Switching to Lithium Ion Battery Bank?
I'm toying around with replacing my current 300AH 6v Lifeline AGM batteries wired in series with a Lithium Ion Battery pack. The cost is certainly a lot higher and maybe I'm just looking for trouble but the idea is interesting to me. A bit of background...
The Lifeline AGMs came from another camper that I purchased used. That owner had pulled his genset out and replaced them with these two large batteries. They didn't fit in my new camper battery compartment so I have them sitting in the bed of my truck (one on each side and wired together in series with some 4AWG) wires before coming back into the camper. The setup works okay for the most part but I do have long wires to make it work and I think it's holding the batteries from charging fully. I've never had any issues with the batteries not being able to do the job for a couple of days but I think I'm only able to top them off to around 80 percent capacity.
I would like to go back to having the batteries in the camper to simplify my setup. I've done some research and it seems that a commercial RV 100AH Lithium Ion Battery will run about $1200. That of course leaves me 200AH less than what I had and the price can't be justified. I am considering building my own battery pack (seems like an interesting project that isn't beyond the reach of my abilities) but sourcing good cells for a good price appears to be hit and miss. The third route I am now exploring is reaching out to an EBike maker that cells battery packs. They have a 50v, 25AH battery pack but I've inquired if they could wire it to be a 12v (14.8v actually), 100AH battery pack. The cost for this pack is $719 which is about the same as replacing my two AGMs.
Now, I will loose 200AH of capacity by making the switch so I'm not really gaining on that end, however, do I really need 300AH of capacity in the first place? Looking at my camper, I don't see a lot of high drain devices so I'm thinking I might be able to get away with the smaller capacity.
So, my questions are:
1. Does anyone have any experience with Lithium Ion batteries in their camper?
2. What is the AH capacity of your camper and given your typical load, how long can you last comfortably if it was less than optimal for solar charging and you didn't want to charge via the truck or genset?
The Lifeline AGMs came from another camper that I purchased used. That owner had pulled his genset out and replaced them with these two large batteries. They didn't fit in my new camper battery compartment so I have them sitting in the bed of my truck (one on each side and wired together in series with some 4AWG) wires before coming back into the camper. The setup works okay for the most part but I do have long wires to make it work and I think it's holding the batteries from charging fully. I've never had any issues with the batteries not being able to do the job for a couple of days but I think I'm only able to top them off to around 80 percent capacity.
I would like to go back to having the batteries in the camper to simplify my setup. I've done some research and it seems that a commercial RV 100AH Lithium Ion Battery will run about $1200. That of course leaves me 200AH less than what I had and the price can't be justified. I am considering building my own battery pack (seems like an interesting project that isn't beyond the reach of my abilities) but sourcing good cells for a good price appears to be hit and miss. The third route I am now exploring is reaching out to an EBike maker that cells battery packs. They have a 50v, 25AH battery pack but I've inquired if they could wire it to be a 12v (14.8v actually), 100AH battery pack. The cost for this pack is $719 which is about the same as replacing my two AGMs.
Now, I will loose 200AH of capacity by making the switch so I'm not really gaining on that end, however, do I really need 300AH of capacity in the first place? Looking at my camper, I don't see a lot of high drain devices so I'm thinking I might be able to get away with the smaller capacity.
So, my questions are:
1. Does anyone have any experience with Lithium Ion batteries in their camper?
2. What is the AH capacity of your camper and given your typical load, how long can you last comfortably if it was less than optimal for solar charging and you didn't want to charge via the truck or genset?
