Hello all. I know this has been discussed quite a bit in different threads, but I was just wondering if anyone has come to a conclusion yet. I know I have to spend a ton of money on new lithiums (looking at US3000s) but I don't want to have to bin the la set. If it's still generally considered a bad idea to mix, then has anyone come up with a design for a parallel setup with some sort of manual switching?
Due to the difference in the voltage vs soc curves for Lead and lithium batteries, these are totally incompatible in the same system. If you still have life in your lead acid set, then use them until the performance is no longer tolerable, then do a clean sweep with the new lithium set. One major difference I noticed was a 10C drop in the battery room temperature due to the improvement in efficiency of the lithiums.
The annoying thing (as I've said before) is that the la batteries claim to be fully charged most of the time, but the voltage drop under load makes them unusable. I have mine in the loft with forced ventilation, so they don't get that hot. Having said that, because of where we live, the average temp is probably over 20ºC and the max is more like 35ºC, which is over the recommended, I believe.
