Hi, I see everyone has the same big question about the lithium battery with the unit.
I emailed RCT at the beginning of the month asking them the question and the reply I got was " Unfortunately the unit cannot be replaced with lithium ion"
I got my trolly middle of December 2022. Worked like a dream. and what I have on is the following
oled 65"
sound bar
laptop
and a external hard drive
ont plus router
with ps5 on the bar goes to the 250w load. the ps5 drains the battery quickly (I tried once to play through 2 hours loadshedding and before the 2 hours passed the unit moaned and there was 2 battery bars left) so no gaming with loadshedding : (
normal use, 2 hours loadshedding,1 battery line used 4 hours 2-3 lines used.
That was till the end of March 2023. Since then the battery drains quickly (the only thing that changed with the setup middle of March was the laptop) and when the power comes back on it will show less than a minute that the battery is charging, then it shows fully charged. I checked when the main power is on the battery gets
13.(forgot the number after the full stop) v current
So now I have to decide to get 1-2 lead battery's or try a lithium battery and the price for the lithium battery is a bit pricey to learn
I do know someone with the this mecer trolly
https://www.takealot.com/mecer-1kw-12v-inverter-power-trolley/PLID90971937
and he replaced the batter with the following lithium battery and he is very happy with the replacement without any problems
https://www.extremelights.co.za/col...h-1280wh-lithium-battery-lcd-display-100a-bms
This is copied from the web page:
"Using 12v 100Ah sealed lead acid batteries with a small inverter or UPS is not ideal. They are not meant for regularly handling high current and being discharged deeply. Even deep cycle batteries will only cycle 220 times if drained to 80% each time. Only using 50% capacity will increase the cycles to between 400 and 700. But when they are frequently drained (like during load shedding), or placed under high load like a UPS or Inverter places on them, often until the inverter cuts out, then they are basically internally damaged over time, and you will find that you need to replace them very often as they now longer hold charge for long.
This lithium iron phosphate battery on the other hand, has a high cycle rate of 2000 cycles, it can handle high discharge currents (Max 100A), and the internal battery management system (BMS) protects the battery from overcharging, or discharging too low and a short circuit.
This simply means our lithium battery replacement should last 10 times longer than the typical sealed lead acid (SLA) battery it is replacing.
Other advantages of these Lithium batteries are that there are no fumes, the self-discharge rate is only 3.5% per month (SLA will drain itself dead in 12 months), this battery weights 13kg vs the 28kg average weight of a 12v 100Ah SLA battery, and they can be charged and discharged faster (at higher current).
This battery can directly replace a sealed lead acid 12v 100Ah battery in terms of size, charging voltages, and is an upgrade in terms of how many cycles the battery can do (charged and discharged before needs replacing).
Technically the usable capacity of this 12v 100Ah Lithium battery is double that of a traditional 12v 100Ah sealed lead acid battery, if you only drain 12v SLA 100Ah batteries to 50% as recommended to extend it's life expectancy.
Can this battery last long enough for your application? This is complicating for a SLA battery, but simple to calculate for a lithium battery, see the capacity calculation below.
CAPACITY / RUNTIME : To calculate how long this battery can last in your application, lookup or measure the load power of the device(s) it will be powering in Watts, then divide 1280W with that number. Example, a small inverter, with an average 300W load, can run from this battery for 4hrs 15min (1280 / 300 = 4.26).
IMPORTANT : These cannot be used to start or operate a vehicle. The BMS cannot handle the very high instant current requirement.
INVERTER APPLICATION NOTE: Each inverter has it's own efficiency, and charging parameters which are not customizable in most cases, so the full capacity might not be usable. In most cases it means the battery will last even longer, since it is not being fully drained, which is actually a good restriction.
Example of tested inverters:
- Mecer 720W 12v Inverter : The inverter can utilize about 75% of total capacity. Thus less than a 300W load is recommended if you want 3hrs runtime.
- Geewiz 720W 12v Inverter : The inverter can utilize about 75% of total capacity. Thus less than a 300W load is recommended if you want 3hrs runtime.
- Geewiz 1440W 24v Inverter : The inverter can utilize about 75% of total capacity. Thus less than a 640W load is recommended if you want 3hrs runtime. (Note - Requires two batteries in series to get 24v).
- RCT 2.4kw 24v Inverter : The battery parameters can be tweaked, so you able to utilize full 2.4kWh capacity, but it should be set to stop at 70/80% discharge. (Note - Requires two batteries in series to get 24v)."
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