Does anyone have any experience with these batteries? Seems like a very good price if the 3000 cycles number is realistic.

https://solarwarehousesa.com/products/conderenergy-tubular-200ah-battery-3000-cycles

 

Conderenergy High Performance Solar Tubular 200AH Battery

(Please note this battery can leak if it gets tilted ,we do not courier this item. Please collect or arrange your own courier at your own risk if this battery leaks please just refill it with distilled water)

What is Tubular Battery? Tubular batteries are lead-acid batteries that are much larger than flat plate batteries. Tubular batteries are commonly seen in UPS and inverter systems. The tubular batteries have a positive plate nestled within a tube wrapped in cloth that holds its electrodes' power.

A good LA battery can last many years and cycles if not abused.
From the start consider it a 100Ah battery as the proviso is the same as for most LA batteries, i.e 50% discharge, no more.
12V 3000 Cycles @ 50% DOD
Now if one were to get 4 of these for a 48V system, then that would be 48V 100Ah usable.
From a price perspective this is not such a bargain anymore as there are a couple of Lithium 48V 100Ah batteries in the market for about the same amount. And most Li battery's cycle life will not be affected if kept above a 20% DOD. 
For a single 12V application it's probably not a bad buy as a good 12V 100Ah Li could be up to double that price.
 

Tubular cells were, until recently, the best value for money.  They have long cycle life, and can be completely refurbished (if you can still find a place that does it) at EOL.

But they have a number of disadvantages:

1) They must be treated gently - to get the 3000 cycles advertised here, that is 20A max charge/discharge to 50% max DoD. Any more than that, and you reduce life.

2) They are heavy - 70kg per battery or 280kg for a 48V pack.

3) They require regular maintenance (water top-ups, equalising charge, SG checks, etc).

4) They produce a lot of hydrogen, so need to be very well ventilated, and should not be installed in the same place as the switchgear (spark risk).

The reason I am looking at these is I am running 8 x Trojan 6V 375Ah batteries which are now in year 6 of their life. Obviously they will not last for ever, I'm hoping to get 8 years out of them, but eventually they will need to be replaced.

I could change over to lithium chemistry, but my inverter and chargers don't support that so it will essentially be a complete new system. The easiest would be simply to swap out the Trojans, with new one's but there don't seem to be any suppliers in SA anymore and they are pricey from overseas.

The tubular batteries seem very affordable and will be compatible with the rest of my kit.

Atlas battery is offering tubular batteries  12V 300Ah R5200 VAT INC. 

So 8 of those will put me back R41k, I get the VAT back, plus the scrap value of the old batteries, so I should be at around R35k, for a 600Ah battery back, with claimed 3000 cycles at 50% DOD. That will be about 15kWh of storage at 50%.

Is there something I am missing here?

 

 

1 hour ago, DeepBass9 said:

The reason I am looking at these is I am running 8 x Trojan 6V 375Ah batteries which are now in year 6 of their life. Obviously they will not last for ever, I'm hoping to get 8 years out of them, but eventually they will need to be replaced.

I could change over to lithium chemistry, but my inverter and chargers don't support that so it will essentially be a complete new system. The easiest would be simply to swap out the Trojans, with new one's but there don't seem to be any suppliers in SA anymore and they are pricey from overseas.

The tubular batteries seem very affordable and will be compatible with the rest of my kit.

Atlas battery is offering tubular batteries  12V 300Ah R5200 VAT INC. 

So 8 of those will put me back R41k, I get the VAT back, plus the scrap value of the old batteries, so I should be at around R35k, for a 600Ah battery back, with claimed 3000 cycles at 50% DOD. That will be about 15kWh of storage at 50%.

Is there something I am missing here?

 

 

What inverter are you using that cannot charge lithium even on a AGM profile? 

If you don't use say all the capacity daily you can even add an external MPPT charge controller with lithium together with the AGM to get the last few % of charge to 100%.

Using only an external high current MPPT can be a bad ROI option as for a high current model it can approach the level of a cheap all in 1 inverter. 

For the same battery cost lithium can provide say about 8kwh storage but over time yield a better ROI. 

I'm using a JSM 6kVA Inverter and microcare chargers. Quite old school so no comms to the batteries. 8kWh is still half of 15kWh, for same cost. 

Edited May 23, 20242 yr by DeepBass9

10 minutes ago, DeepBass9 said:

I'm using a JSM 6kVA Inverter and microcare chargers. Quite old school so no comms to the batteries. 8kWh is still half of 15kWh, for same cost. 

Yes correct for both our calculations. The lithium should give you 3 or more times the cycles. 

9000 cycles? That will be someone else's problem...

Also, 8kWh is a bit light for our usage.

Edited May 23, 20242 yr by DeepBass9