Lithium Batteries- Relion in particular

Alshymer

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Hello
It’s such a shame that Phil took off his video regarding the above.
I was much inspired by it and took the plunge and changed my 2 x 110 AH lead acid for a 100 AH HP Relion Battery together with a Victron BMV 700 with BlueTooth dongle, a Victron Smartsolar 75 and a Victron Battery Sense temperature gauge.
The Victron bits all talk to each other, so no danger of the battery charging when too cold.
The cost in all - less than £1000 and I sold my Morningstar MPPT for nearly £100!!
This set up has totally transformed my wild camping. I can use the microwave, my Sky HD box and everything else I need and the battery doesn’t fall below 65% with a minimum of 13.2v.
I could never have done this before and I have saved 30kgs of weight and space in my battery locker!!
I am very grateful to Phil for his video and suggest to you all that this is definitely the way forward for wild camping.
Happy travelling.
Alshymer
 
How many days have you used without moving and is it always fully charged when you park up after driving please
 
I’ve got much the same setup as above and it seems to be working a treat. Phil actually helped a lot with my set up even down to the installation he’s a handy chap to have around.It took me ages to get my head around how it works think his way of doing it and the setting up of all the components is worth doing as I’ve heard of other people having problems and blaming the batteries or the controller when they have problems but they didn’t set the stuff up properly in the first place.
 
Now near Torrevieja and been stationary since Sunday lunchtime.
It has been a cloudy week with some sunny periods but even on the cloudy days I am getting 4-5 Amps.
The battery has always been at least 90% the next morning and sometimes more.
 
£1000 would have bought me two lifetimes of lead acid batts,but to each there own,good luck with them. (y)
 
Andy I’ve not had much chance to use my set up in anger. Actually on the road but I’ve been running loads of tests on the drive charging and then putting different loads on using the inverter and doing other stuff. you know what I think for me the best thing is being able to see what you’re using and monitor this and the worry even if you dive the batteries low you’re not going to damage them takes that wee bit of niggle from the back of you’re head that if you do discharge them low it’s no big deal.
 
This is the beauty of Lithium, plenty of capacity, less weight and a nominal voltage output.

andyjanet said:
How many days have you used without moving and is it always fully charged when you park up after driving please
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Hard to put a figure I recon, as everyone uses their vans differently, but you will have a more stable platform than that of a conventional battery bank.
 
Interestingly, I think the best value battery setup I have seen is the one Phil TOOK OUT of his Hymer to install the Relions :D

645Ah worth of Telecom-standard Lead-Carbon batteries, giving a usable capacity of upto around 400Ah for £500.

(Oh, and I made some money back by selling the 200kg worth of ballast to weigh down the back end - those Lead Carbon batteries are heavy mothers!)
 
andyjanet said:
How many days have you used without moving and is it always fully charged when you park up after driving please
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You still have to manage them if you are using them hard Andy. I aim to keep mine around the 80% mark when I charge them unless I am travelling in which case the B2B will top them off if running long enough.
 
Cheap Chinese LifeO4 Battery Fail ..


I wonder how many of these are made in the same factory and just have different labels stuck on them by the reseller. I have noticed this on Amazon that the same product is available with just a different name. Trouble is batteries are rectangular and black and they all look the same. Difference between the above and the one Phil had is the number of cells. This one has 4 x 3.3v 100A but as you will see in the video not that well put together.
 
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There was a test done on another forum and the conclusion was there usless ,the cells died if not put on a proper mains charge,solar could not do the correct programme ,ate the prices charged it makes no sense for me anyway,i can buy a l/acid battery anywhere if my battery fails when out and about where as getting one of those at short notice in the backside of beyond im sure would be impossable,just my thoughts.
 
Just for information
My setup in the Concorde is 720 amps of gel batteries with two 120 watts solar panels it also has a 4K inverter and battery master on top of the standard Concorde lcd read out I also have a victron Bmv 6005
We full time in the van travelling on average 7 miles a day this year.
We have countless led lights and use an electric kettle every day and toaster most days .
The alternator charges at 24 volts and is the large amperage one of 120 amps,
The batteries have never dropped below 65 per cent and in the 26 months of living in the van we have only used electric hookup 18 nights,
I know that if the previous owner hadn’t ad two air conditioning units fitted I would have more space for more solar, he used the van mostly on sites in Spain and had electric hook up all the time we can tell it was a party bus as it had 16 wine glasses on board🍷🤣
So my conclusion for this is Amps mean prizes whether that be a large gel or lead acid battery bank that will only give out fifty per cent of its capacity or a lithium that gives out 95 per cent of its capacity, you can only use what you can put back and only driving a short distance every few days doesn’t put much back so we rely on the large capacity to tie us over until we do a few more miles or get a sunny day,
Hope this helps someone that doesn’t now as much as me, or let’s other people know just how little I know 👍🤣
I was asked about my setup in the new overlander truck we are having built,
We are going for the large alternator on a 24volts system,
We are having 480 watts of solar and 660 amps of gel batteries,
I hope to be in the backside of beyond as trev says and want to be able to replace Or disconnect a unit simply If I get a problem
 
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Hi Andy
That is fine for you and I am pleased that the setup works for you, but how many people can carry 860ah of battery bank which must weigh around a quarter of a tonne!!
 
Alshymer said:
Hi Andy
That is fine for you and I am pleased that the setup works for you, but how many people can carry 860ah of battery bank which must weigh around a quarter of a tonne!!
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Lots of space mind you.
battery space.png
 
Doesn’t matter what battery’s you have fitted, in an emergency anyone can fit lead acid. It’s going to other technologies you need to check/modify your system. The key is getting charge back in them whatever you have and doing it without damage.
I can see on some of these new vans where an owner may want to go to Lithium on weight alone, can’t believe they can be selling a new 4 birth family van with slightly over 300kg payload.
I am very happy with my Lifepo4 bank now and just need to decide which mains charger to go for to reduce genny time
 
Nabsim said:
I am very happy with my Lifepo4 bank now and just need to decide which mains charger to go for to reduce genny time
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Who's Li are you using? Do they have a Amp rating on input? Most 100ah Li have a max 50a input, be worth knowing.
If we don't fit a Multiplus Inverter Charger combi, we normally go with Sterling's PCU range of mains chargers, as they carry specific Li profile and can be custom programmed if necessary.
 
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