Charging House Batteries

GAR2 wrote:


Now that I’m reading about the Lithium battery’s it appears I can draw them down farther without damage to the battery. What is a safe level to bring those down to? Also with being non venting, non explosive I could mount one inside the back of the truck with me.........and be safe while sleeping or resting. I did look at a 200AH Litthium but depending on how far down I can safely discharge a 100AH may suffice. Am I on track with the differences? Let me know where a safe point of discharging would be and I’ll try to figure out my AH usage.

I’m good at wiring and mechanical so I’ll be doing the install myself.

Thanks!

LFP batteries are rated by cycle life. that is defined as a charge from 0% go full then a discharge to 0%. They are guaranteed to have approximately 3500 cycles at this depth of discharge (100%) depending on the manufacturers it may vary a bit. Another thing to know is end of cycle life is defined as the battery only having 80% of the original capacity left. so even after your 3500 cycles you still have a 80AH battery from your original 100AH battery and who knows how long it will last at that capacity.

You can do things to increase that cycle life if you want, so using only 80% of the capacity is one. I use between 90% and 10% and you can gain even more by using less but when you think about it if you camp every weekend at 3 cycles per weekend it will take you 22 years till you hit the end of the cycle life. some of the things that will shorten the life a lot though is charging when the battery is at a temperature below 0C. you can discharge then below 0 just not charge, so for myself I have mounted mine inside the conditioned space of the rv

I would still recommend a 200amp minimum. solar is a good send but as I found out its best to have a few days battery reserve for those rain storms and such.