Lithium Battery Upgrade

[stevemorris]

i need a new battery for our 26ft tt, the old lead/acid rv/marine battery is virtually dead after 10 years of service.

is it worthwhile to upgrade to a 100 Ah li battery and the necessary new charger?

we do boondock occasionally and probably would do more with a better battery capacity. the old lead/acid battery was rarely adequete for more than one night boondocking running the usual lights, fridge and water heater controls.

[stevemorris]

StirCrazy wrote:

LouLawrence wrote:
There is no possible financial advantage to putting Li in your coach as a replacement for a more affordable option like lead acid (not my favorite, but cheap) or AGM (my favorite but a bit more expensive). If you are expecting the World to come to an end and you plan to survive this by having an RV that can support you without any grid of any kind, then maybe the few thousand extra dollars would make some sense.

why do people always compare the sams club 6V to LFP you comparing the bottom of the class to the top of the class. if your going to compare a lead acid at least get close. how about we try comparing a rolls surette 6V at 450.00 cdn for 235AH so two of those will give you 117ish usable AH for 900 plus tax and about 900 cycles.

for 319.00 cdn I can get one of these and have 100AH usable, if you don't want to use 100% of the capacity get two and have 160 AH usable heck you can get three and only pay 60 bucks more than the rolls surette and have 240 usable AH at 80% depth of charge and 4000 cycles so now over the life they are even cheaper.

oh, another thing when a lead acid cycles out it won't hold a charge anymore, when LFP reaches its cycle life it still works as normal just it only has 80% of its rated capacity left. So, it's not necessarily garbage and you could possibly use it for another 4000 cycles or more.

319 cdn? really?

[S_Davis]

I would recommend getting one with a BMS that has Bluetooth, it will help if the battery has balance or other issues. You would be able to monitor the individual cells and see why the BMS is cutting out if issues come up. Most of the lower end LifeP04 battery makers are using EV battery cells that have failed QC and are auctioned off, they can be hit or miss.

[stevemorris]

https://ca.renogy.com/renogy-lithium-iron-phosphate-battery-12-volt-170ah/

what about this for a start?

[S_Davis]

3 tons wrote:
Most LFP users are likely aware of a characteristic known as ‘cumulative meter drift’, but when it comes to LFP discourse history suggest that there’s also a predictable amount of ‘attention drift’ 🙂 lol!

3 tons

Just showing what happens when you get bit by the LFP bug, I power my commercial work rig and lhave 1960ah for my system.

[3_tons]

Most LFP users are likely aware of a characteristic known as ‘cumulative meter drift’, but when it comes to LFP discourse history suggest that there’s also a predictable amount of ‘attention drift’ 🙂 lol!

3 tons

[S_Davis]

I love my 560ah of goodness.

[3_tons]

pianotuna wrote:
The rule of thumb is one battery one night. That is why I started with 7.

I'm currently using telcom jars. They cost about $1 per amp-hour, and are pulled from cell phone towers. I purchased them from the Interstate battery store in Saskatoon, SK.

This past winter while I was snowbirding via aircraft the solar panels were covered in snow.

The battery bank reached below 8 volts.

I was able to recover the telcom jars.

I'm 75--I don't need a 20 year battery. My first bank lasted 10 years. The current bank is 6 years old and powering all I want.

And your point Sir to the OP is??

3 tons - just curious……

[pianotuna]

The rule of thumb is one battery one night. That is why I started with 7.

I'm currently using telcom jars. They cost about $1 per amp-hour, and are pulled from cell phone towers. I purchased them from the Interstate battery store in Saskatoon, SK.

This past winter while I was snowbirding via aircraft the solar panels were covered in snow.

The battery bank reached below 8 volts.

I was able to recover the telcom jars.

I'm 75--I don't need a 20 year battery. My first bank lasted 10 years. The current bank is 6 years old and powering all I want.

[stevemorris]

JimK-NY wrote:
You made it 10 years with a single inexpensive lead-acid battery. It does not seem you need to upgrade to a lithium battery and charging system.

Instead, do you have room for a larger battery or for a second battery? If not you should still do OK with a single lead-acid or AGM battery.

First step would be to do an energy audit. For most of us the big energy hog is running a furnace in cold weather. Otherwise you should be able to boondock for days with a single battery. Refrigerator controls and your CO/propane detector should use very little electricity. Same for the water pump. For many older RVs, incandescent lighting used a lot of power. If that is your issue, consider replacing all of the lighting with LEDs. New LED fixtures are inexpensive or you might be able to replace just the bulbs.

some good points, we do need to run our furnace, our trips are usually early/mid fall season in eastern canada, heat is a must!

interior lighting is being replaced with LED fixtures. we tried LED bulbs but the lighting was terrible!

[JimK-NY]

You made it 10 years with a single inexpensive lead-acid battery. It does not seem you need to upgrade to a lithium battery and charging system.

Instead, do you have room for a larger battery or for a second battery? If not you should still do OK with a single lead-acid or AGM battery.

First step would be to do an energy audit. For most of us the big energy hog is running a furnace in cold weather. Otherwise you should be able to boondock for days with a single battery. Refrigerator controls and your CO/propane detector should use very little electricity. Same for the water pump. For many older RVs, incandescent lighting used a lot of power. If that is your issue, consider replacing all of the lighting with LEDs. New LED fixtures are inexpensive or you might be able to replace just the bulbs.

[Boomerweps]

Cost. My first LiFePO4 100AH was $330, my second was $267. If I buy another similarly priced, I reach the cost of ONE Battle born 100AH. Yes, the 2nd one has bare bones BMS.

[Boomerweps]

Hell, The End Of The World As We Know It is part of my background mental justification for the expense of the LiFePO4, inverter, and Solar purchases.
This winter and spring we lost power most every other week for many hours, pushing days. We can only count on the generator for so long. And this wasn’t the Great White North, this was rural Pennsylvania.
TEOTWAWKI is just extended boondocking 😉
Being prepared for one thing is being prepared for other things!

[StirCrazy]

LouLawrence wrote:
There is no possible financial advantage to putting Li in your coach as a replacement for a more affordable option like lead acid (not my favorite, but cheap) or AGM (my favorite but a bit more expensive). If you are expecting the World to come to an end and you plan to survive this by having an RV that can support you without any grid of any kind, then maybe the few thousand extra dollars would make some sense.

why do people always compare the sams club 6V to LFP you comparing the bottom of the class to the top of the class. if your going to compare a lead acid at least get close. how about we try comparing a rolls surette 6V at 450.00 cdn for 235AH so two of those will give you 117ish usable AH for 900 plus tax and about 900 cycles.

for 319.00 cdn I can get one of these and have 100AH usable, if you don't want to use 100% of the capacity get two and have 160 AH usable heck you can get three and only pay 60 bucks more than the rolls surette and have 240 usable AH at 80% depth of charge and 4000 cycles so now over the life they are even cheaper.

oh, another thing when a lead acid cycles out it won't hold a charge anymore, when LFP reaches its cycle life it still works as normal just it only has 80% of its rated capacity left. So, it's not necessarily garbage and you could possibly use it for another 4000 cycles or more.

[StirCrazy]

stevemorris wrote:
suggested suppliers?
renogy has a big presence on amazon canada, there are others too though

this one actually gets a good review for being one of the cheapest you can get. it has no cold charging protection, so you have to do that with your solar controller if you have one or some other way. If you have no solar and boon dock you don't have to worry as you won't be charging anyways only discharging.

[StirCrazy]

corvettekent wrote:
Yes, but you are going to need more than one 100 ah battery. You will also need a shunt-based battery monitor.

can you explain this statement, if he is only replacing one standard battery why would he need more than one if that worked for him for 10 years?