CAN I CHARGE A LITHIUM BATTERY WITH A NORMAL CHARGER? Generally no. A straight 12 volt batteries https://uk.renogy.com/12v-170ah-lithium-iron-phosphate-battery/ will not be 12 volts. A 12v lithium LiFePO4 battery fully charged to 100% will hold voltage around 13.3-13.4v. Its lead-acid cousin will be approx 12.6-12.7v. A lithium battery at 20% capacity will hold voltage around 13V, its lead-acid cousin will be approx 11.8v at the same capacity. As you can see, we are playing with a very narrow window of voltage with lithium, less than 0.5V over 80% capacity. A Lithium LiFePO4 charger is a voltage-limiting device that has similarities to the lead-acid system. The differences with Li-ion lie in a higher voltage per cell, tighter voltage tolerances, and the absence of trickle or float charge at full charge. While lead-acid offers some flexibility in terms of voltage cut-off, manufacturers of LiFePO4 cells are very strict on the correct setting because Li-ion cannot accept overcharge. They could otherwise catch on fire and they burn very hotly because they give off oxygen as the burning chemicals break down. Modern Lithium batteries for use in caravans and cars have expensive electronics built-in that can compensate for these charging differences, but you need to make very sure this is present before using a lead-acid type charger. Lithium batteries for computers have these controls built into either the charger or the laptop, and must only ever have the correct exact charging voltage. Please see below for an explanation of the differences between a Lead Acid profiled charger vs a charger that has a Lithium specific profile, and what the implications are: A Lithium charge profile vs. a Lead Acid profile usually has a slightly higher charge voltage and a "deeper" constant voltage phase at the end of the charge cycle, which is able to get the Lithium batteries to a full 100% State of Charge. A Lead Acid profile will not normally be able to achieve this, however, it will still get close, say maybe 95% +. Research has shown that you can extend the life of Lithium batteries if you prevent charging to 100%, however, the effect only has a pronounced impact if charged to less than 80%. Between 80% to 100% State of Charge (SOC), there is not much observable difference to the battery life. The charge profiles have different "return to boost" behavior. After the charger completes its full charge cycle (i.e. it reaches the end of the absorption phase and changes over to the float stage), the charger will then start to monitor the battery voltage, to decide when to switch back to the boost/bulk charge mode and restart a full charge cycle again. The issue is that most Lead Acid chargers will wait for the voltage to drop too low before it restarts the charge cycle - that is because a Lead Acid battery has a lower resting voltage than a Lithium battery. The implications are that the Lithium batteries' State of Charge may already be quite low before the Lead Acid charger decides to switch back into a full bulk charge again. On the contrary, a Lithium profiled charger will start to recharge the Lithium battery much sooner. The Lead-Acid charger will eventually switch back into a full charge cycle again, but your battery may not have changed much yet when you would expect it to be fully charged, and when charging from solar this could mean that energy is wasted that could have been used to top up the batteries because the Lead Acid charge profile of the solar controller may not have recognized that the batteries need charging.

Do Car Solar Battery Chargers Actually Work? These days, there is an ever-growing interest in renewable energy sources, from individuals and companies alike. One such renewable source, from our sun, could actually charge your electric car for you. These are called power inverters https://uk.renogy.com/products/inverters/inverter-chargers/ . But can these devices really keep your car charged up, or are they more of a gimmick? How Does A Solar Car Battery Charger Work? Like the huge solar panels you see on the roofs of houses and in large fields, solar car battery chargers work using photovoltaic (or PV) cells that convert solar energy into electrical energy by generating an electrical current. Given that the sun is constantly releasing huge amounts of energy, solar car battery chargers have a (potentially) endless supply of power that can be used to fuel your car. Of course, using electricity from the sun instead of that from environmentally harmful power stations is a much more sustainable choice, but there are some reasons why solar car battery chargers may not be as fantastic as you'd think. The Drawbacks of Solar Car Battery Chargers Unfortunately, a lot of the technology we can use to harbor renewable energy still has its limitations, and this is certainly the case with solar power. The main drawback associated with this kind of electricity production is that it's entirely dependent on the weather. Though weather-controlling technology has been tested in a few countries, we're definitely not yet able to choose the way our climate behaves. So, if the sky happens to be dense with thick clouds, this renders solar panels effectively useless, as the amount of power they can extract from the sun is vastly reduced. It's this kind of unpredictability that makes it very difficult for us to rely on solar panels entirely. If you're relying on a solar car battery charger alone, one cloudy day could prevent you from being able to use your car at all. So, solar EV chargers are particularly restrictive for those living in cloudier climates. On top of this, car solar battery chargers are much smaller than those you're used to seeing. After all, the average electric car is only so big, which means regular-sized panels cannot be used as chargers. But the size of a solar panel and the amount of solar energy it can convert at any given moment directly correlate. So, a solar battery car charger simply can't provide your car with that much electricity. Lastly, solar car chargers take a long time to fully charge, and the payoff isn't that great. Though every electric car takes a different amount of time to charge, with some taking hours, just one charge from a power outlet can take you a lot farther than the charge of a solar car battery charger. What's more, on a cloudy day, your solar charger will take even longer to charge, which can be very inconvenient and frustrating. This is why solar car battery chargers work as trickle chargers, meaning that they can be used to maintain an electric car's battery but not to fully charge it. Paired at home with a proper battery to store solar power, you can adjust the supply from the battery to your EV to get around the issue. Otherwise, you'll need to find an electric charging station en route. Even so, before your journey, you'll want to make sure that you charge your vehicle via an outlet.

Solar Panel Size Calculator: What Size Panel Do I Need? Use our solar panel calculation https://www.renogy.com/calculators to find out what size solar panel you need to charge your battery. Calculator Assumptions The solar charge controller is the only load connected to the battery What Size Solar Panel Do I Need? To find out what size solar panel you need to charge your battery, you’ll need to enter the following info into our solar panel size calculator at the top of this page: Battery Voltage (V): What is your battery’s voltage? Battery Amp Hours (Ah): What is your battery’s capacity in amp hours? (If you only know its capacity in watt hours, first convert watt hours to amp hours) Battery Type: Is your battery a lead acid or lithium (LiFePO4) battery? Battery Depth of Discharge (DoD): What level of discharge is your battery at? 100% means fully discharged and 0% means fully charged. Solar Charge Controller Type: Will you be using a PWM or MPPT charge controller? Desired Charge Time (in peak sun hours): How quickly do you want your solar panel to charge your battery, in peak sun hours? Once you’ve entered the above info, click “Calculate Solar Panel Size” to get an estimate of what size panel you need to charge your battery at your desired speed. What Size Solar Panel to Charge 12V Battery? 12 volt batteries are the most common voltage I see people using in their solar power setups. Here is a chart showing what size solar panel you need to charge 12V batteries of various capacities in 5 peak sun hours with an MPPT charge controller. You need around 200-400 watts of solar panels to charge many common 12V lithium battery sizes from 100% depth of discharge in 5 peak sun hours with an MPPT charge controller. You need around 150-300 watts of solar panels to charge many common 12V lead acid battery sizes from 50% depth of discharge in 5 peak sun hours with an MPPT charge controller. Why Use Peak Sun Hours? Sunlight varies in intensity by location and time of day. The sun shines more intensely at 1pm in Arizona than it does at 8AM in Alaska. So if we were just to measure the length of time sun shines on a solar panel, it wouldn’t give us a very clear idea of how much energy that solar panel generated during that time. We need to know how intense that sunlight was. By measuring the sunlight in peak sun hours, we can quantify how much sunlight a solar panel receives. Then we can use that number to better estimate how much solar energy was generated during that time. Plus, we can use historical data to predict how many peak sun hours a location will get on an average day. These predictions help when picking what size solar panel or system to use.