Lithium Batteries

ctva

ctva

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Quick question, looking at getting 200ah of lithium. What are the pros and cons of a sing 200ah battery or 2x100ah batteries?

Also, has anyone any experience of Renogy batteries, or any makes (that are not stupid money) that they would recommend from experience.

Thanks in advance

Chris
 
Just bought a Fogstar Drift. Service has been great so far, they even let me keep my warranty when cutting off the handles to make it fit!

Went for the 300Ah as it was only a little extra, took 11 hours to charge which gave some indication of how different capacity will be.

Lithium Leisure Battery | Fogstar UK

No experience of Renogy batteries but their solar panels are good.

Parallel allows more current draw due to parallel BMS, but that's a BMS thing not a battery thing and you'd need to compare specs to see whether the 100Ah has the same current as the 200Ah - if not you may not get the benefit
 
I fitted 4 x 100ah renogy lithiums and one of their 3kw inverters. Very pleased with them so far. The monitoring app can be a bit buggy but the latest version seems more stable. Their dc to dc chargers are cheap but not so good. I had to replace one as it failed. Would recommend sterling's dc to dc charger. More expensive but considerably smaller and runs a lot cooler.
 
chris-s said:
To answer the op’s first question, if your single 200ah battery goes wrong for whatever reason, you have no power and a more expensive replacement.
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But then in many circumstances having multiple batteries can be the cause of issues with lithium so swings and roundabouts!
 
A good balance with lithium is two parallel batteries to meet your load. Two seperate BMS allow you to run twice the current as the load is shared by both BMS. Handy if you want to run big inverter loads for cooking.
Two batteries gives you some resilience should a BMS fail on one battery.
How you charge them becomes the next issue.
 
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For me space was the next issue, hence cutting the handles off as standard Jeanneau battery box is 270mm long 😱
You’re right though, it’s a week later and I’m still faffing with charge settings on several boxes and contemplating relay charge controls
 
Slipstream 34 said:
I fitted 4 x 100ah renogy lithiums and one of their 3kw inverters. Very pleased with them so far. The monitoring app can be a bit buggy but the latest version seems more stable. Their dc to dc chargers are cheap but not so good. I had to replace one as it failed. Would recommend sterling's dc to dc charger. More expensive but considerably smaller and runs a lot cooler.
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A friend recently installed a Sterling B2B. He is disappointed with the amps it produces. They seem to overheat and drop their output considerably.
Similar issues with my Victron B2B. I installed a computer fan on one of mine and the output, although not perfect, is definitely improved. They get quite hot to the touch without forced ventilation
 
First off.. I must ask, are we talking Lithium or Lithium-ion

I wouldn't have Lithium-ion on board for one simple reason.. the fire risk. These batteries are inextinguishable if they ignite, and the fact that they do ignite is being very much downplayed by the media as that wouldn't fit in with the new 'green' image. Its been admitted by the fire brigade that many house fires are being caused by parked electric bikes and scooters that spontaneously combust.

Also, unlike their led-acid counterparts they are not recyclable, and I think if people really knew the massive environmental damage caused by the mining of both lithium in South America and cobalt in the Congo, it might give cause to second thoughts before jumping on the 'green' bandwagon, and I don't think the young boys mining the cobalt in the Congo are in the best of health either.

Sorry about going off on a slightly political/environmental tangent in my last paragraph, but I do get a little frustrated by the brainwashing and constant pushing of technologies on us all that are the new 'in-thing' but the downsides are very much kept out of view.

AXA UK warns of fire risk of lithium batteries | AXA UK

Lithium battery fires
 
The 70amp Sterling dc to dc I fitted is their 2023 model. It reaches the stated amperage rating. I have it at 75% output to reduce the strain on the alternator. It is barely warm to the touch when operating. The Renogy 60 amp charger it replaced ran much hotter.
 
Stemar said:
Am I right in thinking that LiFePO batteries are at far lower risk of catching fire? Slightly lower capacity than Li-ion, but little more risk of going up in smoke than Pb-acid, AIUI.
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Yes.

The fire risk panic stems primarily from cheap lithium ion batteries found in cheap e-bikes / cheap goods with no quality control coming out of (primarily) China. Absolutely no-one is putting these type of lithium ion in leisure batteries that you would use for a boats battery bank. Yet it comes up again and again from folk I presume wanting to scaremonger.
 
Slipstream 34 said:
The 70amp Sterling dc to dc I fitted is their 2023 model. It reaches the stated amperage rating. I have it at 75% output to reduce the strain on the alternator. It is barely warm to the touch when operating. The Renogy 60 amp charger it replaced ran much hotter.
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It may be something to do with your location. Friend with the Sterling is in the South Pacific. We are in the Caribbean. Its been a warm night here. The lithium battery is at 31degC this morning with the benifit of some marginal night time cooling. Ambient temperature is certainly making a difference
 
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lustyd said:
This is utter nonsense. Lithium batteries have always been reusable and recyclable and there is a huge industry doing exactly this.
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Hey.. keep your hair on 'lusty'.. :D .. you are of course right regarding 'lithium'.. I should have said 'lithium-ion' which are proving so much harder/costly to recycle. My fault.. I apologise.

However, my other point in that post about the disgusting environmental pollution caused extracting lithium stands. Anybody thinking of 'upgrading' their battery's on a boat to lithium should maybe just look a little deeper into the environmental damage the scramble to get this wonder material is costing. Oh, and by the way I'm not a tree hugging, Greta loving.. virtue signalling greeny. Just a practical bloke who sees through the bull$1t rammed down our throats everyday..

Ignore the initial politics in the link.. the information on the water use and pollution extracting lithium is what needs browsing, and I'd urge anyone thinking of investing in lithium batteries to read it first..

https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/renewable/the-environmental-impact-of-lithium-batteries/
 
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