Cost of Lifeopo upgrade

[DandJ]

I appreciate that it's a "how long is a piece of string?" but carrying on from my posts about a powerbank and inverter...is anyone happy to tell me how much their conversion from the old fashioned lead acid batteries to Lifepo ones has been?

 

[Jev88]

Old - 3x Lead acid 100ah batteries in parallel.
New - 1x Fogstar 300ah battery.

Disarmed driving charger relay, set solar to Lipo and will soon fit a B2B for fast charging when driving and replaces the old trickle relay.

Lots of weight saved (not that I care at 7500Kg ) but so much power in a smaller space.

 

[Sheddy]

Direct replacement from Eco Worthy for 2 x 100Ah cost me £350, bought in Germany, currently about £440 in the UK.
You may need to make changes to your charging setup at additional cost, however my solar controller just needed a few changes. We rarely use hookup.

 

[bigtwin]

If you can summarise the spec of your powerbank (battery size and inverter size), we might be able to give you an indicative comparison. Otherwise, it’s likely that folks will give you a cost for much more capable onboard systems that will make them look disproportionately expensive but you’ll be comparing apples and pears.

Ian

 

[Langtoftlad]

DIY or Fully Fitted?
Do you need a B2B?
Is your charging regime Lithium compatible
What size inverter?

I recently needed my leisure batteries replaced. I investigated installing Lithium
However the cost of over £1500 [no inverter, not sure about B2B] made the Gel option more palatable at about £500.

YMMV

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[DandJ]

If you can summarise the spec of your powerbank (battery size and inverter size), we might be able to give you an indicative comparison. Otherwise, it’s likely that folks will give you a cost for much more capable onboard systems that will make them look disproportionately expensive but you’ll be comparing apples and pears.

Ian

I don't have a powerbank. I don't have an inverter....I'll put down below what the van does have (I'm new to motorhoming and this is our first van...bought 2nd hand but with a standard (2022) Chausson fitment

DIY or Fully Fitted?
Do you need a B2B?
Is your charging regime Lithium compatible
What size inverter?

I recently needed my leisure batteries replaced. I investigated installing Lithium
However the cost of over £1500 [no inverter, not sure about B2B] made the Gel option more palatable at about £500.

YMMV

If it is fairly straightforward, I will happily DIY. As to the rest....
It is a 2022 Chausson with a 140w solar panel and 2 x 80AH batteries. It has a tiny device at floor level near to the batteries made by CBE and MC-180. It has an MPPT solar charge controller like this one.... https://www.wattuneed.com/fr/regula...QdZ2mi6WuiGXoIg9ceEXjksglu1INVHhoCNw4QAvD_BwE

In the underseat battery compartment are both batteries and the other part of the BDS180.....and a DC to DC 3 stage battery charger...positioned in such a way that I can't actually see what make and model. It does mention LiFePo batteries.
Unless it is well hidden...we don't have an inverter, but we would like one.
What I am trying to avoid doing is spend a bit of money now to make these leisure batteries do their full term and find that we can only do a day or two off grid.... or that we do manage with them but to find that in 6-12 months they need replacing anyway. We aren't averse to spending what we need to spend so if that really was £2500...so be it, but if that means we are massively overegging the pudding....
I know it sounds wishywashy but you don't know what you don't know !

 

[Just smiffy]

If your self fitting which I think is fairly easy it’s just the fiddly bits, it can be affordable and effective…

Solar is cheep now, you can get a 400w panel for £60 a victron charge controller for around £150, a B2B for £100-250 and that’s it really besides the wiring and fuses and other bits and pieces say £80…

Then you need to decide on the battery, 280amp is a good standard and will support a 2000w inverter, a branded battery will cost in the region of £350- 700 depending on what information you require from it as in Bluetooth…

You’ll need a new mains charger if you want to hook-up…

So you could have a very good system for under £1000…..

I have similar to above but I still have Gel batteries as they are coping with my needs and I NEVER plug in but I’m ready to go lithium when they don’t….