Friday, September 6, 2019

Blog Moving to Electric Car Parts Company.com

This blog, Updates on Energy Storage Systems & Batteries, has been permanently moved to Electric Car Parts Company.com.


Thank you for reading!

Friday, August 16, 2019

Lithium Batteries Without Tariffs

The tariffs being imposed on September 1st will add 10% to the cost of Lithium-ion Batteries. If you need to save money on your next Lithium Battery purchase, we would like to suggest you go with cells that are already in USA stock. We have a large stockpile of the 25Ah, 60Ah, and 100Ah LiFePO4 Prismatic Cells with a high number of charge cycles and better heat dissipation. They are ideal for both Electric Cars and Solar Energy Storage.





Many similar batteries only have a cycle life of about 2,000 cycles. The 3.2V 60Ah and 100Ah Lithium Batteries each have a cycle life of over 3,000 cycles. Price breaks are available for these batteries starting at 16 each. See complete pricing and specifications by following the links above.

Please read on for good information about why these Lithium Batteries perform better:

A typical aluminum encased battery that has better heat dissipation will start out with a higher cycle life.  Dependent upon the size of the cell the expectant charger cycle life of a smaller LifePO4 cell can be as much as 4000 charge cycles and follow the same trajectory of the plastic prismatic cell shown below.  The simple fact is that if you have an application where you want a long life, like for solar storage, and you do not discharge the cells below their nominal 3.2 voltage you will have a cell that will probably outlive you.  Depth of discharge has a very profound effect on a lithium battery’s life.


What is the Life Expectancy of the Aluminum Batteries?

-      Factor 1: Depth of Discharge…Percentage of Capacity Used Per Cycle.

-      DOD, short for the Depth of Discharge, is used to describe how deeply the battery is discharged. If we say a battery is 100% fully charged, it means the DOD of this battery is 0%, If we say the battery have delivered 30% of its energy, here are 70% energy reserved, we say the DOD of this battery is 30%.

-      Factor 2: Discharge Rate, The AMPS Divided by the Capacity

-      To Read the Chart Above, here are Some Examples

A.   All Numbers are at a 1C Discharge Rate, which is Aggressive…

B.   At a 90% Depth of Discharge, Our Batteries Will Provide 2400 Cycle to 80% State-of-Original-Capacity (SOIC)

C.   At a 10% Depth of Discharge (Say, Engine Starting) Our Batteries Will Provide 35,000 Cycles Until 80% SOIC. Beyond 35,000 Cycles the Battery is Still Functioning but Gradually Losing Capacity, but not Performance

Conclusion: By recharging a lithium battery more frequently, thus reducing the DOD (depth of discharge), the battery cycle life is Increased. Solar is very often a beneficial method to reduce DOD and increase life!


Friday, July 19, 2019

Battery Packs Get Balanced Just as Promised

We’ve recently received a lot of good feedback about how accurate the Battery Voltage-Amperage Balancers/Equalizers are. We make the claim that the Battery Balancers keep the batteries voltage difference within 10mV, and we’ve had that confirmed many times by those who’ve used them to balance their battery packs.

Balancer Feedback
Here’s a small sampling of the comments we’ve received about the Balancers:
“The Lithium balancers are keeping my 7S 24V EV battery based off-grid "shore power" solution for my motorhome balanced within 0.01V per cell. Going to check with ECPC any time I need something to do with batteries or power solutions.”
“Very pleased with their function. Bought 7 for a 24V LiPo battery. At rest, they were within .05V. once current flowed in and out of the battery they pulled to within .01.”
“I tried many cheap units, but none worked then called and asked what Electric Car Parts Company recommended and I ended up getting these. Took a couple days but my lithium system is now balanced and working great. Thank you!”

Why you need a Battery Balancing System
The individual cells in a battery pack are rarely an exact duplicate of all the cells in the battery pack.
In actual practice, when a pack of batteries reaches a specified charge cutoff voltage than the charger will shut off. If one cell in a pack reaches that voltage before other cells reach a full charge it will cause the charger to shut off – prematurely denying the balance of the pack a full charge.
Conversely, when the weakest cell in a pack reaches its discharge cutoff voltage it will show as the discharge point and shut down the pack prematurely – thereby denying the user the balance of energy the other cells have stored.
These battery equalizers prevent this from happening. This yields up to 30% more power and will extend the life of the battery pack.
Benefits and Features
·         Quick and easy installation
·         Keeps your batteries voltage difference within 10mV!
·         Keeps your batteries safe at all times. May increase the lifespan of your battery pack by 2-3 times by preventing the batteries from being overcharged or over discharged.
·         High-frequency pulse, dynamic battery voltage-amperage balancer.
·         Simple wiring and high efficiency
·         Low price. You pay a small amount to protect your battery. Compared to the cost of replacing your expensive Lithium Battery, the Balancer is very inexpensive.
·         Fast delivery, 1~2 business days.
·         Works with all charger amperage and voltage inputs.
·         All 1S Single Balancers come with the interconnecting and battery wiring
·         0.5m / 1.5ft / 0.5m maximum suggested wire length for all the multiple series balancers. (35m 4S, 5S, 6S, 8S)
·         Idle Current Draw is <50mW.
·         Series modules may work with 3, 4, 5, 6, or 8 batteries in series (AKA 3S, 4S, 5S, 6S, or 8S).
·         Series modules do not come with the wiring to connect to the batteries.

Illustration to show how Battery Balancers protect Batteries 

This diagram shows how balancers work. Each battery is compared to a cup. Each balancer is like a pump. With the pumps, all the cups will have the same level of water. The balancers are connected in parallel to the batteries. They won’t affect the charging or discharging of the batteries.
Having an effective Battery Management System (BMS) is essential to protect any Lithium Battery Pack. We’re very glad to have low-cost solutions that work consistently and to the right specifications.

Wednesday, June 26, 2019

Lithium Battery Storage Systems & Inverters Ready to Ship

We are directly connected to some very large companies in China that make Inverters up to 500 kilowatts and complete Energy Storage Systems (ESS) in sizes starting at 30 kilowatts up to one megawatt. The delivery time for some of these systems from the time you place an order until the time you get it shipped directly to your point of use will be about 90 days. These complete Energy Storage Systems come in new 20- and 40-foot waterproof shipping containers. Each container will hold a large battery pack and Inverter system up to 1 megawatt and can be paralleled. These systems are scalable to any size and come with a 5-year factory warranty. https://lithium-car-battery.3dcartstores.com/assets/images/1MWh-Energy-Storage-System.pdf.
If you don’t require a Lithium Battery Storage System, we can supply larger single and 3 phase Inverters up to 500 KW with delivery in about 45 days. 
Don’t be put off by what may seem to be strange input and output voltages on these large Inverters. The factory specifications are designed around the Chinese and international markets. We can get these Inverters specially made in voltages, and kilowatt sizes, designed around your application.
We also have limited stocks of very affordable Pure Sine Wave Inverter/Chargers up to 15 KW. Under normal conditions we can ship these Inverters specially made in voltages and kilowatt sizes designed around your application.

We have a reasonably large inventory of discrete Lithium Batteries in sizes up to 180 Ah available if you want to build your own Energy Storage System. We can ship these Lithium Batteries from stock in days.
I go to China quite often and consider myself very knowledgeable in Lithium Battery Energy Storage Systems. If you want to know more, please give me a call and tell me more about your application.

Friday, June 7, 2019

Small Lithium Energy Storage System

 We got involved with Large Energy Storage Systems several years ago as a complement to our main energy focus; Lithium (LiFePO4) Batteries. We’ve worked on projects of 1MW (and larger) battery storage capacity. We’re excited to now have Energy Storage Systems for commercial and industrial use that are smaller than our large 20 and 40 ft. containers.
This storage system comes with a rated capacity of either 50 kWh 100 Ah or 100 kWh 200 Ah. This integrated battery system can be flexibly compatible with the user’s PCS (Power Conversion System), providing energy storage for PV self-consumption, demand response, load shifting, backup power, or off-grid. It also can be scalable to MWh solutions for utility applications.
The following features make for a perfect Lithium Energy Storage solution:
·         LiFePO4 cell built-in for robust technology with good stability.
·         Own-developed core technology of the BMS provides multi-level software and hardware protections.
·         Compatible with a wide range of different PCS.
·         Modular design, easily scalable to MWh utility scale.
·         BMS algorithm optimized to ensure SOC accuracy.
·         Controls the real-time monitor system and operational efficiency.
·         Optimized, cost-competitive cell especially designed and manufactured for energy storage applications.
·         LFP chemistry offers good electro-chemical performance and a longer cycle life than other lithium-ion chemistries.
Get in touch with us to meet all your Lithium Battery Storage System needs.

Tuesday, May 21, 2019

Lithium-ion Batteries with Information Screen

The Lithium Batteries that just arrived at our office come in two sizes; 12.8V 55Ah and 12V 100Ah. They are both Lithium-ion Cells with an LCD screen which shows charging and discharging information. A USB port is provided to export battery information to a computer.

 
The shape and style of the batteries is much more like a traditional car battery than the Prismatic Batteries we’ve had in our USA stock before. They have all the protections that are needed for Lithium Batteries like Over-charge, Over-discharge, and Temperature.
The 100Ah Batteries have a good cycle life of 2,000 continuous charge cycles before losing 80% of the original battery capacity. The pricing for these batteries is very good, so go ahead and compare it to the competition.

12.8V 55Ah Lithium-ion Battery Specifications:
BATTERY
12.8V 55Ah Lithium-ion
NOMINAL VOLTAGE
12.8V
TYPICAL CAPACITY
55Ah (At 0.2C discharge rate)
NORMAL DISCHARGE CURRENT
50A
CUT-OFF DISCHARGE VOLTAGE
About 10V
CHARGE VOLTAGE
14.4V
CHARGE CURRENT
<20A
CHARGE MODE
CC/CV (use special
lithium charger)
INNER RESISTANCE
<50 Milliohms
CHARGE TEMPERATURE
32F~113F (0C~+45C)
DISCHARGE TEMPERATURE
-4F~140F (-20C~+60C)

12V 100Ah Lithium-ion Battery Specifications:
BATTERY
12V 100Ah Lithium-ion
NOMINAL VOLTAGE
14.8V
NOMINAL CAPACITY
100Ah (At 0.2C discharge rate)
MAX DISCHARGE CURRENT
60A-100A (continuous)
PEAK DISCHARGE RATE
300A (<1s)
CUT-OFF DISCHARGE VOLTAGE
About 10V-11V
CUT-OFF CHARGE VOLTAGE
16.8V
MAX CHARGE CURRENT
10A-30A
CYCLE LIFE AT STANDARD (80%)
2000
STANDARD CHARGING METHOD
0.2C CC (constant current) charge to 16.8V, then CV (constant voltage 16.8V) charge till charge current decline to <0.05C
STANDARD CHARGING TIME
Standard Charge: 5.5 hours Ref
CHARGE TEMPERATURE
32F~113F (0C~+45C)
DISCHARGE TEMPERATURE
-4F~140F (-20C~+60C)
STORAGE TEMPERATURE
32F~113F (0C~+45C)

Thursday, April 25, 2019

Eight Advantages of Pouch Cells for Lithium Battery Packs

A 30Ah Lithium Battery is the latest Pouch Cell manufactured by Bestgo Battery. The best thing about these LiFePO4 Lithium Batteries is that they can be connected in series and parallel to make a 12 Cell Pack of 12.8V 90Ah 4S3P, 9.6V 120Ah 3S4P, or 19.2V 60Ah 6S2P to configure your battery pack exactly as you want.
The 30Ah Pouch Cell is a kind of LiFePO4 cell with good power and energy density, long cycle life, and ultra-safe design. An advanced Product Database Management System (PDMS) is deployed to monitor the whole cell manufacturing process. The system will also help to select the best identical cells for assembling a Lithium Battery Pack and make sure the cells in the pack will have the best consistency. With our high-quality Lithium Cells, we can help you build a nice Energy Storage System for various applications like a UPS power supply, an off-grid solar system etc.

Bestgo Battery is one of our best Lithium Battery suppliers. Their Lithium Pouch Cells are riding the crest of a new way of thinking with regards to Energy Storage. They are the new frontier. Bestgo’s new pouch cells are the ultimate in weight, flexibility, and life. We are getting glowing reports from a variety of customers who are using pouch cells in robotics, yard maintenance equipment, undersea vehicles, research projects, and other applications where they are replacing small engines. Bestgo’s factory has a production capacity of over a million cells a month. From a very basic level, here are 8 reasons that we like to use EV Pouch Cells in Lithium Battery Packs:
1.    Flexibility of the Lithium Battery Pack
Bestgo offers completely assembled battery packs with the BMS built in as a standard battery module. Modules can be assembled in a parallel configuration for increased capacity, or in a series configuration to increase the voltage. If needed, the BMS can offer an output cable for communication. These battery modules can be charged separately or as a whole battery pack if assembled.
2.    Cycle Life
Bestgo has tested a cell that was randomly picked off the assembly line. After the accelerated equivalent of more than 12 years (4,400 charge cycles) of constant cycling, this 10 AH cell still registered about 9 AH. That is a very impressive small drop of storage capacity after 12 years of about 10%.
3.    Reliability
As an example, a 36-volt pack at 10 AH will only require 12 pouch cells welded together. If that same application were to use 18650 cylindrical cells, it would require 72 pieces of 1.5 Ah 18650 cells welded together. In a series string if any of the 72 cells have a problem the complete pack will fail. Also 72 cells mean 144 nodes, each node represents one potential fault. So, a cylindrical based pack is not as reliable as an electrically equivalent pouch cell pack which would only have 24 nodes. In addition, the pouch cell welding procedure is much more reliable than welding cylindrical cells.
4.    Improved Energy Storage
A pouch cell’s energy storage capacity is much greater in a given physical space in comparison to cylindrical cells.
5.    Safety
Whenever either pouch cells or cylindrical cells have internal problems, pressure builds and they will swell up. In those infrequent situations, pouch cells merely swell up. Cylindrical cells are traditionally encased in an iron jacket, so that when the pressure builds within a cylindrical cell whose ends are held captive by other batteries or the case, they can literally explode which could result in a dangerous safety hazard.
6.    Weight
Typically, pouch cells weigh less than the equivalent prismatic or cylindrical battery. The flat pouch cell energy density is greater than other shaped cells.
7.    Uniformity and Consistency
Bestgo’s entire pouch cell line is manufactured by automatic equipment, thus eliminating human error in hand-made cells. In between each step of the manufacturing process, the cell is automatically tested which allows every cell to have amazing uniformity and consistency.
8.    Included PCB
One of the other benefits to using pouch cells for smaller applications is the fact that Bestgo can furnish a very effective PCB (Protective Circuit Board) with the pack to balance the batteries and protect them from over-charging and being over discharged. For smaller battery applications up to 72 volts, the PCB approach is far more cost-effective than the more elaborate BMS systems. Each PCB board will control up to 20 cells.

I’m sure you can see by now why we are excited by Bestgo Battery Pouch Cells in general and 30Ah LiFePO4 Lithium Pouch Cells in particular. We hope you can find an application which these cells would be perfect for. Your energy ideas are what our company runs on!