Nissan LEAF Battery Pouch Cells - Fire and Destruction Tests

In a LEAF Battery Module are 4 pouches, and these seem to be very tough !

- DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME -



- DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME -

"A used battery form Nissan Leaf 3.8V 33Ah, tested for how likely to catch fire when is destroyed or in flames. We had no success make it burn. Same battery after the burn test was charged/discharged twice at 1/3C - 10A - it has 30Ah capacity remaining. Before the test this cell was under salty water for 2 hours - you can see the contact are destroyed."














- DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME -

Done - New GTI interconnects for the DIY ESS

I finally found time to make these short and clean interconnects for the Grid Tie Inverters stack and tested them (Video at the end of this post)

After cutting the 2.5mm2 electric wire to the right length, a little bending on each end, and using a good soldering iron, I could easily make the 6 pairs of 8mm lugs + wire interconnects 

A littler piece of thick paper to make a pattern for the next ones

Fits very nicely after a little adjustment  

Soldering quickly , filling solder inside the hole without have the plastic burn !

There is a good contact between the lug and the terminal after screwing the nut

Adding more inverters to the stack

BEFORE : The grid tie inverters already in use and wired

4 brand new ones received recently that will soon be part of the ESS

AFTER : The same stack with the new interconnects

DC Power is ON (GTI Mode) and the first inverter's AC side is switched ON 

Overview of the Grid Tie Inverters stack, Battery Pack, Control Board, and Wattson in the back

The whole stack is ON (DC & AC) and after long minutes of test, nothing is heating up (wires, lugs, connections) 

Net usage is low

A little video of the ESS fully using its 6 GTIs (out of 8, 2 not wired yet) going up to 1200W +



BTW, this is what I was watching on Youtube at the same time:  Daft Punk - Get Lucky



ESS overview

and this is Wattson Anywhere's Graphs for this good test sunday (click screen capture for direct link to my live graph)
 

DIY ESS - New GTI lugs for interconnect

Last sunday, since the drill was out of its case, and I got 6mm and 8mm lugs the day before, I tried to make a 6mm lug into a 7mm to fit the Grid Tie Inverters' terminals ...

It did not work as planned: I bent the lug big time during the drilling and realized that the copper was - of course - showing once the hole had been drilled all the way, which in time might bring corrosion and a loss in conductivity

6mm lug drilled to 7mm

It fits now perfectly onto the 7mm terminals of the GTI

7mm

6mm, 7mm, 8mm

6mm does not fit

8mm is loose

Got cable & lugs at my local boating store

Saturday I stopped at my local boati ng store next to la Seine in Boulogne and got 4 meters of 35mm² copper cable, and some extra 35mm² 8mm (hole) lugs; Some heat shrink to, but it does not fit and I will have to return these 

Some more crimping ahead ...

Copper Lugs found in Boat Store in Boulogne - New Lugs & More Crimping

Sometimes, you do not need to go very far to find what you need; This saturday moring, I went to a first boat equipment store in Boulogne, found some nice BlueSea bus bars (made of copper) but no lugs ...

In the afternoon, I tried another boat equipment store, next to La Seine, with boats for sale, and it was a huge store ! I eventually found what I was looking for: some copper lugs for 25mm² and 35mm² cables, and also 25mm², 35mm² and 50mm² copper cables by the meter 

For a start, I got two packs of 4 lugs, 25mm² with 8mm hole and 35mm² with 8mm hole too for 1 EUR and 1.5 each, which is not bad ... I can always come back anytime ...

So on sunday, I got rid of these huge aluminum cables and replaced them by shorter twin 16mm² cables, crimped togeter in one lug

Negative cable screwed onto the Battery Bank terminal

and onto the Grid Tie Inverter negative terminal

Same for positive cable

screwed on the Tyco Kilovac contactor

and on the Grid Tie Inverters

Grid Tie Inverters stack (the ESS is ON)

Et voilà !