Lithium Batteries and Upgrading the 12V DC Power System

Last fall, I wrote about installing a PC power supply to power the remaining 12V DC loads in my RV, but that’s getting replaced with a DC-DC converter.  The power supply did the job it was supposed to, without fail.  But there are a few drawbacks with it: The power supply converts AC power from…

More Electrical Changes

Last time I talked about this project, I left you hanging with the lead acid batteries from the old house power system gone, and the generator connected to the chassis batteries.  But I didn’t have anything hooked up to power the remaining 12V house loads–things like the furnace, water heater, water pump, slide out motor,…

Time to unload some dead weight!

And by that, I’m talking about the rest of the old 12V to its final resting place–getting rid of the 6V batteries, and re-purposing the spot they’ll leave behind.  Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it?

Having a Little Fun with Lithium Batteries

This amounts to a bit of a side project, but provides a platform for really testing what the Volt lithium ion batteries are capable of.  You can tell by the image above that I’m talking about putting lithium ion batteries, from a Chevy Volt, into a golf cart. Why not just replace the lead acid…

Spoiler Alert!

So it has been quite a while since I’ve posted anything on the lithium battery project.  I had a week of dry camping sneaking up on me, and made a kind of mad dash to get the RV out of winter hibernation (still in use, but parked for a couple of months), get the batteries…

Buying the Hardware: Inverters

If you’ve followed this project from the beginning, you know that one of the reasons I wanted to go to a 48V DC system was for generating AC power.  At 48V, generally you get more capacity (in terms of power) for your money; because of it’s popularity in off-grid installations, there’s arguably more choice, particularly…

Buying the Hardware: Battery Monitoring/Charging

I mentioned in the previous post that a new battery  monitoring system was going to be built to allow use of run-of-the-mill charging equipment, and that it’s cost would be less than $100.   It’s also going to be internet connected–we’ll be able to log state of charge, voltage, and a number of other performance metrics…

Buying the Hardware

Here’s where things start to get pretty interesting–and where money really starts leaving never to be seen again.  I’ve talked briefly about the battery pack itself, and still plan to write more about that decision process, but it’s in-hand and looks well suited to do the job. That’s the easy part.  Now we’re into figuring…

What am I trying to accomplish?

It’s probably about time to talk about what I’m trying to accomplish with this project, and why I didn’t just replace my aging lead acid batteries.  That would have been easy, but not much of an improvement.