New member introduction thread!
-
Hi All,
Tim here. I'm a software engineer by trade with some electronics/hardware/electrical knowledge (no chemistry to speak of though). I'm interested in flow batteries because I think they are in general a better idea for long-term stationary energy storage than lithium. I've had three+ years experience at my home with Redflow ZCells hooked up to Victron inverter/charger gear, and have written rather a lot of blog posts about this, some of which @kirk has quoted here in the past. The latest is https://ourobengr.com/2025/08/yeah-that-went-well/ which includes some speculation about why Redflow's zinc bromine flow batteries may fail, and some possible mitigations. Not sure exactly how best I can help yet, but I'd love to see an open source flow battery get off the ground
-
Hi All,
Tim here. I'm a software engineer by trade with some electronics/hardware/electrical knowledge (no chemistry to speak of though). I'm interested in flow batteries because I think they are in general a better idea for long-term stationary energy storage than lithium. I've had three+ years experience at my home with Redflow ZCells hooked up to Victron inverter/charger gear, and have written rather a lot of blog posts about this, some of which @kirk has quoted here in the past. The latest is https://ourobengr.com/2025/08/yeah-that-went-well/ which includes some speculation about why Redflow's zinc bromine flow batteries may fail, and some possible mitigations. Not sure exactly how best I can help yet, but I'd love to see an open source flow battery get off the ground@tserong Thanks Tim great job on your blog btw! You are perhaps the only person online documenting the experience of using a true large scale flow battery system.
-
Hi All,
Tim here. I'm a software engineer by trade with some electronics/hardware/electrical knowledge (no chemistry to speak of though). I'm interested in flow batteries because I think they are in general a better idea for long-term stationary energy storage than lithium. I've had three+ years experience at my home with Redflow ZCells hooked up to Victron inverter/charger gear, and have written rather a lot of blog posts about this, some of which @kirk has quoted here in the past. The latest is https://ourobengr.com/2025/08/yeah-that-went-well/ which includes some speculation about why Redflow's zinc bromine flow batteries may fail, and some possible mitigations. Not sure exactly how best I can help yet, but I'd love to see an open source flow battery get off the ground -
Hi All,
I am Andre from Germany and I am an engineer with experience of high pressure tightening of metal surfaces up to 2000 bar (automotive diesel injection systems). I found the fbrc page through a c't heise articel and I directly like to say thank you for release your results as an Open Source project and if I can, I like to support! For long time I am thinking about and searching for robust and effective way to store the solar and wind energy from my pv systems for periods without or less energy.
Lithium batteries are very expensive for storing higher capacities for longer time, therefore I think Redox Flow batteries could be a good solution, because space and weight is stationary no problem. My hobbies are 3D printing, milling (build myself), programming in python, linux, rasperry pi + arduinos, build a pv tracking system to follow the sun with the modules the whole day and much more small project in home automations.
My final goal would be to build a scaled up Redox Flow system after I got experiences with your actual test system.Greetings
Andre -
Hi Andre, welcome in the club. Your target sounds very well to me - but I do not have a wind turbine (beside my DIY test drives). We are having very little wind conditions in our area, so it does not make too much sense.
Enjoy the trip.
-
Hi All,
I am Andre from Germany and I am an engineer with experience of high pressure tightening of metal surfaces up to 2000 bar (automotive diesel injection systems). I found the fbrc page through a c't heise articel and I directly like to say thank you for release your results as an Open Source project and if I can, I like to support! For long time I am thinking about and searching for robust and effective way to store the solar and wind energy from my pv systems for periods without or less energy.
Lithium batteries are very expensive for storing higher capacities for longer time, therefore I think Redox Flow batteries could be a good solution, because space and weight is stationary no problem. My hobbies are 3D printing, milling (build myself), programming in python, linux, rasperry pi + arduinos, build a pv tracking system to follow the sun with the modules the whole day and much more small project in home automations.
My final goal would be to build a scaled up Redox Flow system after I got experiences with your actual test system.Greetings
Andre@AK Welcome to our community! First step would be to reproduce our research kit so that you can familiarize yourself with the technology.
We are also doing the development of the large scale system, but this is still in early phases. We have just done the initial large scale single cells and have yet to do any stacks or actual charge/discharge at this scale. It will take a while but hopefully we will have a full scale open source system in the kwh scale within a year.
-
Hi all, we ask new members to please introduce yourselves here so we can get to know you and your interests!
It would be nice for us to also know:
- How did you find FBRC and this forum?
- What is your interest in flow batteries?
- How do you see yourself getting involved?
Welcome, and thanks for being here!
@kirk Hi,
I'am doho, in retirement since last year. Since my childhood I am interested in all kind of technics, later on especially in electronics and a little computer-science, although I worked in another field most of my working time. Now I try to learn more about mcu's and sbc's (arduino, ESP32, RPI)
I'm interested in flow batteries since many years to optimize my system 20kW PV with 30kWh LFP-batteries, using a heat-pump for the house (i.e. much energy in the summer, but too low in the winter where I would need it. A storage problem). But i noticed many companies and projects to come up and crash long time before ready to market.I found FBRC in one of the last issues of c't (Heise-Verlag, heise.de) and was interested at once.
Meanwhile I'm building your test-cell, 3D-printing is done, pumps are in loco, arduino is programmed,but I'm waiting for some other components,
especially: do you have an alternativ suggest for the tubing (I have purchase a tube TYGON LMT-55, but I'm not shure it will work).I'm sure, for starting, when construction is more ore less finished, I will need some help of the comunity.
Perhaps my faulty trials will bring a little progression, I will report.
I know my english is very poor, due to lack of experience in the last years, but I hope this should not be a problem.
Sincerely
Dr. Georg Hoffmann -
@kirk Hi,
I'am doho, in retirement since last year. Since my childhood I am interested in all kind of technics, later on especially in electronics and a little computer-science, although I worked in another field most of my working time. Now I try to learn more about mcu's and sbc's (arduino, ESP32, RPI)
I'm interested in flow batteries since many years to optimize my system 20kW PV with 30kWh LFP-batteries, using a heat-pump for the house (i.e. much energy in the summer, but too low in the winter where I would need it. A storage problem). But i noticed many companies and projects to come up and crash long time before ready to market.I found FBRC in one of the last issues of c't (Heise-Verlag, heise.de) and was interested at once.
Meanwhile I'm building your test-cell, 3D-printing is done, pumps are in loco, arduino is programmed,but I'm waiting for some other components,
especially: do you have an alternativ suggest for the tubing (I have purchase a tube TYGON LMT-55, but I'm not shure it will work).I'm sure, for starting, when construction is more ore less finished, I will need some help of the comunity.
Perhaps my faulty trials will bring a little progression, I will report.
I know my english is very poor, due to lack of experience in the last years, but I hope this should not be a problem.
Sincerely
Dr. Georg HoffmannMeanwhile I'm building your test-cell, 3D-printing is done, pumps are in loco, arduino is programmed,but I'm waiting for some other components,
especially: do you have an alternativ suggest for the tubing (I have purchase a tube TYGON LMT-55, but I'm not shure it will work).Welcome to the club! I'm also building the cell and having issues getting that tube. I think I found a good source for it in germany but I'd need to buy 15m @ 18€/m. If you're interested, I could buy the 15m and sell you 1m or how much you need. I'm sure there are others who would want some.
-
Meanwhile I'm building your test-cell, 3D-printing is done, pumps are in loco, arduino is programmed,but I'm waiting for some other components,
especially: do you have an alternativ suggest for the tubing (I have purchase a tube TYGON LMT-55, but I'm not shure it will work).Welcome to the club! I'm also building the cell and having issues getting that tube. I think I found a good source for it in germany but I'd need to buy 15m @ 18€/m. If you're interested, I could buy the 15m and sell you 1m or how much you need. I'm sure there are others who would want some.
@sepi
Thank you for your welcome.
I'm located in germany, "nord-oberpfalz".
I would take 5m at this price, (I just now only need less than 1m) just to have some in reserve for further experiments.How can I get in contact with you? Paying in advance would be no problem.
