Aceleron - repurposed lithium batteries for boaters

[bizzard]

They can cost a bomb.

[WotEver]

10 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

How much did they cost? I aint watching it.

I don’t believe you can get them for less than a grand each even with a decent discount and he bought three. 

[bizzard]

That's three bums, as the Americans would say.

[mrsmelly]

7 minutes ago, WotEver said:

I don’t believe you can get them for less than a grand each even with a decent discount and he bought three. 

Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesus they need to last nearly for ever and he needs to keep the boat for ever just to break even!! Are their any mods re charging etc on top of battery costs?

[rusty69]

18 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesus they need to last nearly for ever and he needs to keep the boat for ever just to break even!! Are their any mods re charging etc on top of battery costs?

Probably needs three kids too. One to each in the inheritance. 

Edited February 28, 2018 by rusty69

[Alan de Enfield]

24 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

How much did they cost? I aint watching it.

"Not a lot"

He did come clean & say in the video that he had received a 'big discount' from Victron / Onboard Energy to be a tester and report on them.

[Johny London]

I'm afraid he seems to be getting more waffly with every video - but there is good info there and we now have someone testing them out in the real world. It sounded like he had a pretty hefty discount, fair play. I'm potentially very pro lithium but wouldn't punt that kind of money just yet. Though even one battery would be an improvement on my much diminished set of 4x110ah, in practice.

I've not hear from the Aceleron people yet, but will prepare a list of questions and concerns based on what you guys have said. I'm just down the road from their headquarters right now anyway so could be interesting.

The 0c temperature thing worries me

[Dr Bob]

8 minutes ago, Johny London said:

 

The 0c temperature thing worries me

...and me! He spent quite a bit of time in the video going on about the perils of charging at zero or below.....but did say the Victrons allow charging at 5 amps (for a 100Ahr battery) at the low temps which I was not aware of. He said in the videos that he is installing the new Lithiums in the kitchen area, which from the video seemed to be in the middle of his boat. It would therefore appear that as his current LAs are in the crusier stern, he is going to have a big change to his wiring unless he is having long runs from his new battery position to the back of the boat. That sounds like a lot of hassle/expense in addition to the cost of the batteries (although he may be getting his batteries a lot less than £1000 each - he didnt say what the discount he got was).

He didnt talk at all about changes needed to his charging regimes (solar, alternator, genny) but he promised that in his future videos. That is the bit missing for me now.....and how he is going to parallel up the 3 batteries......as I did read that each had to be charged separately in 'battery universe'. Maybe the Victron stuff can work charging 3 batteries.

So if you have cash to burn, going down the lithium route could give you an easy life as one hour of engine running a day could put back in almost 100Ahrs of power so make off grid life much easier, but for those of us who dont or who spend a lot of winter on shore power then its a step too far. Interesting to keep an eye on Jono's videos to see what is going to go wrong.

[frahkn]

The "Minimal List" couple put Lithium batteries in their boat about 9 months ago but have not reported back on them yet.

[Johny London]

Yes - if you have shore power a lot of the time then why bother. But as a cc'er, an hour a day charging instead of 4, would be amazing and save a fortune too. Looking forward to seeing how he gets on

Yes I was just looking for their video about it.

I wonder how they are getting on?

[Dr Bob]

2 minutes ago, Johny London said:

Yes - if you have shore power a lot of the time then why bother. But as a cc'er, an hour a day charging instead of 4, would be amazing and save a fortune too. Looking forward to seeing how he gets on

 

 

Fully agree. If we were cc'ing then it would be a much closer call....and £3-4K is then set up again the one hour vs four. The question then is how much cheaper are they likely to be in 12 or 24 months time. Money to burn? No brainer (almost).

[LadyG]

One day they will be the cc norm, and then we will be happy Jono did the tedious research so we don't have to..................

Edited February 28, 2018 by LadyG

[LadyG]

41 minutes ago, frahkn said:

The "Minimal List" couple put Lithium batteries in their boat about 9 months ago but have not reported back on them yet.

It takes about five years!

[rusty69]

Just now, LadyG said:

It takes about five years!

Five years? That's all we've got. (According to Bowie anyway)

[LadyG]

1 minute ago, rusty69 said:

Five years? That's all we've got. (According to Bowie anyway)

David Bowie?

[rusty69]

2 minutes ago, LadyG said:

David Bowie?

Yes.Is there another?

[Dr Bob]

There was another 'snipit' that came out of Jono's video......the information that the victron lithiums keep a constant voltage, so the voltage on the battery is 12.8v ish and doesnt vary much with SoC. He mentions that in the past with LA's he never paid attention to SoC on his battery monitor but watched the voltage (and Amps in and out). Now with Lithiums he says SoC is much more informative and not much use looking at Voltage. What then the future for Smartgauges? Even properly calibrated ones? If voltage hardly changes, they arent going to be much use. Re-modeling the voltage/SoC algorithm isnt going to be easy as there is precious little data available. Different slant on life?

Ahrs in/out will be more important in a lithium world.....according to Jono! I hadnt seen that one coming.

[Dr Bob]

12 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

Yes.Is there another?

Of course, Jim Bowie, of Bowie knife fame......he died at the Alamo you know. I've been there. They do good Tex Mex in San Antonio.

[MtB]

16 minutes ago, Dr Bob said:

Of course, Jim Bowie, of Bowie knife fame......he died at the Alamo you know. I've been there. They do good Tex Mex in San Antonio.

 

And the Bowie knife is, as any fule kno, the thing what inspired the young David Jones to change his name to David Bowie...

[rusty69]

1 minute ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

And the Bowie knife is, as any fule kno, the thing what inspired the young David Jones to change his name to David Bowie...

Bowie was Boo-ee and Bowie was Bo-ee or was it Bow-ee

[MtB]

1 minute ago, rusty69 said:

Bowie was Boo-ee and Bowie was Bo-ee or was it Bow-ee

 

Yes you're right. It was.

[Alan de Enfield]

6 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

Bowie was Boo-ee and Bowie was Bo-ee or was it Bow-ee

And in those far away colonies :

Buoy is Boooo-ey, whilst in the civilised seat of knowledge it is 'Boy'.

[rusty69]

3 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

And in those far away colonies :

Buoy is Boooo-ey, whilst in the civilised seat of knowledge it is 'Boy'.

Just as well David Bowie never went boating in the US with a Bowie knife! (or maybe he did)

Bo-ee with a Boo-ee round the Booo-eys.

Edited February 28, 2018 by rusty69

[WotEver]

1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:

And in those far away colonies :

Buoy is Boooo-ey, whilst in the civilised seat of knowledge it is 'Boy'.

But only in certain areas of the good ol’ US of A. As Bryson points out, it’s not a boo-ey unless you’d also say that a piece of polystyrene is very boo-ey-ant. 

[Alan de Enfield]

1 minute ago, WotEver said:

But only in certain areas of the good ol’ US of A. As Bryson points out, it’s not a boo-ey unless you’d also say that a piece of polystyrene is very boo-ey-ant. 

Its also Booo-ey in Australia.