We received an inquiry email from Karol, head of product from a leading Hive kit producer all over the Europe from Switzerland, looking for LiFePO4 batteries for their Varroa kit & Hive kit.

“We are a startup from Switzerland and we are looking for LiFePO4  batteries for our application. It will be an outdoor application that will operate in temperatures above 0°C, but it will have to survive even -30°C in sleep mode. We are not so restricted by size. We will need around 100 Wh in the battery pack.

In the case of the voltage, we were thinking about something between 12 and 28 V. We will need 20-28 V and 1.2 A as the output, but we can use voltage regulator if necessary.”

They have very strict requirement on dimension. Height of the battery pack should be less than 40mm.

Our engineer make several design on the battery pack and finally, we get an agreement on it.

We called NPFC24-4B with dimension of 228*74*31mm.

Due to the transportation restrictions, the LiFePO4 battery pack should be less than 100wh.we made the lifepo4 battery pack at 24V and capacity at 4Ah.

The most challenge of the battery pack is temperature request.

“We must check what certifications we would need for the battery pack in Canada (the first priority), New Zealand, the US, and the European Union.

The battery shall survive winter down to -30°C, even 40°C if possible, but the battery will be disconnected below certain level. Winter in Canada: "in the coldest months of the year, January and February, daytime temperatures range from -5 to -15°C (23 to 5°F). They can drop as low as -30 to -40°C (-22 to -40°F) for short periods of time.”

We used the special lower temperature LiFePO4 battery cells with latest material technology to make the battery pack still working at -40°C.

We firstly provide 2 units of the the 24V 4Ah LiFePO4 battery pack as sample for test and delivered they by UPS to Switzerland.

They are delivered on 6^th of June and we are waiting for feedback from Karol to provide any necessary support.