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keep them well charged, well watered, and equalize charge them at least once a month and you could get up to 10-12 years depending upon the maker of the cells. what brand (please sweet baby Jesus say rolls surrete)(these are the gold standard).
You just made my day, yes Rolls batteries. Glad to hear you approve.
They are replacing Trojans which did okay despite my abusing them.
Battleborn is the premium made in USA LiFePO4 battery, but they are damned proud of it - it's reflected in the price.
Now the solar for RV/Marine:
Roof mounting of solar panels on an RV doesn't always make sense. Who's gunna park your home in the sun if you have the option to park in the shade? Even if you mount on the roof, it's good to have portable units with a loooong cable. Boats have no trees to park under.
Volts, not amps. First, make sure you get the type of solar panels with bypass diodes, this helps if one or more unit is in partial/full shade. Second, make sure they make the same amperage if wired in series, or same voltage if parallel. Ideally, get identical panels no matter what. Connection in series (to the MPPT solar charge controller) give you higher volts while keeping the amps low. High amps require bigger wire - a lot bigger. Very expensive.
Put the MPPT solar charge controller (converts big volts to big amps) very close to the battery, to keep the big wire run short.
I have an MPPT solar charge controller that I ended up not using yet. It handles 100 volts in max, and can put out 50 amps max. (4) 180-watt solar panels wired in series in full sun can reach 80% input capacity of the MPPT controller, giving me 45+ amps out at LiFePO4 charge voltage. That's pushing the charge controller pretty hard, but it's only during full sun. I prefer to over-rate the charge controller to keep it cool. (4) 100-watt solar panels would be better suited for that charge controller - and I get 25+ amps charge current. The SOK battery mentioned above can take everything the charge controller can dish out, that's why I chose that one.
Battleborn is way overpriced IMNSHO. there have already been questions about warranty support on units that are only 5 years old. For your use where you need to worry about resale, I can see the impetus behind using premade. have you considered the premade server rack batteries? they are basically a SOK or a battleborn on steroids. as they are not DIY, the optics would not be that much of a turnoff.
You just made my day, yes Rolls batteries. Glad to hear you approve.
They are replacing Trojans which did okay despite my abusing them.
Kintla, Trojans are no slouchs either, but Rolls Surrette was my only choice if I did not go lithium. I spent over 20k on a lithium bank just for the cells, so price was not an issue while I was researching.
keep them charged: to 100% at least once a week with enough absorb time to ensure full charge.
keep them watered, check level daily for the first two weeks, weekly for the next three months, and then monthly or every two months after you know how much they consume.
equalize them at least once a month. (Mixes up the electrolyte to prevent stratification and false SOC readings.)
You do the above and if you do not get at least 12-15 I would be highly surprised. there is one member claiming close to 20 on his but he does not cycle them very hard. (he has a huge lead acid bank).
for absorb, look at the Rolls white papers to find your absorb time and voltage for the cells. Depending upon the size of your solar PV array compared to your genset. it might be advantageous to runt he genset occasionally to bulk charge the cells and then let the solar finish them off with a long slow absorb charge.
Battleborn is way overpriced IMNSHO. there have already been questions about warranty support on units that are only 5 years old. For your use where you need to worry about resale, I can see the impetus behind using premade. have you considered the premade server rack batteries? they are basically a SOK or a battleborn on steroids. as they are not DIY, the optics would not be that much of a turnoff.
How are they in a marine environment (under the Lazarette)?
How are they in a marine environment (under the Lazarette)?
they are not IP65 thats for sure, if the Goat locker is weather proof then I would see zero issues as long as you can secure them down. great thing is you could buy a premade server rack, or one of the server rack boxes specifically for this format, and mount it to the deck in the goatlocker and life would be great, as they are a rack mount design, its easy to remove one battery pack for inspection, repair, what ever, and currently the cost fo the premade server rack style is almost competitive with a DIY bank of similiar size. they are honestly about the best bang for buck in the 2-300 aH range, are stackable, they come with comm cables so the batteries BMS's talk to each other and one can shut itself down if the others still need more juice. biggest thing is they might only come in 48 volt flavor, not sure but I know thats the biggest market of them.
they are not IP65 thats for sure, if the Goat locker is weather proof then I would see zero issues as long as you can secure them down. great thing is you could buy a premade server rack, or one of the server rack boxes specifically for this format, and mount it to the deck in the goatlocker and life would be great, as they are a rack mount design, its easy to remove one battery pack for inspection, repair, what ever, and currently the cost fo the premade server rack style is almost competitive with a DIY bank of similiar size. they are honestly about the best bang for buck in the 2-300 aH range, are stackable, they come with comm cables so the batteries BMS's talk to each other and one can shut itself down if the others still need more juice. biggest thing is they might only come in 48 volt flavor, not sure but I know thats the biggest market of them.
I'm looking to put the house batteries under the lazarette (swap out a lot of lead) - the seawater surrounding the hull will keep that a nice temperature for all seasons. The humidity will be a thing if I don't address it, so I dread the idea of comm cables and any metallic hardware. I'm familiar with the magical powers of dielectric grease and IP-rated connectors in low-power connector applications - that could address some concerns. The stuff we used at work (past tense as of today) was IP69K - because sanitation crews (at fruit processing plant) exist.
The power unit is definitely going in the cabin where it's most dry. The faux fireplace is dead, that makes room for a nice power unit.
While @kenn_chan obviously rocks at home solar, I guess I could say I look more at items our venerable 7.3L can pull or haul. My boats are the type that use a lot of juice - not unlike a 5er, a trailer RV, a truck camper, or a camper van. My concerns are...
Exposure to the elements
Available space for solar panels
Types of solar panels (rigid for roof, pliable for awning or bimini, folding for storage when not in use, etc...)
Controller type and wiring configuration to limit cable expense
Output capacity
Charge capacity
Storage capacity
Input and output forms
Storage expansion capability
To that end, I found this to be VERY thorough in answering questions about an upcoming product I'm interested in:
One elephant in the room with differing battery technologies - the DC to DC converter.
Lead (Pb) batteries are familiar to all of us, whether they are flooded, AGM, deep cycle, marine, or any combination thereof.
Putting aside the outside technologies (EV, hybrid, lithium ion, and various other batteries), I'm focusing on a safe battery technology available today:
LiFePO4 - or lithium ferric phosphate - or lithium phosphate - or LFP... they all mean the same thing.
LFP uses a different voltage than lead, has a different charge profile and limit, and can never ever be tied directly to a conventional lead battery or alternator configured for lead batteries. My truck camper has an LFP battery, and I plug the camper into Frankenstinky's 7-blade RV towing connector. Because of that battery charge pin on the connector, doing this directly before making changes would blow the truck alternator - and maybe cook the truck batteries.
In the truck camper, I installed a DC-DC converter:
I can no longer find this product on the Victron site, so I don't know what the story is there. It is completely programmable with my phone (via bluetooth), so I dialed it to not charge the camper until the diesel was happy after recovering from a cold start (glow plugs active). What that really means is I told it not to charge the camper until the truck volts are over something like 13.2. This prevents the camper from stealing power from the truck when it's not running and already has a good charge. I also set the charge limit to 10 amps - through efficiency losses, that's closer to about 12 amps from the truck. The truck has a 30-amp fuse on that circuit, but all the wiring is now 24 years old - so I leaned into caution.
I have separate circuits for solar and plugged-in charging, I count on those to really keep the LFP battery up with an additional 35s amp of charge available. The battery can take 50 amps of charge, but I programmed the system so it could not exceed the limit if everything was charging simultaneously.
Saying all of that, my next boat is going to need a bigger DC-DC converter because of the capacity of the house batteries. This video gave me Spock eye (raised an eyebrow).
That pecron has some decent capacity to it, can they be paralleled (like inverters for longer run time)? some makes can some cannot depending upon the architecture of the BMS that is in it.
I am interested in simple 12 volt systems as I will be building (from scratch) a slide in camper for my truck. the days of towing a small pull behind are over, I want to tow a small car behind the truck when we go off instead for driving about when we are on a week or two week expedition. The F150 was tight in a lot of cities, but I could drop the camper at the camp grounds and more or less finagle my way through the streets. not gonna lie I am not about to try that with a DRW. better to have a Toad to drive instead. so I am still interested in the 12 volt scene, just have not been spending the brain cells to keep up with all of it.
a diesel or propane genset would get my vote for emergency backup in the front country. Heck I use a denyo diesel 10k as my back up and for 3 phase power (lift, welder, compressor in the shop.) Only issue I have is that being three phase I have to use two legs at 120 which means I cannot run the a/c as its split phase 240.
yeah, 3 phase is a different animal. dad has that in his shop.
we have a little gas 5000 watt gas generator that we use now. it is enough.
whats your next project after your shelving unit? where you live I would definitely build a stand along panel system just to power my a/c. don't tie into grid and tell them to have a nice day on their exorbitant electric bills. there are DIY split packs these days specifically designed to be used with a battery less inverter. so panels to inverter, inverter to the split pack, and once the array starts to make enough power to run the load, off it goes, no batteries, no tie ins to grid mains nothing that the electrical service provider overlords can say about it. City council is a different hurdle to jump, I suggest catching them all in compromising situations and holding the proof over their heads...
Not impressed with the top seal - I would use a battery box (standard practice anyway) if I bought this for the boat. It should be fine for land use without the box.
Rezvani's Latest Post-Apocalyptic Monster Is a Ford F-150 Raptor Underneath
Slideshow: Called the Fortress, the 850-horsepower pickup combines Raptor underpinnings with military-inspired features, survival equipment, and a starting price of $285,000.
