PianoTuna,
Understood, but I've spent countless hours looking at different scenario's, i.e; seasonal daily use, one bank vs. two banks, heat/no heat, deep discharging vs. shallow discharging, load designating, solar/no solar, and so on, and I inevitably kept coming back to having to use one large bank. For example, when I tried running my microwave off a single string, it was the only time the inverter's low voltage alarm has sounded. So, splitting the bank is just not an option, it seems.
Until this past fall, I had not taken my bank below 80-85% soc. But in order to log some charging profiles with various chargers, I brought them down to the 45-60% soc range on several occasions. What I have noticed is they no longer hold strong at 12.78 volts for weeks at a time, while in winter storage. Self discharge has risen quite noticeably. And yes, they did take a bit of a beating this past summer, due to some over charging/over heating/excessive gassing, and that likely has something to do with it, but the fact still remains, deeper discharges result in way fewer cycles and lower overall performance. Hopefully, adding solar will help with this, significantly.
My conclusion is, when not heating the camper, I need a single lead acid bank somewhere between 215 and 430 Ah's. And when I am heating, I need the 430Ah bank. 200Ah's of LI would satisfy both situations. And the fact still remains, I need to minimize charge times while maximizing battery life expectancy. Again, Li seems the best way to achieve this.
