lifepo4 longevity

[native pepper]

Thought I'd drop in during a break from our travelling to update my lifepo4 systems in case some may be interested. My portable 120amp lifepo4 pack is now 17 years old, house and bus packs, 16 years old.

My portable pack is used almost daily when home as it runs many thing in the workshop and as backup on the road, which has allowed me to have power wherever we are and away from the bus. Last year the portable pack begun to show signs of age, not fully charging and dropping below 13v during use. Originally put that down to age, but noticed the charge controller in the workshop didn't seem to be working at times and upon inspection discovered water has got into the wires from the panels, rusted the connections and wasn't charging properly. After fixing that problem the pack still didn't seem to be holding charge, so adjusted the charge controller from cut off at 14v to cut off at 14.14v to see what happened. After a few days of that charging formula, which meant it charged to 14.14, then restarted at 13.6V the pack was registering full 120amp capacity. Then I disconnected it and let it sit for a few days, checking the voltage each day and discovered it was still registering as fully charged.

Was very happy with the results and after another year, the pack still has 100% capacity with no voltage drop. It's the same with my house and bus packs, which are 1 year younger, they are still performing perfectly on my original charge parameters. What has really surprised me is, have 3 spare 50amp cells which have never been used or charged and they still sit at 3.2v after 17 years. They sit on a shelf in the workshop and have been ignored for years so was surprised to see they still retained their original voltage, which to me is a great sign of their longevity and reliability.

A couple of years ago purchased a makita 16inch 36v chainsaw and then a 14inch 36v makita after seeing what the 16inch could do. Now have ditched my 3 husquvana petrol chainsaws and use the Makitas for dropping trees and cutting them up. Which means life on the road is even more simple, because can cut wood with little noise and they are simply amazing. Now Makita have released 40v chainsaws including an 18inch 40v saw, which will purchase when they have been out for a year and the bugs fixed. They are simple amazing and have made life so much easier capable of dropping huge trees which require wedging to ensure they drop in the right places.

[BernieQ2]

Welcome back, it's been awhile.
Bernie.

[Dot]

So where have you been and what have you been up to

[supersparky]

Welcome back NP. Thanks for the update on your setup.

[native pepper]

Thanks everyone.

Dot, we've been playing mostly along the east coast and rural Vic/NSW since covid restrictions lifted and had a full agenda for this winter in the snow fields. However that was all cancelled because no snow, so we came home and the band is resting, which may be for ever as travelling is getting to some as they age. We've been able to keep costs down because the bus runs on veggie oil and venues always happy to give us at least 100lt of their used oil each gig, which saves on fuel costs and means we charge well below other entertainment and still make money.

Now I'm renovating my neighbours house to keep from getting bored and putting up with her constant decisions to change the plans for her kitchen, which means little has been done in the kitchen other than gutting it. Finished the rest of the house, adding a veranda and two new rooms, which are mostly windows looking out over the ocean and hills.

Have another young black kelpie lady, who harasses the horses and gets chased all the time which they all enjoy, one of my horses passed away last year, he was 36 and a wonderful fellow, with the others and dogs watching on as we buried him.

Sadly a friends kelpie decided to get involved in the horse chase when visiting and nipped a horses leg resulting in it lashing out and catching my girl in the eye. Sadly it busted her eyeball and she turned up at the house covered in busted eyeball, the kick was light as it caused no damage other than to the eyeball, which resulted in a $2000 operation and the lose of her eye. Has taken her a few weeks to come to terms with it and she is still only young, so have been teaching her how to live with one eye instead of walking into things. Which entails throwing sticks to her blind side, which to start she didn't have clue, but now is using her hearing and swivels her head so she can see. Now when the stick is to her right hand blind side, she stops and listens then charges in the direction and most time finds the stick. Her big kelpie mate Dax gives her nudges when she is about to miss something on the right and the other day almost walked into the handle of a wheelbarrow, but Dax suddenly rushed between her and the barrow pushing her away.

They have also discovered "Bluey" the cartoon and always let me know when it's the time for it and sit and watch it until it finishes, it's the only thing on TV they are interested in and a great laugh to watch. Just love the animals in my life, they are wonderful beings and communicate well once you give them the chance to feel free and happy. Kelpies are walking clocks, they know exactly when things should happen and let you know it's time, persisting until it happens.

On the subject of low voltage, another neighbour is installing a flow battery system, so will be interesting to see how that works out for them. As for the music, haven't played for a month or so and already having withdrawals, but seems the others maybe retiring as they can't keep up with me. Health excellent, fitness good, laziness increasing at 78, but still run every day and walk at least 2klms round the farm throwing sticks for the dogs.

[Shirley]

Good to hear that you are fit, well & enjoying life native pepper, always enjoy reading your posts, keep up the exercise.

[Keith Morris]

"tanks" here---
My last dog/companion was a Kelpie - 9-year-old rescue dog.
He was very obedient and so supportive of my needs.
When I was on the home oxygen he would sit at my feet as long as I had the mask on my face.
If IO had breathing trouble while I was asleep at night, he would put his chin on the pillow or on the bed and shake it 'till I woke up.
I miss MAJOR so much.
Keith.
p.s: Major was a Kelpie.

[Greynomad]

NP,
Welcome back!
We had a similar experience with dogs caring for one another.
When our now-departed Labrador went blind at the age of 14 our also-departed Beagle used to accompany him around the back yard. The Lab could obviously remember where most obstacles were in the yard, although he never galloped, only trotted or walked.
Twice I watched as the Beagle put his shoulder to the Lab's to guide him around a bush he was heading for.

They are great companions for each other as well as for us.

[T1 Terry]

Great to see you back NP. We have an E Go 56v chainsaw, hedge trimmer, brush cutter and whipper snipper and they are just so far ahead of the petrol powered ones that when the 240v lawn mower dies, we plan to buy an E Go one of those as well.
As far as the flow battery, you really need two of them because each one needs to be fully discharged every 4 days to strip the metal build up on the ion exchange membrane. Victron developed an inverter that will run all the way down to a low enough voltage to strip the metal each time it is required, but if you don't have a second battery, there is no stored power available until the battery recharges. They are very bulky and only around 70% efficient, but the solar is free so who cares if you waste 30% of it No good for anything but a fixed installation, they can't be bounced around at all, so not even suitable for a houseboat, but the plus side is, the waste heat makes a great water heater that can also be a room heater in the winter.

After I lost all my lithium cells in the workshop fire, including the brand new 55Ah LTO cells, I've been looking at the sodium ion cells as a possible alternative. Even though they claim they are cheaper to make because the materials are plentiful, they are still more expensive to buy because the developers need to recover their R&D costs.
The plus side for the sodium ion chemistry, the transport issues may be sorted once the information is made available and accepted by the freight mobs. They can be discharged to zero voltage for transport so the dangerous goods issues don't apply, and that is making it very difficult to move any lithium batteries through the normal freight methods. We were using Toll, expensive, but at least they would handle them ... Toll was recently taken over by another mob and the price is now insane so all freight is at a standstill until something is sorted ......

T1 Terry

[Dot]

If anyone is kind to animals (except snakes and rats) then I accept them totally. Animal haters or people cruel in any way to them is told to fornicate off.