Is It Cheaper to Build Your Own Lithium Battery Pack?

Yes, it’s cheaper to build your own battery pack.

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If you shop for your tools and supplies wisely, you can build a single battery pack for cheaper than it cost to buy one pre-made. This, of course, can vary from situation to situation. Also, if you plan on building high-end battery packs, it will take 2 to 3 battery packs before you make your money back on the tools. 

Building A Single Battery

It is certainly possible to buy the minimum tools, supplies, and battery cells and build a DIY battery pack for a lower cost than it would have been to buy it from a builder or a store. Any time you choose to build something rather than buying something that someone else has built, you are going to save money.

If you want to build a battery pack, you will need to buy some tools which will need to be factored into the overall cost. If you are not planning to continually build battery packs, you won’t need to buy a bunch of high-end gear in order to make a good battery. With a lower-power spot welder, you may have to spend a little more time building it or use a couple more layers of nickel. 

Becoming A Battery Builder

If you plan on building premium copper/nickel battery packs over the long term, you will need to spend a little more money on the initial setup and tools. You will need the best spot welder you can buy and a really nice power supply to run it. Buying all of that stuff plus the cost of the cells and battery supplies will cost more than just buying the battery pack.

But that's only true for the first battery pack. After the second or third battery pack, they will start paying for themselves and then you'll have amassed all the tools that you need and a bunch of brand-new experience to build and sell battery packs.

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Will Building a Lithium Battery At Home Save Me Money?

Yes, you can build a battery at home, and building your own battery can save money compared to purchasing pre-made packs and it provides you with a valuable, in-demand skill. However, there are certain factors to consider and expenses to account for, which include the tools and materials required for the process.

Initial investment: Purchasing tools and equipment, such as a welder and power supply, can be costly upfront.

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Learning curve: Building a battery pack requires some level of technical skill and understanding of battery technology. So, you will have to do lots of research before building anything., 

Time investment: The process can be time-consuming, particularly if you lack experience or high-end equipment. If you try to do it fast, you will burn your house down. This is going to be a project. 

Advantages of building your own battery pack

• Cost-effective in the long run and can be cost-effective in the short term if you do your shopping right.
• Allows for customization and tailored specifications rather than simply settling with whatever some battery manufacturer makes. 
• Skill and experience development that will be able to pay for itself again and again.

At Hackaday we’re all about DIY. However, projects can have many components, and so there’s sometimes a choice between making something or buying it. In this case, [GreatScott!] wondered if it would be cheaper to make or buy a lithium-ion battery pack for his new eBike kit. To find out, he decided to make one.

After some calculations, he found he’d need thirteen 18650 cells in series but decided to double the capacity by connecting another thirteen in parallel. That gave him a 5 Ah capacity battery pack with a nominal voltage of 48.1 V and one capable of supplying a constant current of 40 A. Rather than connect them by soldering the nickel strips, he purchased a kWeld battery spot welder, adding to the cost of the build. He charged his new battery pack using his bench power supply but being concerned about uneven charging of the cells over the battery pack’s lifetime, he added a Battery Management System (BMS). The resulting battery pack powers his eBike motor just fine.

After adding up all the costs, he found it was only a tiny bit cheaper than prices for comparable battery packs on eBay, which were €24.4 per Ah (US$29.5 per Ah). The only way it would be cheaper is if he made multiple packs, spreading out the one-time cost of the battery spot welder. So that means it’s really up to your preference. See his video below to judge for yourself if you’d rather do it the DIY way. And then let us know what you’d do in the comments below.

If it’s the battery controller you’re interested in then check out this journey taken when a hacker ran into a controller which refused to charge its batteries.

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