[Richard]

I thought I would take the time to provide an update on the battery install, since I have had them for about six months or so. I guess the overall take is that no news is good news. They work.

Seriously, my biggest task for a battery bank was to provide power through the night for a winter boondock. As you know the Aquahot is a huge power hog that pulls directly from the DC supply. Add to that the typical inverter loads for an evening, and I was never able to do that with either this coach or the previous coach using a 6 8D size bank.

I can tell you the 1000aH bank powers everything including AH through the evening, will make coffee the next morning, and doesn't seem to care.

I haven't had to do anything since the original setup. I have checked the cell to cell balance and each cell is within 0.004 volts. I did have an incident during winter storage where the coach lost plug in power for an extended time, so the batteries powered the inverter until the battery management system (BMS) automatically disconnected them to prevent them from a complete discharge. So the BMS did it's job to protect the bank from a dangerous discharge.

I am sorry that I don't have a lot of excitement to add to this saga, but as I have read of others installing a LiPo system, this pattern seems to be common. There is a lot of info in the beginning as the user is setting up the charger, BMS, and monitoring system. Then a bit of data on how many amp hours the user gets out of the bank compared to the old lead acids, and then silence. The silence is because they work, and there's not much to report.

So, if you are reading this and wondering if you should go this way when it's time to replace batteries. My opinion, and I stress opinion, is the following. This technology works, and is far superior to lead acid. However, it is not a drop in for lead acid. If you decide to adopt the technology, you will have to modify your existing charger parameters, install a battery protection system to guard against high and low voltage, and you will have to relearn all your years of using a lead acid system. For example, I always judged the level of charge by the voltage. You just don't do that with the LiPo's. You have to learn to count the amp hours you have used. The Link controller for Xantrex, the controllers for Magnum and Outback also allow you to do that. I just didn't know to do it before.

I think the RV user who occasionally boondocks will probably be better off sticking with AGMs. In our coaches they will run you through the night except with AH use in freezing weather. If you don't do that often, then run the gennie on those occasions.

Who will get the best use of this technology? The serious boondocker who wants to run the gennie as little as possible to recharge. The LiPo's will play nicely with solar systems given the correct settings on the charger.

Would I do it again? At this point, a resounding yes. I have enjoyed learning about the whole world of battery management. If the experiences of others apply to my use, I won't be replacing these batteries in five years, so I don't think the long term cost will be as high. My CFO has told me to plan on keeping this coach so I see the upgrade paying off in the long term.

If you take the time to read the unbelievable volume of stuff on the cruisers forum and electric vehicle forums, it can make your head spin. After digesting some the postings, it dawned on me that the debate and use profiles of both those communities is unlike the RV world. One, the sailboat guys want to extract the last bit of power of a battery, and have limited charging capability. So they focus on advanced charging strategies, and push the banks to extremes. Two, the EV guys want to charge and discharge at insane rates in our world. Again, their debates do not apply to our use. The RVer is going to operate the LiPo bank well within the extreme, is not interested in extracting the last 2% of power before recharging. The experience base says that operating the LiPos in the middle 80% of the range prolongs the life. No one knows for how long, because there is little failure data out there.