My only issue with lithium batteries is usage and charging below freezing. This is important to us because we do lots of winter camping. The copy below is from a post by a Battle Born engineer on airforums.com -
Link:
Battle Born LiFePO4 batteries - Page 3 - Airstream Forums
Note: I also spoke to Dennis at B.B. today about the below freezing issues, very helpful and straight forward discussion. They have some ideas in the works for battery cases which incorporate heating elements into the BMS. External heating pads are 15w draw from the battery itself to keep the battery above 30 deg. It will be interesting to see what they come up with.
In the meantime, below floor rack mounted Li batteries will be challenged with below 30 temps.
Below is mentioned post from AirStream forum:
“Li-ion batteries operate based on the diffusion of Li-ion through an electrolyte. Since diffusion slows down in cold temperatures, there are some general limitations when it gets cold. When the internal battery temperature is freezing (32F) battery capacity falls to around 80-85% of full capacity. The capacity continues to fall to around 60% when the temperature falls to 0F. HOWEVER, the bigger problem occurs when you charge a Li-ion battery below freezing. The slow Li-ion transfer into the anode during charging could cause Li metal to plate the anode, and this could cause an internal short. The Battle Born battery has an internal protection mechanism that prevents charging when the internal temp falls below 25F, and reconnects when the temp rises above 30F. Discharge is always allowed at low temp.
The high temperature operation is not as restrictive. As long as the internal battery temperature stays below 170F (that is when the battery separator begins to melt), then you are OK. The Battle Born battery prevents charge and discharge when the internal battery temperature rises above 140F.
For long-term storage, the main thing is to avoid freezing of the electrolyte (sub-zero) and melting of the separator or thermal degradation of the MOSFETs on the battery management board at high temps. The acceptable temperature range is very wide. 0F to 100F is fine.”