[arcticdude]

Same here. It's been very interesting to try to follow along!

[folivier]

Working good so far. Having a bit of trouble getting my Freedom 2500 with (older) Link 2000 to charge where I want it. Charging fine at 13.65v & 110 amps but can't figure out how to get it to a higher voltage. The Link is reading 0.4 volts higher than the Victron BMV-600 which matches the battery voltage. So may have to upgrade my inverter if this doesn't work out.
Ran the engine today for 1/2 hour at 1100 rpms. SOC (state of charge) was at 85%, alternator put out 56 amps. Temperature on alternator got up to 94F, belts at 80F, battery isolator at 67F. So no problem so far. I'll try again when SOC is about 50%.

I did turn off shore power for a few hours. Looks like I'll be using 400-500 amps/24 hours. I'll have 800 amps available so should have no problem getting through the night. With a bit of conservation I should go 48 hours or better before needing to recharge them. When I tested them I left the 120v water pump on, had tv + stereo going and other stuff.

[arcticdude]

Forest,

Is the Freedom set for wet or gel batteries?

[folivier]

On gel setting now. That is what Balqon recommended.
Good point! I'll set it for lead acid (only have LA or gel settings) then I can use the ambient temp setting to bring it down a bit if it's too high.
I think part of my problem is the inverter is reading 0.4 volts higher than the Victron monitor and battery.

[bikestuff]

Forest, I know you know a lot more about this than I know!

Have you thought about the engine batteries?

When I first got my Newell, I replaced my house batteries with AGM type bats. I DID NOT change my engine batteries (wet cells). I often left the merge switch in the on position. Long story short is that I ruined three sets by my count, two sets by Newells count of engine batteries. My prosine was set to AGM.

I am convinced that my inverter cooked my engine batteries.

So…be careful how you set your inverter if you plan on merging the cells for long periods.

Thanks again for sharing!
Cheers,
bill

[prairieschooner]

Working good so far. Having a bit of trouble getting my Freedom 2500 with (older) Link 2000 to charge where I want it. Charging fine at 13.65v & 110 amps but can't figure out how to get it to a higher voltage. The Link is reading 0.4 volts higher than the Victron BMV-600 which matches the battery voltage. So may have to upgrade my inverter if this doesn't work out.

Forest, If you do upgrade look at the OUTBACK inverter/charger.

[folivier]

Found the shunt for the inverter in the engine compartment. The shunt for the Victron battery monitor is at the LiFePO4 batteries. That explains the 0.4 volt higher reading from the inverter.
Now, should I try to move the inverter shunt to the battery which will entail reconnecting the negative wires where it was and moving the sense wires to the new location? I should be able to just connect all of the negative cables together to a new stud into the frame?
Or, just try and trick the inverter to give me a higher charge voltage?
When not charging and running the inverter both voltages are only a few tenths of a volt different. Keep in mind the only voltage that matters is at the batteries where the BMS is sensing the voltage. I'm not using the inverter for any controls.

[arcticdude]

I think I'd move the sense wire. I would expect that to give the least issues over time. Creating a new junction point would only cause me lots of headaches. Tricking the inverter to give higher output will work, if not combined with wets, as Bill correctly pointed out; if you have those. Switching wets to agm will bring the charge requirements closer together, so that may need to be your next upgrade. I have wet chassis with gel house and leave them combined essentially 100% of the time. Other than one wet cell crapping out, everything else has worked well for the given technology.

[Ozarkguy]

Forrest, you house batteries are not connected to the frame are they?
I had remembered that they were connected directly to the inverter, both (+) and ( - ).
Correct me if my thinking is skewed......

[deckofficer]

Hi all.

My first post on the forum. I'm here because Forest joined the forum that I am on, The Cruiser's Forum. We share LiFePO4 batteries in common. On the Cruiser's Forum we have a thread that has over 3400 posts on this battery technology. My background is building and racing electric vehicles and prior to that installing off grid power systems for remote home sites. I've used batteries from the simple and cheap 6 volt golf cart batteries, L16s, 2 volt 700 a-hr AGM, 2 volt 2400 a-hr Rolls, and now LiFePO4 cells.

To sum up those 3400+ posts of cruisers using these cells as house banks on their sailboats, they are 100% happy about the upgrade. To date on that forum about 40 members have made the switch. They make economic sense for full time cruisers who spend more time on the hook in an anchorage than at marinas. The same would apply to full time RVers that boondock a lot.

Their attributes though would be appreciated by folks that aren't full timers. These are of course less weight, no acid, venting or terminal corrosion. The ability to cycle down to 80% DOD and still give over 2000 cycles. Also excellent charge acceptance maximizes charging sources such as solar, gen set, and inverter charging to minimize charge time. Able to discharge at a 1C rate with very little voltage sag. And since they earn their a-hr rating differently than lead acid, I can assure you from 1st hand experience that whatever a-hr lead bank you have, if you switch to LiFePO4 you will only need 1/2 the a-hr rating. A lead acid battery is rated for a-hr on a very easy 20 hour rate, so the rating is assigned to a 400 a-hr lead acid battery if it can power a 20 amp load for 20 hours. As you all know, to get decent cycle life from lead acid (400 cycles) you should not cycle below 50% DOD. That same lead acid battery that got a 400 a-hr rating in the 20 hour test would provide less than 200 a-hr in a 1 hour test pulling a 1 C load instead of a 0.05 C load due to Peukert effect. A LiFePO4 cell gets its a-hr rating in a brutal 1 hour (1 C load) test, and this test is only run to 80% DOD, leaving 20% in the cells.

My latest LiFePO4 project was for my electric kayak. 60 lbs worth of lead AGM battery was replaced with the same weight of lithium cells and the range of the kayak in calm waters has gone from 18 miles to 80 miles. Here are the two packs I put together for the kayak. Each weighs 30lbs.