Anything new in batteries for solar
I have four 31 size lead acid batteries. They are heavy and you only get to used half their capacity. Is anything come up recently that could be a reasonable replacement--probably lithium?
Forum Discussion
pianotuna wrote:
That is why LI is so attractive even at the premium price.
However the Firefly, and Outback batteries can handle undercharging for 30 cycles and still come back to full capacity. They don't have a price advantage over LI, and of course they are heavy as the dickens. But they can be charged in extreme cold without dying.
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That Outback Nano-Carbon AGM 100A 12V is US$255 at the Alt-E store you linked to earlier. That's similar in price to other quality AGMs I've seen. And apparently it's not as fussy as other AGMs about PSOC (like LandYacht's NorthStar), and can do 2500 cycles down to 50% or thereabouts. So if I were buying an AGM, that's what I go for.
More cycles than 2000, heck, more cycles than 1000, I don't really care about. We're not full-timers. I figure 100 deep discharges per year max. So 1000 is more than enough. The batteries will age out, get stolen, or I'll be dead, or new technology will make them obsolete in ten years.
On the other hand, I do like those BattleBorn LiFePO4 because their BMS seems to be very proactive in protecting the cells. With the low temp charging cutoff (assuming 7 below freezing is good enough), you could possibly leave them out through the winter. They would stop charging when it got too cold, and prolly stop feeding loads later on when the battery V dropped too low. But when it warmed up, they could go back into business, or at least that's the way their literature reads. Haven't seen any other LiFePO4 BMS with such thorough protections built in.
