After doing an extensive bit of actual Li battery testing during neighbor’s ground up V nose trailer-to-camper conversion (including 400w solar within a diversion load water heating, and powering 11kbtu air cond, and 9.5 cu/ft compressor refer) I was able to do tons of hands-on load testing which made a Li believer out of me…Solar harvest rates are outstanding…We started out with one Aims 100a/hr, and a short while later we added another…A while later, I decided to replace my camper’s two GC 6v’s with a single Aims 200a/hr and am uber satisfied…
To keep the battery above 32f I mounted the battery under the dinette seat, and repurposed the unheated battery box for regular storage – however, 120v (e.g. gen powered) battery heaters can easily be found on ebay.
Li prices seem to be slowly dropping as there are more and more offerings to be found on-line, but it seems the bargain priced batteries are using pouch type cells versus cylindrical steel cells…FWIW, The cylindrical cells are said to be of a more uniform build specification, and the bargain pouch cell types typically weigh even a pound or two less…
Charging is easily accommodated so long as the charger outputs say 14.x volts.
I’m using a OEM Progressive Dynamics 9245, using the tethered charge wizard pendant to kick it into the 14+v boost mode…
Determining SOC (state of charge) can be a bit dicey, so I had to replace my otherwise outstanding Xantrex LinkLite meter with what’s an even better (bluetooth smart phone display capable) Victron BMV 12, which tracks LiFePo4 SOC’s perfectly – in and of itself, this was a fantastic upgrade!!
Phil
