Comment by _heimdall | Hacker News Reader

Comment by _heimdall | Hacker News Reader

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I've been really frustrated with price gauging in the installation quotes (also in the southeast). I'm no professional installer but I have done a few systems, one was a concerted cargo van with an off-grid 1kW system an 7.2kWh of lithium. The other system I'm in the progress of now, 9.1kW solar and around 70kWh of slightly used automotive cells.

For the system I'm working on now I have around $10k into the hardware if I'm not mistaken. There's plenty of skill and time that goes into designing the system, custom wiring, etc. I also had wuotes around $50k-60k. There's no way in hell I can justify 80% of the price in labor, very happy I happen to live in an area where I can install this myself without running into regulatory issues.

Where did you get the automotive cells?

I got them from Battry Hookup[1] late last year. I wasn't ready to do the full build yet, I've since built a "shed" that is way overbuilt and more of an kff-grid tiny house to store all of our solar equipment.

That site is pretty hit or miss with stock since it is all repurposed equipment, but if you happen to catch the right equipment going by you can get a really good deal for anything DIY.

[1] https://batteryhookup.com/

You were not kidding. On the front page of this moment is "14,000 3v Lithium CR2032 Coin Batteries" held in two barrels with a weight of 200 pounds. A tremendous bargain, if you can snatch it at the current bid of $20.

Hah, yeah just be careful with those tiny batteries if that's the way you choose to go. Different chemestries have very different outcomes and I've never been comfortable with scaling tiny batteries up to a whole-home use.

I was about to order a pallet of new lithium cells from one of the US resellers when the batch of repurposed automotive cells popped up. When I was pricing them out I could get the cells and a DIY BMS for around half the price as rack batteries often used by DIYers today. There's more work involved in putting the cells together yourself, but it is nice knowing how it works and how to fix it should a cell fail.

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