battery based on sodium ion (salt)

:S
NOW I get it.
:)

Mex, that is excellent! And if you have frustrating problems with the unit -- is that aggravated battery? If it does not work, is that attempted battery?

Thanks KD4UPL.

The initial cost is about 3 times the price of AGM. Going by cycle life they should outlast 4 sets of AGM. We don't use Li so I don't know how they compare.
Aquion was working to get their specific charge profile programmed into the major brands of inverter/chargers so it could be selected in a menu. Most models now have settings for flooded, AGM, and a custom one you can program yourself. At the time I think only SMA had the menu item in their Sunny Island product. The charging, if I remember correctly, was a constant voltage. There was no separate bulk, absorb, and float voltages. The nominal voltage was a little lower than 48. Maybe around 46 I think.

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:

Charge of A SALT & BATTERY

I like that one :)

It's too early to compare costs yet. Sodium is indeed more readily available than lithium, and 3000 cycles is a lot - but this needs to be verified. There was a lot of noise around super-long life of Li batteries when they first came up. Now that thousands had been sold with electric bikes, an average reported life came down to mere 600 cycles. Electric cars fare better because they are not discharged below 60-70% SOC.

Wonder what its charging/discharging profiles are. Of course, I wouldn't be surprised to find chargers for these insanely expensive.

Hi KD4UPL,

Thanks for the insights.

How does initial cost compare with LI? with AGM?

KD4UPL wrote:
We're dealers for these batteries at work. We should be installing our first set in a house later this month. I've been to the factory where they are made.
They are only offered in 48v and they are quite heavy (like all batteries). I would only see a good fit with a very large RV.

If their claims of cycle life prove to be correct this will be a nice step up from using lead acid batteries in off grid homes. It will reduce battery change-outs by a factor of 3 or 4 due to these batteries longevity.

KD4UPL wrote:
It will reduce battery change-outs by a factor of 3 or 4 due to these batteries longevity.

The AGM design has already done that for start batteries.

I don't know if they hold that much of an advantage in deep cycle applications though.

We're dealers for these batteries at work. We should be installing our first set in a house later this month. I've been to the factory where they are made.
They are only offered in 48v and they are quite heavy (like all batteries). I would only see a good fit with a very large RV. The reason they are limited to 17A per stack is due to the size of the internal and external wiring. They really aren't designed to deliver large current output. They are more for lesser draws over a longer period of time like you would find in an off grid home. Also, they are meant to be installed with many many stacks in parallel to help achieve a greater current output.
If their claims of cycle life prove to be correct this will be a nice step up from using lead acid batteries in off grid homes. It will reduce battery change-outs by a factor of 3 or 4 due to these batteries longevity.