Name That Battery Component!

I need help identifying components to a battery power station. I didn't build it, the person who did isn't around, and I want to use the power station for one additional task. To be clear, I am almost-completely new to all this and have very little guidance on what needs to be done and how to go about it.

HOW IT IS NOW:
he power station is hooked up to a large solar panel array that generates power, stores it in the power station, then uses it to run a well system 24/7/365.

WHAT ELSE I WANT:
I want to tap into the power station to have an AC or even DC light source to provide radiant heat for the plumbing components inside the pump house. There are no outlets or receptacles anywhere on the power station to make this a simple process.

I have pictures of all the components below. Can anyone help me figure out the next steps? If it requires I acquire/purchase additional components, that's fine. Please identify them and I can take care of it.

Here's the exterior of the battery box/power station. The large box on the top is the solar charge controller. It collects the power from the solar panels, then transfers it to the batteries to charge them.



Here's the front. The main cut-off switch is the red and white dial on the front.



The batteries are in the bottom section, connected together. The upper shelf of the power station has this. I assume it's an inverter. I see no outlets/receptacles on it, however. Would someone please confirm this, then provide guidance on how to use it to connect a light to this somehow?



Here's an exterior component. It's mounted directly on the top of the power station. I think it indicates how much power remains in the system. Any guidance?



Here's another component, connected to the power station but mounted in a different area of the pump house. My assumption is that it was mounted there so its info could be quickly assessed without having to crawl into the pump house to do it.



...That's it! Please help.

Meanwhile, I found a DIY battery power station video that has provided some insight, but doesn't answer all the questions I have. For reference, here's the video link.



(Incidentally, I intend to build myself one of these...! The video is accessible, and if most of the components are available through HF then I ought to be able to afford it, as well.)

Steven,

The picture that you referred to as an inverter is actually a BMS, or Battery Management System.  It looks like it was manufactured by the company Daly (or it is a clone).  The purpose of the BMS is to ensure that your battery runs at peak optimization.  A good BMS will cut off the battery from overcharge and undercharge.  Moreover, it will cut it off during times of too high or too cold a temperature.  Basically it protects the battery from extremes.  One of the more exotic functions of a GOOD BMS it to measure the charge of each individual cell and turn the whole battery off if one cell becomes over/under charged.  Better still, it is possible with some BMS modules to have an attached cell balancer to ensure that each cell tops out at the same voltage and discharges to the same voltage.  The helps to prevent one cell from over or under charging and eventually die early, ruining the whole battery pack.

I can't tell from the picture, but some BMS modules can connect to your phone via blue tooth and give you a live status update of the battery pack.

Hope this helps,

Eric

Stephen B. Thomas wrote:The batteries are in the bottom section, connected together. The upper shelf of the power station has this. I assume it's an inverter. I see no outlets/receptacles on it, however. Would someone please confirm this, then provide guidance on how to use it to connect a light to this somehow?

The red thing looks more like a DC step down convertor than an inverter to me. They use step down convertors to lower the voltage from the solar panels to the batteries, so it sounds like it's in the right place for that. I'm not very familiar with solar systems, but hopefully somebody here will have an idea for a heater/light that uses DC power.

Steven,

Your picture labeled with an upside down "B" looks like some type of display.  But as it is covered with sawdust and it was not turned on, I am still a little fuzzy.

The picture below that one with the little orange buttons on the side looks like a Battery Monitor.  A Battery Monitor will perform some of the functions of a BMS, but it will not actually turn the unit on or off.  Essentially a Battery Monitor is like an elaborate volt meter, but probably measures wattage output, current, run time, battery state-of-charge and other features.  Again, as I can't actually see the display, I can't be certain.  Alternatively, it might be an old Solar Charge Controller that is no longer in use.  Again, I can't exactly say.

Eric

Hi Steven;
You're dealing with a DC power system, probably 12 volts could be 24 volts.
The unit on top is an Mppt solar charge control.
It will supply the most charge possible to the batteries, even in low light conditions.

A BMS is actually used with lithium batteries and performs a different but similar job as a solar charge control.

Tapping a small pure sine wave inverter into those batteries could be done... but not without knowing the capability of your solar panel and the usage demands of the deep well pump.

Creating another small solar charge station might be your best bet.
It will, of course, cost more, but you will not disrupt/damage the well pump.
Plus you will have plenty of power for other jobs and you might learn a thing or two along the way.
Create an "operator manual" for any new system to avoid any future confusion.

OK, the components with orange buttons is probably a display that shows information coming directly from the solar charge controller.  It appears that there is a phone/data cable that connects if with the charge controller.  Basically, you need to be able to read information from your charge controller and they either have an onboard display (but not yours), a Blue Tooth connection to your phone or they have a little separate display which appears to be the case here.

This leads me to think that the other component with the upside down "B" is a voltmeter and/or a battery meter with some type of multifunction display.

Unfortunately I don't see an inverter or anything with an AC receptacle.  Maybe it is buried in there further, but you definitely want to find it or attach a new one in order to run AC power.

Eric.

I think Thomas is right about this being a 12-24 DC system.  Building a new battery pack is certainly possible--I am in the middle of one of those projects right now.  It will require some money and a little skill, skill that is relatively easy to pick up as you go.

Upon further examination I have a couple of concerns.

First, the wiring is not protected.

More importantly though, in the first picture at the lower-left of the table there appears to be a little fuse block.  The problem is that the fuse block appears to not be connected to anything.  This makes me more than a little nervous.

My suggestion would be to take more pictures, both including wide-angle shots and more of the close-up details.  You might also consider taking part of the build apart and taking still more pictures so we can figure out what is going on with this system.   Have you tried turning it on yet?

Eric

I would strongly advise against using a lamp as a heat source. The batter will be drained very quickly.

Instead get something like a heating cable [1] and put it next to the pipe, wrapping them both together with some kind of insulating tape.

You can figure out the voltage by counting the number of cells and multiplying by 3.2V.

1: https://www.oemheaters.com/product/6152/24v-dc-heat-cable-35-wattsfoot

Eric Hanson wrote:Upon further examination I have a couple of concerns. [...] My suggestion would be to take more pictures, both including wide-angle shots and more of the close-up details.  You might also consider taking part of the build apart and taking still more pictures so we can figure out what is going on with this system.   Have you tried turning it on yet?

It's been powered-on up until earlier this week, when I shut it off to prevent water from being in the pipes. To sum up the situation: this powers the pump house up at the Lab (the larger, off-grid parcel of land at Wheaton Labs) and things were going fine until we detected temperatures inside the pump house that were below-freezing. To prevent damage to the pump components, I cut power then drained the water lines.

Yeah, it looks as though that fuse block was added to the components board but never implemented.

I am heading up to the Lab now, and will have some additional photos to report back with later today.

Thanks to everyone for their input so far! I'm 95% flying blind with this and learning as I go. All these details are tremendously helpful. :)

Instead of expensive heating cable you could also use a regular cable.

Assuming it is a voltage U=24V system and you need a power P=10W of heating. current I = P / U = 10W / 24V = 0.42A To calculate the needed resistance: R = U / I = 24V / 0.42A = 57 Ohm AWG 39 has 2.7 Ohm / meter. So you need 57 Ohm / (2.7Ohm/meter) = 21meters of that cable.

If there is ever a short, it will just evaporate and act as a fuse.

EDIT:
Technically, you could start a fire with this if you wrapped it all up in a ball and insulate it very well.
But if it is spread across all the piping, wrapped around or fixed to it with tape, I don't see that as a risk.

So, is this a new system?
Or was it installed and running last winter?
If so, what did they do about freezing then?

That is an epever charge controller. They only work at 12 or 24 volts. That black box is a battery monitor. Depending on how much power the array is putting out I would use a DC solid state heater 12 or 24 volts depending on system voltage. Enclose everything that can freeze in a smaller insulated area to limit total power requirements.

Sebastian Köln wrote:I would strongly advise against using a lamp as a heat source. The batter will be drained very quickly

I agree with your assessment. Paul suggested that once temperature is stabilized that we use a USB-powered lamp instead. I switched to that just a bit ago. His suspicion is that the portable power station doing its energy conversion/internal transformer stuff plus the lamp together will generate enough heat to keep things above freezing, and even if we stick with this method for a longer period we won't have to change out the battery so often.

That said, your heating cable suggestion looks fantastic!

Here's the current setup. Not as fancy as a heat cable, but it might work for the short term.

thomas rubino wrote:So, is this a new system?
Or was it installed and running last winter?
If so, what did they do about freezing then?

We shut off the water last year because the pump house was nowhere near completion then. It's mostly done now, and I only noticed these temperature issues when I was passing by doing other tasks at the Lab.

For now I've done the same thing we did last year and drained the lines, but the hope is that things are in a much better state this season and we'll be able to keep the water running.

More photos of the components: helping me out, but also satiating others' curiosity, I suppose.

Here's the battery monitor, up close.



Here are details from the side of the battery monitor. Not sure if this is helpful or useful at all.



More battery data was available on this device. Looks like another battery monitor? It also still has power so maybe it's wired in-line with the batteries and not in line with the main cut-off switch.



The video I cited in my OP above notes that wiring everything through the main cut-off switch prevents the battery from being drained even when the system is powered-down, like it is now. So were I to build a device like this, chances are I'd do what I could to ensure the cut-off switch controlled access to power for everything.

Meanwhile... Here's a closer view of the Daly BMS:



Thanks once again to everyone for your help, feedback, and guidance. Should you have any additional suggestions - and especially any suggestions on a localized heat source and how to hook it up - please share here.

I suggest you take the model number + brand of each of the componets  and do a search on the internet and add  Manual + PDF to the search.       Most devices have PDF manuals you can download for free and find out tons about each of the devices as to what they do and how to use them.


Also goto youtube and type in the model numbers and search often there are videos that tell what the unit is, what it does and how to set it up.


I do this often for figuring out items I get at garage sales.