Which Lithium Batteries Do You have & Why

[Smokaijo]

Hi Funsters,
Just spent an amazing 4 days at the Three Counties Warner Show in Worcester- our first time off grid with our new Lithium System.
However we are concerned that our particular battery isn’t all its cracked up to be.
We have an Eco Tree Lithium battery 230 ah and after talking to other Moho users who were also off grid and have been using far more gadgets than us but still have power in reserve and different batteries we thought maybe we were mislead.

So the question aimed more at the Off Gridders amongst you is:-

Which Lithium Battery do you have and why?

Also how many days off grid does it actually cope with before you have to start your engines?

As our battery was only put in a few days ago we are still within our 14 day window and can insist they change it out - just need your help folks - thank you in advance

 

[Lenny HB]

A bit like asking how long is a piece of string, everyone's use is different.

If you suspect its not performing fully get yourself one of these and run some rests.
Plenty of YouTube videos showing how, Will Prowse is probably the best.

DTL150 DC0-150V Intelligent Electronic Load Discharge Battery Tester 150W 20A UK | eBay

Load current: DC0~20A. Load power: 0 ~ 150W (120V above the maximum load 60W). Over-power protection: supports up to 150W over-power protection. Overcurrent protection: supports up to 20A overcurrent protection.

www.ebay.co.uk

 

[haganap]

Welcome to the fun, can you be a bit more specific? what discharge rates were you experiencing, what sort of stuff were you using? do you have any solar panels, was it just dropped straight in or did you have the charger upgraded too?

 

[Chrisvh]

It may help if you explain how your new battery is charged? Do you have solar panels? Do you have a B2B? Are you using an inverter? So many variables. Are the electrical components ( B2B- Solar Regulater-DC Charger) suitable for, and correctly set, to Lithium settings? Is the wiring between batteries and other components of the correct type?

 

[Smokaijo]

Welcome to the fun, can you be a bit more specific? what discharge rates were you experiencing, what sort of stuff were you using? do you have any solar panels, was it just dropped straight in or did you have the charger upgraded too?

We had a whole Victron system fitted by BlueFix Energy Solutions and we have 575w of Solar on the roof.
Running fridge water & heating off gas so everything else 12v.
But do have a CPAP machine that runs at night - a Quantum 6 Edge 3 Electric wheelchair - microwave and 12v TV.

By first thing Saturday morning we were down to less than 50% according the Victron App and I was obviously worried that with 2 more days & nights to go it would run out.

According to the app my electric chair took up to 15% of power and CPAP took 10%

Got to say it was making me paranoid looking at the app so I took to just checking what our van told me the Leisure Batteries were doing as the “shunt” was making me nervous lol.

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[MisterB]

I am a Fogstar user, but I've not seen many negative comments re Eco Tree, so perhaps your first port of call is a discussion with them to see if your expectations are not being met or if you're just over worrying?

 

[Lenny HB]

According to the app my electric chair took up to 15% of power and CPAP took 10%

If that is percentage of power used it doesn't sound too bad. If percentage of full capacity it's a lot.

The electric chair I would have thought is not going to need a full charge every day.
Are you using a a 12v CPAP machine as if you are using a 240v volt one from an inverter a that will use more power than a 12v one.

 

[haganap]

Thanks for the detailed response.

I agree with above. If you spoke with them and gave them the wattage of the items you use that obviously are pertinent to you then they may be able to do the maths for you and come up with a solution.
sounds like the system is working and thats a great deal of solar for a sunny day. It might just be that 230 amps isn't enough.

 

[Smokaijo]

If that is percentage of power used it doesn't sound too bad. If percentage of full capacity it's a lot.

The electric chair I would have thought is not going to need a full charge every day.
Are you using a a 12v CPAP machine as if you are using a 240v volt one from an inverter a that will use more power than a 12v one.

When it comes to all our plug sockets they are now all going through the inverter however I do have a 12 v plug inverter for the CPAP that I could use.

As for my chair ordinarily it wouldn’t but I’m clocking a lot of mileage on this site so I’ve been topping it up when it gets half way.

 

[AdrianChen]

Our Eccotree batts have been installed for about 6 months now, used the van heavily in the first few months and the batteries seemed to do pretty much what was expected, didn't try to measure precisely, but did run the van off grid, and tested the air con on inverter for a few hours to run them down etc. Charging back up through solar, and the main charger also gave the expected result. Our normal usage is tv coffee machine lights, charging phones, very occasional ebike. Our Inverter is only switched on when needed because it can use a bit on standby, We have 460AH batts, 550w Solar, Multiplus II 3000 combi, Orion b2b and Ablemail AMT12 trickle charger, smartshunt with Cerbo GX and a mifi unit for local and remote monitoring. So for us the battery to date has been fine. Haven't used the van recently because my hips needed replacement, but will be back on the road soon I hope. Talk to Eccotree about your install and usage, not much to be gained by comparison with others, Apples and pears........

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[funflair]

I would be looking for a bit more battery capacity if it was my van, you have plenty of solar but I think you will see from your Victron app that most of the time the battery is fully charged and the power is going to waste, we have less solar than you and can make up to 200ah in a day so you could make more than that except you have nowhere to put it. we have 640ah so a pretty big bucket for amps to go into.

 

[Neil S]

could it be that your Eco tree Lithuim wasn't fully charged to its optimum performance just a thought .
We use a fogstar 230ah and did just short of 3 full days (66 hours ) off grid using satellite TV in the evenings , Low wattage hairdyer twice for up to 10 minutes , and continuous draw of 3.8 amp using my Halfords advanced 40 litre compressor fridge .
battery still at 30% when we left
Dont have much solar , just a single 120 watt

 

[cyberyacht]

Given the ongoing demand for your equipment, perhaps a larger battery capacity might give you peace of mind. You can get lithiums bigger than the one you currently have, 400Ah+. The other thing is to fit a B2B if you haven't already.

 

[olley]

Not been much sun here at Malvern so I doubt the solar put much into the batteries, mine certainly didn't.

 

[Smokaijo]

Given the ongoing demand for your equipment, perhaps a larger battery capacity might give you peace of mind. You can get lithiums bigger than the one you currently have, 400Ah+. The other thing is to fit a B2B if you haven't already.

Yep got B2B so yep will look at larger size.

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[Smokaijo]

I am a Fogstar user, but I've not seen many negative comments re Eco Tree, so perhaps your first port of call is a discussion with them to see if your expectations are not being met or if you're just over worrying?

Just looked up Eco Tree but it transpires I will end up speaking to the company who advised us on this size of battery in the first place
Not much to be gained from that as they already know we believe the battery is not enough - could do with speaking direct to Eco Tree themselves.

 

[Smokaijo]

A bit like asking how long is a piece of string, everyone's use is different.

If you suspect its not performing fully get yourself one of these and run some rests.
Plenty of YouTube videos showing how, Will Prowse is probably the best.

DTL150 DC0-150V Intelligent Electronic Load Discharge Battery Tester 150W 20A UK | eBay

Load current: DC0~20A. Load power: 0 ~ 150W (120V above the maximum load 60W). Over-power protection: supports up to 150W over-power protection. Overcurrent protection: supports up to 20A overcurrent protection.

www.ebay.co.uk

Would still like to know which Lithium batteries people chose & why?

 

[Smokaijo]

Not been much sun here at Malvern so I doubt the solar put much into the batteries, mine certainly didn't.

Please can you tell me which Lithium you use?

 

[Smokaijo]

Given the ongoing demand for your equipment, perhaps a larger battery capacity might give you peace of mind. You can get lithiums bigger than the one you currently have, 400Ah+. The other thing is to fit a B2B if you haven't already.

 

[Smokaijo]

Please could you tell me which Lithium batteries you are using ?

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[olley]

2 fogstar 460's, looked at some of the suppliers like ecotree before we bought and fogstar were the cheapest per ah.
Plus recommends from on here.
Down to around 55% at the moment after arriving here on Friday fully charged.
This in the RV.

Just to add how poor solar is, at the moment I am getting 5.5amps from 800 watts of panels.
At Lincoln I was getting over 30
You need the sun.

 

[AdrianChen]

Just looked up Eco Tree but it transpires I will end up speaking to the company who advised us on this size of battery in the first place
Not much to be gained from that as they already know we believe the battery is not enough - could do with speaking direct to Eco Tree themselves.

Yes I would speak direct to Eccotree - They want folk to be happy with their product, and it is a good quality from what I could ascertain.

 

[Smokaijo]

Yes I would speak direct to Eccotree - They want folk to be happy with their product, and it is a good quality from what I could ascertain.

Like I said there is no direct line to Eco Tree just sends you to all their suppliers

 

[Jo662]

I have 2x100ah Sterling lithium batteries.
Victron Multiplus invertor / charger
Sterling B2B
Victron shunt.
1x150 watt solar panel.
I recently spent 6 days in a THS ,where I used the microwave and Airfryer a couple of times each. As there wasnt a lot of sun,and only having a small solar panel anyway,the system worked reasonably well only getting down to 56% at its lowest.
We usually do not stay anywhere that long,preferring to move on every couple of days,so the B2B will do its job.
I am more than happy with my batteries.

 

[AdrianChen]

Like I said there is no direct line to Eco Tree just sends you to all their suppliers

Use the number at the top of their web page 44 (0115) 8990 760 and choose option 3 - Rob if I remember correctly

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[Smokaijo]

Use the number at the top of their web page 44 (0115) 8990 760 and choose option 3 - Rob if I remember correctly

Thank you so so much that’s brilliant as I just kept getting the same people not the ones I wanted

 

[hja]

For what it is worth we have a 230ah ecotree battery fitted by Oaktree Motorhomes in Nottingham (home to eco tree) . We already have 120 w solar. We did get a new mppt solar controller. B2 b etc already in place. Seems fine for us for 4 days. Don’t know what it went down to on recent stay because app didn’t want to work properly, although it did a few days later. However we don’t use anything like your electrical consumption. Compressor fridge, phone, iPad charging, pump. We don’t have an inverter. Rob, mentioned above, was really helpful when I spoke to him before we decided to install anything.

 

[RowleyBirkinQC]

I have 2x100ah Sterling lithium batteries.
Victron Multiplus invertor / charger
Sterling B2B
Victron shunt.
1x150 watt solar panel.
I recently spent 6 days in a THS ,where I used the microwave and Airfryer a couple of times each. As there wasnt a lot of sun,and only having a small solar panel anyway,the system worked reasonably well only getting down to 56% at its lowest.
We usually do not stay anywhere that long,preferring to move on every couple of days,so the B2B will do its job.
I am more than happy with my batteries.

We have a similar setup…
120ah Sterling lithium battery.
Sterling B2B.
Victron shunt.
130 watt solar panel.
No inverter.
We have yet to get anywhere near to exhausting the battery when stationary for 5+ days without EHU, but then our 12v use is fairly light, just the usual lighting and power to various van equipment, phone & tablet charging etc.

 

[Chrisvh]

We have 2 x Super B Epsilon 90Ah batteries. 350w of solar. Votronic electrics. We move on every couple of days and the 50A B2B keeps us topped up with the solar. The B2B is the best, all year, component we have fitted. It tops up from 10% in a couple of hours. We run an inverter for coffee machines but otherwise have modest power requirements compared to you. We also charge 2 x Ebike batteries when on the move via the inverter.

 

[cyberyacht]

Please could you tell me which Lithium batteries you are using ?

I have two 120AH KS Energy, 3x100w solar in series, 1500W Inverter but currently no B2B. The moho pumps 16A in via either engine or (rarely used) EHU.

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