Advice on Lithium Solar setup
Hello, I'm about to move into a conversion van full-time, 80% boondocking, and would like your advice about what I'm planning. My electrical requirements won't be much. I don't expect to use more t...
Forum Discussion
chuck3 wrote:
Here are my biggest questions: how will I know when the lithium battery is fully charged, and how will I know how much capacity is used or remaining? With lead batteries it's fairly simple because the volts indicate remaining capacity, but from my understanding, lithium's voltage doesn't change much between it's full and empty states (I could be wrong here).
You need AH meter, a.k.a. battery monitor, not cheap ~$170 and it won't help when you take the battery away for charging. Even with flooded/led battery you can't effectively estimate the remaining charge by looking at the voltage, other than early morning with loads off and before solar starts.
Ebay had some $40 re-settable AH meters, maybe somebody will provide a link.
If not a monitor, then get LifeBlue Battery, it comes with Bluetooth monitoring, i.e. the "monitor" chip is mounted in the battery case. 2 pounds lighter than Battleborn 100AH. Can't say anything good or bad about either brand.
