Considering switching to lithium-ion batteries for your RV? They are an amazing power source, but you may need to consider making a few upgrades alongside the batteries to get the most out of your new power system. One of the most common questions we get asked about lithium is what do I need to upgrade in addition to the batteries? In this article, we will be answering this question.
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Why Switch to Lithium-Ion Batteries?
Lithium batteries are becoming more and more popular for good reason. In energy storage applications, lithium-ion batteries provide more power than other battery types when taking weight and size into consideration. They also last much longer and charge better. Lithium also can be installed in enclosed spaces because they do not emit any gasses. We did a deep dive on the cost of lithium and even found that over its life, it’s the cheapest battery for power applications.
In addition to all the power benefits, lithium-ion RV batteries eliminate the dreaded “battery anxiety.” Meaning, you get overly obsessed and worried about your batteries’ state of charge and health. Lead-acid batteries require such specific charge parameters it’s easy to damage them by over-discharging or not properly charging them. With lithium-ion, you don’t have to think about your batteries all the time. They just work! Lithium-ion batteries also have such a long life, in most applications, they are a lifetime battery.
We personally recommend Battle Born Batteries as they are high quality American made and engineered, however most lithium will get you these benefits.
Differences in Charging
Charging is what you need to consider most when making the switch to lithium-ion batteries in your RV. Most of the time, the switch is from lead-acid to lithium, and these batteries have significantly different charge profiles.
Lead-acid batteries have three different charging stages. Most lead-acid battery chargers will step through them based on the battery voltage and internal resistance. These charging stages are bulk, absorption, and float. The absorption stage is a special phase where the voltage is held higher to force current into the battery as the resistance increases. In this phase, charging slows way down and is another big drawback to lead-acid batteries.
In lithium batteries, the absorption phase is not required. This is because the lower internal resistance of the batteries allows them to charge at full speed to almost completely full. Because of this, lithium batteries can charge much faster than many other types of batteries. Additionally, they are a better choice for solar energy as they will not waste power due to a slowing charge.
What Other Components Need to Be Upgraded With The Lithium Batteries?
This article is referring to drop-in lithium-ion RV batteries. These batteries have built-in BMS (battery management system) units and are designed to be used in place of traditional lead-acid batteries. If you are considering building your own battery from cells or using batteries without a BMS, like electric car batteries, then you will require more equipment to make sure your batteries operate safely. Do not connect any charger to lithium batteries without a BMS unless you have other safety measures in place.
Battery Chargers
Now that we have an understanding of the charge differences, it’s clear that a lithium-specific charger will be beneficial. The benefit is typically faster charging. Yet, this does not mean that a lead-acid battery charger will not work. Most of the time, drop-in lithium iron phosphate batteries will work with existing equipment as long as the charger does not have automatic equalization.
Usually, if the battery charger is programmable, you can reprogram it to work with lithium. However, sometimes a charger will only have different charge profile settings. If there is no lithium setting, AGM is usually the best choice. Conversely, if the charger is fully programmable, it’s always best to get the proper voltage settings for bulk, absorption, and float from the manufacturer of your lithium-ion batteries.
Do Not Use Automatic Equalization With Lithium
Equalization is required in lead-acid batteries for longevity and health but not required in lithium. An equalization charge increases the voltage much higher than normal to “equalize the lead cells.” If this is done on lithium batteries, it can damage their BMS. That’s why you should permanently disable automatic equalization. If you cannot disable automatic equalization on a lead-acid battery charger, replace it.
Solar Chargers
Along with the primary battery charger, any solar chargers also need to be compatible with lithium RV batteries. Most of the time, solar chargers will not have any equalization capabilities and will work with lithium. But they may charge a bit slow. Some charge controllers are programmable and you can reprogram them to the appropriate voltages for the batteries. In this case, research the manufacturer of your batteries to get the proper voltage settings.
Inverters
Typically, inverters do not mind running on lithium batteries. As long as they are in the right voltage range (12, 24, or 48 volts), they should work. However, you should change the low voltage cutout, if the inverter has one. Lithium battery manufacturers will provide a recommended low voltage cutout for inverters.
Other Considerations When Replacing Lithium-Ion Batteries
Usually, loads like lights, water pumps, and appliances will not even know they are running on a different type of battery. Therefore, you don’t need to change anything with them.
I always recommend installing a shunt based battery monitoring system with lithium-ion batteries to accurately monitor the state of charge. My favorite monitor is the Victron BMV712.
- The Victron Energy BMV-712 is a high precision smart battery...
- Built-in Bluetooth Communication - Monitor your batteries on...
- Next to the basic display options, such as voltage, current, and...
Lithium-ion batteries are often replaced in vehicle house systems that are tied to an engine’s alternator system. A trailer charges through the tow vehicle, a motorhome charges off the engine, and the same with a boat. Because of the lower internal resistance of lithium, it is not uncommon to see lithium batteries burn up fuses or even the alternators themselves. We wrote a blog all about how we set up alternator charging in one of our builds. I recommend if you want to charge lithium batteries off an alternator, to use a DC-DC converter that will keep the current at a safe level.
- Victron Energy Orion-Tr Smart 12/12-Volt 18 amp 220-Watt DC-DC...
- Is suitable for both lead acid and lithium batteries, Unlimited...
- Bluetooth Smart enabled: The unit can be monitored and programmed...
A DC-DC charge controller should be fully programmable so you can set the appropriate voltages and current limits.
Lithium Upgrades Made Easy
Overall, what you need to change or replace is going to depend heavily on your current system. If you are running a basic charger without equalization, you can use a drop-in lithium RV battery without changing much else. However, reprogramming or replacing the charger would be the best improvement you could make when switching to lithium as you will get faster charging. If you choose to switch out components, we highly recommend getting fully programmable equipment and programming your chargers and inverters to meet the manufactures recommendations.
An upgrade to lithium-ion RV batteries may seem daunting, but depending on your needs a simple drop-in replacement might suit your needs with minimal upgrades needed.
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We are considering purchase of a Rockwood Geo Pro (E-Pro) 19FD RV for it’s ‘off road’ capability and boondocking standard equipment which includes a starter setup of one 180 watt solar panel, solar charger controller and a 1000 watt inverter. The ‘Go Power’ brand solar controller for this year’s new models also is capable of working with lithium batteries in it’s program range. The question is, with the power converter / charger work with lithium as well, we wonder? Do you have any ‘industry insiders’ with Forest River industries who would know that?
Thanks
I have this camper. The converter/charger is not designed with a Lithium mode, so like the author said, you can put it on AGM and it gets the closest profile for Lifepo4. If you use your solar panels you can top off your charge without having to change the converter. Keep in mind that Lifepo4 batteries are not like lead acid and AGM that like to be fully charged. They like to live in a 20-80% SOC. I’m working on a DIY battery build for mine and plan to use the converter it came with.
How do we find out who won the battle born batteries?
How is the winner notified? If it’s a phone call I don’t always answer. Will they leave a voicemail?
Thank you.
The winner is notified via email.
I know that my Class A motorhome does charge the house batteries when we are driving using the RV alternator. While we have a Magnum 2000W Inverter/Charger that is programable, I was concerned about what was needed to make sure there would not be issues with adding Lithium later this year to replace our lead acid batteries. This article and the other that you reference is helpful.
I will follow-up with the manufacture about the configuration and have Freightliner look at it the next time I take the RV in for maintenance. If the batteries are basically charging off the alternator, is the addition of the DC-DC Converter an inline addition? Your article includes a reference of the Sterling Power DC-DC Converter. Is the Victron Energy Orion-Tr Smart 12/12-Volt 30 amp 360-Watt DC-DC Charger, Isolated a viable option? I know this model would only charge up to 360 Watts/30A while the Sterling Power looks like it support 50-80A of charging. Is one approach better than the other?
While I will work with Battle Born to validate the configuration, I am interested in your opinion.
We want to incrementally change out our system and move towards solar. Our plan is to leverage as much of the current systems as possible for each step so we can document the incremental change overtime. Based on your article, we will look to swap out our four 6V GC2 batteries under the steps with two heated Battle Born GC2 batteries. We will add a DC-DC Converter or charger, replace batter cables, and reprogram the Magnum 2000W Inverter Charger. We already have a Victron BVM-712 already installed. We did this as a first step to better understand what was going on with the batteries about 18 months ago. This first step should get us in a better place than we are now based on the testing you recently performed. With the two Battle Born Batteries we will have 100A (>~3600Wh) which is more than that we would get from the four 6V GC2 batteries. The upgrade will save weight (net savings 180lbs, 60lbs versus 240lbs). After we document the performance of the two batteries, we will expand to three, and then four. At the end of getting to four batteries, we will more than double our power capacity while reducing the weight to half. While the heated GC2 batteries will be ore expensive, we want to see the simplest drop in solution while being able to use the original battery location. We will look and see if the space will support lining with Reflectix to provide some thermal assistance.
Long term we plan to expand the number of batteries beyond 4 and leverage one the bay that is next to the current batter location and includes the inverter/charger. After upgrading to the four batteries this year, we will look at an incremental build of a solar system. Until then we look to document the reduction in time to charge the batteries with the generator with the difference in charging provides.
The additional information about our plans to provide background on answering our question. You continue to inspire us with our nomadic lifestyle and your information on power systems is invaluable to us.
Thanks for another not too technical great article for a non-technical interested RV’er.
Battery contest. Got the email that the batteries have not been claimed yet. Please post partial email or name and said required time to claim prize. It most likely went into someone’s junk email.
Yes we are trying to reach them by multiple means, Our giveaway rules state you must claim within 7 days or we will redraw. We want to have a confirmed winner before posting as we have had this happen before.
Very helpful information. Looks like I’m ready to go lithium- ion . Now if the money would fall out of the sky.
Lithium Batteries are the future, for sure, but for now, they are just cost prohibitive. One simple analysis proves my point:
4x 12v lithium batteries (Battle Born, $950 ea. $3,800.
Cost/yr (10 year guarantee) $3,800/10= $380/yr.
Who can budget $380/yr for batteries???
and we don’t really know if they will last 10 years!
It’s a good point. If however, those batteries allow you to camp off-grid comfortably and save 380 in camping fees it might make sense. It’s really a quality of life cost for many.
It would be great if we could see a comparison between the many other LiFePO batteries that are out there. The BattleBorn are great compared to AGM and flooded cell batteries, lots of others are coming on line. Will these all become interchangeable with updated systems?
Thanks
Greg
Its on my long list of things to do 🙂 I would love to do some physical comparisons but I plan to write a blog post about the different cell types soon. As far as interchangeable, most of the equipment will work with lithium of all types but mixing batteries would not be advised. Like lead-acid lithium has slightly different characteristics between brands and you may drain or damage one type over time.
Maybe making the switch to Lithium this year???
I am curious on the wire size you are using on your system going to the inverter. I have looked at charts and seems like every chart is a bit different. 1/0, 2/0, ??? Most RV toyhaulers like mine usually come with two LeadA batteries, so probably switching them out for two Lithium. Do you have a video about this?
Wire Sizing? I dont but plan to write a blog post about it soon. Since I am an electrical engineer I always go by NEC for wire sizing.https://www.cerrowire.com/products/resources/tables-calculators/ampacity-charts/ Its all going to come down to the ampacity. @ 12V – 3000W inverter = 4/0 2000W=2/0 We run various sizes in our system because its 24V. This video shows our wire sizing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDRDWryBP1A