Chins vs Li Time vs? Wow, battery prices!

[BlueOak]

So I've been happily running several small and independent 12 volt solar off-grid setups on small cabins, shower/sauna house, and a pole barn at our upper midwest seasonal property (we use it on and off, about 6-7 months/year) for many years. Time to move up a notch on capacity, but not ready to invest several thousands of $ for the typical current Will Prowse 48 volt system. In moving up size, want to be 12 volt compatible initially, but potentially go 48 volt 4s in the future. That seems to indicate buying 4 x LiFePO4 batteries to future-proof, to start.

12 volt lithium battery prices seem to be falling through the floor, moving toward RV/Marine lead acid prices.

Chins 12v 100 Ah going for $195 on Amazon WITH low temp cut-off (very helpful at our seasonal upper midwest property)
Chins same capacity, but with internal heaters going for $313 on Amazon.

LiTime 12v 100 Ah going for $225 on Amazon, BUT withOUT low temp cut-off.

Am I crazy to consider the Chins?

 

[Aldricoak]

Ultimately your question is dependent on who responds with what kind of experience they have had with either company. While I have considerable knowledge of CHINS 12.8v 100ah batteries without low temp cutoff (my battery bank is inside the house), I have zero experience with the LiTime.

In my set up. I am running 16 CHINS in a 24v set up. I think it important to mention the batteries are the basic version without the fancy BMSs. While they do have BMSs inside it's the basic version. These batteries power practically everything that a family of five living full time off grid needs. Samsung 28cuft smart frig, Frigidaire 20cuft smart freezer, three Samsung smart TVs, Xbox One game consoles (with wi-fi), Sony receiver with Klipsch surround speakers, LED smart lights, Nomad cube wi-fi device which ties all smart devices together, two desktop computers, three laptop computers, vacuum cleaner (battery operated, charged when required) full size Samsung washer and drier (pulls 22 amps off of a split phase inverter for 39 minutes) two different inverters, four Epever solar charge controllers, all associated blue tooth monitoring equipment, charges five cell phones, water pumps, and all the 20v DeWalt power tools needed to build a multi story cabin in the woods with no road access.

I mention the smart devices and wi-fi devices because the Wi-Fi aspect is always "on"

Typical nightly usage, depending on what is running, averages around 15 to 25 percent of the battery bank. We are over panelled and normally recoup all power daily, we have very few days where our solar array doesn't deliver daily. We live in up state New York so we see plenty of cloudy days. Our solar cels are set up in series (from Newpowa 100w), four arrays, all tied together in parallel. During winter we run all four arrays, during summer, we usually run two arrays.

Hot water in managed by a thermal mass heater with a stainless steel tank inset along one wall of the heater. 50 gallon tank.

Cooking is accomplished on a full sized wood fired range.

Whole house heating accomplished by wood fired cast iron multi fuel (wood or coal) heater inside a boiler room with ducting running from it.

 

[x98myers7]

I have been running two CHINS 24v 100ah lifep04s for our small off-grid array and have had zeros issues since commissioned Aug 2022. amazingly... they're almost HALF the price now since I bought them in 2022 for $800 each. now they're $549.

 

[Brucey]

For $520 you can now get an ecoworthy 12V 280Ah.

Amazon.com

 

[Blakes]

I bought 4 Chins 200ah 12v with the 200amp BMS this past summer. They are ruunning my small offgrid log cabin just fine.

 

[agoat]

Amazon 24v 200Ah

$820 after coupons for 5kWh