Lithium Batteries are NOT Worth the Extra Cost?

jharrell

Senior Member

Join Date: Jan 2014

Location: Safety Harbor, FL

Posts: 2,458

Quote:

Mark_K5LXP

Originally Posted by

But those very economics are based on some pretty specific, high cycle use cases. If you only put 50 cycles a year on a battery, your cost of ownership for LFP will be higher than lead because you will never use all the cycles before the battery expires or you're done with it.

LFP batteries don't "expire" they have cycle aging and calendar aging, if you're not cycling much its dominated by calendar aging which is a function of SOC (minor) and temperature (major). There isn't a lot of clear data on the calendar aging of LFP but everything I can find shows easily more than 10 years to 80% unless the are kept at high temps constantly, low temps actually slow down calendar aging ending up with 20 year projected lifespans in standby applications.

I would venture most lead batteries in RV's are cycled less than 50 times a year and still need replacement every few years due to under charging or running them dead, not doing good temp compensated charging and equalizations along with not keeping up on the water. I went with AGM's originally to avoid maintenance as it was worth it to me have once less thing to keep up with, lithiums are similar except even less fussy about always keeping them charged properly to extend life.

If RV's came with LFP's for house batteries there is good chance they can last the lifetime of the RV for a small overall additional cost when purchasing while not have to spend any money later on replacements when they go dead at the worse time on vacation and adding resale value. I think most people would prefer that along with all the other nice attributes of LFP batteries, time will tell, but the economics are starting to make sense for a much wider audience now and continuing to get better.

Thats assuming you actually take care of your cheap FLA's by adding water, keeping them fully charged and doing equalizations as well, also don't pull too much current when discharging or you won't even get the 50% or 80% capacity out of since its above the 20 hour rate.LFP batteries don't "expire" they have cycle aging and calendar aging, if you're not cycling much its dominated by calendar aging which is a function of SOC (minor) and temperature (major). There isn't a lot of clear data on the calendar aging of LFP but everything I can find shows easily more than 10 years to 80% unless the are kept at high temps constantly, low temps actually slow down calendar aging ending up with 20 year projected lifespans in standby applications.I would venture most lead batteries in RV's are cycled less than 50 times a year and still need replacement every few years due to under charging or running them dead, not doing good temp compensated charging and equalizations along with not keeping up on the water. I went with AGM's originally to avoid maintenance as it was worth it to me have once less thing to keep up with, lithiums are similar except even less fussy about always keeping them charged properly to extend life.If RV's came with LFP's for house batteries there is good chance they can last the lifetime of the RV for a small overall additional cost when purchasing while not have to spend any money later on replacements when they go dead at the worse time on vacation and adding resale value. I think most people would prefer that along with all the other nice attributes of LFP batteries, time will tell, but the economics are starting to make sense for a much wider audience now and continuing to get better.

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