I am thinking of building a LifePO4 prismatic form factor 600ah 48v battery bank for a sailing catamaran. It has two electric pod motors, 7.5 kw each at 48v. At maximum, running the pod motors full out, each pod pulls about 156 amps, or total for both would be 312 amps. My question is, what size and configuration of LifePO4 batteries would be best?
I have read that smaller size batteries take the pounding better on a platform that is often in motion, in my case, a sail boat. However, I have also read that putting too many banks in parallel is not a good idea either (2 or 3 maximum). If I went with 100ah cells, I would have to put six strings made of sixteen cell banks (100ah @48v) each to get to 600ah total. This keeps the cell size smaller, but makes six banks in parallel. Or, I could go with 310ah cells, making two strings of 16 again, but each would give me 310ah @48v. That would only require two banks in parallel but I would be using larger individual cells. I could split the difference and go with 200a cells for three banks in parallel.
What would be best? Or is there another configuration I am missing? I am somewhat new to this so be kind.
I have read that smaller size batteries take the pounding better on a platform that is often in motion, in my case, a sail boat. However, I have also read that putting too many banks in parallel is not a good idea either (2 or 3 maximum). If I went with 100ah cells, I would have to put six strings made of sixteen cell banks (100ah @48v) each to get to 600ah total. This keeps the cell size smaller, but makes six banks in parallel. Or, I could go with 310ah cells, making two strings of 16 again, but each would give me 310ah @48v. That would only require two banks in parallel but I would be using larger individual cells. I could split the difference and go with 200a cells for three banks in parallel.
What would be best? Or is there another configuration I am missing? I am somewhat new to this so be kind.