Very interesting article. He writing style is kind of reminiscent of Handybob's solar articles, but with a bit less anger
I really can relate to his issues with people who asked for advice, then argue with you about it, finally do it different than the advice, and then bitch when it doesn't work out.
Having nowhere near the background and experience that he does makes it hard to determine (for me) if he is correct or not in his ideas, but he does an excellent job of explaining and backing up his ideas. My guess would be, from his presentation, that this is quite good and accurate information.
His emphasis on the complexity, and the need for that complexity to be automatic and not manually monitored was excellent, as was the requirement to have lots of alarms to warn of issues and impending issues. Emphasis on complexity, need for parts to match application and each other--not easy to do.
I did like the charging description that he uses/recommends as that has been discussed here many times in the past. It appears the only charging source he has (or spoke of) was a constant current, variable voltage to max setting?, alternator of 120 amps. He must see the current start to taper before the voltage gets to cutoff setting, but it wasn't exactly clear. What was clear is that he ends charging based on voltage, not current, where others have said to end on the current to batteries at a fixed voltage. Ending on voltage, by tripping an ending relay to disconnect the charge actually makes it much easier to do the no float stage process as the charge source can stay active, if needed.
Has anyone looked into the Victron and other prepackaged setups he mentioned?
For us, this would be a another bit of information to add to the side of using AGM for the upcoming upgrade on our setup. Hopefully, we will have it so it would be easy to go lithium later, when it is more settled.
Interesting article re: LiFePO4 Batteries ( lithium )
Linear Mode
