[RE-wrenches] Switching to LiFePO4

[David Palumbo]

Wrenches,

I have a nice little rental house here in my off-grid neighborhood that after 40 years is ready to transition to LiFePO4 batteries.
I have no experience with any lithium home power storage batteries. I'm looking for advice, so I can avoid mistakes as a rental house with battery problems is quite the pain in the ass. The last tenant was my daughter so life with older lead acids wasn't a huge issue, but now I want something I won't have to enter the house to monitor and operate. I'll bullet what I think I know and my questions.

  *
The house has four 11-year-old Trojan Industrial IND 17-6 for 925 AH @ 24V that are amply sized for the houses loads.
  *
It has a newer TriMetric meter that I was supposed to be able to set up for web access using their WIFI module, but I have had no success with being able to monitor battery state of charge remotely.
  *
I really need something that will give me battery state of charge information without entering the house.
  *
The system has a single OutBack VFX3624. PV array is 2.5kW.
  *
System also has a Iota 40A charger so charging with my 6 KW genset is typically in the 100Amp range with the OutBack and Iota.
  *
We are in northern Vermont, so we rack up significant generator (NOT auto-start) run time in the winter months.
  *
 I'm looking at Eclipse LiFePO4 24V 200AH. Three of these will give me 600AH @ 24V which is 65% of the rated Amp Hrs of the Trojan Industrials now in use. Is this enough?
  *
My battery box can easily handle up to four of the Eclipse 24V 200AH batteries. I see that Backwoods recommends that only three of the Eclipse are connected with battery cables. If I opted for four (for 800AH) I would need to use a busbar.
  *
Are there other distributors of Eclipse batteries other than Backwoods Solar that I should consider? I haven't used my dealer account with them for a number of years and I'm not sure that I'll get a good price from them.
  *
What is the lead time for getting these batteries shipped out?
  *
Are there other LiFePO4 batteries I should consider?
  *
Is 600AH of LiFePO4's enough to replace 925AH of LA's?

Dave Palumbo
Retired from running Independent Power, but active in off-grid solar.
Hyde Park, VT
802-371-8678 voice or text.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org/attachments/20240917/c9f15136/attachment.htm>