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09/4/2024 at 6:45am
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Yep navver, your 8 year old SLA battery is doing well in your application, but I would be surprised if it could still cope with a load like an inverter taking 50amp from it to say boil a 500w travel kettle etc, of course if that
is not a requirement for you then fine, a SLA battery can run for many years if the load is minimal, say 10 amps or less, all I can say is as far as LiFeP04 is concerned, what will do more, will do less.
what really effects SLA batteries even new ones is Peukerts Law, which has a major effect on capacity especially when running high loads like inverters, again LiFeP04 does not suffer the effects of Peukerts Law.
As a SLA battery ages, the effects of Peukerts Law can become so dramatic, that the battery can become almost useless, often seen when being used to power motor movers on caravans, so I would have thought any caravan fitted with a motor mover ought to be using a LiFeP04 battery.
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10/4/2024 at 6:07pm
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Was just having a look around for a 100ah LiFeP04 battery, as I have another project on the go, and especially as Marg6 mentioned that they are still price prohibitive.
Well check out the "DC HOUSE" 100ah battery, it will give you the same useable capacity as two 100ah AGM SLA batteries, all for the princely sum of £200 or there about's, the battery is probably good for at least 20 years !
Don't take my word for it, have a look at the teardown done by Scottish youtuber DC Guy or the various other reviews out there.
Such a battery really shows that we are now at a turning point with affordable LiFeP04 batteries, OK the "DC House" battery does not have all the bells & whistles that some other batteries have, but for MH's & caravans those extra feature are not really needed, the "DC House" battery is a clone of the Ecoworthy 100AH battery, but a £100 cheaper.
Thought I would share that, as portable power is now so affordable.
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26/4/2024 at 5:08pm
Location: Bristol Uk
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The Ecoworthy LiFePO4 is not maintenance free, in as much as they say it needs monthly top up charges if generally unused - not so convenient for those of us with vans stored remote from home and without a solar panel or EHU option, maybe more expense and inconvenience to have a solar panel fitted then!
It is in fact not recommend to leave a trickle charger on a stored LifePo4 or any other Lithium ion battery from a well tuned mains or solar charger. They are much better stored in view of their middle capacity than being trickle charged like a lead acid battery, which actually prefer that, as you will know.
The Renogy LifePo4 batteries we have in our van go in to a shutdown mode and I do check them from time to time and they lose very little over a few months. In fact I tend to store them around 60% if I know that they are not going to be used throughout the winter and they are still very much within their recommended storage capacity come the late winter months. This can be a trial to do granted but you get used to it.
I have no intention to needle your comments or appear preachy so this is just reacting to what you have said. SLA batteries are notoriously inefficient for the tasks campers and caravaners employ them to do. For instance. Most people with literally no knowledge of leisure batteries may find themselves spending money in somewhere like Halfords to buy a 120amp hour SLA battery of which, if they want them to last, they must somehow monitor the state of charge to make sure they don't got below the 50% when in use that will start to escalate the degradation and therefore longevity of their purchase (even with an AGM). It's not hard to find studies showing that 70% SOC is a better stopping point (the guys are Battle Born are worth listening to on that exact subject). How do they do that? Check the voltage when the battery is disconnected (out of circuit rather) and at rest for a number of hours, which is something people will simply not do. Then it becomes even more of a matter of guess work as the batteries wear out. I just had a look at a £150 battery from Halfords and it suggests an x80 cycle life which compared to lithium is pathetic.
Our Renogy 100amp/hr LifePo4 batteries have bluetooth and give a pretty accurate state of charge, state of discharge and a timed figure for a total re-charge when both under load and being charged by say a solar panel array. I have not found out a way of accurately doing that with an SLA. And do SLAs have an app? Never personally seen on by I have one on my phone for our batteries which I can monitor within the range of Bluetooth
There are though two main downsides in my view.
1. You cannot leave them on a trickle charger as you can with SLAs. Well you can but it's not the way. We have therefore got to manage their stored SOC (state of charge) though if they did in fact drain to 0% (especially LifePo4) then it will not necessarily destroy them if your trickle charging system failed or was disconnected in error. In which case, bye bye SLA.
2. They are more expensive to buy initially. Sometimes substantially but they last a hell of a lot longer than SLAs so people need to factor in whether they can afford to purchase them (I know this is an issue) and how long they need them to last.
If you only want to be a camper for a year then get some AGMs and be done with it. You’ll save yourself a few quid but DO check the maximum discharge current which may be much lower than Lithium and may not be suitable especially if you are using larger inverters and have high demand items like microwaves or hairdryers or electrical cookers with high current demands. If you're in for the long run then I can't see a strong argument against investing in lithium from a cost point of view alone. Longer life. Much much easier to know your SOC and a much higher safe discharge current (and generally a much higher recharge speed), which is something people simply don’t understand in general.
Peace..
Post last edited on 26/04/2024 18:01:59
Post last edited on 26/04/2024 18:10:06
Post last edited on 26/04/2024 18:28:28
Post last edited on 26/04/2024 18:49:47
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