Hey all,

 

So I am curious to see what you have done in terms of an enclosure for your DIY batteries.

If you could, please do share and post some pictures!

 

The enclosure side of DIY batteries is something I do not see discussed much but certainly something to consider if one is interested in going the DIY route.

Nobody?

@PsyCLown see:

 

 

 

I do woodworking as n hobby love it. Here is a battery box i build that can hold 2 x 100ah batteries. 

@PsyCLown here is another DIY 10kWh build

 

Some pictures below of a friend's build

 

13 hours ago, TaliaB said:

I do woodworking as n hobby love it. Here is a battery box i build that can hold 2 x 100ah batteries. 

@TaliaB, please be so kind and re-share/fix the picture as the link is broken 

I prefer building with steel. I built this enclosure for 3 battery shelves for 40-45kwh

6 minutes ago, Chris_S said:

I prefer building with steel. I built this enclosure for 3 battery shelves for 40-45kwh

Hi @Chris_S I like your enclosure to no ends. @Steve87has done similar enclosures with Perspex protective front covers.

Hard work though.

Edited May 27, 20233 yr by BritishRacingGreen

Having worked with Felicity 12.5kWh battery on wheels & seeing the Seplos come out with a similar wheeled design I think wheels are an absolute must. I'm pretty sure the production battery folks here in SA (FreedomWon & Solar MD) will follow suite. Trying to move around any Lithium battery 5kWh & above is back breaking & just down right not safe for the operator. So wheels in this design you have here @Chris_Sis very smart. 

4 minutes ago, Steve87 said:

Having worked with Felicity 12.5kWh battery on wheels & seeing the Seplos come out with a similar wheeled design I think wheels are an absolute must. I'm pretty sure the production battery folks here in SA (FreedomWon & Solar MD) will follow suite. Trying to move around any Lithium battery 5kWh & above is back breaking & just down right not safe for the operator. So wheels in this design you have here @Chris_Sis very smart. 

Thanks @Steve87yes the wheels make it so much easier to move around. Especially with cleaning around and underneath. I could not do it without wheels. It will be almost 200kg when full of cells

Case in point look at the FreedomWon battery. Anything above a 10kWh battery is just hazardous to move around. Not hazardous for any other reason that if that falls on your foot that will probably hurt you very badly. But handling of these batteries requires pallet trucks & forklifts. Again the limit is 5kWh & above requires such. 

18 minutes ago, BritishRacingGreen said:

Hi @Chris_S I like your enclosure to no ends. @Steve87has done similar enclosures with Perspex protective front covers.

Hard work though.

@BritishRacingGreenI used clear polycarbonate for the front windows and also a layer on top of the allumium shelves for isolation. Once I add more shelves I'll also add bent edge polycarbonate over the battery cells and also over the busbars. Mainly to prevent accidents. Polycarbonate is not brittle like Perspex and easier to drill through. 

Sorry to tunnel off topic but I see an active balancer in the pic that @DeonBezhas posted. I will post pics of how an active balancer failed on one of my builds & the hazards of that device. 

Just think of it, we use a BMS to be a watchdog of sorts if a cell goes out of limits. The Active balancer just balances regardless of this. However, the active balancer works independently of the BMS. 

So guess what: if you have a cell that has shorted or there is a malfunction of the active balancer. That active balancer will tear that battery apart over a period of time. 

Why because 1 cell is at 0V & the others are at 3.55V. So what does the active balancer do? It balances until that bank is Equal. The cunning thing is that there is no protection in such a device because the BMS will cut the Charge & Discharge but the active balancer has no problem with balancing with or without this functionality. 

So I know that Andy and many of us have being making use of such a device but be warned if whatever reason you have a single cell issue, that active balancer can destroy that entire battery bank in the space of a few days. 

There is zero malfunction protection in an active balancer. I have subscribed to the beauty of having one present but if it can destroy a battery then it's presence is just dangerous. Live with the imperfections of to top & bottom knee of the curves. Safer than having this Mince through your precious cells. 

6 minutes ago, Steve87 said:

Sorry to tunnel off topic but I see an active balancer in the pic that @DeonBezhas posted. I will post pics of how an active balancer failed on one of my builds & the hazards of that device. 

Just think of it, we use a BMS to be a watchdog of sorts if a cell goes out of limits. The Active balancer just balances regardless of this. However, the active balancer works independently of the BMS. 

So guess what: if you have a cell that has shorted or there is a malfunction of the active balancer. That active balancer will tear that battery apart over a period of time. 

Why because 1 cell is at 0V & the others are at 3.55V. So what does the active balancer do? It balances until that bank is Equal. The cunning thing is that there is no protection in such a device because the BMS will cut the Charge & Discharge but the active balancer has no problem with balancing with or without this functionality. 

So I know that Andy and many of us have being making use of such a device but be warned if whatever reason you have a single cell issue, that active balancer can destroy that entire battery bank in the space of a few days. 

There is zero malfunction protection in an active balancer. I have subscribed to the beauty of having one present but if it can destroy a battery then it's presence is just dangerous. Live with the imperfections of to top & bottom knee of the curves. Safer than having this Mince through your precious cells. 

 

I would only use a Neey active balancer and I would also not have it connected all the time. 

I would only use it for yearly maintenance if there is an imbalance and I would keep a close eye on it while it balances. I've noticed that with a decent top balance and a bms with a small passive balancer is good enough. 

Good enough, but not fast enough. In a world where fast food is the order of the day I have to reserve my love of the active balancer to a shelf for now.

Back to the drawing board for how to keep cells balanced without danger to them. The journey of building batteries is extremely interesting for these types of problems you encounter. Keep it up guys, our community of DIY battery builders is growing at a good rate. 2 years ago there was not such traffic of guys doing this. Now look at the length of this thread. 

27 minutes ago, Steve87 said:

Good enough, but not fast enough.

Perhaps an active balancer for the first week or two is warranted, after that if a small passive balancer cannot keep them in check, something else is wrong.