Pulled the Trigger on LiFePo4

Eric&Lisa wrote:
I am looking forward to the long term feasibility report!

I admit, I had to look at the website to see what the big deal is. A G-note for a battery seems pretty steep, until I realized it is a lithium ion battery. We may need locks for them like Fastguns. LOL!

Anyway... I bought a Phantom 2 quadcopter a few years back, which also uses lithium ion batteries. I had read, but failed to heed, that lithium ion batteries should NOT be stored at full charge. They should be stored at 30-40% or so charge. My thinking was... What's the point of a battery if it isn't full when I need it...so I kept them at full all the time. They lasted about 2 years before losing their ability to lift the QC off the ground. Bought new ones, and I leave them at about 30% capacity. I only charge them to full before a flight.

So I will be curious what the long term report is on this battery. Will you keep it at full charge when not in use? And if you do, how will it hold up over time?


Thanks,
-Eric

I can sort of report on this shorter term. I built a custom LFP battery system for our TC.

Here

Everything has exceeded our expectations. We have been using the system now for close to a year including a couple months of storage and non activity from charging or discharging which we just left the bank disconnected around 80% full. When we turned back on the monitors it was about where we remember leaving it. Very little self discharge.

We work the battery bank hard running a multitude of high load appliances, heating, air conditioning, cooking and all the little normal stuff like TV and charging computers. Most of our travels are in good weather. We spend our winters in the southwest where solar production is good.

I am planning on running a 1 year test of the system when we get back home to see what losses in capacity our battery bank has sustained in the first year.