After a few months of running my DIY lithium battery I thought I’d provide an update on it. We used the battery on our 5+ week trip out west, recharging it only via solar. In a few parks we had little to no sunlight during the day (Olympic National Park…
In part 2 I talked about my basic 12V setup and how I was top-balancing my new battery cells. I didn’t get into why to top-balance, but there’s an excellent explanation in the DIY Solar Forum – basically each cell is independent and we’re trying to equalize them and maximize…
In my earlier post, I talked about what LiFePO4 batteries were and why I went with them. In this article I’ll cover how I built mine, which should allow most savvy DIYers to more or less repeat the process, building on what I learned. Most of what I learned about…
Our camper (travel trailer) has a typical 12V lead acid battery to run most of the devices. Solar does a decent job of keeping the battery topped up, but sometimes we end up in a campsite with a lot of shade and have been finding it increasingly hard to keep…