Why Homsolar choose LFP battery

Compared with lead-acid batteries, lithium-ion batteries are a good alternative because of their small size, light weight, fast charging and durability, Lithium-ion batteries, which weigh only a quarter as much as lead-acid batteries, are guaranteed to charge at least twice as fast and have twice as many cycles.

It turns out that lithium-ion batteries were invented by Thomas Edison more than 100 years ago. Why didn’t they begin to be used on a large scale until recently？Lithium-ion batteries are all very good, but they have a very deadly problem: they are prone to spontaneous combustion. Because lithium is so reactive, it can react with a wide range of substances and is prone to   spontaneous combustion and explosion, until a relatively stable metal material is found, lithium-ion batteries are almost impossible to use.

This problem was solved in 1991 by Sony of Japan, whose 18650 lithium-ion battery is the standard lithium-ion battery and is not prone to explosion because of the polymer material used. From then on it is widely used in small electronic products such as notebook computers.

Sony’s 18650 lithium battery

After more than 20 years, lithium-ion batteries now fall into two broad categories, which is Lithium-iron phosphate battery (LFP) and ternary material battery, ternary battery according to the material is divided into nickel-cobalt manganese NCM/ nickel-cobalt aluminum NCA two combinations. These two kinds of batteries are more and more used in automobile and motorcycle energy storage system because of their characteristics.

Of course, there are differences in material selection and battery feature. In terms of energy density, ternary battery is much better than lithium iron phosphate battery. According to laboratory data, the energy density of a lithium-iron phosphate battery of the same mass is only half that of a ternary battery, at which point the lithium-iron phosphate battery almost fails, and The low temperature performance of lithium-iron phosphate batteries is also much lower than that of ternary batteries, in this way, the ternary battery should be the best choice for all users, but why HOMSOLAR chose lithium iron phosphate battery? The answer is because of its safety.

The choice of battery, not only the choice of performance, you say the energy density, nuclear fuel is better, why not use it?

All choices are a trade-off and a comparison. First of all, the energy density of lithium iron phosphate battery is lower than that of ternary battery. Compared with lead-acid battery, the energy density of lithium iron phosphate battery is more than 50% higher than that of lead-acid battery, which can fully meet various application scenarios in the energy storage system. Secondly, ternary battery “inherits” the defect of lithium battery that is easy to spontaneous combustion. Thermal control inside the battery is the only cause of spontaneous combustion of the battery. The test data shows that the spontaneous combustion temperature of the ternary battery is 200℃, once the temperature reaches 200℃, the material of the ternary battery will begin to melt and spontaneously ignite, until it explodes. But Lithium-iron phosphate batteries spontaneously ignite at 800℃. That means lithium-iron phosphate batteries are unlikely to spontaneously ignite Unless in extreme cases.

Secondly, lithium batteries may explode when they are damaged by impact or puncture, equally, NCM lithium batteries explode at a touch. The advantages of high stability of lithium iron phosphate battery is perfect play, it is difficult to explode.

It can be said that lithium iron phosphate batteries are currently the best choice for energy storage applications. Electric vehicles such as Teslas have also been involved in a number of explosion accidents. Therefore, when we buy lithium batteries for energy storage systems, easy and safe lithium iron phosphate batteries are the best choice.