Our new batteries and inverter/charger - RV-Dreams Community Forum

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

Our new batteries and inverter/charger

bigboomer · RV-Dreams Family Member

Sweet! Will be curious as to the overall performance of the Li-ion's and hope you keep us posted!

cherylbrv · RV-Dreams Family Member

Just curious, since we'll probably want to install solar panels shortly after we buy our rig... how much should one expect to pay for a system like this (plus the panels)?

Jack Mayer · RV-Dreams Family Member

Using the cost of this system as a baseline is not what I would recommend. Most people will not put in Li-ion batteries. They are way more expensive than flooded or AGM.

Before you can estimate the price of a system you have to understand your power usage requirements. Only then can you get a good estimate on cost.

If you tell me your power requirements I'll give you an estimate on the materials that I would recommend. It will be "close" - not exact. They you have to worry about labor.

cherylbrv · RV-Dreams Family Member

Since I don't have my rig yet, I'm not 100% certain what my requirements will be. The most I anticipate using: I know that for most waking hours, there will be at least 2 laptops plus a server and router, lights, refrigerator, 2 ACs (although I don't know if they'd be running all the time). I don't use a coffee maker or hair dryer. Probably the tv at night. We need constant internet access, so any devices that need to be plugged in to achieve that. Nothing else out of the ordinary. I pretty much anticipate a "day in the life" to be like it is now except with a nicer or different view out the window -- which is sitting at my computer desk working most of the day, interrupted in the afternoon for a brief walk.

Not sure if that helps any. But as always, I tend to plan things out too far in advance. I hope that if I need to dry dock overnight (Walmart, truck stop or winery), that the generator will suffice for a while.

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

Li-ion are more expensive. We had a choice of finding a way to move our chassis batteries to let us have more house batteries or changing technology. We went the crazy way and changed technology. Building a new spot to put the chassis batteries and going with 6 AGM golf carts would have been cheaper. It would also have been much more well understood. It does weigh less, but that was not something we were worried about since we have the weight carrying capacity.

This is not a system I recommend for normal people. There was extra labor involved. Some of it was treated as R&D and we did not get charged for it.

I know some other RV-Dreamers that will be at AM Solar soon to get a more normal solar/inverter setup in a 5th wheel.

I did learn more from Greg and Deb Holder, owners of AM Solar, on normal stuff. They have been selling and installing many KISAE Abso 2000 Compact Pure Sine Inverter/Charger's, since they are under $700. So anyone saying pure sinewave is too expensive is now wrong. These units are a bit noisy, since the fans need to run all the time, have only a 50AMP charger instead of 100 more more, and have a small two button remote, but at about $1000 less than the 2000 watt Magnum, who is complaining.

-- Edited by bjoyce on Monday 12th of May 2014 02:29:46 PM

TRAILERKING · RV-Dreams Family Member

Holy, Eye Poppin', Power Plant Batman....................Looks like a Nuclear Reactor. Hate to know the price of those batteries.

WestWardHo · RV-Dreams Family Member

I'm with TrailerKing on this one and Boy oh Boy Bill Joyce have you two had a couple of expensive years! 😄

Sherry

01zeosix · RV-Dreams Family Member

Congratulations on the upgrade. The lithium batteries look awesome. You've raised the bar for the rest of us pour boondockers. You're going to love the new inverter BTW. Sure do like mine.

BiggarView · RV-Dreams Family Member

WestWardHo wrote:
I'm with TrailerKing on this one and Boy oh Boy Bill Joyce have you two had a couple of expensive years! 😄

Sherry

Would have to agree with both on the cost, however, and this a big one, at 2000 plus recharge cycles according to Elite Power Solutions' website data

http://elitepowersolutions.com/products/product_info.php?cPath=25&products_id=92

... the price ($620 as jan2016) starts to look interesting. Looking good for those of us starting in a few years.

We will keep an eye on this area of interest for future developments smile

Brian

-- Edited by BiggarView on Monday 1st of February 2016 04:32:55 PM

folivier · RV-Dreams Family Member

Awesome upgrade. This past winter I pulled out 6 lead acid 8D's and installed a 1000 amp hours LiFePO4 (lithium batteries but don't want them to be confused with other lithium batteries). I am using my older Freedom 2500 inverter which is charging properly. The only thing it won't do is float at a low enough voltage then re-start charge when it is needed. Not a problem, I just charge it manually when needed and turn off the charger. I have about 2x the usable capacity I did with the 6 8D's. The voltage drop is minor compared to conventional lead acid batteries. At one point I had the aqua hot running on high, coffee maker going, microwave going, plus other loads and I was pulling 240 amps out of the batteries. The voltage dropped from 13.13 to 12.85 while pulling 1/4 of the total capacity. Once the microwave shut off the voltage quickly went back to 13.13. I'm very pleased with my LiFePO4 system!
I didn't know that AM Solar was selling LiFePO4s batteries yet?
Keep us posted on how the entire system works especially with solar charging.
There is a ton of info on these systems at www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f14/
Oh and these batteries are not necessarily more expensive than AGM's if you are willing to do the research and install them yourselves. My system cost the same as 6 8D AGM's. And I pulled out 600 pounds of lead! And gained a lot of storage space.
My install write up is over here at: newellgurus.com/Thread-Lithium-battery-install

Sushidog · RV-Dreams Family Member

Folivier, thanks for the post! Your links are a great read - information overload as they say. All I can say is WOW! It looks like lithium batteries are the future, for sure.

Have you tried to run your ACs with them and if so, what size ACs do you have, (15k or 13.5k BTU) and how long will they run? Have you considered going to a high-efficiency DC AC that uses 1/2 the power of a traditional a/c AC (confused, I am)? I don't know where you would integrate a mini-split AC on your coach though. I think it would be much easier to install one on a TT, fiver, a Class C or maybe a front engined A.

Chip

Technomadia · RV-Dreams Family Member

Not sure how I missed this post before.. but wahoo! Excellent to see more LFP setups out there, and thank you for sharing.

We're going on 3 years now with our system, also GBS cells from Elite Power. Here's our full info series, including a cost analysis of them versus AGM: www.technomadia.com/lithium

NWescapee · RV-Dreams Family Member

As another who missed this post, and just missed Bill and Diane since we didn't arrive at AM Solar until the end of May, I do have to say, the folks at AM Solar know their stuff. We thought we knew what we wanted, but after further discussion we got what we really needed. We left AM Solar and spent 19 days without hookups in Western WA. June is not an optimal solar month in Western WA, but in 19 days we only ran the generator about 20 hours total, most of those on the typical rainy days we experience in the Seattle area in June. And we used the microwave, TV, blow drier, my laptop was almost always on with a second monitor, Dale's laptop, his tools for work when needed, etc,. etc.

We went with the AGM batteries, solar by itself was enough for our budget this year, but lithium batteries will definitely be a consideration down the road.