Replacing the House Batteries
The old AGM house batteries are kaput and need replacing. Like many others, I considered Lithium chemistry batteries but I found the cost to be 6 times the cost of AGMs at the time of this writing. Here’s the rundown.
- 6 - 100 amp Battle Born GC2 batteries, $6,000
- 1 - Battery Isolation Manager designed for Lithium: $180
- 1 - Upgrade remote inverter/charger panel that has a Lithium charging profile: $200
So the cost about $6,400. Because I feel this is a job I can competently do so there are no labor charges.
In contrast, I found I could order 6, 6 Volt, 200 Amp Hour batteries delivered to my door for $1,100. (GC2 AGM Battery).
I might have converted to Lithium chemistry batteries at 3 times the cost but not at 6 times. I figure for now I can use these AGMs and buy a few years until Lithium chemistry batteries come down in price. When that time comes, I’ll likely have it done professionally with the addition of solar.
Installation was easy although I did have to spend an extra $75 to buy some battery cable supplies to build replacement cables. The old cables were good quality but too short due to a difference in the type of battery posts. Making cables is easy and about 1/3 the cost of buying premade cables. You can find numerous videos on YouTube explaining how to do this.
To protect the terminals from the weather I spray them with liquid electrical tape. Never heard of spray liquid electrical tape? Neither had I. Discovered it a few years ago. Use it all the time now.