Lithium battery

[roverrescue]

Has anyone pulled the trigger on this style of batt
PRO Power 12V Volt 50AH Lithium ION LIFEPO4 Deep Cycle Battery Solar 4WD Caravan | eBay

I'm looking to set up a standalone fridge solar setup in a shared dog box - lift on lift crate

These batts Are compatible with standard 12VDC charging setups and I like the power density of this style battery when you look at useable AH per kg...

Any users or am I to be the early adopter?

Steve

[NavyDiver]

[ame="http://fpdi.cleanenergycouncil.org.au/dam/fpdi/reports/storage-safety-performance-study-report.pdf"]http://fpdi.cleanenergycouncil.org.au/dam/fpdi/reports/storage-safety-performance-study-report.pdf[/ame]

Fire risk with LI- batteries is an issue. No good way to put one out if they do start a fire is a point in this report.

[Blknight.aus]

I can only speak of the lithium batteries that are used for support gear and power tools.

good things, I suspect that they have specialist charging requriements as all of the stuff Ive played with that is fitted with them come with their own chargers.

Having read the specs on the chargers I dont think theres anything super magic about them, if you treat them as you would one of the gel pack batteriers (no trying to charge at high amperages, or higher voltages) then you're probably on the right path to looking after them properly. This is one of the cases that I think a DC/DC charger is warranted.

[korg20000bc]

You're the Dark Lord of the Lith!

[mattims]

I have used LifePO4 batteries in my track car for a few years now and they do seem pretty good except they must not be over discharged. Hopefully that preassembled pack has protection for overdischarge built in already. They seem to be okay with accepting charge pretty quickly, my car alternator gives them about 80Amp charge after a start when there a bit flat already.

My pack is one I have assembled myself out of 8 of these cells 10Ah Headway Cells.

Headway 38120 10Ah cell LiFePO4 Cell 3.2V 10Ah


A few things I have learnt.

These cells die if you over discharge them even once. Since I have fitted an automatic low voltage cuttout I have had no problems.

Balancing between cells appears to be pretty un-needed with these cells. They are all within 0.01V after two years use.

I do not get the full 20Ah capacity I should get out my cells because there are never fully charged by the alternator, as there fully charged voltage is about 16.8V, but I think the loss is only around 10%.

These cells are much much lighter than a lead acid battery of similar capacity, but to make a 100Ah pack would actually be physically bigger than a comparable deep cycle marine battery.

All of the premade packs like that one I saw seem to have pretty low current max current capacity, I am not really sure why. Mine easily puts out 250amps to the starter motor, in theory is rated to at 200amp.

When I looked the cost of pre-made cells was much higher than building it myself. Looks like they are getting closer now so it might be worth trying.

[LandyAndy]

Has anyone pulled the trigger on this style of batt
PRO Power 12V Volt 50AH Lithium ION LIFEPO4 Deep Cycle Battery Solar 4WD Caravan | eBay

I'm looking to set up a standalone fridge solar setup in a shared dog box - lift on lift crate

These batts Are compatible with standard 12VDC charging setups and I like the power density of this style battery when you look at useable AH per kg...

Any users or am I to be the early adopter?

Steve

Send a PM to Graz.
Graham converted his Kimberley Karavan over to Lithium.Im sure he would be happy to chat about it.
He isnt all that regular on here,if you cant get him sendme a pm and I will send you his ph no.
Andrew

[roverrescue]

This site gives more specs

Pro Power 12V Volt 50ah Lithium Ion LiFePo4 Deep Cycle Battery Solar 4WD Caravan

If one believes what is written and hopes in the warranty it seems like a fair bet to me.
It should charge well off my blue solar mppt and 140W panel. I'll probably just run the 50AH model loosely the effective capacity of an 100AH lead acid. Less than 7kg and 200mm x 160mm x 170mm or so. Will report back once done.

For dry season camping should be all but stand alone.

Steve

[drivesafe]

I'll probably just run the 50AH model loosely the effective capacity of an 100AH lead acid.

Hi Steve and while I was not planning on posting in this thread but when I see misinformation like the above, I feel I need to warn you of the grossly misleading advertising used to sell some brands of Li batteries.

That 50Ah Li battery has 40Ah of usable capacity and if you matched it up with the operating perimeters of an Optima D34, you might find you are not getting such a good deal.

The primary advantage, particularly in your case, is the weight advantage.

But thats just about where it ends.

While you can safely discharge the D34 down to 10.5v, giving you 55Ah, the D34 is a 55Ah battery but if you cycle it no lower than 20% SoC, this will give you 44Ah, and allow you to get a similar cycle life as the Li.

The D34 will still only get about half the number of cycles but the D34 is just $310, or half the price. So two D34s will give you about the same cycle life for a similar cost.

The Li has a maximum charge current rate of 100 amps, while the D34 has no limit, other than monitoring it's temperature. But being as your alternator is the limiting factor, neither battery will give you an advantage over the other, except the D34 has no special charging requirements, so will be cheaper to set up.

If you had a high current usage situation, then the Li could be my useful but otherwise, for your apparent intended use, either battery will give you the same performance, with the Optima giving you a 10% greater usable capacity.

[roverrescue]

All good points tim.
Weight and size are certainly of significance for my thinking of setups.
My current setup of two n70 marine in parallel charged by above mentioned solar in dry season conditions hits float before 10am.

Obviously having 100 plus AH capacity is overkill!

As you say plenty of other 40-50AH options would suit me capacity wise but less than 7kg is hard to beat. A d34 is near three times the weight and 20+% bigger in two dimensions.

Regarding your other points this battery seems to be fine to charge off my mentioned setup will rarely if ever need alternator charging?

Also don't get me wrong those specs are read with grain of salt but it does say minimum capacity of 49AH down to 10v deep discharge so theoretically it does have 50ah capacity. Obviously that is only good for 1500 cycles with a softer hair enter of 70% capacity or 35ah but to be honest raw ah is not my biggest concern...

Someone's gotta try

This unit will charge nicely on my existing 12vdc solar setup and has more than enough capacity whilst weighing less than 7kg!

Someone has to fund battery technology advances may as well be me

S

[TerryO]

I know several long time caravaners who have swapped over to lithium batterys in the last several years and all reckon they are the best thing there is and would never go back. Caravaners were pretty much the early adopters for Li batterys.

They all charge them through solar and have purpose built Li chargers though, so might be an idea to find out if your charger is one that will or will not cause any issues with the batterys.