Chevy Volt salvage battery

[scottorious]

So I picked up a salvaged Chevy Volt battery the other day to fit into my motorhome. It's got 16KWH of lithium power. The whole pack breaks down into 7 modules of 48 volts and 2 modules of 24 volts. There are quite a few of these packs out there on salvage websites and all have varying prices. If you get ahold of the right guy and the right salvage yard they may think these packs are useless. I got mine for 1200 dollars with no core charge. While that seems like a lot(and it is) I am hoping that a larger battery capacity will negate my need for a large solar array or maybe even a generator which might actually make the whole thing cheaper. In my current life I'll never be off grid for more than 7 to 10 days so if my battery can last that long or close then I can just plug it back in when I hit the grid again. I wouldn't advocate not using a BMS for these cells but my pack has been sitting in a partial state of charge for quite a while(the car had less than 10,000 miles and was a 2013) and all the cells read back at 3.801-3.803 volts. Furthermore, those with much more experience with these volt packs are finding that they stay rather balanced without a BMS as long as you're careful with not applying too much charge. The downside is that it isn't easy to break the modules down past their 48 and 24 volt sizes. So just slapping some volt modules into most RV setups won't work. If one is willing to retrofit some things or building a new setup I would think it's the way to go. Lithium batteries charge faster and more efficiently which means less expensive solar setups and less sun required to charge. Lithium gives you more useable capacity of the battery, no need to worry as much about over discharging or not getting the battery topped up fully every day.

I could go on about lithium and they aren't without flaw but they are certainly exciting tech for those willing to tinker around.

 

[frater secessus]

Interesting project. Let us know what you do with it!