battery based on sodium ion (salt)

pianotuna wrote:
Hi Drew 17 amps @ 48 volts =~68 amps @ 12 volts.

Indeed--it's easily sufficient for most usual 12V RV house needs, but not so much for powering a microwave, Keurig, or similar via an inverter, nor for powering a generator starter motor. For the latter, one could easily use the chassis battery in a motorhome or install a separate small starting battery for the generator.

I assume these batteries probably wouldn't self-destruct with higher discharge rates, but instead the performance would go down more and the voltage would sag. The curves do show a relatively significant voltage drop with increasing currents--looks to me to be about 0.5V per amp at 48V. That's somewhat worse than a single pair of golf cart batteries on a percent voltage drop at constant power, if I'm doing my mental math properly.

Hi Drew 17 amps @ 48 volts =~68 amps @ 12 volts.

Their "S line" battery seems the most suitable (or least unsuitable) for most RVs. It's roughly 1' by 1' by 3' high, weighs 260 lbs, and is a 48V battery of around 2.5 kWh at the 20 hour rate. It does appear that the internal impedance is fairly high, so these would presumably not work too well for brief high-current needs like starting motors or inverters used for things like microwaves (when the load is comparatively large for the battery). By way of comparison, this has somewhere around the usable energy storage of four golf cart batteries, with somewhat of a savings in weight.

Their distribution network seems to be very much oriented around fixed installations, presumably off-grid solar or similar alternative energy applications for the most part. It's not clear whether or not the battery is particularly susceptible to damage from vibration or off-angle operation or temperature extremes. If these are not big concerns, I don't see why it couldn't be used in an RV application with the appropriate DC-DC voltage converters and other associated ancillary work. There probably wouldn't be much tangible performance benefit for most people, though, and I assume no great cost advantage either unless one sees a great many charge/discharge cycles.

Edit: Add a link to the spec sheet for the battery.

Interesting...if the batteries work much the same as lead-acid, that would be great.

There is a LOT more sodium on this planet than lithium...

click

Lots of items can be used to generate power......fun/interesting but rarely practical

Hi Sam,

These are rechargeable. 3000 cycles to zero state of charge.

jplante4 wrote:
Not sure this would fit in my battery bay.

That kind of sums up what I was going to say.

An electronics plant that I worked at in the '60s made "sea water" batteries for the Navy. They were intended to be used, I think, with emergency beacons attached to lifeboats.

They were "activated" when flooded with sea water.
Good for the intended purpose but not a very high capacity and the chemical process was destructive if I remember correctly.

Not sure this would fit in my battery bay.