kit looked ok. Yes, for a 15kWh battery, the price is around 2/3, and you learn something in the process. I have 22kWh installed already (from ready made batteries) and according to what I know now, for the price I should have 32kWh. I do believe that DIY is the way to go as the readily made batteries become more expensive instead going the other way due to the increased number of manufacturers. Anyway, here in Europe, the energy is quite expensive and being self reliant on it is a must (due to prices and the less maintained grid). Let's not forget the natural disasters that could become more frequent due to the already well felt global warming. Having more EV's is putting a strain on the grid. I suppose that on the long term, if nothing happens (like WWIII), the batteries prices should go down.

@BecomingOffgrid 8 ай бұрын

They are working great so far

@iviemaro380 6 ай бұрын

How much did you purchase your diy box kit from Cassie Zhang?

@candro5510 6 ай бұрын

@@iviemaro380$680 transport included (but this is with shipping to my home country)

@candro5510 6 ай бұрын

@@iviemaro380 better ask yourself because the prices have dropped. Second what is good price for me, maybe not be good for you. When I decided to proceed and do use a DIY box kit & cells, my reference was the price difference between it and a ready made battery. So gather prices for (1) DIY box kits & cells vs (2) fully assembled batteries and see kWh/kWh which is more reasonable from the price point of view. Bare in mind that you must take into account the (3) shipping fees (which will vary) + (4*) your own time spent to assembly the battery (* optional if ou want to have an accurate estimation).

@candro5510 6 ай бұрын

@@iviemaro380 the actual DIY assembly time is no more 2 hours if you want to take it slow. Have all the instructions printed or on a computer screen to constantly check them. Also once you have the cells, I strongly recommend to link them in parallel for a couple of days, to be sure that they will ballance themselves. If you buy the cells in one go (from a trustworthy source), it is quite like that they will arrive already balanced. In my case, I bought them in two batches, at at least one month apart.

@dangoras9152 10 ай бұрын

Those are pretty cool.. Can u build them cheaper than buying the eg4..

@farside87 10 ай бұрын

You would have to buy three EG4 100ah batteries to get the same as what you would get in this build. Check out the prices of the cells, and the kit to compare.

@BecomingOffgrid 10 ай бұрын

Way cheaper. Somewhere near half to 2/3 the cost. When you are buying 3 or 4 of these it's a substantial savings.

@amshaq007CR7 10 ай бұрын

Just check the prices out they are way cheaper for real

@DanielRichards644 Ай бұрын

bought the parts last week, all the parts needed using EVE 280Ah cells and this Case from USA stock (which has already arrived, FYI, less then a week from ordering with a Holiday Weekend) came to a little under $2,200, by comparison the current lowest price on the EG4 PowerPro Indoor model is $3,299 (before tax), so it's legitimately 2/3rds the cost of the EG4 or more if you are in a state that doesn't go tax free on solar, the final savings vs the EG4 PowerPro indoor came to $1,345 and change.

@supermo26 8 ай бұрын

I know you don't want to list the price but can you list the brands (EEL, Seplos, Keshee, Apexium,) you have build in order of cost?

@BecomingOffgrid 8 ай бұрын

Seplos EEL Apexium All the cells are exactly the same and I got them all from Jenny.

@consolechips 9 ай бұрын

Torque is measured in Newton Meters not Nano Meters … just in case anyone is wondering what you meant …

@BecomingOffgrid 9 ай бұрын

Well it's measured in inch / foot lbs in the US. Thanks for pointing out my misspeak.

@xNYCMarc 9 ай бұрын

@@BecomingOffgrid Um, yeah, but you didn't say inch pounds or foot pounds. You said nano meters. There is no torque measurement ANYWHERE that is "nano meters". What a strange response to say "well it's measured in inch / foot in the US". Newton meters are also used in the US, by the way.

@natesdiysolar 10 ай бұрын

Who did you order from. I'm looking into testing one of these.

@BecomingOffgrid 10 ай бұрын

I got them from Jenny Wu. Contact info for her is in the description.

@natesdiysolar 10 ай бұрын

@@BecomingOffgrid thanks

@raomuhammadumarfarooq5421 3 күн бұрын

how much it cost you?

@tomhamilton9140 5 ай бұрын

What voltage is this kit does it come from a USA distributor.🤔

@BecomingOffgrid 4 ай бұрын

Its a 48v kit

@leeshively669 10 ай бұрын

Are all of your batteries 280ah, what kind of Charge amps are they charging with.

@BecomingOffgrid 10 ай бұрын

They are all 280AH cells. This depends, but the maximum is 300 amps spread across the 5 batteries - so 60ish amps per battery.

@earthenergyhex 6 ай бұрын

very cool, looks like it would be $16-17K for each set of 16 batteries then the box.

@BecomingOffgrid 5 ай бұрын

16k for a set of cells??? Um no, I have no where near that kind of money

@DanielRichards644 Ай бұрын

is that in pesos or yen? each 280Ah Eve cell is currently around $90-95 USD and the Box and BMS was like $600-700 USD, the out the door shipped price last week for me from USA stock using EVE 280 Ah cells and this box was $2,184 paid via Paypal. By comparison the CHEAPEST Price on the EG4 PowerPro Indoor Model battery is $3,299 BEFORE Taxes, with Tax (for me anyway) it jumps to $3,529.93 so I saved like $1,345 by assembling the battery myself.

@edc1569 7 ай бұрын

Is that a Seplos BMS, looks very familiar?

@BecomingOffgrid 7 ай бұрын

It's probably a similar design, but unlike my seplos BMS units that randomly stop working on RS485, these ones seem to actually work.

@a.mirmousavizadegan7962 9 ай бұрын

Can this be purchase from Alibaba ?

@BecomingOffgrid 9 ай бұрын

You want to buy them from Jenny Wu. After sales support from her is top notch.

@chrismatthews2463 6 ай бұрын

What's the cost for this kit?

@BecomingOffgrid 5 ай бұрын

You will have to ask Jenny for pricing, it changes.

@davidparker1760 10 ай бұрын

I have one on the way....what about bluetooth

@BecomingOffgrid 10 ай бұрын

I don't use the Bluetooth app. I use solar assistant. It's wayyy better.

@davidparker1760 10 ай бұрын

Right but did it have it

@BecomingOffgrid 10 ай бұрын

Yea, I think they do.

@davidparker1760 10 ай бұрын

@@BecomingOffgrid its behind the lcd display on chip board.

@SoilHealthpk 9 ай бұрын

Thank you sharing a very interesting video Can you please share details related to the BMS I have two Pylontech US3000C installed with 5kW Solar PV Panels and Solis Hybrid Inverter Now, I am thinking to totally go off-grid and looking for good BMS to match with Pylontech Batteries Thanks in advance.

@BecomingOffgrid 9 ай бұрын

You would need to talk to Jenny. I don't know if these BMS will work for your batteries or not.

@iabuchan 9 ай бұрын

I bought 16 cells from jenny wu and 3 of them came dented and scuffed. One cell had a dent the size of a penny and depressed about 1-2 mm. I spoke with Jenny and she said that they can still be used without ill effect. She denied an exchange. What do you think about that?

@BecomingOffgrid 9 ай бұрын

I think you should tell her that is unacceptable and need an exchange

@BecomingOffgrid 9 ай бұрын

I would think you should be hearing from Jenny regarding this issue. She is on vacation this week.

@BecomingOffgrid 8 ай бұрын

Did your problem get resolved? I think others might like to know.

@iabuchan 8 ай бұрын

It took a lot of back and forth with Jenny and FedEx and I am still not completely satisfied. Fedex only covered 1/3 of the damage and Jenny Wu (and company) would only cover another 1/3. I ended up having to pay $127 for them to ship out 3 replacement batteries. I think Jenny Wu should have covered the cost completely. I also think having to wait a month is pretty shameful. BUT I guess it could have gone worse. Well, it did get a little worse..... I also had a problem with one of the Apexium boxes. One of the temp probes was not soldiered on to the balance PCB correctly. This took me a couple hours to figure out and kept my battery offline for a day..... It was actually just glue that was holding it to the PCB and keeping the temp probe leads in contact. I let Jenny know about that and took pictures to make sure their manufacturer does a little better quality control. They are sending me a new board. This is the price we pay as first adopters and DIYers.

@BecomingOffgrid 7 ай бұрын

Did you get your PCB yet?

@Do_the_Dishes 7 ай бұрын

Did I miss how much this kit cost?

@BecomingOffgrid 7 ай бұрын

I didn't say because I'm not a salesman for Apexium. You will have to ask Jenny for the current price. Mostly because the cost of cells fluctuates a lot.

@Do_the_Dishes 7 ай бұрын

@@BecomingOffgrid Yeah, but we come here for information and I see nothing wrong with mentioning the price. I am well aware of price fluctuations and don’t want to fill out some form giving a bunch of information for a simple price.

@BecomingOffgrid 6 ай бұрын

It's not that simple. 3-5k would be my best guess per pack. If there is a high demand for cells you could pay a lot more than when there are times of little to no demand.

@osmanmokdom4372 9 ай бұрын

My dream battery, but still not afford to buy it.. 😂

@BecomingOffgrid 9 ай бұрын

Thank you for watching

@nauhteeboy 5 ай бұрын

Needs casters.

@BecomingOffgrid 4 ай бұрын

They sure do!

@DanielRichards644 Ай бұрын

the feet on the bottom are held on by a bolt up the middle of the foot, I don't have proper measuring equipment to confirm it, but i'm fairly certain it's a 1/4" diameter, 20 TPI (thread per inch) approximately 5/8" long bolt that can fully seat all 5/8" of length easily and possibly slightly longer, using that information I started searching for threaded casters, the closest I could get had 1" lengths threads, I ordered those, should be here thursday/friday and I'll be able to confirm if thats the right bolt size and thread pitch by this weekend.

@davidparker1760 10 ай бұрын

$3471 with inverter cables to door

@BecomingOffgrid 10 ай бұрын

That is dirt cheap.

@realeyesrealizereallies6828 10 ай бұрын

My cells were $2,200 dollars, $200 bucks for a BMS, $100 for a T class fuse, and maybe a couple hundred for cables, lugs, ring terminals, circuit breaker..And I built my own boxes out of wood I salvaged for free, from a project..That is a thousand dollar difference, and my BMS has an active cell balancer and awesome bluetooth app..I don't have communication between my all in one inverter/solar charge controller/AC charger, but, don't need that at all..Don't need a shunt either, I have way more battery than loads..But, I do like those boxes...And maybe I could have communication, never tried to connect it up..

@davidparker1760 10 ай бұрын

I checked my payment and i corrected

@BecomingOffgrid 10 ай бұрын

They are really for fire prevention. I know LifePO4 just smokes and simmers - and I want that to stay contained. Too many posts on "Up in Smoke" on the DIY solar forum for me to take the risk.

@Lana_Warwick 9 ай бұрын

Hi David & Real, there's ~$700 difference between your prices, Real goes into more break down detail, David's appears way more expensive if just inverter cables. Could you clarify total build cost for me please, incl where from, Ah cell, resulting kWh, assuming you both did 48v/16s, & are based in USA (way cheaper & more availability vs Au) Be also great to see same answer from yourself Becoming.

@bevertech3363 10 ай бұрын

Nothing new, we make that kind of batteries a year ago....look for seplos or Eel batterie

@BecomingOffgrid 10 ай бұрын

The difference between the three is after sales support. I have seplos and eel cases as well. My experience with them was not good. EEL lied about the cases being in the US and My seplos cases came with damaged battery cables they refused to replace or even acknowledge. Seplos gave me firmware to flash to my BMS that bricked one of them, and then they refused to warranty that BMS. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

@supermo26 8 ай бұрын

How about the build of each brand, similar? How do prices compare?

@BecomingOffgrid 8 ай бұрын

@@supermo26 As far as build out goes they are all close to the same. The cases for the Apexium and Seplos units are thicker steel than EEL. The after sale support for Apexium is great. I will never buy from Seplos again because they didn't want to support their product.

@fidelpeters8322 9 ай бұрын

😕 Promo_SM

@BecomingOffgrid 9 ай бұрын

????

@BecomingOffgrid 9 ай бұрын

If you are implying I am some sort of shill... I would need about 100k more subscribers for that... 😂😂😂 I'm just some dude who likes to tinker and share things I come across.