Has anyone dealt with Balqon? It appears they recently began an effort to distribute cells directly to consumers at very competitive prices. What's everyone's take on this?
they are Yellow TS that Winston took over. Winston changed to Black for thier batteries.
my Guess it these have been sitting for a while, so the 3% discharge will effect the first charge voltage.
I am tempted to get the 1000AH @$850 per cell. that is a little less than double what my 100AH cost me in 2005.
if the one cell checks out, expect to use 4 for my House batteries, and see what I have to do about a battery box for 115 cells.
There is no measurable self discharge with these cells. The datasheets from all the vendors say <3% and that is not a lie as zero is less than 3%. Unless the cell has been used since it was manufactured it will be sitting at around 3.30 volts depending on the temperature. This will be somewhere between 50 and 55% state of charge. I don't see any evidence of self discharge in the almost 6 months my batteries have been sitting since I cycle tested them for capacity.
bj,
Please come back and let us know how it goes with the single cell. I would love to see a big conversion with 115 of those 1000AH cells. That would be absolutely ridiculous.
take care
They only have small quantities of most the sizes, except 90AH I think. I wonder if they will receive Sinopoly cells or if they are just selling off before going under.
Called them today, found out that after success at University of Riverside, they seem to be taking this battery business more seriously, I heard more batteries like 60 ahr and 100 ahr are on their way. Also found out they are exclusive distributor of Winston batteries in North America. Sounded like company focused on EV truck business trying to get into battery storage business, like Tesla, Coda etc. I like the price though and they said the charge discharge 2 times before shipping any batteries.
It seems like they just installed 1.1 Mwhr system at University of Riverside and got contract for another 2 MW system for same university. Seems to me they are adding energy storage products to the electric truck line. They are publicly traded so seems reasonable
This is what I see on the UCR project, seems like getting DOE funds to install another 2 Mwhr with Solar panels http://ucrtoday.ucr.edu/6121 looks like 1000 ahr are meant for energy storage
I actually talked to them, seems like they are gearing up for smaller cell business. I like the price, but looking at the website they seem to be more geared towards building trucks and buses
In my view if you have a price that will not go lower for long time and it starts to drop, that is a breakthrough in the floor of the price and it is progress to less expensive batteries.
We can ship via courier door-to-door or by land/sea to your nearest
international port.
Please let me know what cells you're interested in so I can give you a quote for
your reference.
Thanks
Peter
Everspring Global Limited, www.everspring.net,
The authorized distributor of Winston batteries (formerly Thundersky) with 12 months warranty against manufacturing defects.
Avoid buying Winston batteries from unknown sources which will not be able to provide Warranty
None that I know of. However others are saying that Balgon is saying it is the authorized distributor, and Everspring is making the same claim.
Everspring is out of china.
Independent of the this thread, I am always looking for Products for my Eccommerce site.
As a side note the Balgon site, over the weekend, had a price of $850 for the 1000ah, and now they have jumped it up a $100, so now it matches the buy it now price on Ebay.
I also spoke with them and they claim the better pricing due to having a special relationship with Winston battery (ie: because Winston is the largest shareholder). Sounds like if you're going to order these cells, that you should order directly from them. It sounds like they are the closest things to ordering direct from a Winston Battery plant. Interesting that a previous linked article mentions that Winston is planning to build a battery plant here is So Cal. Now that could be a breakthrough.
Also interesting that the larger cells have been increasing in price. When I first found them, you could order the 1000AH cells $600 for 10+ or $595 for 100+ qt'y. The 700AH cells also raised in price.
One of the best things they said was that they give you a 5 year warranty as opposed to the typical 1 year warranty. They told me after the first year, the warranty coverage would be prorated, however.
Finally, they said that they are getting battery shipments twice a month. Now, of course, the type and size of those orders probably depend largely on demand but it sounds like they can respond relatively quickly to requests for specific sizes/qt'ys.
I'm curious to see how any sales go. Please post your results if you end up buying from them.
Interesting that a previous linked article mentions that Winston is planning to build a battery plant here is So Cal. Now that could be a breakthrough.
since they are on Ebay I can use my Paypal account and have double buyers protection.
so they are the prime candidate for me.
you have raised my expectations, but I am still only ordering one 1000 AH. I am a hands on person, even though I have all the facts and figures, I like the real thing in my hands to evaluate.
Well I feel I must say that since I've never dealt with this company, always remember: caveat emptor.
I am not endorsing them, merely sharing information. I am just as eager as you all to find out if these lower priced cells are going to bring the market prices down and ultimately make it easy for us all to convert with good products.
And I appreciate you taking the leap for us bjfreeman!
The specs show just 3C as max discharge current. So you'd need the 300AH cells to even do justice to a Soliton 1. A medium voltage pack of 60 cells means $18,000 for a 1200 lbs pack with 45KWH usable.
That makes for an expensive, heavy pack if you don't happen to need 150+ mile range. If you want performance and a 75 mile range, $12,000 of Headway 8P cells would do it with less weight, less space, and more power.
maybe we need to put in the chemistry of the battery when making comparisons.
Like TS is lithium yttrium (LYP) cells.
Operating Voltage: 2.8-4.0V
Nominal Voltage: 3.2V
Max Discharge Current (Continuous): << 3CA
Max Discharge Current (pulse): << 20CA
Standard Charge/Discharge Current 0.5CA
Cycle Life: (80%DOD) 3000
Cycle Life: (70%DOD) 5000
W*Hr/ Litre 330
Watts/Kg 720
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