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Paul Carmichael avatar image
Paul Carmichael asked

Mixing la and lithium - is there a definitive answer yet?

Hello all. I know this has been discussed quite a bit in different threads, but I was just wondering if anyone has come to a conclusion yet. I know I have to spend a ton of money on new lithiums (looking at US3000s) but I don't want to have to bin the la set. If it's still generally considered a bad idea to mix, then has anyone come up with a design for a parallel setup with some sort of manual switching?

lead-acid
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Mike Dorsett avatar image
Mike Dorsett answered ·

Due to the difference in the voltage vs soc curves for Lead and lithium batteries, these are totally incompatible in the same system. If you still have life in your lead acid set, then use them until the performance is no longer tolerable, then do a clean sweep with the new lithium set. One major difference I noticed was a 10C drop in the battery room temperature due to the improvement in efficiency of the lithiums.

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Paul Carmichael avatar image Paul Carmichael commented ·
Thanks Mike.

The annoying thing (as I've said before) is that the la batteries claim to be fully charged most of the time, but the voltage drop under load makes them unusable. I have mine in the loft with forced ventilation, so they don't get that hot. Having said that, because of where we live, the average temp is probably over 20ºC and the max is more like 35ºC, which is over the recommended, I believe.

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Paul Carmichael avatar image Paul Carmichael commented ·
Hello again. Quick question: When my batteries were new (8 years ago) I needed to add water every 6 months. That dropped to every 40 days and I most recently topped them up 2 weeks ago. They now are at minimum. Does this mean they've expired? Just putting off forking out 8k euros.
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r-f avatar image r-f commented ·
I've been successfully running a 12v hybrid system for over a year now. The battery voltages are certainly not incompatible, I think I have the happiest set of LA ever to exist! The LA basically acts as a backup battery (in case of extreme low temperatures, or any issues with the lithium) and alternator protection device.
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