PG&E shut us off again, but who needs them....?

[R.Wold]

I just plugged the house fridge in to the coach. After several hours, Im down 5%. I can hear generators running in the distance, but mine is conspicuously quiet while my little Bay Star valiantly soldiers on providing more than enough power. And by mid morning the solar on its roof will have me back to 100%. Quiet power - love it.

Pics below are my coach “house” battery during install (2/3 of a Nissan Leaf lithium which fit perfectly over the frame in the rear compartment), and my color-control showing the load of my home refer. It will clearly go the distance.


Edit: that was supposed to be “shut” us off but apparently I missed the U....

[TwoGrizz]

Sweet, you go brother. Good luck!

[V3600]

And yet there are still fires burning. I grew up in SoCal and remember the hot dry Santa Ana winds. Those are the winds we have here in southern AZ all summer long but nothing burns. I understand it is illegal to clear dead/downed trees in Cali but isn't it a major cause of the fires, too much kindling laying around? Several friends are bailing from Cali, latest are going to Utah.

[R.Wold]

Originally Posted by V3600

And yet there are still fires burning. I grew up in SoCal and remember the hot dry Santa Ana winds. Those are the winds we have here in southern AZ all summer long but nothing burns. I understand it is illegal to clear dead/downed trees in Cali but isn't it a major cause of the fires, too much kindling laying around? Several friends are bailing from Cali, latest are going to Utah.

One could write volumes on the stupidity of California policy.....

[Dav L]

How about sharing some education on reuse of e-auto battery packs for RV usage?
Where did you buy them - craigslist? junkyard?
How much did you pay?
Where you able to determine how much cell capacity was left before you purchased? How did you test if so? Or just took a chance?
Sounds like you had to modify the cell configuration (2/3 of a leaf battery pack...)? Couldn't you use the rest of the battery pack in a different location? Or was the 1/3 not used bad cells?
Was it easy to retrofit?
How many volts are each cell? How many combined volts is it wired for?
Did you use a conventional lithium RV / Solar charge and monitoring system?
How much does the battery pack weigh?
Any concerns with lithium meltdown? Any stopgaps to minimize fire damage?

Thanx!

[R.Wold]

Originally Posted by Dav L

How about sharing some education on reuse of e-auto battery packs for RV usage?
Where did you buy them - craigslist? junkyard?
How much did you pay?
Where you able to determine how much cell capacity was left before you purchased? How did you test if so? Or just took a chance?
Sounds like you had to modify the cell configuration (2/3 of a leaf battery pack...)? Couldn't you use the rest of the battery pack in a different location? Or was the 1/3 not used bad cells?
Was it easy to retrofit?
How many volts are each cell? How many combined volts is it wired for?
Did you use a conventional lithium RV / Solar charge and monitoring system?
How much does the battery pack weigh?
Any concerns with lithium meltdown? Any stopgaps to minimize fire damage?

Thanx!

Ok this is a pretty big info request for a quiet night during a black out, but Ill go to work on it and report back in detail. First, in the interest of full disclosure, my son ( a police officer) is the genius/mad scientist behind these projects. Im just a laborer and at best a marginal technician. We look nation wide for 2014 and later leaf batteries from wrecked cars. They are tested and so far all have been good. He has also used Hyundai cells and others on different projects. I used 2/3 of the pack because he wanted the other third. I just got lucky with this 36” wide compartment this time. They used to be in two banks of 12 cells below the dinette seats in a class C. So a lot of reconfiguring. They are also monitored and have safety shut-downs for over-heat and excessive discharge, although I can over-ride the later if needed. Without going into too much detail tonight, the cells test at 2.6 volts, but really thats two combined so they are 1.3. My 24 cells max at 32.8 But my Victron 3kw inverter (24v) only charges to 28v so it can only charge to 100% from solar 5 315w residential panels on the roof. My old coach had six, but they don't fit as nicely on the Bay Star roof. The next coach will have more. Im not sure what you would consider conventional so Ill post a pic of the charge controllers. Conventional residential components but purpose engineered and installed for this application, so some not so conventional parts. And no I never worry about this stuff, but it is well protected and ventilated. A couple times the inverter got too hot and shut down so I increased the air volume moving through the compartment with a bigger fan and used a dead space behind the compartment for a plenum and drilled a bunch of 1” holes in it to let air out under the coach without letting dirt or moisture in. One of the biggest challenges is running the wire to the panels and the monitoring equipment. They don't just leave you a nice open chase to use for wiring
your after-market fun.

[R.Wold]

Inverter and charge controllers in front of (and protecting) the battery bank, monitoring stuff (in a closet directly above fhe inverter etc) and my panels. I used the factory inverter for a junction box for convenience, and the original house batteries as emergency 12v power, switched manually. Everything shuts down at a little over 22v and a couple times Ive run it that low at which point things get pretty dark. The converter gets its power from the inverter so if the system shuts down, my 12v power will too. Im working on a relay set up that will be automatic and a little more elegant. But the idea is to not get that low, and of course I can always fire up the noise maker but my goal is to never use it again other than monthly maintenance runs. Also the spare tire fit neatly on the other side of the battery bank accessed from the pass side of the coach. One down-side is I used up most of my biggest pass-through compartment for this stuff.

[jcussen]

Nice setup! Very valuable when living in California, and in my case, hurricane country.

[R.Wold]

Ok couple other notes:

Things have gotten competitive since people figured out you can do this and its difficult to find a good Leaf battery. Expect to pay around $2000 for one which is 36 cells. You can find the cells individually in ebay for $60 - $80 each depending on how many you buy, and they will indicate what they tested at as compared to specs when new. Pass on any from before 2014, and look for 2018 and newer if you can find one. (I shouldn't be telling you all this in an open forum) .

Heat is the big killer for these batteries so one from Minnesota will be much better (more life left in it) than one from Arizona. But shipping will also cost a bit depending. I don't recall The weight exactly, but Id say my 24 cells weigh almost 200lbs. Way less than lead acid, but a pretty hefty bundle to lift into place. The Leaf batteries are ideal because each cell is environmentally sealed and so they wont corrode when exposed to outside air. Many others (Chevy Volt for instance) are in a sealed unit and if you just pull the cells and use them they will corrode and fail if you don't build a new completely (perfectly) sealed container for them. (Yes this lesson was learned the hard way).

On a side note our other use for these lithium cells is in a Polaris Ranger EV which makes the rig about 500lbs lighter and more than doubles the range. We take them camping and charge them from the solar while driving to the next site.

[Dav L]

Thanx for the info!
Looking forward to more details if you are up to it.

[R.Wold]

Originally Posted by Dav L

Thanx for the info!
Looking forward to more details if you are up to it.

PM an email address and I can send all kinds of stuff. This is from a partial invoice

Victron Energy Battery Monitor BMV-700 $143.65
1 ea. Victron Energy MultiPlus 24/3000/70-50 - 120V VE.Bus Inverter/Charger $1,427.15
1 ea. Victron Energy Color Control GX $516.80
$2,087.60Sub-Total:

Also used two Victron MPPT 150/35 controllers. Inverter Supply treated me well. I also have an excellent source now for residential solar panels (NOS) Ill share with you if interested.

One reason I don't like posting too much of this stuff here is that Ill get people telling me I got it all wrong, you cant do that, its dangerous, its irresponsible, it wont work, Im endangering the unknowing public, you name it. Ive already gone way too far with this series of posts.

[C5c5]

This may be a dumb question, but could a 2004 Prius battery be used in a similar fashion? I have access to one in good working order for pennies on the dollar.

[followingsea]

Originally Posted by R.Wold

One could write volumes on the stupidity of California policy.....

It certainly sounds like you are drinking the cool aid.

What I mean by that is you are touting the merits of solar because of an absurd situation in California.

I understand that you sometimes choose to live someplace because that is where family is or where the job is.

I moved back to California in 1986 to work at a nuke plant and all my family still lived in California. There was a time when California was a great state and a good place to raise a family.


From the standpoint of keeping the lights on, California has both bad policy and poorly managed utilities.

I lived places where the weather was brutal. Only in California with mild weather did I expect the power to go out routinely.

[GypsyR]

Originally Posted by C5c5

This may be a dumb question, but could a 2004 Prius battery be used in a similar fashion? I have access to one in good working order for pennies on the dollar.

There's actually a lot of people repurposing EV batteries for lots of things. For Prius batteries specifically, check out this thread where folks are doing all kinds of things with them.

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/vi...f4dc8f89258e46