can’t leave well enough alone? that pretty much describes me. but why would i when the benefits are obvious, right?
the most important aspect here is battery capacity, or rather: do we have enough? we like to camp off-grid but we don’t like to be without our gadgets: phones, tables, computers, cameras and the drone, music, electric toothbrush to name but a few. remember we have an adolescent and a technology addict on board. the solar panels generally work well to keep the batteries topped up but what – to use the wise words of our energy minister – if the sun doesn’t shine?
this is where my agreement with our pollies ends. the solution is obvious (and it’s not coal!): we need better batteries. yep, south australia got it right and the clowns in canberra will have to come up with smarter arguments. i’m not sure they can.
we do of course have batteries in our van, but they are old technology, the so called agm (absorbent glass mat) deep cycle type. and as with so many names (‘clean coal’ is a great example; there is nothing clean about coal power, not even with the newer plants) the issue is that if they are cycled too deeply too often their health decays really quickly, their useful capacity decreases and they need to be replaced. it is therefore recommended to not discharge them further than 50%. in other words, our 200ah worth of agm weighing in at about 60kg is good for 100ah really.
let me put this in perspective. when we camped at jarrahdene this week we copped the worst case scenario: overcast skies and big shady trees, so solar really didn’t stand a chance. after 2 days and nights we were down to 65% charge, i.e. we would have had to find a way to plug in the van and charge of mains power or move to a sunnier place.
i didn’t like either of those options. instead i went for a third: we were going to see the wizards at ev power in margaret river, conveniently located 20 min down the very same road our camp ground was at. coincidence?
of course not. i’d spoken to rod and agreed to take 2 180ah lipofe batteries and management system off him. lithium phosphate iron batteries are newer technology and not quite as explosive as the other, more ubiquitous lithium cobalt oxide that have caused some mobile phones to literally melt down. remember the samsung note 7? fireworks in your pocket?
the other key advantage of lipofe batteries is that they provide a constant voltage until they are almost completely discharged. and they can be almost completely discharged without negative effects and re-charge quicker as well.
so while in theory we should now have a bit less than double our initial battery capacity in real terms it’s more than three times worth.
to top it off the batteries weigh about two thirds of the original agm units. not bad. rod and jamie did a fantastic job with the install as well, very clean, just how i like it.
and lipofe is also way cooler than agm, you wouldn’t want to rock up at a camp site having to confess you are still carting lead batteries around ….
on to our next bush camp then! after a coffee of course.