Eco-worthy batteries

[tiltrider1]

I hear what you are saying. However, it seems to me that LiPo batteries have transitioned from the realm of early adopters who are OK with bleeding edge tech, to mainstream incredibly fast.

I replaced my house bank 7 years ago this month. It doesn't seem like it was that long ago. I used 4 six volt L16 AGM batteries for a total of a nominal 720Ah.

My thruster bank is two very old Lifeline AGM 8Ds. They are begining to get tired. When it comes time to replace those, I will likely look at making the conversion to LiPo in some form or another. I never thought that LiPo would have come so far, so fast.

I have to agree. Two years ago I wouldn’t consider LFP and was putting off my L-16 replacements due to the weight being too much for me to handle. Then in the matter of one year prices fell, information became availability, the product improved greatly and early adopters were were showing great success.

This has happened so fast it’s hard for people to believe it’s real.

I understand the hesitation, that is why I am trying to give real world experience to help others make the leap.

 

[luna]

Yes, now that makes more sense.

You may want to increase your at rest charge capacity closer to the battery manufacturers recommendation which will not only treat the LFP battery better, but also reduce your genset run time.

You're not taking advantage of one of LFP's most endearing characteristics.

 

[dhays]

Out of curiosity, how close were you able to program your Magnum to match the batteries preferred profile? It sounds as if the profile is not too far off what my current batteries call for.

I have a Magnasine MS2812 charger/inverter. Since I have a mix of Lifeline and US Batteries AGM, I had to program a compromise on the charge profile. Bulk to 14.4v, Absorb at 14.4v until amps have come down to 3% of C/20, Float 13.3v.

My charger maxes out at 125amps, so it can take a while to get there if the batteries are at 80%. Max amos from the charger may be what is limiting your charge times? The LiPo may be able to take a charge faster than your FLA batteries could, but if you are still trying to replace that same 800Ah, your charger may be doing as much as it can.

 

[tiltrider1]

Out of curiosity, how close were you able to program your Magnum to match the batteries preferred profile? It sounds as if the profile is not too far off what my current batteries call for.

I have a Magnasine MS2812 charger/inverter. Since I have a mix of Lifeline and US Batteries AGM, I had to program a compromise on the charge profile. Bulk to 14.4v, Absorb at 14.4v until amps have come down to 3% of C/20, Float 13.3v.

My charger maxes out at 125amps, so it can take a while to get there if the batteries are at 80%. Max amos from the charger may be what is limiting your charge times? The LiPo may be able to take a charge faster than your FLA batteries could, but if you are still trying to replace that same 800Ah, your charger may be doing as much as it can.

Eco-worthy gave me the charging numbers and I used Magnum’s custom battery profile to program in the numbers. All of this is done through the ME-R50 remote.

At this time my battery charger is only capable of providing 125 amps. I have a backup battery charger capable of another 80 amps. In the past I used both which gave me 200 amps per hour which made charging fairly quick. Currently I have mixed chemistry between house and start so I repurposed the backup charger to the start bank.

When I started this experiment, I was concerned of failure, this made me reluctant to spend money on additional equipment, after all 125 amps per hour wasn’t horrible. As my confidence grows I am considering investing in an additional 125 amp charger and high out put alternators with an LFP appropriate regulator.

The reality is that we often run the generator while driving the boat so charging from alternators is less of an issue for me.