Lithium batteries have an insane amount of energy in a small space. A little carelessness or ignorance and they can burn your house down, maybe with you and your family inside.
You prevent lithium disasters with close and redundant battery monitoring. If you're a really good engineer, you can design that yourself (but you may have some near-disasters along the way). If you're a shadetree mechanic like you or me, you can buy it. But buying a BMS mainly on price is - let's say - a rather risky move. Lawrence, a lot of I read from you in your posts is such words as "inexpensive" and "cheap." Budget hacks can get expensive fast if they catch fire. Not to be an alarmist, but I'm sure you don't want to become a "SF EV Hobbyist Dies in House Fire" headline. I suggest that you spring for a proven lithium battery *system* designed by someone who knows his or her stuff, and made by a qualified manufacturer that isn't some here-today-gone-tomorrow Chinese sweatshop. As far as I know, your Valence batteries are one such system. If you're not willing to spend a reasonable amount on a safe lithium battery system, then please stick with good old lead batteries. Bob Rice's infamous "Trojan Teakettles" notwithstanding, they're a lot less likely to hurt you when they're mistreated. David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA EVDL Administrator = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = EVDL Information: http://www.evdl.org/help/ = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Note: mail sent to "evpost" and "etpost" addresses will not reach me. To send a private message, please obtain my email address from the webpage http://www.evdl.org/help/ . = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/index.html INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
