Battery's second life

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AndyZ

Member
Joined
Sep 5, 2016
Messages
7
Hi all.
I replaced my original 60Ah pack which has been drained till 16.5kW after 90000km range to new to 94Ah.
Actually, really thinking about using old one for home storage system.
Has anybody hammered what hybrid inverter to take to be ensure it will be suitable for such 400vdc battery pack?
Thanks.
 
BMW had shown a prototype of that about a year ago. RIght now, they're tentatively planning on using those removed for warranty purposes for large scale commercial applications. You might contact them to see if they could help.
 
I'd be very interested to hear about your battery conversion. Did you do it yourself? New or used battery? Cost? Difficulty? Anything required other than the battery (controller, charger, etc)?
 
A donor had 900 miles only so the battery is almost new.
Regarding the conversion. It is simple, my friend and takes just two hours))
The battery is fully autonomous standalone unit.
That's why i thinking to use it with solar hybrid inverter for home storage. And almost sure, there shouldn't be any surprise.

The difficulties will be if you want customize or change any device inside!! When you have whole battery, replace and enjoy. But never allow BMW in service to chip your donor battery SME. Their tooling will block the SME as it has wrong VIN doesn't match with your car.

Even, my i3 from SanDiego and don't have seat heating package. So, the 60ah battery without heater too. New 94ah battery has 1kw heating wire inside and works normally...
 
Andy, are you saying you just removed the 60ah pack and installed the 94ah pack in 2 hours, and it worked?! Not even error codes? That would be big exciting news! As for your question, there are lots of inverters for 48v but much less choice and higher price for 360v. I'd consider opening the pack and put the 8, 48v modules in parallel.
 
You've lost my idea. To connect in parralel brings huge terrible with what bms to use for!!
As i said, the whole battery pack is standalone unit... It's BMS should work normally at home same as in car...
That's why i'm looking for the inverter can support 400vdc battery.
Found Fronius but it's maximum output 16A only.

Regarding errors, there wasn't any.

First of all, we have tried to install my SME and check what happen with higher capacity.
Happened nothing. New battery has been used and charged as my old one, 16.5kw.
Stopped tests and replaced back.

Already driven almost 10000km, everything is ok.

P.S. teach me how to attach the photos here))
 
Aah, forgot.
2014 and 2016 i3 have different battery's cooling inlet fitting and cooling valve wire connector.
That is only one thing has been replaced from old battery, Fitting holes are compatible!!
 
I wonder if you could use something like BimmerCode to register the new HV battery pack? In the same way that you register a new 12v auxiliary battery.
 
AndyZ said:
A donor had 900 miles only so the battery is almost new.
Regarding the conversion. It is simple, my friend and takes just two hours))
I have read that an i3's battery pack contains a safety device that immediately disconnects the battery pack during a collision to prevent deadly electrical shock danger, and that this device must be replaced before the battery pack can be used again which requires opening the pack housing. Was the donor i3 not involved in an accident?
 
AndyZ said:
I had a deal with 94ah looked into the details and haven't seen anything you mentioned inside.
This is a description of the safety box inside the battery pack compartment (in Russian). It appears that its high-voltage electrical contacts are opened during a collision as the result of a signal sent by the Advanced Crash Safety Module (ACSM) which isn't inside the battery pack compartment. The ACSM must be replaced after detecting 3 collisions. However, it appears that the safety box does not need to be replaced after a collision as you've proven.
 
AndyZ said:
P.S. teach me how to attach the photos here))

from https://www.mybmwi3.com/forum/app.php/help/faq#f3r3

You must link to an image stored on a publicly accessible web server. You cannot link to pictures stored on your own PC (unless it is a publicly accessible server) nor images stored behind authentication mechanisms, e.g. hotmail or yahoo mailboxes, password protected sites, etc. To display the image use the BBCode Img tag.

basically find a free (or paid) image sharing site like imgur.com, upload your photos, copy and paste the "share" links here. highlight the entire link and select the Img button and select the preview or submit post button

if your image address looks likes this https://i.ytimg.com/vi/GoeyzXsovXA/hqdefault.jpg

the input post should end up looking like this

Code:
[img]https://i.ytimg.com/vi/GoeyzXsovXA/hqdefault.jpg[/img]

which previews and posts as the following

hqdefault.jpg
 
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