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Cost Analysis of Lithium Ion Battery Systems for RVs. In the first post of this series: I explained the chief downsides of Lead Acid batteries, the tried and true battery technology that powers essentially every RV electrical system made.

And in part two, I explained about the advantages Lithium Ion batteries, the latest and greatest battery technology to come along. Vmware Workstation 8 Download Keygen Idm. In particular, I raved about the new hotness on the battery chemistry block – the fabulous and happily non- explosive Lithium Iron Phosphate (aka Li. Fe. PO4 or LFP). On paper at least, LFP batteries seem to be ideal for RV house battery use. Other than the expected “pioneers get arrows in their back” downsides of exploring any emerging new technology, the one chief downside of lithium I pointed out was the cost.

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What do I look for in buying a new lead-acid car or deep cycle battery?

There is just no ignoring that a battery bank made up of quality AGM- style lead acid batteries will cost a lot less upfront than a similarly sized lithium battery bank. But if you consider the lifetime cost, and the fact that lithium batteries should (theoretically) far outlast even the best high- end AGM’s, the math starts to look compelling. So lets look at the numbers. We know of people who have gotten essentially unused AGM batteries that were being scrapped from other projects for pennies on the dollar. But for the sake of comparison, lets take a look at the prices you might find on new 8. D- sized AGM batteries, the type that would be considered the prime choice for building a large RV battery bank in a pre- lithium world. If you are certain that you will be able to keep on top of the maintenance required (and are willing to put up with the other drawbacks), you can save some money by going with quality flooded cells (often referred to as .

A few years ago when I designed the electrical system for our Oliver trailer, I actually fantasized about going lithium, but I couldn’t find a practical supplier at any cost. You need to keep in mind that with lithium, it is about more than just finding a battery – you also need to design your entire DC electrical system to be lithium compatible. If you have to ask, you probably can’t afford it. But if you don’t have to ask, this is a good place to start planning the system for your next mega- yacht. Victron Energy: We were very impressed by the specs of the Victron inverter / chargers (and ended up buying one – we’ll detail why in a later post), so it was really exciting to learn that Victron is bringing a line of Li. Fe. PO4 batteries to market. But to date, Victron appears to be only in trials, with no pricing available yet.

When the batteries are ready, Victron will be updating their inverter / chargers to communicate directly with the battery EMS system – a very nice feature that sadly does not seem possible as a retrofit. Gena. Sun: Gena. Sun sells complete lithium systems including battery management circuitry. A 2. 00 amp hour setup (designed with redundancy for the cruising market in mind) currently sells for $5. A 3. 60. Ah setup sells for $7,7.

And keep in mind – “An on- site system inspection by a Genasun technician or representative is required to activate the warranty on batteries and battery management systems.” This isn’t a system for the do- it- yourself type. Mastervolt: Master. Volt has been selling lithium battery systems to the marine market for a few years now, and the 1. ML 1. 2/3. 20 is appropriate for RV use – delivering a sizable 3. I found on Google today). Pre- Built RV Targeted Packages.

There are some new companies emerging targeting the RV market with slightly more practical pricing on pre- packaged systems. Lithionics: Lithionics offers several lithium batteries specifically targeting the RV market, but they do not currently list any prices.

Lithionics was also under evaluation for potential resale by AM Solar, but the Lithionics battery failed under their typical RV use, and AM Solar ended up reporting that:   “We have severed ties with Lithionics for several reasons that are very important to us and our business ethics and will not be following up with a second round of tests on the Lithionics batteries.” AM Solar has a well respected reputation in the RV world. I’ve noticed their design go through several iterations over the past few months, but the current pricing listed has a 2.

I’ve been in regular contact with Smart Battery, and they seem to understand what it takes to build a reliable battery system. But until they have demonstrated a track record, we consider them unproven but promising. There has been some mention that they might like to send us a sample system to test – and if they do I will certainly share our results. AM Solar: As I mentioned above, AM Solar had been evaluating Lithionics but is now pursuing having its own custom made Li. Fe. PO4 battery systems made to resell. They have had great success with this model building custom RV- targeted solar systems, so I intend to keep a close eye on their progress. The folks at AM Solar are fully RV focused, and they have a great reputation.

Not everyone is willing or able to build a system from scratch, and thus we think that these pre- packaged battery systems will be the way most RVs will eventually integrate in lithium battery banks. We are watching this evolving industry closely.(BTW: One thing about at least two of these battery companies I have noticed that I find tacky is the claim “Made In USA” tacked on to the batteries they are selling.

But in truth, the batteries are only assembled in the USA, and as far as I am aware all Li. Fe. PO4 battery cells are currently made in China.)Do It Yourself Wholesale Suppliers. If buying one of the pre- packaged solutions linked above isn’t in your budget or isn’t your cup of tea, there is an opportunity for hands on folks to custom build their own solutions.

There are several companies catering to the electric vehicle hobbyist market that wholesale Li. Fe. PO4 cells imported from China, and they are willing to sell to anyone who clicks the . Elite’s price for these packs was $6. Ms Crm 2011 Grid Edit Photo. But to create the 5. We then bolted these batteries together in series to make a single 5.

But it was also a heck of a lot of fun to build our own battery bank. Elite isn’t the only provider of Li. Fe. PO4 cells – if you search the electrical vehicle market you will find many other companies selling Li. Fe. PO4 cells. We know of one other RV’er planning an even more affordable system using Hi. Power cells – purchasing 6. China). We honestly didn’t evaluate a ton of the alternative in this space – we went with Elite because they were nearby to where we were at the time (in Phoenix), knowledgeable, had stock on hand, and they were excited to work with us. This was invaluable to us.

And so far we have been very pleased with the followup support we have gotten. But. If we take the numbers above for simplicity sake (it’s difficult to directly compare them, as the packaged batteries come in different sizes), the upfront costs we were comparing were: 8. D AGM – $1. 84. 05.

Things look bad for lithium based on upfront costs. For those of us full timing and/or anticipating a lot of unplugged time in our RV – this is where the lifetime costs start to look promising.

Laboratory results indicate that we should expect to see 2,0. Li. Fe. PO4 battery bank. In contrast, even the best deep cycle lead acid batteries are typically only good for 5. Cherie and I crafted up a quick spreadsheet that tries to make the comparison as simple as possible, summarized: No matter how we played with the numbers, formulas, and assumptions – over time lithium worked out to be at worst break even compared to AGM, and under most scenarios showed the potential to come out way ahead by not needing to replace our batteries every couple of years.

When you then consider the weight savings, and all the other advantages Lithium Ion batteries, suddenly investing more up front in a lithium system seems very worthwhile indeed! For anyone planning on heavily utilizing their battery banks, or trying to maximize a solar installation, lithium makes particular sense. The best prices (listed above) and availability I found was via Ward’s Marine, but I always encourage shopping around. The battery bay – Phase 1 complete!

It all adds up fast. We have over $6. 00. Of course, things like the inverter/charger and battery monitor we would have needed even with a traditional AGM system.

But – off- grid power is not necessarily cheap!! I’ll go into more details on the features and reasons we selected our inverter, and the details of the battery EMS system we built, in a future post. The Next Chapter. So now I’ve explained the system we built, and how we justified investing in it. But how has it been working out so far?

In what ways has theory failed to match reality? Overall we are still just getting started exploring what is possible with our electrical system, and mostly we are loving our lithium battery bank. But even so, there have already been a few hiccups along the road. But I’ll save those stories for the next chapter. We are not selling these batteries, we are not affiliates with any battery dealer, we paid for all our components, and we do not have any financial stake in the technology beyond our own systems.

Of course we’d love to have more folks out there pioneering and helping us take the arrows in our backs. Other Posts In this Series: Promise of Lithium #1: Lead Acid Battery Downsides. Promise of Lithium #2: Lithium Ion Battery Advantages. A Year on Lithium (The One Year Follow- Up)All our Lithium Ion Battery Posts Related. Chris has been living as a full- time technomad since April 2. He has been a full- time geek for a lot longer than that. He is also the resident bus driver.

Ways to Install a Multiple Component Car Audio System. Gather the necessary materials.

Remember that each amp needs a power, a ground, and a REM (remote) wire going through them. Since the remote wire basically tells the amp when the radio is on, all amps can be connected to the same remote wire. Your thickest or lowest gauge wire should be your main one.

Wire can burn and melt if too much current is running through it so one wire is your best bet.