36 minutes ago, phidz said:

I also have the same battery, the older type, i'm happy with the battery, no issues in the past 2 years. I asked about cycle count and this is their response:

I trust you are doing well!

 

There is no need to stress about the cycles as the warranty is not governed by the number of cycles.

Kindest Regards,

 

This is an interesting change from previously.

 

If these are rebranded Seplos, how does the pricing compare to the pre-built Seplos/ Apexium batteries?

At this pricing, personally, I'd still rather go for the Svolt batteries I currently have. Pace BMS, simple and works well with no remote monitoring (only via a physical cable). Battery cycles are counted as they should be.

 

I can imagine issues if one wanted to try and resell one of these LBSA batteries later on, potential buying being put off by the inflated cycle count and if insurance had to get involved and they were trying not to pay they could use the inflated cycle count as a way to pay out less for ones batteries.

I am not saying the above will happen, but it is a possibility. On the plus side, it is tried and tested and seems to be pretty reliable.

1 minute ago, PsyCLown said:

This is an interesting change from previously.

 

If these are rebranded Seplos, how does the pricing compare to the pre-built Seplos/ Apexium batteries?

At this pricing, personally, I'd still rather go for the Svolt batteries I currently have. Pace BMS, simple and works well with no remote monitoring (only via a physical cable). Battery cycles are counted as they should be.

 

I can imagine issues if one wanted to try and resell one of these LBSA batteries later on, potential buying being put off by the inflated cycle count and if insurance had to get involved and they were trying not to pay they could use the inflated cycle count as a way to pay out less for ones batteries.

I am not saying the above will happen, but it is a possibility. On the plus side, it is tried and tested and seems to be pretty reliable.

I'm sure the batteries can't be monitored remotely without a physical connection to the battery? How would they connect to the internet?

1 hour ago, MdF said:

Hi Vic,

So, I ordered the correct USB cable from LBSA which was needed to connect to the battery itself.

Then using my internet connected laptop connected to the battery via the USB cable, LBSA used Teamviewer to connect to my laptop, installed a software programme and then did their fancy electricity magic that way.

Yes, it is defo a bit of a mission to do this as you need to setup a time with LBSA for when both of you can bet at the system. But I had no issues whatsoever with working this way as I could actually follow onscreen with what LBSA were doing to the battery. I learnt quite a bit during that process as well.

If you have more than one battery, LBSA will ask you in the chat to connect between each battery so that is why you need time to be online and at your system.

Hope this helps.

MdF

PS, the battery monitoring software they used is still on my laptop and I am quite good at using it now. Just only for information about each cell, battery performamnce etc. There is a wealth of info available but you have to be physically "tied" to the battery with your laptop and cable.

Hi @MdF

This is actually extremely helpful!  

Thank you!

It means that the remote procedure is user initiated, and not remote controlled.

I'm not sure what the capabilities of Hubble's cloudlink are but it is conceivable to me that some battery manufacturers may have more remote update capability, which in my case, I do not want  

28 minutes ago, phidz said:

How would they connect to the internet?

As @MdF has written, in this case the LBSA battery does not seem to have this capability, but other technologies or batteries could conceivably have a small wifi modem built in potentially. That is why I was asking about the details of the remote update procedure.

33 minutes ago, PsyCLown said:

I'd still rather go for the Svolt batteries I currently have. Pace BMS, simple and works well with no remote monitoring (only via a physical cable). Battery cycles are counted as they should be.

All valid points. What is the price point of the SVOLTs at this point in time? I see the LBSA are on sale for 20k 

Looks like LBSA does not have remote monitoring, only via cable as @MdF has written.

For those interested it looks like this is the monitoring cable and it looks like the battery monitoring software is also available there

https://www.lithiumbatteriessa.co.za/shop/batmoncable-built-unit-battery-monitor-cable-871#attr=

Perhaps @MdF can confirm  

Thank you!

Edited November 13, 20232 yr by VicB7

3 minutes ago, VicB7 said:

For those interested it looks like this is the monitoring cable and it looks like the battery monitoring software is also available there

https://www.lithiumbatteriessa.co.za/shop/batmoncable-built-unit-battery-monitor-cable-871#attr=

Perhaps @MdF can confirm  

Thank you!

Hi Vic,

This is the correct cable to purchase and yes, the software is available from them too.

If you do go this route of "semi-remote" updating, let us know how it goes here.

MdF

4 minutes ago, MdF said:

Hi Vic,

This is the correct cable to purchase and yes, the software is available from them too.

If you do go this route of "semi-remote" updating, let us know how it goes here.

MdF

@MdF did you order the cable directly from them?

 

2 hours ago, VicB7 said:

All valid points. What is the price point of the SVOLTs at this point in time? I see the LBSA are on sale for 20k 

Looks like LBSA does not have remote monitoring, only via cable as @MdF has written.

Both the 15 cell & 16 cell batteries are under R20k. So better pricing compared to this LBSA.

 

End of the day, the choice is yours but I would rather someone make an informed decision and know all their options.

3 hours ago, phidz said:

I'm sure the batteries can't be monitored remotely without a physical connection to the battery? How would they connect to the internet?

I doubt it as well, possibly WiFi built in but I think that is unlikely. I know some have bluetooth but that wouldn't provide internet access.

 

Although seems its a separate product which allows for the remote monitoring. Updates would require a computer to be connected it seems.

2 hours ago, VicB7 said:

All valid points. What is the price point of the SVOLTs at this point in time? I see the LBSA are on sale for 20k 

Quite a bit cheaper:

https://solarwarehousesa.com/products/svolt-51-2v-106ah-5-42-kwh-a-grade-wall-mount-lithium-battery

1 hour ago, PowerUser said:

Quite a bit cheaper:

https://solarwarehousesa.com/products/svolt-51-2v-106ah-5-42-kwh-a-grade-wall-mount-lithium-battery

We should just not forget to compare apples with apples. If the 6000 cycles at 0.2C for the SVolt would be subjected to a 1C discharge/charge rate the cycles will come down to less than 3000.

2 hours ago, Scorp007 said:

We should just not forget to compare apples with apples. If the 6000 cycles at 0.2C for the SVolt would be subjected to a 1C discharge/charge rate the cycles will come down to less than 3000.

What are the cycles of LBSA at 0.2C? 
Not published…

They state 4500 cycles at 0.5C. 
 

What are the cycles of SVolt at 0.5C? 
Not published…

 

But at the end of the day, if both manage 3000 cycles (approximately 10 years) and after that they still retain 80% capacity, that’s good enough. After 10 years we are all going to be changing batteries anyway… for one or another reason.

What actually is more important these days - the quality of the build and manufacturer support if something goes wrong prematurely.

But if you are buying one of these batteries, you should understand that you have a higher chance of something going wrong with the battery or it’s support, compared to FreedomWon for example.

 

 

Edited November 13, 20232 yr by PowerUser

20 hours ago, Antonio de Sa said:

I'm more concerned about the warranty in cycle count. (4500 cycles (9000 Cycles on BMS display) how and where does one see the 4500 Cycles, the only way to see the cycle count is in the BMS, unless they divide the BMS cycle count by 2. This sounds very devious.

What I find even more devious is that, as we have already established, they are counting every 20% instead of 80% which means they are counting 4x faster, not 2x faster, so that should read "4500 cycles (18000 Cycles on BMS display)".

16 hours ago, Antonio de Sa said:

@MdF did you order the cable directly from them?

 

Yes I did.

14 hours ago, PowerUser said:

What actually is more important these days - the quality of the build and manufacturer support if something goes wrong prematurely.

I am inclined to agree, leaning towards LBSA where there seems to exist some published track record (on forums like this), dealing with their local support for various issues.