Are lithium batteries worth the cost?
I can carry two group 29s in my AF1150.
Are they worth it?
Are they worth it?
Forum Discussion
73 Replies
LFP batteries can also last a very long time. Our Battle Born LFP batteries are rated at 3000 cycles, at a full 100% charge/discharge cycle. If you did that every day it makes for over 8 years of cycling! They last even longer when used in less-than-100% cycles, in fact for simplicity you can use a linear relationship: 50% discharge cycles means twice the cycles, 33% discharge cycles and you can reasonably expect three times the cycles.
- Just for kix I went to Amazon this morning and typed in 100ah lithium battery and just in the first two pages there was 10 Lifepo4 100ah batteries for under $500...That makes them not overly expensive anymore imho and a good reason to make the change if someone has been on the fence on going lithium..
After being on the fence myself for sometime and finally buying one and using it,I could not be more impressed.. Avid Fox wrote:
Double that capacity would be awesome. LI batteries weight half as much as regular deep cycle also.
Looks like you answered your own question.
They wouldn't be worth it $$ to me but we camp differently.Avid Fox wrote:
We have one DIY 200ah LifePo4 battery pack (group 24 size) mounted in our truck camper. We have enough room for two group 29's just like you. However, 200ah is plenty of power for us.otrfun wrote:
And what do you use for charging them? Are they in a truck or RV which use DC charging sources?Avid Fox wrote:
We just built a 200ah LifePo4 battery pack that fits inside a group 24 battery box for approx. $750 purchasing cells and BMS from US distributors (~$550 purchasing from China). I've easily gotten ~160ah out of this battery pack under high loads (>100a) discharging from 100 to ~20% SOC.
I can carry two group 29s in my AF1150.
Are they worth it?
You could easily fit two of these in your truck camper. This could provide you with 320-360ah of unrestricted, usable power without stressing the battery. LifePo4's can be discharged down to almost 10% SOC under extremely high loads with only a .2v to .3v voltage drop (lead cells drop 2-3 times as much). With proper cabling you'll have zero worries about low voltage inverter alarms.
With 320-360ah you could power a typical 10k-11k truck camper a/c (120vac, 10-11a) for at least 3 hours (100 to 20% SOC) with the compressor running 100%. With the compressor cycling you could probably get 4-5 hours. Amazing performance from just two, small group 24 sized LifePo4 DIY battery packs!
Some feel lithium specific chargers are necessary to safely and fully charge LifePo4's. I respectfully disagree. Any converter/charger that can produce 14.4v to 14.6v will charge LifePo4 batteries to 100% with zero issues. We use the standard OEM Progressive Dynamic 45a converter that came with our truck camper new. We manually select the 14.4v bulk mode with the Charge Wizard and let it do its thing. It produces a full 45a of charge current for nearly 90-95% of the charge cycle. It tapers down for the last 5-10%. A lithium specific charger isn't going to do any better. Although it's not really necessary, we manually select a 13.6v float charge when the charge cycle is complete.
We also have the ability to charge our LifePo4 battery pack with a Renogy 40a dc to dc charger we installed in our truck camper (it's powered by the alternator in our truck). It produces 39-40a of charge current. We can use both the OEM converter and dc to dc charger at the same time to charge our battery pack at 85-90a. This allows us to charge a nearly depleted 200ah LifePo4 battery (10-15% SOC) to 100% in approx. 2 hours.otrfun wrote:
Avid Fox wrote:
We just built a 200ah LifePo4 battery pack that fits inside a group 24 battery box for approx. $750 purchasing cells and BMS from US distributors (~$550 purchasing from China). I've easily gotten ~160ah out of this battery pack under high loads (>100a) discharging from 100 to ~20% SOC.
I can carry two group 29s in my AF1150.
Are they worth it?
You could easily fit two of these in your truck camper. This could provide you with 320-360ah of unrestricted, usable power without stressing the battery. LifePo4's can be discharged down to almost 10% SOC under extremely high loads with only a .2v to .3v voltage drop (lead cells drop 2-3 times as much). With proper cabling you'll have zero worries about low voltage inverter alarms.
With 320-360ah you could power a typical 10k-11k truck camper a/c (120vac, 10-11a) for at least 3 hours (100 to 20% SOC) with the compressor running 100%. With the compressor cycling you could probably get 4-5 hours. Amazing performance from just two, small group 24 sized LifePo4 DIY battery packs!
And what do you use for charging them? Are they in a truck or RV which use DC charging sources?Avid Fox wrote:
We just built a 200ah LifePo4 battery pack that fits inside a group 24 battery box for approx. $750 purchasing cells and BMS from US distributors (~$550 purchasing from China). I've easily gotten ~160ah out of this battery pack under high loads (>100a) discharging from 100 to ~20% SOC.
I can carry two group 29s in my AF1150.
Are they worth it?
You could easily fit two of these in your truck camper. This could provide you with 320-340ah of unrestricted, usable power without stressing the battery. LifePo4's can be discharged down to almost 10% SOC under extremely high loads with only a .2v to .3v voltage drop (lead cells drop 2-3 times as much). With proper cabling you'll have zero worries about low voltage inverter alarms.
With 320-340ah you could power a typical 10k-11k truck camper a/c (120vac, 10-11a) for at least 3 hours (100 to 20% SOC) with the compressor running 100%. With the compressor cycling you could probably get 4-5 hours. Amazing performance from just two, small group 24 sized LifePo4 DIY battery packs!- Substantially increased usable energy in the same footprint, a fraction of the weight, and many times the cycle life. Whether or not it is worth the investment depends on your individual usage. If you're boondocking extensively, they're absolutely worth it.
I believe that people who advocate against LiFePO4 specifically, are those who have never used them or who don't have a camping style appreciable to them.
As noted elsewhere in this thread, charging them below freezing can be an issue. The battery bay on your AF1150 will not provide a lot of insulation, so you would want to invest in batteries that have built in heaters. It easily mitigates the issue.
Also, as you scale up bank size, Lithium becomes the only way to go due to space/weight -- but it doesn't sound like you're considering more than the two drop-ins at the moment. Avid Fox wrote:
Desert, mountains, generally unplugged. I usually hit a campground of some kind about every 4 days or so just to dump and fill.
Given your usage, and that you have a truck camper where weight matters, then lithium is probably a reasonable choice for you. If you can afford the up-front cost and plan to keep the camper for some time, then go for it.- Desert, mountains, generally unplugged. I usually hit a campground of some kind about every 4 days or so just to dump and fill.
Avid Fox wrote:
I already have a generator in the AF1150. I just don't like running it at 6am when coffee needs to be made, or when I want the electric mattress pad on. Inverters are awesome. Just last week I pulled the 100lb generator out of my camper. Rides better now too.
I've just kind of skipped through this thread because I have no interest in lithium batteries but what kind of camping do you mostly do?
