Lithium Ion batteries

I was at a neighbor’s house the other night for dinner and her friend saw the solar panel I recently mounted on my truck, so we started talking about his Sprinter build, and we got into batteries. His solar set up consists of four 100 watt panels and I believe he said 4 batteries - but he’s using lithium ion. So of course, I’m now wondering about going this route, though I will likely only need two batteries.

Lots of advantages obviously, including very compact size, light-weight, faster discharge, flat discharge, longer life span, etc, etc.

Not saying I’ll buy this one, but
found this manufacturer’s for around $300:

http://www.lithiummoto.com

Wondering what reasons there may be for not doing this, if any. Price aside.

 

I would look into LFP (LiFePo4).

Never Lithium Cobalt.

First and only battery I would run in a home solar setup because of it's safety. Not as scary in a vehicle you can jump out of I guess.

Key benefits.

1. Safety
2. Life cycle
3. Weight

https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/types_of_lithium_ion

 

The litiummoto (link above) are LFP

 

I did not click your link but should have. U was answering generically.

Love LiFePo4. I get lucky because lots of start ups in Austin TX buy these guys, then liquidate them. I have bought some for $60

 

Very cool, it's only a matter of time before acid based car batteries are a thing of the past.

I would go for that 16ah option ($585).

 

The thing about lead acid is that like 99% can be recycled. Most Lithium batteries are like 9%. Kinda defeats the purpose of electrical cars as environmentally friendly.

Most LiFePo4 batteries are in the range of $10 per Ah.

So $500 should get you 50Ah.
I have seen Amazon deals in the 20-30 Ah for $150.

Once you get into the mission specific like 100 Ah, they come with like 10 or 15 yrs warranties.

 

Ridiculous prices. 16ah is enough to run a flashlight.... I use two 225AH 6v golf cart batteries. $89 each.

 

It all depends on your mission. I taught a course on energy efficiency and the analogy I would use was:
- taking 3 people to the airport in a Prius probably saves you 25% in time and 75% in gas compared to a school bus.
- taking 80 people to the airport takes 26 trips thus negating any time and fuel savings by allot.

In the case of your battery needs, you get tons of AH for an inexpensive price. It works for you even if you replace batteries 2 or three times a decade.

If you instead had a use case where you needed to pack 100AH into the woods, once or twice a month I would go for the 15Lb LFP battery that would last 10 yrs. That would be roughly $8 per month. Now what is the value of not carrying a 70Lb battery 120 times? . Your mileage may vary

 

Yeah, I was under the impression that this was a "mounted in your truck" thread. Im not backpacking with batteries.

 

I assumed since you were talking those large batteries, they had to be for a camping/hunting setup using deep cycle vs a redundant power source for cranking.

My use is for a dual battery setup that will live under the hood for a decade without adding a bunch of weight to eithre side, yet can be brought into a tent as a power station etc. I made the mistake of assuming iur use cases were similar.

 

Cold Cranking is the area this type of battery seems to hit the wall I have them for my Solar system and they great at that but....

 

Says higher cranking amps on the site, though that’s a good point: it doesn’t specify at what temp

 

Perhaps, but what is construction quality?

 

I would not know one manufacturers quality vs another's. Brands are not any indication as they are manufactured by a couple of macro factories that produce for everyone.

 

cant wait for someone to run a Lipo battery and melt their house down.

But seriously. US Battery golf cart batteries. 6V 225ah and $120/each in california run 2 to make a 12v 225ah set-up. More juice than anyone on this forum will probably need, unless they're making smoothies and running a electric heater.

I have 150ah 12v battery being fed by a 150wt renogy panel and it's run my 56 snowmaster 100% isloated for about 6 months now and the golf cart battery setup it ran for 6/7 months as well.

 

I have 4 x 12v 150ah (600ah total) flooded lead acid batteries in my enclosed race trailer. I have 4 x 100w Renogy monocrystaline panels at the generation end. I guess I am making daiquiris at the racetrack from now on.

 

The problem with the two 6V batteries is they are heavy AF. 225Ah at 12V will weigh about 130lb. 6V batteries pretty much only have the advantage of dividing that weight so they're easier to handle.

I keep saying this on a camper group I'm on - the only advantage to two 6V batteries barring some HUGE current draw is that they are lighter individually, but they're just basically halves of 12V batteries.

I use a 100Ah AGM battery on my camper and it's fine. About 65lb heavy, tho. Eventually I'll get a Lithium based battery. 100Ah LiFePo4 weighs something like 29lb. Would just be nice if they were a lot cheaper!

 

What am I missing here? How is there "no advantage" to having a 225ah battery over a 100ah battery? Thats, uh, more than twice the capacity, therefore a pretty damned big advantage. FWIW, 200w worth of solar panels charge the 225ah golf cart batteries sufficiently. I can run my edgestar and watch tv all day.....

 

The cost of the luthiummoto battery is $300

 

it’s all in dollar value vs weight vs output.
for $200 having 225ah at the penalty of 124lbs was a trade-off i found acceptable especially on a closed loop system. however i’m hooked up with optima now so i run their batteries all around