Lithionics Battery

[RVR2RSQ]

Has anyone used one of these? The weight savings and/or capacity seems like a huge advantage.

http://www.lithionicsbattery.com/rv.html

According to one of their FAQs, they are 2-4x the cost of a lead acid. Seems like it may still be worth it.

- Brian

 

[RVR2RSQ]

Found AM solar reviewing it....

Here is a link to amsolar doing some testing on it.

http://www.amsolar.com/home/amr/smartlist_22/lithium.html

interesting read, doesn't seem its a finished product yet.

-Brian

 

[dwh]

Ugh. More electronics to fail. At least it comes with a second post to bypass the electronics and go straight to the cells.

Should be pretty nifty once they get the kinks worked out. Also, I can see manufacturers of chargers and converter/chargers adding words to the effect of, "Not for Lithium batteries" to their documentation. Probably going to have to be some charging system changes if/when these things take off.

I suspect, that there will be quite a few of the "moneyed-up" crowd who, instead of saving any weight, will just add more battery. Then instead of bragging about a 600ah battery bank, they'll be able to brag about a 1200ah battery bank.

 

[ttora4runner]

Bump. Anyone using one of these batteries.

 

[Rando]

I am considering switching to LiFePO4 batteries for my aux battery. I am looking at 4 CALB 100Ah 3.2V cells in series: http://www.emotorwerks.com/store/datasheets/CALB/DataSheet_40-400.pdf
These would be about the same size as my current Sears Diehard PM2 (60Ah AGM), but have almost three times the effective capacity - 80Ah usable for the LiFePO4 as opposed to 30Ah usable for the AGM, and weigh less than half as much. The only issue I am still investigating is charging the pack from my alternator. I have a 160W solar system, which has an MPPT controller I can program for the correct charge characteristics, but the alternator output is not adjustable. On thought is to put in a simple over/under voltage cutoff, set the over voltage cut-off to 14.4 V (3.6V/cell) and the under voltage to 10.4V (2.6V/cell). I don' think my alternator often goes above 14.4V, but I would want the cut-off for safety's sake. Any one else tried this, or have any thoughts on this? It seems like a much cheaper way to get similar performance to the lithionics system for about half the price.