A little bit of a strange one buy am looking into getting some cells from Alibaba, will be 16x 3.2v 280A from a well known supplier. Plus Daly bms.

The price is significantly lower than the standard Hubble Svolt Dyness etc.

I've built my own 12v system 5 years back and its still goigg strong despite a couple sparks. In saying that this feels a little out of my depth and don't want to mess things up.

Would someone with diy knowledge be interested in building it of course for a fee?

Shipping, sundries etc would be on me of course. Whatever is needed to build it correctly and is safe.

Edited July 5, 2025Jul 5 by sunset1
Dyslexia

What area of SA are you located?

Maybe rather get jk bms, much more suited for these types of DIY builds :)
Just my opinion as I have had major success with my Narada upgrades :)

Edited July 5, 2025Jul 5 by WannabeSolarSparky

1 hour ago, sunset1 said:

Would someone with diy knowledge be interested in building it of course for a fee?

Why not just add a diy case to your order, they are super easy even for a novice diy'er :)
And they come with everything needed to build a quality DIY battery

@WannabeSolarSparky

I'm in Knysna near George in Western Cape and down in CPT every few weeks for work.

Ive seen the DIY boxes. I think if i had a bit more free time I would attempt it. And my wife would probably want me doing something else 😝

Just thought perhaps there might be some eager DIY who would enjoy building this and get some money for it.

I'm not too much in rush, as we are currently ok on our small system, but do want to expand. Eventually, on our budget, we will get a luxpower SNA 6kw, 10 panels or so, and the battery backup.

The large battery backup (15kw- 280 cells seems standard now) is perhaps overkill since we have gas geyser etx, but gather it will put us in good stead. In winter we use 250kw a month.

Any reason you chose Alibaba and not the local Lithium Cells website or Cellsupply? Is Alibaba that much cheaper? Ive never ordered anything from alibaba. I want to build for my 24V system. You definitely get more kwh per rand than buying the prebuilt ones.

13 minutes ago, Denns said:

Any reason you chose Alibaba and not the local Lithium Cells website or Cellsupply? Is Alibaba that much cheaper? Ive never ordered anything from alibaba. I want to build for my 24V system. You definitely get more kwh per rand than buying the prebuilt ones.

Does it really come out cheaper? After doing tax and shipping?

The box+cells + bms

Edited July 11, 2025Jul 11 by Stefan Cornelissen

3 hours ago, Stefan Cornelissen said:

Does it really come out cheaper? After doing tax and shipping?

The box+cells + bms

Shipping has become the expensive bit compared to years ago. Depending on the price per cell you could get away cheaper but if you buy a smart battery box then it turns out more expensive I would say. Recently I got used cell dirt cheap and they were still at over 75% capacity so I am very happy with my DIY battery.

You can also save a lot on a demo battery from some suppliers.

On 2025/07/11 at 7:25 PM, Scorp007 said:

Shipping has become the expensive bit compared to years ago. Depending on the price per cell you could get away cheaper but if you buy a smart battery box then it turns out more expensive I would say. Recently I got used cell dirt cheap and they were still at over 75% capacity so I am very happy with my DIY battery.

You can also save a lot on a demo battery from some suppliers.

Recently a member here bought a 345Ah=16.5 kWh demo with about 33 cycles on for R20 000 - what a bargain. It was for Sun battery=Svolt. Full warranty is in place.

Edited July 14, 2025Jul 14 by Scorp007

Hi Sunset, I would be quite keen to take this on. I am also in Knysna, so maybe we could meet and discuss options. I have been looking into building one for myself too, just not quite yet. Call or WhatsApp me 0827788003

I had a look at this option

The shipping was about the same cost at the cells

Shipping for the battery box was about the same or higher than the cost of the box. The box was about R7k.

Then you may have some warranty issues with the inverter if the inverter fails

Local battery prices have dropped significantly recently

5 kWh roughly around R 15 k locally or cheaper

If I was building a very large battery bank above 30 kWh I would consider building my own. I see nothing wrong with it

But smaller than that, not much savings especially with warranty issues with the inverter

The cases are expensive.

It depends who go through. Its considerably cheaper. Take a look through the diy section here to see costs. If you buy a battery case with it like seplos etc then it becomes expensive.

Without it you are probably about 40% cheaper. The BMSs from jk etc have come along way in the past few years.

@James 1 @Scorp007

Price's below for 32 cells.

Thats R28k for 32kWh pack.

Add a few Rk for sundries. You don't have plug and play etc.

most users i image can afford to pay for convenience and nothing wrong with that. Or happy with 5kwh system for +\- R15k

Its their time vs others time.

Edited July 23, 2025Jul 23 by thewhoplus

On 2025/07/11 at 3:41 PM, Stefan Cornelissen said:

Does it really come out cheaper? After doing tax and shipping?

The box+cells + bms

It does it seems.

10 hours ago, thewhoplus said:

It does it seems.

It does, I have a 24V system, if I build my own battery bank with all the accessories included using parts form Lithium Cells or CellsSupply (local suppliers) I can have a 7.6Kwh battery bank for 14k. The cheapest 5Kwh 24V battery I have found is Ingle and costs 14k. I can gain an extra 2.5kwh for the same price.

13 hours ago, Denns said:

It does, I have a 24V system, if I build my own battery bank with all the accessories included using parts form Lithium Cells or CellsSupply (local suppliers) I can have a 7.6Kwh battery bank for 14k. The cheapest 5Kwh 24V battery I have found is Ingle and costs 14k. I can gain an extra 2.5kwh for the same price.

For 15k it seems one can get double that from Alibaba - 15kwh.

One does though have to wait 6 weeks or so.

You'll be hard pressed to find more kWh at a cheaper price than this, and that includes trying to import complete or as cells plus case.

https://nova-craft.co.za/product/sun-51-2v-345ah-17-66kwh-lithium-battery-cny512345rn/

14 minutes ago, zsde said:

You'll be hard pressed to find more kWh at a cheaper price than this, and that includes trying to import complete or as cells plus case.

https://nova-craft.co.za/product/sun-51-2v-345ah-17-66kwh-lithium-battery-cny512345rn/

Most sellers you would pay this price only for the cells. Not easy to buy a case and BMS and do it cheaper from what I have seen.

R1528 per kWh is cheap.

8 hours ago, thewhoplus said:

For 15k it seems one can get double that from Alibaba - 15kwh.

One does though have to wait 6 weeks or so.

6 weeks is nothing. I’ve just never ordered from Alibaba otherwise you are right.

On 2025/07/24 at 10:42 PM, zsde said:

You'll be hard pressed to find more kWh at a cheaper price than this, and that includes trying to import complete or as cells plus case.

https://nova-craft.co.za/product/sun-51-2v-345ah-17-66kwh-lithium-battery-cny512345rn/

This is a great price if you want a case and completed setup.

DIY route with just Cells and BMS from China without case (which is not necessary) is still significantly cheaper. The cases are the expensive part

5 hours ago, thewhoplus said:

DIY route with just Cells and BMS from China without case (which is not necessary) is still significantly cheaper.

If only those that seem to have such sources would actually post the links, then others may be able to check and perhaps also get them.
Posting a screenshot of a whatsapp conversation without providing the URL or seller details doesn't help.
i.e. https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/8000-Cycles-5-year-Warranty-16kwh_1601298806165.html?spm=a2756.trade-list-buyer.0.0.583276e9tKH0kT

Edited July 26, 2025Jul 26 by zsde

1 hour ago, zsde said:

If only those that seem to have such sources would actually post the links, then others may be able to check and perhaps also get them.
Posting a screenshot of a whatsapp conversation without providing the URL or seller details doesn't help.
i.e. https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/8000-Cycles-5-year-Warranty-16kwh_1601298806165.html?spm=a2756.trade-list-buyer.0.0.583276e9tKH0kT

Since it seems you have trouble with your mouse i can advise you to scroll down towards the bottom of the thread in the link below. Hopefully you can now see, what was always there and never been hidden from those who make an effort.

1 hour ago, zsde said:

If only those that seem to have such sources would actually post the links, then others may be able to check and perhaps also get them.
Posting a screenshot of a whatsapp conversation without providing the URL or seller details doesn't help.
i.e. https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/8000-Cycles-5-year-Warranty-16kwh_1601298806165.html?spm=a2756.trade-list-buyer.0.0.583276e9tKH0k

Supplier link here

https://x.alibaba.com/B0DlrE?ck=minisite

3 hours ago, thewhoplus said:

trouble with your mouse

It must be my mouse, no perhaps my eyes too. 😉
Didn't see the link to a different thread within this thread.
Thank you for the link to both. Appreciated

1 hour ago, zsde said:

It must be my mouse, no perhaps my eyes too. 😉
Didn't see the link to a different thread within this thread.
Thank you for the link to both. Appreciated

You were in need of help. :)

Be safe out there.

Edited July 26, 2025Jul 26 by thewhoplus