[meanderingthemaze]

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?

http://balqon.com/store.php#ecwid:ca...&sort=priceAsc

[bjfreeman]

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.

[meanderingthemaze]

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

[jeremyjs]

Originally Posted by meanderingthemaze

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

What could you put these things in short of a big rig? What else would take the weight.

[meanderingthemaze]

I dunno. 115 cells would be a lot. But you could probably do something with a 120V system. F-450?

[bjfreeman]

Originally Posted by meanderingthemaze

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

It is a 30 ft converted bus, 250KW electric and next year plan to put four 250KW on.
on level the Motor coach takes about ~96KW @60 mph.
we have 30-50% grades here. Mountain passes are 5-10 miles of 15% grade.

[bjfreeman]

for 115 cells roughly 8,855 lbs for a GW vehicle of 10,000 lbs.
each cell is
22 inches long
17 inchees high
5.1 inches thick.

in comparison the Ballard 150KW fuel cell is 900LBS and $480K.

[dougingraham]

Originally Posted by bjfreeman

my Guess it these have been sitting for a while, so the 3% discharge will effect the first charge voltage.

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.

[octagondd]

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.

[bjfreeman]

Originally Posted by dougingraham

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.

due to the narrow voltage band, till you hit the 80% knee.
the only way to evaluate is charge till you reach the 0.5C rate.