Question For You Guys Who Made The LiFePo4 Switch
- Thread starter Sharphooks
- Start date
Sharphooks
Well-Known Member
I’m heading in the direction of a single Battleborn GC3 (81 lbs) LIFePO battery with 270 amp hours and will probably step up for flexible solar panels on the wheelhouse roof. Meanwhile, I’m not a fan of gensets. IF a boat comes into the bay where I’m anchored and fires up a genset, I pull anchor and I’m out of there. Same when I’m in my camper in the parking lot of a ski area and an RV pulls up next to me and busts the same genset move. I know they are handy and serve a purpose. I just don’t want to deal with mine or someone else’s
beemer
Well-Known Member
Don’t miss understanding this post folks. It’s not just plug and play with Lifepo4… you can easily fry alternators without the proper regulator. I am no electrician but I have installed a 500 amp hour system on my sailboat and have done my homework..
Sir Reel
Well-Known Member
If it was me I would increase house size and decrease start size and run everything off house. Start for start only.
Put 2 or 4 of these on your roof along with Victron Bluetooth controllers and you will get all your charge and battery info on your phone.
The solar panels are 24 volts. The controller half’s that to 12 volts but at the same time doubles the current.
These are my panels on a sunny day. Putting 18.6 amps combined into the house batteries. Plus they keep my voltage up to 14 volts for the electronics.
All in all very happy with my whole battery and solar panel setup
Rain City
Crew Member
I bring a little Honda when I'm on extended trips, just in case the sun doesn't keep up with things. I'll usually pick a day where we're headed to a beach and I'll anchor away from other boats and let the thing go while I'm away. This only happens on a very rare occasion, but it's nice to have the backup when needed.
zurk
Well-Known Member
you cant unless they are built for it like the dakota DL series.
Sharphooks
Well-Known Member
I know there are boaters using LIFePO for starter batteries. I’ll stick with my AGM’s (despite the weight). And I’m stuck with G31’s: I looked long and hard to find suitable start batteries in G24 or G27 that had both sufficient 1,000 CCA’s + the required amp hours to handle the draw of my twin Optimus electro-servo motors that steer the Suzukis + the trolling motor. That’s how I ended up with the G31 Dual Purpose.
Yes, they’re heavy at 71 lbs each
Yes, they’re heavy at 71 lbs each
kaelc
Crew Member
It’ll be a good switch for the house to the battleborn. My brother in a law uses battleborn and he goes for the best. Saving weight helps, my experience being over loaded for the rivers inlet trip showed me that. When I repower I’ll be thinking long and hard about the weight of the main and kicker vs trolling motor and moving the house battery and making the switch to lifePO4. Totally agree on the generator, every couple months there is a cruiser complaining about generators at anchorages. I’ll have my Honda generator doing nothing in my garage until I get an electric car for backup power. Let us know how it goes!
zurk
Well-Known Member
thats correct. it can suck too much current and overload/overheat your alternator or cut off abruptly and fry it that way. sterling APDs are pretty cheap though.
ship happens
Crew Member
If you can get 10-20 amps on solar and have a completely separate charging system, then thats the way to go. We are getting ready to do this ourselves on the big boat. The reason is gennys are a pain in the butt and your only as good as your onboard charger. In most cases people have 10 amp chargers. To get a proper charger that will do up to 20 amps gets real spendy, and gennys are also. Look into what Renogy has to offer. They have 200 watt flexable panels that so far, do exactly what they claim.
Sir Reel
Well-Known Member
The cool thing about solar is it charges from sun up to sun down. Obviously starting low and peaking mid-day and less on cloudy days.
Most cruising days I am back to 100% by 10am. Plus AGM batteries can charge up to 5 times faster than flooded and also get to 100% quicker than flooded.
Sharphooks
Well-Known Member
Yo Ship happens—— your comments are well noted and well informed about the separate charging system
This from the guy who built my boat who I’m hoping will do the LiFePo conversion:
QUOTE
Solar Array
If it was me and I didn’t really plan on having a dingy on the roof most of the time I would put two flexible panels on the roof that would cover a lot of it. These would be two Renogy 200 watt panels and are about $330. Ea. This would give you a total of 400 watts. I have 250 watts on my boat.
The other option is a single panel that is 22” wide and 62” long on the aft overhang. This panel is about $450. This panel is 160 watts so it would help keep the batteries charged but probably wouldn’t completely charge them if you had a lot on 24 hours a day. The two panels on the main roof should be able to keep up with just about anything depending on what battery option you choose. The solar array would also need a solar controller at around $350.
UNQUOTE
This from the guy who built my boat who I’m hoping will do the LiFePo conversion:
QUOTE
Solar Array
If it was me and I didn’t really plan on having a dingy on the roof most of the time I would put two flexible panels on the roof that would cover a lot of it. These would be two Renogy 200 watt panels and are about $330. Ea. This would give you a total of 400 watts. I have 250 watts on my boat.
The other option is a single panel that is 22” wide and 62” long on the aft overhang. This panel is about $450. This panel is 160 watts so it would help keep the batteries charged but probably wouldn’t completely charge them if you had a lot on 24 hours a day. The two panels on the main roof should be able to keep up with just about anything depending on what battery option you choose. The solar array would also need a solar controller at around $350.
UNQUOTE
Rain City
Crew Member
I have two 100 watt panels and it's not quite enough. You end up getting 130-140 max 90% of the time. They fit nicely on my eyebrow roofso I just rolled with it. 400 watts would be way better. Like, twice as good.
kaelc
Crew Member
One of Sea Sports owners has the flexible solar panels sewn into their dingy cover. They seem pretty happy with it. That’s what I’m thinking of doing. When the dingy isn’t on there I may just tie it to my roof rack with rope, still debating.
You can get a much cheaper solar controller if you want but I’d go Victron. Buy it once and be done.
You can get a much cheaper solar controller if you want but I’d go Victron. Buy it once and be done.
kaelc
Crew Member
If you are interested in Sun power solar cells this place in Calgary is pretty affordable, 110W x 140 plus shipping. We bought 4 https://www.solaronline.ca/product/110w-flexi-monocrystalline-solar-panel/
zurk
Well-Known Member
if you want the best solar panels wait a bit and get a CIGS panel. most panels on the market like the sun powers are much heavier and silicon based. The CIGS can be walked on easily and less prone to cracking and are true flexible panels. unfortunately there arent any good players making CIGS panels currently. bougeRV sells some poor quality ones which i would avoid.
Sharphooks
Well-Known Member
Thanks for that, Zurk
The guy doing the mod I’m thinking will chose the panels. He built my boat and I’m giving him the option to build out the system based on his choice of materials. It also saves me the headache of moving the boat around ....he’s both the LiFePo mod and the 200 hour maintenance on my Suzukis so I’m letting him call the shots. Thanks again for the panel suggestion, though!.
The guy doing the mod I’m thinking will chose the panels. He built my boat and I’m giving him the option to build out the system based on his choice of materials. It also saves me the headache of moving the boat around ....he’s both the LiFePo mod and the 200 hour maintenance on my Suzukis so I’m letting him call the shots. Thanks again for the panel suggestion, though!.