Solar with Lithium Battery

[2Noob4U]

I will be purchasing a Battle Born lithium battery in a month or so. My truck camper came with a solar charge controller, inverter and I can simply drop the new battery in place of the lead acid one by flipping a din switch and changing the settings on my charge controller from flooded to lithium.

My question is I have one 100 watt solar panel. What is the charge rate like? I have a portable 2000 watt generator that works great, but it would be even better to leave it behind.

[pianotuna]

Steve,

Since it is a truck camper a single SiO2 would be a better choice--especially if running larger loads such as a microwave. They could be stored in the "wells" that may exist in front of the rear wheels.

If there is only room for one battery, the quite large discharge rate on the SiO2 is pretty hard to beat.

[StirCrazy]

pianotuna wrote:
Steve,

My OEM configuration was for 7 group 31 batteries, so I'll be going down in weight and up in capacity.

In a truck Camper? LOL.. in a Motorhome they are set up for large banks. in a 5th wheel when you have lots of pin weight and the empty front gen compartment it doesn't matter how much you have, but I find with my truck camper I am looking to maximize the power to weight to size ratios. it was very unfortunate that last summer shipping was three times what it is now, but when I put the new power centre, solar system and such in I did make sure they were all LFP compatable so when they did get afordable the switch would be easy. I also bought the cheepest lead acid deep cycles I could.

as for under the bed, not where I would look at installing them, but if you look at the configureation of my 5th wheel the battery compartment is under the bed. if I upgrade that one to LFP they would be under the bathroom instead in unused space in the heated basment. but if Sio2 started to come down in price they would probable deserve more consideration, but I can see paying twice the money for the same AH when for me the -40C/F camping isn't a thing.

Steve

[pianotuna]

Steve,

Many of our brethren survive happily on 200 amp-hours. SiO2 weight penalty is insignificant as most RV's can manage the space for 2 group 27 jars (total weight 120 lbs).

My OEM configuration was for 7 group 31 batteries, so I'll be going down in weight and up in capacity.

My personal choice is to never have a secondary battery of large capacity in my living quarters, and definitely not under a bed.

I'm sure you will be happy with your LiFePo4's.

I personally find them far to finicky and the information is all over the lot. There doesn't seem to be unbiased third party testing, so worst case there might only be 40% to 90% (on a 100 amp-hour jar that works out to 50 amp-hours *IF* you wish maximum cycle life). Other comments are 0% to 100%.

The real life testing has only just begun--and the folks who are using them are intelligent and careful folks. Whether LiFePo4 can survive the guy who just wants to "set it and forget it" for now remains unknown.

It will be interesting to see what comes down the battery pipe next--but I'll not need to know, as I doubt I'll be RV'ing for another 16 years.

[StirCrazy]

pianotuna wrote:
Steve as far as advantages to, SiO2 don't need a way to protect an alternator, nor do they need more than a garden variety converter, or battery charger. So the space taken up by the SiO2 may be less than what is required for an LiFePo4, and so may be the weight--unless we are taking a pretty large bank.

you joking right? right now a 260 amp bank of 6v Si02 is 140 to 160 Lbs depending whoes weights you believe. a 280 AH LFP is 48lbs so that is two 6V batteries. that is just advertised AH, if we want to make that usable then we are looking at 210Ah of SiO2 to 252Ah of Lfp. so simular and not out of the question for a camper. a older one like mine couldn't do the SiO2 unless I put them inside.

the 6v SiO2 are normaly 783.95 each but on sale right now for 666.35. so 1572.00 ish + tax if you dont get them on sale, or about 1333.00ish if you are ready to buy now. not bad pricing for the larger capacity more heavy built batteries.

High cycle life – 2800 Cycles at 50% DoD


I can get the Lfp for about 1000.00 if you have to change out the converter section because you have a older unit that isnt Li compatable then add 200. my 5th and my camper both are Li compatable already with the converter and the solare so no extra for me.

high life cycle - 3500 cycles at 100% DoD ( close to 7000 at 50% DoD)

one fo the things that realy pushes me towards the LFP is the state of charge tables. the LFP battery wont drop below 12.5V untill it is lowered to 14% of its capacity, and it stays above 12V till around 2%. that means for inverter use and such you can draw the battery down much farther before you get stupid low voltage alarms. the Sio2 the voltage drops below 12.5 @ 50% depth of charge and drops below 12V @ 20% which is still pretty respectable concidering a normal lead acif drops to 12.5 @80% Dod and below 12V @ just under 50% DoD.


as for the charge from the battery. I dont use that on anything I own, as the newer trucks and altanators don't play well with any kind of battery so doesnt matter which battery I use a DC-DC charger is the only option for me. the smart altanators are very good at making your starting battery and altanator life better than in the old days but they suck when you use them to charge the camper batteries. so a DC to DC charger should be an upgrade for any type of battery if you want reliable charging with the new smart altanators.

even if you dont need one that can easily be tucked away anywhere (behind the power pannel in the camper the roof of a storage space, so as for taking up room thats a mute point also, but even if you stack everything up outside in a pannel the Lfp will still take up less apsce as it is only 12x6x8" where the SiO2 would be 22x7x10.5" if you went with the single 12V 270Ah SiO2 it is 10.59x 20.47x9.09", nice option but being one piece hard to put anywhere in a camper. for your 5th wheel that might be a good option though... and as I have said before in a 5th that is used like you do , then ya SiO2 are the better option for you.

For me not so much as I wont camp in -30C heck -10 is probably the coldest for me and having the LFP inside the heated camper it wouldnt matter what the temp is out side as long as I can run the furnace, so I guess -10 to -20 would be my cut off to get the furnace or a battery warmer going.

with the shipping prices of LFP coming down so much in the last year unless you have a reason like camping in the cold winter for extended periods with out your batteries in a heated space there is no reason not to go with the LFP. they are now by far the cheepest per usable AH out there. if you go for cycles at the same AH use they are probably 1/2 the cost of SiO2.

Either one for a older fellow like us will probably be the last battery we buy but who would have thought the day would come when we could pass batteries down to our kids?

Steve

[pianotuna]

Steve as far as advantages to, SiO2 don't need a way to protect an alternator, nor do they need more than a garden variety converter, or battery charger. So the space taken up by the SiO2 may be less than what is required for an LiFePo4, and so may be the weight--unless we are taking a pretty large bank.

[StirCrazy]

pianotuna wrote:
SiO2 share that high capacity and you can arrange them however you like.

ahh but thats where the size and weight of the SiO2 become a disadvantage.

Steve

[pianotuna]

SiO2 share that high capacity and you can arrange them however you like.

[StirCrazy]

pianotuna wrote:
Steve,

What would the advantage of six volt SiO2's be?

Capacity. 260 AH for them, that always the advantage of a 6v GC battery weather it be SiO2 or lead acid. Li this doesnt realy apply because of the high capacity cell structure and the ability to arange them how ever you like.

Steve

[pianotuna]

BFL13,

And two 12 volt SiO2 would be about 200 amp-hours--and at 20% state of charge would yield 160 amp-hours usable with 1500 cycles. A life time of use for most part time RV'ers. Physical size 27 kg (59.5 lbs)6.61 x 12.08 x 8.46"

Of course more capacity is better fir those of us who use large inverters.

[BFL13]

StirCrazy wrote:

pianotuna wrote:
Steve,

SiO2 are slightly lighter than lead acid, and slightly smaller. The 100 amp-hour jar is a Group 27 iirc.

ok Im looking at the GC 6V ones and there bigger and heavier. I coulnt fit them in my camper if I tried haha. weird how different classes are different like that.

Steve

My FLA 6s are 230AH and 64lbs. The SiO2 6s are 260AH at 72.69 lbs

260/230 x 64 = 72.35

[pianotuna]

Steve,

What would the advantage of six volt SiO2's be?

[StirCrazy]

pianotuna wrote:
Steve,

SiO2 are slightly lighter than lead acid, and slightly smaller. The 100 amp-hour jar is a Group 27 iirc.

ok Im looking at the GC 6V ones and there bigger and heavier. I coulnt fit them in my camper if I tried haha. weird how different classes are different like that.

Steve

[egarant]

I've had two LifeBlue 125 ah batteries for almost 3 years now. I have a Xantrex 2000 watt inverter connected to all the outlets in the TC and have 460 watts of solar on the roof.

I went with the LIfeBlue batteries as they have a built in bluetooth system that provides all kinds of battery info, takes the place of wiring in a system for the same info.

You have to get as much solar on the roof as possible, maybe just buy the one battery now and fill your roof with solar and if you need more then buy another battery.

Do however make sure you purchase a good MPPT controller, I us a Renogy, and get it large enough to handle maximum solar panels you will have on the roof.

Cheers,
Eric

[pianotuna]

Steve,

SiO2 are slightly lighter than lead acid, and slightly smaller. The 100 amp-hour jar is a Group 27 iirc.