Lithium batteries

Robg71

Robg71

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Hi
Having read much about lithium, and having used them in various guises over the years... Does anyone have any working first hand experience of domestic boat batteries, using liFe.
Cheers
 
Sorry, you should have been more specific. The answer's still probably the same, few people will have used LiFePo4 batteries because of the cost.
 
I asked here, even though i have been chastised before as apparently its a yachty forum, (who cares, the title says practical.... Not... No mobos ....)
And you chaps have lots of knowledge on here and individual threads on batteries, so, if anyones does have any practical, first hand experience would be great to here it....
I am seriously considering them, just brands and capacity to decide....
Ill even post my experience after I've
got them :)

Regards
Rob
 
There are several long threads over on Cruisers Forum. It will take some time to read through them all, but lots of good info. LiFePO seem to be, potentially, much better than lead-acid:
* lighter
* more usable AH
* no problem with remaining in a partially-charged state
* very low internal resistance leading to high charge acceptance and little/no voltage drop when supplyijng high current loads
* good claimed cycle lifetime

However, although the price is coming down, they are still quite expensive. And the charging characteristics are different from lead-acid, there are potential difficulties with out-of-balance cells, and there doesn't yet seem to be consensus on the best arrangement for use in a house-bank environment.

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...hose-using-them-as-house-banks-65069-244.html
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f14/monitoring-lifepo4-lithium-batteries-119878-2.html

(Search for Lithium and you'll find more)
 
Aren't you having a generator Rob? If you are then I'd have thought that enough battery to run aircon, etc. overnight would be all you need? I guess you'd save maybe 30-50% weight with Lithium - probably about the same in terms of space. What would that be - 100 Kilos weight saved for a few grand? I'd want to be absolutely sure that I had minimised the use of power wherever possible before I spent that much money to save battery weight. LED's, efficient insulation (for the fridge/freezer, not just the boat), good ventilation, gas cooker, etc. Getting the best power-to-weight on the engines, lightweight materials in the build etc.could save you an awful lot more weight too.

I don't think there's enough Lithium systems installed in the marine leisure sector to give a genuine picture of what the batteries are like yet. Of the few horror stories I've heard the problem seems to charging systems, inverters, pooer wiring, etc. rather than the batteries themselves. They generally have been pretty good in other applications, with a few notable exceptions (a couple of laptop battery recalls and the Boeing saga spring to mind). The Tesla car has had a few fires but they aren't battery related and, that aside, electric cars seem to be OK safety wise.


Just my thoughts...
 
Yes,, i am having a generator,
And these little 100kg savings, here and there, all are adding up to a nice hefty chunk. The more i can throw out now, the better.
The troublesome batteries... Ie sony laptops, and boeing were lithium polymer, or lipo. They have a different chemistry, and are quite volatile. The cell voltages are different too. I wouldnt fit them, (and i certainly wouldnt fit them in an airliner)

Hmm, best i look at priceing up some for my old squeeker, her batteries are shot... Test mule maybe....
A big advantage of lithium, is you can pretty much empty them to about 80% capacity with no ill effect, at whatever discharge rate you require. Charge them back up from flat in an hour.
Some power philosophies, are actually shifting away from generated power on demand, to battery/inverter power, and purely using generator for charging.
It can only get cheaper.....
 
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Along with several other liveaboards, I've been looking at LiFePo's for a while. As said, they're lighter, offer at least 2x the available Ah of a lead-acid of similar nominal rating, lower self-discharge, faster charging potential, etc etc. My own view from sifting the information I've encountered is that they'll be an attractive option fairly soon. Trouble is, 'fairly soon' might be two years, five or even ten. And if it's ten I'll probably be too knackered to care.

On a usable Ah basis, LiFePo's already aren't actually a lot dearer than the best traction battery, and may even be cheaper if you factor in their (usually) greater recycling tolerance. That said, I've just installed a new bank of Trojan 6V.....

Part of the resistance to them is of course, their sheer novelty versus the familiar (if sometimes irritating) qualities of lead-acid. But like the OP (and many others) I'd much prefer to get horse's mouth experience than be a guinea-pig myself. Trouble is, there isn't aren't a lot of Lithium horses around (although most of them seem to have posted on the cruiserforum mentioned earlier).

In the meantime, I'd suggest it would make sense for anyone buying new electrical kit (chargers, regulators, etc) to consider gear which is future-proof, i.e. compatible with LiFePo batteries.
 
There's a kiwi who overwintered with us here who's spending his (insurance company's) money on lithium house batts. He's coming back next winter as are we so I'll certainly be asking but thats likely too late for the OP. I'm pretty sure he's gone for the Victron package.
 
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