Using Lithium Batteries

[Crazy Brit]

I have always said that this idea of only charging your Lithium Batteries to 80% and then only Discharging to 20% is a load of Balony. It is often stated as the way to best look after your Lithium (LiFePO4) Batteries, but really is a nonsense.

Just came across this Video posted yesterday by Will Prowse, who a lot of people regard as THE god of Lithium and Solar and it is good to see he is dispelling this myth. Maybe more people will believe him and use the blooming batteries they bought properly and fully!

I am starting the Video at the point he discusses about charging and discharging levels .... Also watch all to the end!

Remember - Use that Battery!
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This is why I built my own battery. So I could use it as I wanted and if I screwed up I only had myself to blame. I watched a fair bit of Will and the off grid garage particularly for the bms settings. It's not immediately obvious what some do. Having access to all the settings is a real bonus.

I visited a renewable exhibition at the NEC and spoke to one of the techs and he was a bit surprised I was only using 306Ah from my EVE MB30 cells and not the >330 Ah they are capable of. I didn't tell him I got 339Ah out of each cell when I tested them before assembly into the battery! Lol

 

[wildebus]

I dip and and out of Will. He has some great info for sure but don't really care about seeing 20 battery tear down videos a month.
I find Andy Off-grid Garage too hard going. Even when I see a video released that covers a specific topic of interest, his presentation style twists my melons too much to be able to watch for long.

 

[mry716]

May I also suggest a video worth watching - I was surprised as to how much I was able to learn.

 

[wildebus]

May I also suggest a video worth watching - I was surprised as to how much I was able to learn.

Clarkes a nice guy. Had a fairly long conversation with him a few years ago when he was in the Dominican Republic - we did a bit of a collaboration on Hybrid Battery setups.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

The scooters new battery lasted from 7th of November until the 18th no charge left in the car overnight it did drop a bar on each other last three days of use last week and go quite slow but was okay, so I put the fully charged one that came with it in on Monday and it's lost three bars already, so I'll swap in the fully charged new one tomorrow.

Is there anything I can do to recondition the older one to get more out of it, it's not an issue at home as I have the mains to charge it but when it goes back in the van I only have a 12v charger, I don't think using my small LB and the 300w inverter is really an option, but I'm pretty dumb on stuff like this.

Pardon our interruption...

 

[Chasn]

Vegas in winter can go lower overnight than many places in the UK

I don't think the cold charging discussion was in scope for the video topic. If you watch other videos of his, he is fairly obsessive on the topic in fact.

The best option really is not sitting a battery on a heat mat but to have a battery with internal heater as part of the design AND a BMS that works in conjunction with it and directs power accordingly. That way you don't have to mess around with chargers with temperature sensor control and cutoffs... Just let the battery take care of it (but low temp charging is a whole different topic to the one discussed on the video)

I do get the batteries to look after themselves as they power their own heater mats. As my battery pack is made up from 8 individual cells (4S2P) it is necessary to add the heating rather than have it already incorporated. The advantages of self made batteries is cost (£700 for a 600Ah pack) and space (the 8 cells take up the same space as two 95Ah lead acid batteries). I also use these cells to make up off-grid backup power packs (£2000 for 30kwh). Much cheaper than the commercial domestic solar system battery back ups.