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diy solar

Ultimatron

Don B. Cilly

Energetic energy padawan
Joined
Aug 24, 2021
Messages
1,263
Location
Mallorca ES
I'm seriously thinking about buying two of these (to make 24V)
A few questions:
- Does anyone know anything about those? They're French. I can't find any reviews for them (which doesn't mean there aren't any, just that I can't find them).

- Will these (at 200Ah) be better, equal or worse (performance wise) to 600 Ah deep-cycle lead-acid? They cost 1.9K€ as opposed to 1.6 of the leads.
I'm aware of the constant voltage part, but, even at reduced voltage, everything works fine here.
I assume ;·) the Ah are not given for 0% SOC, are they?

- Even if you don't know them, how do they "look"?
I know, the language on the site is set to English, and it's all in Spanish anyway. Still, the specs should be quite clear all the same.

Bear in mind that this is not only Spain, so the offer is limited, but also an island and some vendors don't like shipping here... which makes it even more limited.
 
Looks OK. In general a 100Ah LiFePo battery is a OK replacement for 200Ah deep-cycle lead-acid.
 
But not quite for a 300?
I mean, considering I have limited loads, and that I manage them carefully, would spending €300 more for 200Ah LiFePO4 than for 600 Ah lead- deep - make economic sense? Money is an object ATM... :·/
 
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But not quite for a 300?
I mean, considering I have limited loads, and that I manage them carefully, would spending €300 more for 200 A LiFePO than for 600 Ah lead- deep - make economic sense? Money is an object ATM... :·/
LiFePo batteries have much longer lifespan (3000-5000 charge/discharge cycles vs ~500), so it definitely has an economic sense.
 
When it comes to home appliances your always better off with the popular models. The bugs are worked out sooner and easier when selling 1,000,000 units vs 1,000.
 
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This is the cycles/SOC chart by the manufacturer for the lead-acids.
cycles.png
So if I don't do more than 55% - not often, anyway - which on 600Ah should be easy enough, with my loads (except for the fridge, close to zero), I should get my 3000 cycles, right? Just over 8 years.
My guess is, 80% of days, I should be within 25% DOD.
 
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I mean, I never draw more than 5Ah, and even that not continuously.
Except for the water pump, which draws 7, but that is on... say 3 minutes or less in the 24 hours.
Any larger draw will be on full PV/wind charge, so no cycle impact.
So call it 4 Ah for the 24h. 100Wh a day (average voltage being well over 25). Less, actually, as on reasonably sunny days a lot of hours are with no discharge. And this is "sunny Ibiza" after all ;·)

What I'm concerned about (well, obviously) is cloudy/rainy days. Especially a few in a row.
I do have a small inverter generator (and a bigger, noisy one that my all-in-one charger does not accept) in a box with fans, almost silent.
Still, bit of a PITA, innit. If on those rare days I can rely on the deeper cycles a bit...

Still, I should be able to deal with that on 200 Ah lithium, shouldn't I?
So maybe I don't need the 600Ah...
 
It is clear that with both types of batteries you would have more than enough capacity for several days of autonomy with only 100Wh in 24h. If you don't mind the much higher weight and space usage as well as the slower charging with lead-acid compared to LiFePO4 then I don't see no need to go for lithium. On the other hand I see a lot of cases where customers switch to lithium because they're tired of having to replace the lead-acid batteries all too frequently because of sulphation and are happy afterwards because of freed up space and weight and no more worry about the DOD.

A word to Ultimatron: I have Ultimatron / FR and Liontron / GE (cost almost double) in my shop and my personal experience is that I'm a lot more satisfied with Ultimatron that with Liontron in therms of quality and after sales service! Here a link to a comparison of the two (it's in German): https://www.microcharge.de/forum/fo...atron-vs-liontron-wo-liegen-die-unterschiede/

Advantages of LiFePO4 vs lead-acid:
Size
Weight
Capacity usage
low discharge
life span
charging speed (charging is done by CC/CV)
Access to the battery data through Bluetooth (actual capacity, charge / discharge, temperature, cell voltage etc)
Protected against over charging, over voltage, over current
Protected against low discharge of 2.5V per cell
Can be installed lying on the side
No gas emissions

If you have any further questions, just le me know
 
in therms of quality and after sales service!

After sales service provided by BatteryFox? :)
Well, good, because that is where I'm buying them :·)

In the end I'll very probably go lithium-iron. The main reason being, if we (I'm building a small house for me and my two children) ever need/want to upgrade, which would also mean we got a bit of a budget, we'll do it with lithium, so...

Both my kids will be on the island next week (a somewhat rare occurrence) so we'll have a good chat about it, and the result would very probably be... BatteryFox :)
 
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