Time to Face The Music

RelievedSheff

ladyholly said:

This is probably sticking my nose in where its not wanted so I apologise in advance. I happened to ention your plans for a lithium ion battery for the mo ho to my DH. He was an electronics engineer before retirement and although he admits his kbnwledge may be out of date he thinks it could be a mistake to go for the L I. Their life is much shorter and unless you have the correct equipment for the solar it could over charge.

All I am saying before you go for it make sure you do some research to check it is right for you and the van as they are not a cheap option. I dont mean to offend so please ignore this if you want.

We have done a fair bit of research into lithium leisure batteries starting a few years ago when they first came onto the scene and we considered one for the boat. The technology has come on a fair bit in those few years with the batteries, they now come with internal battery monitoring systems which protect the batteries from over and under charging. Most of them are now a direct swap for lead acid batteries.

The only thing that we had to check was the alternator output. Lithium batteries are greedy and will take the maximum output that the alternator will give unless they are throttled back which can cause problems with alternators over heating. The battery we have chosen is limited to 70 amp charge which will be no problem for our 180 amp alternator.

The manufacturer of the battery we have chosen claims a guaranteed 2000 cycles (which for average leisure use is over 10 years) with no discernable drop in capacity. 

We know people who have had them fitted to their boats a few years ago in a liveaboard setting and they are still performing as good as the day they were installed. Our use will be nothing like as heavy as a full time liveaboard. 

The one thing which will probably be difficult for us to achieve is storing it when not using it. It is not ideal to keep them fully charged all the time. You get better life from them if they are kept between 20-80% charged rather than 100% charged with FLA batteries. We might struggle with that part, but even so they still reckon on at least 2000 cycles if kept between 80-100% charged so it should last a long while.

RelievedSheff

Balances Update 24.11.21

 

Furniture Loan = £0 (Account Closed)

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HP Car Loan = £915 (£251 repayment final payment February 2022)

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Paypal Credit = £540 (£45 repayment 0% interest until December 2022)

 

 Total Debt = £36293

ladyholly

RelievedSheff said:

We have done a fair bit of research into lithium leisure batteries starting a few years ago when they first came onto the scene and we considered one for the boat. The technology has come on a fair bit in those few years with the batteries, they now come with internal battery monitoring systems which protect the batteries from over and under charging. Most of them are now a direct swap for lead acid batteries.

The only thing that we had to check was the alternator output. Lithium batteries are greedy and will take the maximum output that the alternator will give unless they are throttled back which can cause problems with alternators over heating. The battery we have chosen is limited to 70 amp charge which will be no problem for our 180 amp alternator.

The manufacturer of the battery we have chosen claims a guaranteed 2000 cycles (which for average leisure use is over 10 years) with no discernable drop in capacity. 

We know people who have had them fitted to their boats a few years ago in a liveaboard setting and they are still performing as good as the day they were installed. Our use will be nothing like as heavy as a full time liveaboard. 

The one thing which will probably be difficult for us to achieve is storing it when not using it. It is not ideal to keep them fully charged all the time. You get better life from them if they are kept between 20-80% charged rather than 100% charged with FLA batteries. We might struggle with that part, but even so they still reckon on at least 2000 cycles if kept between 80-100% charged so it should last a long while.

That fine I just thought I would pass on what he said but as you have done plenty of research (I should have known you would) I will stay quiet.

RelievedSheff

Not quite a no spends day today. Had to pick up a few bits of veg from the shop this morning and need to get some milk on the way home.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner are from stores. Breakfast was crumpets, we have both taken our packed lunches to work and dinner tonight is pork loin, tortellini and vegetables.

Todays jobs are:

• vacuuming the house
• walking the dog

stymied

Better to speak up @ladyholly than not and regret it later x

ladyholly

stymied said:

Better to speak up @ladyholly than not and regret it later

I just didnt want anyone to think I was trying to tell Relieved Sheff what to do. I just didnt want them to spend the money and then find out it wasnt suitable. 

RelievedSheff

ladyholly said:

stymied said:

Better to speak up @ladyholly than not and regret it later

I just didnt want anyone to think I was trying to tell Relieved Sheff what to do. I just didnt want them to spend the money and then find out it wasnt suitable. 

Your advice was much appreciated thank you. I would rather that people said something if they feel we are making a bad decision  

RelievedSheff

Not a no spends day today. We have picked a few Christmas presents up this morning. Will make a start on the wrapping this weekend I think and might post the other half's mums present up to Scotland as well if we get chance.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner are from stores though. Breakfast was toast, we have both taken our packed lunches to work and it's fakeaway Friday. Tonight we are having pizza and a few sides and having a few beers on the sofa watching a couple of films.

Not got much in the way of house work to do tonight. Just a load of washing to put away which should be dry by the time we get home. Hopefully the weather will brighten up a bit later so we can take the dog for a decent walk after work. 

The new battery for the van should hopefully be delivered today. That's a job for the other half tomorrow fitting that and putting the passenger seat back in place. Then I can try and clean the mucky mark off the back of the seat that he has accidentally put on it!

Sun_Addict

You're an early bird Christmas shopping this time in the morning 😆 Fakeaway sounds nice, I love pizza.

RelievedSheff

Sun_Addict said:

You're an early bird Christmas shopping this time in the morning 😆 Fakeaway sounds nice, I love pizza.

The supermarket we stop at when we are too early for work had some lovely Yankee Candle gift sets on offer this morning so we bagged a few