Yeah, of the ones we’re able to get locally, Pylontech seems to be quite consistently good and value for money.
One of the drawdowns of Pylontech, which would not be highlighted in this study, is that they only have 15 cells and as such lower DC voltage. This is limiting on MPPTs. For example, I only have 90A available on my MPPTs, the maximum power those MPPTs can transfer from the solar panels to the DC bus is 90A x System Voltage. In my case, the system voltage is (at most) 52.4V. So ~ 4.7kW. If I had 16 cell batteries with a system voltage of say 56V, I could go to ~5kW. It might seem like a small difference, but if you have an inverter than can deliver say 5kW, you need to discharge your batteries to get to the maximum of 5kW while you don’t need to if the system’s DC voltage is higher. (Ignoring conversion losses etc.)
The other drawback of the Pylontechs is their 0.5C rating. I don’t actually dislike it, I limit mine through Home Assistant much more (only 0.1C), but some users would like to push their batteries a little harder and Pylontech does not allow that for extended periods of time (not a bad thing in my books).
The mothership for most of the batteries with the form factor as illustrated in this thread (with and without BMS screen and with NMC or LiFePO4 filling) could be galaxy energy/galaxy solar tech.
The part 2 video also has a teardown which shows an inside close to identical to one posted on PF of an AM2 (both hubble and SJA electronics have 48V products carrying a model number AM2 and a 12V battery carrying a S100 model number).
Also in this video some of the batteries on the floor behind the speaker (apparently from Galaxy Energy) appear to have a familiar looking double CC logo (also some s100 contenders couple of seconds earlier).
Also mostly because FreedomWon is an established company that has been around for a long time. Not just a distributor who might shut up shop if there are too many issues and complaints. But who knows.
I don’t think Hubble, Evo, Kodak could be considered to be in the same class as Tesla, Pylon, FreedomWon, BlueNova, BYD etc.
I’m having some drama importing 3 x Lifepo4 cells.
Freight flights from Hong Kong to SA appear to have been canceled according to Amy, the super cool lady on Alibaba, who told me that a few moments ago.
And shipping, with the Ukraine business, I would not take that chance.
yeah, I maybe worded badly. Wasn’t suggesting importing via alibaba etc. I mean that the local copies of these batteries could have various chemistries etc. that will not be clear just because of their look (options I saw were NMC/LiFePO4 pouch/prismatic, and on LiFePO4 options for 15S or 16S).
Well, I got the contactors a few days ago, but the BMSs only arrived today.
All looks good, everything gets a step closer to that 4 x 18 cell off-grid bank.
I didn’t get charged Customs and VAT, but FEDEX normally catches that up in a couple of weeks. So I don’t think I escaped it.
So I bought 3 more Eve cells, Amy was paid, cells were delivered to the importer’s warehouse, into their container. All was lekker.
Then I got this yesterday from the importer:
Hi, nee ons het nog nie gelaai nie. China is tans op erge lockdown en ons is nou al twee weke delayed. Inteendeel ons kan steeds nie 'n datum vasstel nie.
Because of this: The number of people that are currently locked down in China is greater than the total population of the United States.
The importer has bigger worries than just my 3 cells, so it’s like “sit back, relax, have a(nother) beer”.
