Battery question

Has anybody ever considered using NI-MH batteries or lithium Ione batteries in there boats as House or equipment batteries, I have an opportunity to have any and all types of hybrid and electric car batters from smart cars to Tesla , it seems they are much lighter and compact and all ranges of voltage , from what understand if the Lithium batteries create a fire it’s almost impossible to extinguish ...might not be able to survey ?

Well this type of batteries are sold and used as house bank batteries so except the price I do not see why you should not be able touse them.

L

I would only consider an integrated Li-ion system with a dedicated battery management system made by a name brand manufacturer of marine electrical equipment. Mastervolt is one of these.

But they ain't cheap. Almost $7,000 for 320 amp hours worth of ain't cheap!!

See Mastervolt MLI 12V - 320 AH Lithium Ion Battery

You can do the same for about $400 with lead acid batteries.

David

To paraphrase Lou "Why"? Between the rather extreme expense and the fact that normal charging devices will not work with them... The only good reason I can think of is if there was some situation where ONLY that kind of battery would do...

LFP is the only non-lead chemistry safe enough.

"Lithium" is not specific enough, the other dozens of such are short-lived and fire-risky.

EV packs will get reverse-engineered by open-hardware guys, maybe usable as House banks on RVs, but boats IMO require a higher level of safety.

Now if your boat's big enough to carry a Prius as a complete unit, very useful self-contained genny+bank, plus heating/aircon in a pinch.

john61ct said:

LFP is the only non-lead chemistry safe enough.

"Lithium" is not specific enough, the other dozens of such are short-lived and fire-risky.

EV packs will get reverse-engineered by open-hardware guys, maybe usable as House banks on RVs, but boats IMO require a higher level of safety.

Now if your boat's big enough to carry a Prius as a complete unit, very useful self-contained genny+bank, plus heating/aircon in a pinch.

Click to expand...

:lol::lol:
I want a boat that can carry a Prius as its backup battery bank!

They probably require different charging profile than typical wet cells

koliver said:

[emoji38][emoji38]
I want a boat that can carry a Prius as its backup battery bank!

Click to expand...

I'd be happy with a land-based setup that could.

Been designing a cargo trailer type conversion the Prius could just roll up into.

Trailer chassis works for a boat too.

Challenge is the width to get it inside a conex, is too tight for anything but a "deckover" ramp, rather than the Prius fitting on the floor between the inside of the wheel wells.

Makes for a pretty steep ramp, might have to go for an elevator lift ramp.

https://youtu.be/KEBOuZtTHes

bayview said:

They probably require different charging profile than typical wet cells

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No probably about it.

Just like AGM and GEL, each batt chemistry has its requirements.

Problem with a big LFP bank is that a few pretty common scenarios will kill it dead, zero ROI on that investment.

So yes you need to know what you're doing, and a pretty large proportion of the huge up-front cost is protective infrastructure in addition to the cells themselves.

Thank you for all the info , fortunately I can get the battery’s from any type of car from Tesla’s to smart cars for zero $, if you look into used battery’s out of damage cars you can buy them really cheap and they are like new,my thoughts were they wouldn’t pass survey and if they catch fire there isn’t any way to extinguishe the fire until the batteries are gone, if something happens your insurance company won’t pay the claim,it seems the up side is you can put in twice the power in half the space ,they are light and easy to change out

"I can get the battery’s from any type of car from Tesla’s to smart cars for zero $"

Eventually there will be a rebuilding industry to refresh these , should they keep being used in cars.

Today its home brew to open the case and swap out the bad cells for other used ones and keep the batt.

For a trawler weight is hardly an issue, although even in a metal boat a fire could ruin the day.

Perhaps a battery box for the house batts on deck that could easily be helped overboard might work.

FF said:

"............ Perhaps a battery box for the house batts on deck that could easily be helped overboard might work.

Click to expand...

But what if you're not on board at the time of a fire? And what about the cables? You would need some sort of breakaway device on both of them.

I'm not ready to start replacing my AGMs with exotic batteries from junked cars quite yet.

Get one more good quality conventional bank for production use,

study hard make friends with some EV hobbyist-engineer types, keep up with the reverse-engineering projects, buy packs to experiments with **on land**

and when the time comes to replace that last bank, you **might** know enough to make an informed decision.

kchace said:

To paraphrase Lou "Why"? Between the rather extreme expense and the fact that normal charging devices will not work with them... The only good reason I can think of is if there was some situation where ONLY that kind of battery would do...

Click to expand...

LiFePO4 batteries are recharged using exactly the same equipment as Pb batteries.

They are more expensive by a long shot, at least in terms of up front cost. They are cheaper over their lifespan if you use battery power a lot. Additionally, they maintain high voltage throughout their capacity, which is easier on equipment, plus they recharge in a fraction of the time of typical chemistry which reduces wear and tear on the genset. So, with respect, there may be reasons one might want this chemistry other than special circumstances.

Watch a WWII movie and see how depth charges were tossed overboard, for a concept for LI batt fires.

Of course in a marina or big raft up or small harbor the automatic portion of the system might need to be disabled.

Weather fuel cells or simple fly wheels will replace this batt tech is still in the works.

My vote would be for flywheels as energy storage could be combined with boat stabilization.