SOLD KS Energy 120ah Lithium Battery

Things have moved fast WRT lithium batteries and inverters. Prices of the batteries have been moving downwards particularly quickly. I bought mine when they fell below the £200 per 200Ah mark, that was only a few months ago, prices went back up slightly but now they've fallen again and Amazon has what appears to be a perfectly good 100Ah battery for just £169, 18 months ago you were looking at £400 minimum.
The price of the Edecoa 2500W inverter I bought three years ago has also dropped so taking inflation into account that's probably 35% cheaper now too.
Similar story with solar panels especially if you have the space for the large domestic panels. If you're a fair weather camper the possibility of an all electric off grid MH at a sensible cost is now a perfectly viable option with scheduled camp site re-charges still required during the winter months. All of a sudden gas bottles, gas lockers, underslung gas tanks, gas hobs, 3 way fridges etc al are starting to look like history soon and very possibly sooner than you'd think.
 
Nabsim said:
yes, recharging is the bottleneck these days, especially in the UK. still no way i would get rid of gas
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I feel the same. To me the main reason for getting Lithium is to cope with several days of crap weather off grid without sitting in the dark or not daring to plug my laptop in, not to start running loads of 240v appliances or big invertors. I may change my opinion on some of those once I establish if Lithium is indeed as good as people make out. They key for us is long term usage off grid without (and this is the important bit) moving the van. It still might be over the top for us. I think we would have done better this summer just with an additional 120ah battery and the existing solar.
 
Nabsim said:
yes, recharging is the bottleneck these days, especially in the UK. still no way i would get rid of gas
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I reckon a gas/lithium combi is currently the best set up.
The limiting factor for lithium is not simply battery capacity, and solar.
You also have to consider the winter months when solar is at a premium.
I restrict use of our inverter when it looks like we will start to struggle for power, and switch to using gas instead.
 
Another reason for getting rid of my gas oven is that it will give me space for a drawer unit, we are always stuck for storage space in our van.

I will be taking a camping stove as a backup though.
 
Robmac said:
Sounds like I may need the second 300AH battery then.

Do you have a rough idea of what you were powering and for how long? How much solar power do you have?
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I was actually deliberately trying to drain the battery in fact :D I wanted to check how much capacity I still had available in my Hybrid Lithium/Lead Battery Bank (95% taken out of a 320Ah Lithium + 300Ah Lead is not bad, considering I stopped discharging while I could have got more out :) )

To answer you specifically, as well as the usual Hab electrics - Lights, TV, etc, I had my Water Boiler switched on (so 850W for around a hour) plus a 600W 12V Room Heater running and the Compressor Fridge/Feezer, plus I had the Solar turned off.
The Motorhome usually sucks up 50Ah/24Hrs in the background. In the Summer the 450W of Solar will easily cover that. This time of year, solar is useless (no, I don't have tilted panels - that would be totally impractical considering I have 9 panels dotted around the roof).
 
wildebus said:
I was actually deliberately trying to drain the battery in fact :D I wanted to check how much capacity I still had available in my Hybrid Lithium/Lead Battery Bank (95% taken out of a 320Ah Lithium + 300Ah Lead is not bad, considering I stopped discharging while I could have got more out :) )

To answer you specifically, as well as the usual Hab electrics - Lights, TV, etc, I had my Water Boiler switched on (so 850W for around a hour) plus a 600W 12V Room Heater running and the Compressor Fridge/Feezer, plus I had the Solar turned off.
The Motorhome usually sucks up 50Ah/24Hrs in the background. In the Summer the 450W of Solar will easily cover that. This time of year, solar is useless (no, I don't have tilted panels - that would be totally impractical considering I have 9 panels dotted around the roof).
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That is impressive thanks.

Regarding tilting the solar panels, I plan to simply put the wheel ramps back and front on one side of the van only. :giggle:
 

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