Pretty much what the title says. I'm curious if anyone has done a lithium conversion on the lead acid batteries that the tugs come with? I've had these conversions done on a couple RV's and I work with a company down in Oregon. They don't do boats, so I'm thinking of potentially getting them to do the schematics and sell me the components and then do it myself.
If you haven't researched it, lithium batteries give you a few advantages with a few caveats:
* Linear charge time rather than having the charge rate drop off significantly as lead acid batteries approach full charge.
* Much higher capacity
* With the right BMS the ability to control how many amps the charge system draws from shore or your source
* You can't charge them below a certain temperature, so you need a battery management system (BMS that cuts off charging if it gets too cold. Which is why most lithium installers will try to put them somewhere that doesn't get cold.
* You can draw the full capacity of the battery, so if it's 600 amp hours, you get 100 amps for 6 hours unlike lead acid which doesn't give you 100 amps for a 100 amp battery.
* They're more power dense.
* They're FRIKKIN expensive. My first install cost about $7000 for 600 amp hours and thats just the batteries. It's gotten a bit cheaper and a bit more compact now.
* If you do the lithium install it's worth upgrading the inverter if you can, which potentially lets you run an aircon off the batteries for a few hours without using the engine/genny.
My main motivation is that these tugs have this huge high torque engine that could presumably drive a high output alternator and it seems a shame to run the engine for an hour and not capture as much of that power into batteries which can power the tug for days at anchor, even with significant draw.
Regards,
Mark.
If you haven't researched it, lithium batteries give you a few advantages with a few caveats:
* Linear charge time rather than having the charge rate drop off significantly as lead acid batteries approach full charge.
* Much higher capacity
* With the right BMS the ability to control how many amps the charge system draws from shore or your source
* You can't charge them below a certain temperature, so you need a battery management system (BMS that cuts off charging if it gets too cold. Which is why most lithium installers will try to put them somewhere that doesn't get cold.
* You can draw the full capacity of the battery, so if it's 600 amp hours, you get 100 amps for 6 hours unlike lead acid which doesn't give you 100 amps for a 100 amp battery.
* They're more power dense.
* They're FRIKKIN expensive. My first install cost about $7000 for 600 amp hours and thats just the batteries. It's gotten a bit cheaper and a bit more compact now.
* If you do the lithium install it's worth upgrading the inverter if you can, which potentially lets you run an aircon off the batteries for a few hours without using the engine/genny.
My main motivation is that these tugs have this huge high torque engine that could presumably drive a high output alternator and it seems a shame to run the engine for an hour and not capture as much of that power into batteries which can power the tug for days at anchor, even with significant draw.
Regards,
Mark.