3.8-48 SimpliPhis on their 3rd year

JRHill

They are working identically as when they were installed. What got me to thinking about this post is something that was for me an unexpected benefit and it is their efficiency. I'm within a week of the sun dipping behind the trees at the top of the canyon and will be increasingly dependent on the generator to recharge the batteries to December 22 and then on the other side as the sun begins to get higher again. I can't put a number on $ saved through the course of the low light season but I'd bet it would be an eye opener. Now multiply the fuel savings by 3, so far. Also add in fuel savings in trips to town used by the pickup to fill fuel jugs.

These batteries are incredibly efficient compared to the bank of L16's before. Each generator run is noticeably shorter compared to the days of lead - by approximately at least a half hour*. And at this time of the season were the sun is just about to dive behind the tree line when it is a clear it is still a shorter day meaning that every minute of charge I can take advantage of is reduced generator run time. So the batteries' efficiency is soaking up more usable kWh instead of chemical actions and making heat. And there is almost no absorb* time (6 minutes) which was always a tooth gritting thing with lead because of all the fuel used at almost no generator load for that required absorb. And that means fewer oil changes, etc.

All the other benefits have been talked about in other posts so no need to cover that ground again.

SteveK

I agree with you. Lifepo4 has been a game changer for us too. We can have a lot of snow here so we'll see how that goes.

I'm on my first winter season of using Lifepo4 vs LA. I too am in a valley with tall trees all around close. Nov 1st is the beginning of my "solar winter". I go from up to 24kWh max per day to ~5kWh max per day right quick. Now that the leaves are mostly fallen I'm back up to ~8kWh max per day. Lifepo4 has made a world of difference for me here.

I shed the summertime loads on Nov 1st and only supply power to our Living Room (lites, Ring Pro, TV, soundbar. laptops, thin client pc, fiber cable modem, cell phone charging, hearing aid charging) Kitchen (InstantPot, lites, Refer, trash compactor, e-cig charging) Basement (lites coal stoker, pellet stove as needed or below 20F, chest freezer) Outdoors (lites)

I am convinced this wouldn't be possible without Lifepo4. I can spend many days down lowish in charge and, so far, the Sun eventually makes up the difference. Having 30kWh storage really smooths things out.....so far.

In March I'll add back the 9000 btu Minisplit, dishwasher, micro, ninja foodie, clothes washing machine, dehumidifier and heat pump water heater.

I feel comfortable enough with Lifepo4 but do wish it had a spotless reputation for safety.

Disclaimer: We have the grid available and we call 45% SOC minimum

JRHill

"I feel comfortable enough with Lifepo4 but do wish it had a spotless reputation for safety.

I am more concerned with someone doing something really stupid during burn ban than I am for the batteries. Our batteries are in the crawl space. If there was a flame up from an external thing we just have to get away as fast as possible because of powder/primers/oxy/ace/propane/diesel/gas etc. I am much more concerned for the stuff outside than within our acres. But a guy can only do so much.

"Disclaimer: We have the grid available and we call 45% SOC minimum"

Yup. How cool is that? Sizing our system was based on lead years back. Little did I appreciate but i knew that lead is damaged below 50% but a guy can't use full amp/hours. I knew that about lead but I still sized the LifeP0 on nameplate. I didn't realize I could take them to 20% and be good. So for equivalent output we have ~twice as much. Of course, it takes twice as much to refill them on the generator. But they fill much more efficiently.

We can go two days in the winter. Never, never would that happen with lead. I have system shut down at 50.8 or about 20%. I appreciate these blocks.

SteveK

Been trying to pay attention to the next "big thing" in battery tech. There are so many contenders it's interesting to watch. With my limited knowledge I always seem to learn something new. Sometimes that means misinformation though so need to be strict on research. For now lithium still seems to be king if environmental concerns can be met.

I got to give a shout out to another piece of the puzzle. Like I said we are on the grid but do not sell to it. The Schneider XW Pro 6048 has been another game changer for us. In the summertime our loads sometimes overwhelm the capacity of the system whether it be too many dark days or an unaccounted for increase in loads. We simply set our Grid Support SOC in such a way to allow the batteries to switch out and the grid takes over until the Sun comes back or the loads become more mild or both. She just switches the grid in seamlessly and this allows our POCO bill savings to be maximized. We have never needed to charge from the grid or genny yet.

I know this is basic stuff for most of the folks on this particular forum but for us here in this home it is m-a-g-i-c ... heh heh heh

JRHill

SteveK said:

Been trying to pay attention to the next "big thing" in battery tech. 

Yup, me too. But since I took the dive for LifePO4 I am hoping that was the last battery purchase I'll be making. When I went for the Phis three years ago, even though they were relatively new on the market, I was pretty sure that they had been around long enough that it wasn't too risky an investment. Still it bothered me a little that they were offering a warranty for longer (10 years) than the items were in existence but a lot of things are like that.