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LiFePo4 Battery life time

PST

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Dec 3, 2020
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Hello everybody,

first of all i am really impressed of this forum. I found tons of useful information.

Please correct me if i am using the wrong wording or in the wrong section of this forum. I tried to use the search function for this topic but i was not successful to find all information.

I want to build battery pack for my home energy storage application. But not sure about the long term life time of the cheap LiFePo4 batteries from EVE, Calt etc.
With a couple of suppliers from China i had telephone conversations and e-mail exchanges. I got a lot of different data sheets for same cells, wrong answers etc. .
Now i selected two suppliers but now sure how to make the decision. I have quotations from Xuba with good price (i believe) and a quotation from CALB directly that is cheaper than to buy in Europe and higher than Xuba.

From the short time view i should buy from XUBA. But what about the long term quality?!?!?
From CALB i will get a report with serial number for each cell. Is this a sing of good quality?!?!?

It would be great if some one of you could share your "long term experience" with their batteries.

Thank you

Regards from Germany

Peter
 
From my experience, CALB is the best of the best. You will not be disappointed with them. They underrate their batteries, so in other words, my CA180 cells are rated at 180 amp hours and actually put out over 200
 
Calb rates thier CA180 cells for 2000 cycles to 80% retention. Here is some info from the datasheets:


1607537058385.png

Another Calb datasheet I found specified basically the same at 1C. 100% DOD vs 80% DOD

1607537113029.png



Eve/Lishen states 3.5K - 4K cycles to 80% retention. 100% DOD @ 1C. Under compression of course. Without compression is around the same as Calb.


1607537196674.png
 

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It would be great if some one of you could share your "long term experience" with their batteries.
8yrs of sinopoly cells at work. Cycled everyday outside exposed to the elements.
 
Calb rates thier CA180 cells for 2000 cycles to 80% retention. Here is some info from the datasheets:


View attachment 29778

Another Calb datasheet I found specified basically the same at 1C. 100% DOD vs 80% DOD

View attachment 29779



Eve/Lishen states 3.5K - 4K cycles to 80% retention. 100% DOD @ 1C. Under compression of course. Without compression is around the same as Calb.

What does "under compression" meant?

Thank you for the data sheets. I got data sheets from CALB directly also. CALB told me that their new cells will also make 4000 cycles.

I am interested on the real life experience also.
 
From your wording I think you mean how long before you will need to buy new batteries, or what I refer to as longevity versus battery discharge capacity useage battery life for each charge/discharge cycle. Number of cycles is talked about a lot but if your regular cycling rate is low it does not mean you are going to get indefinite battery longevity.

At the risk of starting a controversy I would realistically expect 8 to 12 years if they are not 'murdered' first by a mistake, like overvoltage charging, charging at cold temps, or repeated over current charge and discharge rates. A good BMS should save you against most mistakes. Keeping state of charge between 20% and 85% helps extend longevity although LiFePO4 are the most tolerant of all LiIon chemistries for extended time at high state of charge. High ambient heat and keeping extended time at full charge will shorten longevity. Charging at cold temp below freezing can significantly damage cells and not all or even most BMS's prevent this.

Some folks claim to expect 25 years of longevity. That is very wishful thinking.
 
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you are right.

I try to make the decision if it make sense to buy quality products or not. I meant with my calculation it would take 25-30 years to reach 4000 cycles for me.

I hope some more the member have batteries in service longer than 8 years. Thank you @Sharky722
 
Have a look at my signature regarding ESS cells. Save yourself a lot of questions.

Bulk Commodity cells (the EVE 280's for example) are fine BUT they are unmatched and that presents several quirks.
Matched & Batched cells are all even and level through their power cycles, They are NOT $80 a cell, at best matched sets are $120+ per cell.
Properly Matched/Batched & Binned "sets" of EVE, CATL and others will be available SOON ! with guaranteed testing and eval per cell reports.
NOT from XUBA (BTW I started that super long thread) Sets being in 4,8,16 cells that all match.

MATCHED is a Misused word at present with MOST Vendors. again, link in my sig,

Hope it helps, Good Luck.
Steve
 
Winston/CALB/GBS/Sinopoly have been proven to last 10+ years in residential off grid system.

When i got my cells 8 years ago, that lifespan wasn’t universally accepted as realistic, we will just have to wait another decade to see how realistic 25 years is.
 
Winston/CALB/GBS/Sinopoly have been proven to last 10+ years in residential off grid system.

When i got my cells 8 years ago, that lifespan wasn’t universally accepted as realistic, we will just have to wait another decade to see how realistic 25 years is.
Also a significantly different price point as well.

the axciom, "you get what you pay for" is tried, true & well tested.
 
Maybe, time will tell.

I would always pay 1/4 for batteries that will last 1/4 the time.
 
The general thought is to buy the cheaper cells, use some of the savings to get more capacity so you won't be disappointed.

If it were an electric vehicle or something then you'd want matched cells with full capacity, but for power walls? Neh.
 
My thinking is that in 10 years time there will be way better batteries than LiFePO4
 
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