LiFePO4 Battery 100Ah 12.8V 1280Wh Price Dropped

Admin said:
Either with the selector on the bottom or a Bluetooth dongle.
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Do they all have the selector Phil? Charlie has a 75/10 I think it is and I didn’t see anything on it, just the jumper next to the terminals. Didn’t look that hard though as default was right setting for the tiny 72Ah lead acid battery that comes with those vans.
 
nabsim said:
Do they all have the selector Phil? Charlie has a 75/10 I think it is and I didn’t see anything on it, just the jumper next to the terminals. Didn’t look that hard though as default was right setting for the tiny 72Ah lead acid battery that comes with those vans.
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The Jumper position selects the Algorithm for the LOAD Output only (that is why you don't see the jumper on the the controllers without a LOAD terminal such as the 100/30).
I don't think a standalone BlueSolar Controller can be reconfigured apart from the LOAD as above.
Fit a VE.Direct Dongle and you can change everything same as a SmartSolar using the VE.Connect App
If you connect it via a VE.Direct Cable to a Venus OS unit (such as a Cerbo, for example), you can use the VE.Connect App via VRM.

Did a battery swapover last week on a van fitted with a pair of BlueSolar Controllers and fitted a VE.Direct Bluetooth Dongle to allow me to reconfigure the controllers for Lithium, swapping between the two to do so.
The other advantage of fitting the dongle (or connecting to a Cerbo) that is you can take advantage of Victron firmware updates that a standalone Controller cannot.


These are the settings for the LOAD Jumper ....
1660655701710.png
 
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That’s right David I couldn’t remember what it said the jumpers were for so I just said jumpers. I have a dongle on my BMV700 so can temporarily use that if Charlie decides to fit his solar. Think he is going for a Bluetooth controller instead at some point though. He didn’t realise the Blue Solar wasn’t Bluetooth lol
 
nabsim said:
That’s right David I couldn’t remember what it said the jumpers were for so I just said jumpers. I have a dongle on my BMV700 so can temporarily use that if Charlie decides to fit his solar. Think he is going for a Bluetooth controller instead at some point though. He didn’t realise the Blue Solar wasn’t Bluetooth lol
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It is not obvious at all. How would people know Victron use "Blue" to mean nothing specific and "Smart" to mean Bluetooth (e.g. BlueSolar vs SmartSolar and Blue Power vs BlueSmart)
 
GMLS said:
I would guess Ecotree but happy to be corrected.
I'm looking at Roamer and KS Energy at the moment. Anyone got experience of those?
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I bought 120Ah KS Energy in Jul 21. The BMS is a PITA, causing the battery to go comatose when the SOC is around 95%, so when the fridge or the Trumsa calls for a teaspoonful of electricity after about 2 hours in the evening, the battery cannot respond quickly enough, and the 12v system trips for about 1 second. This throws a Truma error code, losing the menu settings and also loses the multimedia stereo settings, so reprogramming is a regular and frustrating exercise

I emailed Neal at KS Energy but he never bothered to reply, so, when I have the spare cash, I'll buy a competitor brand that has the BT based BMS removed or disabled to avoid the 12v drop problem. David of Wildebus fame wrote about the problem with the BMS and the solution which can be mitigated by sitting in the van in mid June with every light blazing away, trying to keep the batter6 working, instead of dozing off. Neighbouring M/homers think we're mad ... 🙄

Steve
 
One thing I have noticed is that if you are going to connect via a cerbo, is that there is not a lot of point spending the extra on smart solar as the cerbo takes over the control of them instead of using the smart network.
 
SquirrellCook said:
One thing I have noticed is that if you are going to connect via a cerbo, is that there is not a lot of point spending the extra on smart solar as the cerbo takes over the control of them instead of using the smart network.
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That is true to a fair degree, but should be mindful that to configure the non-bluetooth versions of the solar controllers and BMV monitors, you still have to use VE.Connect through the Victron VRM as well as the Cerbo. Having them connected to the Cerbo alone is not enough, you must have Internet access to the Victron site.
 
marchie said:
I bought 120Ah KS Energy in Jul 21. The BMS is a PITA, causing the battery to go comatose when the SOC is around 95%, so when the fridge or the Trumsa calls for a teaspoonful of electricity after about 2 hours in the evening, the battery cannot respond quickly enough, and the 12v system trips for about 1 second. This throws a Truma error code, losing the menu settings and also loses the multimedia stereo settings, so reprogramming is a regular and frustrating exercise

I emailed Neal at KS Energy but he never bothered to reply, so, when I have the spare cash, I'll buy a competitor brand that has the BT based BMS removed or disabled to avoid the 12v drop problem. David of Wildebus fame wrote about the problem with the BMS and the solution which can be mitigated by sitting in the van in mid June with every light blazing away, trying to keep the batter6 working, instead of dozing off. Neighbouring M/homers think we're mad ... 🙄

Steve
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It is a shame the seller as about as responsive as the battery is!

I fitted a pair of 100AH Lithiums from DC Tech a couple of weeks ago which used the Daly BMS. That seems to go into a standby mode but wakes up (and then stays awake) at the slightest provocation, which seems a reasonable enough way to do it.
The Poweroad Subzeros would not go into standby until no load or charge for a full 24 hours, so again in a Motorhome setup, would work out ok.
And finally the batteries I like most right now - the Xplorer PolarMax's from Alpha have the Standby option disabled from the start so it is always available (the App says Standby when it is not charging or discharging, but is remains awake). even though they don't go to sleep, the power drop when not used is so low it doesn't record.
 
wildebus said:
It is a shame the seller as about as responsive as the battery is!

I fitted a pair of 100AH Lithiums from DC Tech a couple of weeks ago which used the Daly BMS. That seems to go into a standby mode but wakes up (and then stays awake) at the slightest provocation, which seems a reasonable enough way to do it.
The Poweroad Subzeros would not go into standby until no load or charge for a full 24 hours, so again in a Motorhome setup, would work out ok.
And finally the batteries I like most right now - the Xplorer PolarMax's from Alpha have the Standby option disabled from the start so it is always available (the App says Standby when it is not charging or discharging, but is remains awake). even though they don't go to sleep, the power drop when not used is so low it doesn't record.
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Thanks, David. Your reply fleshes out my sketchy 'technical' description!
BTW, we're coming to the end of our 3 months away, sailing back to Newhaven on Tuesday evening. The trip has shown how useful an inverter would have been, so whenever you are ready, can we have a Victron 700w (iirc), fitted, please? The only change from our earlier discussion is that the heatwave in France has convinced us to replace our ancient pushbikes with a pair of electric bikes that are likely to each have 400wh lithium batteries (bottom of the range Gazelle bikes) rated as 'silver', which is around 11.8v, so I don't know if that means the inverter capacity and cabling etc needs to be

Steve
 
marchie said:
I bought 120Ah KS Energy in Jul 21. The BMS is a PITA, causing the battery to go comatose when the SOC is around 95%, so when the fridge or the Trumsa calls for a teaspoonful of electricity after about 2 hours in the evening, the battery cannot respond quickly enough, and the 12v system trips for about 1 second. This throws a Truma error code, losing the menu settings and also loses the multimedia stereo settings, so reprogramming is a regular and frustrating exercise

I emailed Neal at KS Energy but he never bothered to reply, so, when I have the spare cash, I'll buy a competitor brand that has the BT based BMS removed or disabled to avoid the 12v drop problem. David of Wildebus fame wrote about the problem with the BMS and the solution which can be mitigated by sitting in the van in mid June with every light blazing away, trying to keep the batter6 working, instead of dozing off. Neighbouring M/homers think we're mad ... 🙄

Steve
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Get your money back on it Steve it’s under warranty and obviously not fit for purpose. My cheapo TN Power have never missed a beat in over two and a half years but they are dumb (no Bluetooth or heating)
 
GMLS said:
I would guess Ecotree but happy to be corrected.
I'm looking at Roamer and KS Energy at the moment. Anyone got experience of those?
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I have just put a Roamer 460ah in my motorhome and boy what a game changer, air fryer, microwave, hot water, hair drier. don't even touch the power, I had to wait a couple of months for delivery but well worth the wait (y)
 
jeffmossy said:
I have just put a Roamer 460ah in my motorhome and boy what a game changer, air fryer, microwave, hot water, hair drier. don't even touch the power, I had to wait a couple of months for delivery but well worth the wait (y)
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That’s a decent amount of capacity, if it’s a single battery it must be huge?
The single 200Ah Renogy I have at the moment was big enough to be a bit awkward!
If we start using it for anything hungrier than a mains fridge (and I can stomach the extra weight) I may add a second one and a low frequency inverter, I really like those, just not the weight of them!
 
SquirrellCook said:
I’m thinking about buying 16 280ah lithium cells for use at home. The house points the wrong way, but I can get a 1000 watts on the front and a bit more solar on the back. I should almost be able to come off grid.
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seriously thinking of covering my roof in Panels the whole front roof faces perfect south. I could fit them myself no bother as we take them off and re fit when doing some new roofs it’s the final connection to the meter I couldn’t do. I would love to go down th route of fitting a big battery bank keep us updated on how you plan yours. Think I could get about 30 40 panels up there.559BFD38-82DA-4718-8586-73B563646BF2.jpeg
 
Wully said:
seriously thinking of covering my roof in Panels the whole front roof faces perfect south. I could fit them myself no bother as we take them off and re fit when doing some new roofs it’s the final connection to the meter I couldn’t do. I would love to go down th route of fitting a big battery bank keep us updated on how you plan yours. Think I could get about 30 40 panels up there.View attachment 64214
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Where in UK are you, I could do with a new roof, and have Solar.
( Bungalow)..I'm in Halifax.
 
We’ve had a 4kw system since 2012, one of the best investments I have made to date, with fit I reckon even before the huge price increases we were getting the equivalent of a 12% return annually.

Even without fit, there’s still a reasonable roi to be had albeit over a longer time frame.

Installing the roof panels, mounting hardware scaffolding, earth bonding and having to use a spark to get part P sign off etc is quite an expense, I wish we had put more rails up at the start, easier to add more or juggle the existing panels around.

We don’t have a south facing roof so I two arrays East/West split, not ideal but better than nothing.

If we don’t move then I am considering a ground mount South facing array in my field, circa 10kw, to charge batteries and my car, possibly not grid tied though as I don’t think the DNE here will allow that.
 
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