Lithium battery system

orid · Senior Member

Lithium battery system

Whenarewethere · Guru

Good to see someone has replaced with a similar number of AH so you have capacity for inclement weather.

elliemike · Guru

orid wrote:
Just finished fitting a Lithium battery setup in my van , will be testing it next few weeks or so .
Ill let you know how it performs if any interest.
Details. 200 ah Lithium battery.
external BCU.
30 Amp Lithium Charger .
40-50 Amp DC - DC Charger set for Lithium .
370 Watt roof solar connected to Dc-Dc .
Replaces 220 AH AGM fullriver ,
Rgards Orid

What sort of ball park $$$$ was your conversion all up.

Just interested for future reference

Mike

Mike Harding · Guru

Sure, please keep us posted.

Bad as well as good - too many people who have spent lots of money on something are reluctant to acknowledge it's not as good as they expected.

fwdoz · Guru

Not wanting to hijack the OP's topic, rather merge into it as a pooling of systems info.

I had a 300AH system installed at the start of 2019 which I purchased from EV Power in WA. It is made from CALB cells & has it's own separate BCU. I purchased separately a CTEK charger. We have 480W of solar on the roof to keep it topped up. We went to WA with this setup & it coped more than adequately & subsequent trips have seen it perform perfectly.

After the WA trip we changed our fridge to a domestic Samsung & added a Victron Inverter to run it. Best addition I ever made.

The only hiccups we have had is when the battery went flat at home twice. It was actually a circuit that tripped, nothing to do with the battery or the van setup. That fault will be rectified in early 2021 when we get a new home power circuit board. It cost me twice to get the cells recharged 1 at a time twice, but $hite happens.

Cost all up not including the fridge/inverter came in around low to mid 4k. Fridge inverter all up was under 1k.

I knew it would take me circa 140 nights of free camping to recoup the cost. Given the current climate with some parks hiking up fees, it may take less nights to recover that.

For people considering doing this, solar panels are cheaper now, lighter & more efficient in low light situations. Lithium batteries are now getting cheaper also. If you go off grid a lot, then you will recoup your money & be self sufficient.

I am glad we did it & would do it slightly differently if I were doing it today. I also would recommend to get as much solar as you can, depending on your usage. More is better, especially in crap weather.

Anyone in Vic who wants to take a look once we come out of restrictions is welcome to do so. Any questions are also welcome, either here or by PM as there are pitfalls & better to spend a few dollars more to have it done PROPERLY by a savvy installer than someone who thinks they know. If you want to know anything, just ask.

Hope that readers find this information valuable in coming to their own decisions.

orid · Senior Member

It seems really good quality , I really shopped around , and came across this guy,

costs

200 AH lithium Battery 27 kgs $1450.00

BCU with really good monitor $350.00

30 amp charger Lithium $310.00

25 meters of double insulated 35 mm sq cable $243.00

Plus Gst

The dc-dc was from another scource 560.00

Plus I used a few circuit breakers etc.,

Very reasonable I thought and it looks top quality ,wa company ,I think it is all wa made except for the cells, so im supporting local business I hope .
i don't think the guy advertises ,but relies on word of mouth mostly .

Ill put the website on here if I can ,or is that against the rules??

And a few pics of the install

Regards Orid

orid · Senior Member

oh fw doz thanks Bob+ Deb

did it for me yes EV power , thats my setup as well
.
Well worth look if you are thinking Lithium .

Regards Peter

fwdoz · Guru

Indeed orid, the quality is really good. Got mine freighted all the way from WA to Vic.

Wanted 400AH initially, but 300AH has been more than ample.

orid · Senior Member

Yes Bob ,and as long as you follow the really good wiring diagram supplied, you should be safe from problems .
I'm an old school Mechanic from the days when you had to do everything including most Electrics,
So It wasn't to hard for me .
I'll post some pics
Regards Peter

orid · Senior Member

fwdoz · Guru

Not too dissimilar to my install Peter. Will have to see if I can get some pics on the weekend & post them as well. Had to build in an area just for it where the shower once was.

orid · Senior Member

Five days on the road battery hasnt gone below 85 percent Recharges very quick to 100 percent by 10am next day off solar . We have had sunny days here in Harvey . Works great .
Regards Orid

fwdoz · Guru

Excellent results orid. You get what you pay for!

orid · Senior Member

well three days of rain and very little sun ,and still this 200 ah Lithium battery charges very quickly to 100 % off 370 watts of roof solar , even at 4-5 amps off the roof solar takes 5-6 hrs to charge to 100 %

probably because battery only drops to around 85 % (around minus 30 AH) thats with 40 litre Engel ,24/7 usual lights, Water Pump, etc., 3-5 hrs of tv everynight ,etc., and just staying in one spot , ( not using the DC-DC) Seems Very good ,

I don't think I will have much use of the 200 watt solar blanket I carry for extra A/hrs On cloudy days.
Regards Orid

yobarr · Guru

fwdoz wrote:
Excellent results orid.You get what you pay for!

Hi Bob....ain't that the truth? So many members seem to have an obsession with hunting 'El Cheapo' equipment,paying 'Cellar dweller' prices,but expecting 'penthouse' quality products. One of the first lessons one learns in life is that "You get what you pay for".Anything else is invariably false economy.Cheers

fwdoz · Guru

So very true yobarr. How many of us at one time made that mistake?

Quality is long remembered...while a cheap failure leaves a nasty taste in the mouth

yobarr · Guru

fwdoz wrote:
So very true yobarr. How many of us at one time made that mistake?

Quality is long remembered...while a cheap failure leaves a nasty taste in the mouth

Was it Benjamin Franklin who said "The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweerness of low price is forgotten"? Cheers

fwdoz · Guru

Something like that!

Some things I have bought cheap & they have been ok, depends on what I want out of them & for what purpose. But anything that I want to last, or is a vital asset will always be a quality product.

fwdoz · Guru

orid wrote:
well three days of rain and very little sun ,and still this 200 ah Lithium battery charges very quickly to 100 % off 370 watts of roof solar , even at 4-5 amps off the roof solar takes 5-6 hrs to charge to 100 %

probably because battery only drops to around 85 % (around minus 30 AH) thats with 40 litre Engel ,24/7 usual lights, Water Pump, etc., 3-5 hrs of tv everynight ,etc., and just staying in one spot , ( not using the DC-DC) Seems Very good ,

I don't think I will have much use of the 200 watt solar blanket I carry for extra A/hrs On cloudy days.
Regards Orid

Cant argue with those figures orid. Worth it's weight in gold & paying back big time...

orid · Senior Member

Its Top Quality gear fwdoz no doubt and works fantastic ,early days I know , But very happy , with everything so far.
can really recommend anyone thinking of Lithium setup to check these people out .
Regards Orid

orid · Senior Member

Its been a couple of months we have done 4 short trips but have been very happy with this system and am completely confident I will never have to worry about low batteries again .
best thing I have ever done , can really reccommend this setup.

Regards Orid

fwdoz · Guru

Glad you love it Orid. Also the best thing I did on my van.

Hopefully soon will be able to get out to regional Vic with the van if big ears Dan allows us to...got some gold detecting & trout fishing to do!

orid · Senior Member

Sounds great Bob and Deb .

Me and wifey , or wife and I would like to travel next year to Glen Inis for their fantastic Celtic festival
If it is still on .
Regards Orid

fwdoz · Guru

At this stage looking a good thing Orid, provided no sudden outbreaks. Might be a vaccine around the corner too.

Should catch up & compare our setups.

Keep all our fingers crossed.

orid · Senior Member

My friend has just had an install from these guys .
Reccommended by myself ,
I must say although the product seems top quality ,
If you are thinking of purchasing, my advice is to get the install done by some one you trust to do a good job.
Regards Orid

Lucas club · Member

Hi orid and others
Looking into this...... wondering how long I could run the ac off the lithium setup using a 200 ah system with 340w.... of panel .... ac uses average of 890 w ..... does this mean about 74 amps at 12 v ? Or 2 hours?........ surely Ive made a mistake?

Whenarewethere · Guru

Lucas club wrote:
Hi orid and others
Looking into this...... wondering how long I could run the ac off the lithium setup using a 200 ah system with 340w.... of panel .... ac uses average of 890 w ..... does this mean about 74 amps at 12 v ? Or 2 hours?........ surely Ive made a mistake?

340/12 = 28amp at midday & perfect weather. So let's say 21amps on average.

890/12 = 74amps. Let's say 20% inefficiencies 89amps

89 - 21 = 68amps

100% discharge (say once a month) 2.9 hours

70% discharge 2 hours

50% discharge 1.5 hours

30% discharge 1 hour.

But then you need to turn off all loads & charge up the batteries. At 21amps & 70% discharge it will take 7 hours to charge the batteries. But you are getting further from midday so you will not be able to full charge the batteries.

You need a lot more solar. You really need to power the air conditioning from solar plus be able to charge the batteries so the air conditioning can run when there is shadow etc.

If you are using the air conditioning & there is no solar input can the batteries cope with 80amps or so, plus other loads.

I would suggest you need to double your battery capacity as well as solar.

orid · Senior Member

I did look into this Lucas , I can't see how it is feasable to run air con off lithium batteries , along with the rest of your stuff.

your calculations about right without checking , properly

I read an advert somewhere ,some mob where bragging they could run their air con for 8 hours on ,I think it was a 800 amp hour Lithium setup.

I sent them a message on their forum saying thats all very well so one day you run your air con all day then you have to recharge 800 amp hours of batteries ,so the next day you melt while trying to charge your batteries . That is silly and not workable.

their reply was "you need to stay in caravan parks "

I really can't see it working unless you have a massive battery and solar setup and then run a gennie all day plus solar if the sun is up to recharge which defeats the purpose ,might as well run the gennie when needed on hot days ,and a lot cheaper.

I have been known to be wrong though Grin Grin, certainly no expert

be interesting to see Yobarr's setup

Lucas club · Member

Easier to stay in parks when you reckon its going to be massively hot...... or run the gennie...... with etiquette of course.

yobarr · Guru

Lucas club wrote:
Easier to stay in parks when you reckon its going to be massively hot...... or run the gennie...... with etiquette of course.

Not a lot of caravan parks in the "bush". All alleged "calculations" seem to fail to take into account that,if the Solar input is more than the power needed to run the AC,the batteries obviously still will quickly charge.My Solar is more than 3 times my storage capacity,and in summer my my batteries are FULL very early in the day,and later get up close to 14 volts.Bit slower in winter,but no AC needed then! Please don't ask any technical questions,as I understand little,with the whole system being set up by a well qualified mate.All I know is that I can run my AC 24/7.Period. And my brand new Yamaha 2800i generator lives in my shed,never even having had petrol put into the tank.The smaller system on my car regularly gets to 14.4 volts,but runs only the beer fridge and the Celfi Go phone booster,with the microwave and hot water jug occasionally used.Cheers.