[hughstott]

I had my lithium batteries fitted by AA 300AH Pierre told me for the "10 year"warranty on them I had to have a voltronic battery monitor fitted and they set them up to disconnect at 40%
Cheers
Hugh

[Nut17]

Yes, the warranty conditions have increasingly become more stringent as the years go by. I did have to install a Votronic Battery Monitor back in March 2012, but that was the only condition at that time. No requirement for low SOC disconnect relay at all. I do know of another installation from 2013 that has the disconnect relay set at 30%.

Cheers
Chris

[WoodyZ]

I am quite confident that they would not extend any warranty to mine in view of the fact that I dismantled the packs and reassembled them with some of your old ones Chris plus most of my protection is outside what they would require despite me having the correct monitor.

I am also confident that my pack is better protected than anything they would have set up for me.

[Nut17]

I agree 100% with your comments Neil. Although the cells I am using were not sourced from AA Solar, they are identical chemistry and I am confident they will still be working well in another ten years. They are now six tears old and a recent discharge to 20% SOC still had the pack at 12.85 volts. I am confident that I still have close to the 600 Ah nominal capacity.

I will make contact with Pierre tomorrow if possible and get some charge rate and maximum discharge numbers from him that I can publish here to put the uncertainty to rest.

Cheers
Chris

[rawill]

I would love to be able to afford 300 a/h of Lithium, but at over $3k, not for a while!

Racing car to fix after my last "bungle."

[Growlerbearnz]

From the manual of the eTracer solar controller as I understand it the controller will:

1) Charge in constant current mode until the battery voltage reaches Boost Charging Voltage (Bulk)
2) Charge at Boost Charging Voltage for the time specified by Boost Duration (referred to as constant charging, is this what people refer to as absorption?)
3) Float at Float charging voltage

I think that Equilibrium is the same as Equalisation, I think some of their software uses one term an another the other.

Correct, and very confusing: EPever/eTracer use the term "boost" to mean "absorption" charging. After the bulk charge (constant current with increasing voltage), Boost mode starts, where a constant voltage is applied until the current drops enough. AKA Absorption.

Normally, every few cycles the controller will do an "equalisation" cycle, which is just boost/absorption but at a higher voltage, intended to stir up the acid in a lead-acid battery. LiFePO4 doesn't need this cycle, so you want to set your Equalise Duration to 0 minutes, and for safety set your Equalise Voltage to the same as your Boost Voltage.

"Boost Reconnect" is indeed the voltage at which the controller starts the charge cycle all over again, but, again, it's misnamed: I think it should be called "bulk reconnect", because the charge cycle starts with the bulk phase.

[JonH]

I agree, the terms do get confusing.
Any thoughts on what boost / bulk reconnect setting should be? Given that the voltage doesn't fluctuate much with lifepo4 I haven't been sure what to set mine at.

[Growlerbearnz]

Previous comments have discussed the individual settings, both what AA Solar recommend (13.4V, in the case of Boos Reconnect) and what others are actually using (13.2).