KD4UPL wrote:
Your current battery is way too small. Your proposed 100 AH battery is still too small. If you truly want to be "energy independent" as you say you should be looking for several hundred AH of capacity. Weight really isn't an issue here as I see it. Even 4 6v GC batteries will only weigh about 400 pounds. This is "nothing" compared to the total weight of your rig. Unless you are trying to get buy with a marginal tow vehicle which would also be a bad idea for full-timing.
4 GC batteries will give you about 220 AH at 50% discharge for about $400. That's more than twice the 100% capacity of your lithium battery. What does it cost?
One 100Ah Li would be just a start. Somewhere around 400Ah would be where I want to end up. At $900 each that comes to $3,600 when I get there. They weigh around 25 lbs each, so that's 100 lbs total.
With 6V GC batteries, to get 400Ah at 50% discharge, I'm looking at around 8 batteries, about $800 and 800 lbs of weight.
I should factor in charge-cycle lifetime with cost.
The lithium is rated for 2,000 charge cycles
Deep-cycle lead acid is around, what, 200-500 charge cycles. Say 500 cycles.
That's a 1:4 lifetime ratio.
(4 batteries @ $900) x 1 = $3600 lithium
(8 batteries @ $100) x 4 = $3200 lead-acid
So it's almost the same cost given those charge-cycles.
I see the lifetime cost as equal, and the Pros vs Cons as this:
Lithium = less weight, less space
Lead-acid = less initial cost
I like the less weight/space of lithium, but the idea to have 400Ah for about $800 with GC 6V might be the right way to go.
Hmmm, some good arguments for either case...
