So WTF is so great about Lithium?

[Crazy Dazz]

I've been considering the idea of Solar powered batteries for the house.
Basically now in WA the feed-in tariff is a pointless joke. Literally no point in feeding power into the grid.

Obviously the whole concept is ridiculous, but if the government insists on wasting my tax-dollars, then I want my share.

What I can't understand is why they all seem to be promoting Lithium Batteries?
Why?
The principal advantage of Lithium is that it's light, and the batteries provide good capacity relative to weight. That's obviously fantastic when it comes to phones, and even some cars.
But why do I give a rats how much my house batteries weigh??

Even Toyota uses Nimh for their hybrids because Lipo just doesn't last long enough.
And what about deep cycle Lead?

[T3rminator]

Yeh was thinking about this as well, we have gone solar, but not elected for the battery pack. Electricity companies keep dropping the feed in benefits, nice way for them to get cheap energy from your investment.

As far as I can tell, Lithium still has size and reliability over Nimh. And size / space is still a challenge for many households. Lith also has charging cycle benefits over Nimh, but Nimh being cheaper, I guess you could replace it more often.

[roKWiz]

Promoting lastest battery buzz words I guess !
LiPo for houses probably has a degree of set and forget, idiot proofness.

For transport related stuff the space saving, weight and potential 90% deep cycling of a LiPo over AGM and lead acids would be a positive (sic) advantage.
I can understand its weight saving uses in trucks/motorhomes/vans/boats etc.

Myself have stuck with heavy wide plate lead acid (years of tried and proven offgrid power) and will continue to do so simply because its serviceability over SLA, AGM or ($1000 per 100amps) LiPo stuff.
The new stuff when it fails, IT FAILS. A capped, wide plate Lead acid can usually be brought back to life with a little patience. (and luck)
Only place not really suited to pure lead acid is aboard boats and yachts given the heeling motion (read knockdowns) of passagemaking. AGM's are still widely the standard here.

[Itsme]

Originally Posted by Crazy Dazz

I've been considering the idea of Solar powered batteries for the house.
Basically now in WA the feed-in tariff is a pointless joke. Literally no point in feeding power into the grid.

Obviously the whole concept is ridiculous, but if the government insists on wasting my tax-dollars, then I want my share.

What I can't understand is why they all seem to be promoting Lithium Batteries?
Why?
The principal advantage of Lithium is that it's light, and the batteries provide good capacity relative to weight. That's obviously fantastic when it comes to phones, and even some cars.
But why do I give a rats how much my house batteries weigh??

Even Toyota uses Nimh for their hybrids because Lipo just doesn't last long enough.
And what about deep cycle Lead?

Here is one reason for you as to why one lithium gets the thumbs up.

Lifespan: All batteries degrade over time, but lithium-ion batteries consistently outlast AGM. Factors like a larger depth of discharge make lithium-ion batteries more resilient and help these batteries go up to six times the life cycles of AGM alternatives.

You do know if you google lithium vs agm or deep cycle Lead acid batteries you will get to know why lithium is the go atm.

[Crazy Dazz]

I haven't looked into the details
The promoters seem to be claiming that these batteries are subsidised by the guvment.
Do they perhaps only subsidise Lithium??

[simon varley]

gov subsidies 'batteries'. It's the suppliers that have chosen the battery technology. Our 10kwh battery is surprisingly small

we have the exact same discussion in Vic re feed in tariff. In the end the quote for 6.6kW solar + 10kWh battery was so cheap we couldn't ignore it

[Ben73]

Originally Posted by simon varley

gov subsidies 'batteries'. It's the suppliers that have chosen the battery technology. Our 10kwh battery is surprisingly small

we have the exact same discussion in Vic re feed in tariff. In the end the quote for 6.6kW solar + 10kWh battery was so cheap we couldn't ignore it

10kw/h battery seems tiny. I used 17kw/h today alone and this wasn't even a AC type day.
How much was a 6.6 system with a 10kw/h battery worth?

[zilo]

I have 60kwh of lithium batteries.

Previously i had 100kwh of lead acid.

lead acid is absolute rubbish now.

You need to never discharge them more than 20% from full, else they crap themselves really quickly.

So a 100kwh battery bank is useful for 20kwh.

A lithium bank can be discharged almost to zero repeatedly.


But...the most important point is the charge rate, lead acid can rarely take more than 10% of its capacity per hour...so it is described as a C10 rate.
It means you probably will not have enough hours in a day to recharge a battery bank.

My lithium bank has a C1 maximum charge rate...so I can recharge the entire 60kwh in ONE hour of sunshine (if I have enough panels).

That is a huge advantage....and lead acid is just a stupid option.


As far as batteries in the suburbs the trick is to have a time of use tariff and not have any solar panels at all....

Charge the batteries when power is cheap and run off batteries 100% of the time.

In my case peak is 32c/kw and off peak is 12c/kw.

Instant reduction in power bills by 65% approx...and immunity from blackouts.