Full disclosure, this battery was provided for review by RedODO. I do not accept sales commissions.
I was curious how long a 5000 BTU air conditioner would run on a 200 amp-hour LiFePo4 battery. That was the main part of my recent test and review of the RedODO 200ah deep cycle battery.
Test Setup
For the sake of the test, I maxed out the AC temperature dial so it ran non-stop. This is a worst case scenario. In reality, the AC would probably cycle on and off. Plus, you’d have solar panels charging during the day.
The inverter used was a 1200 watt pure sine wave low-frequency unit from Ampinvt. I bought this inverter a while back for running my AC and freezer, and it received a good workout here.
Performance and Numbers
It turns out during the heat of the day, the 5000btu GE air conditioner I used pulled 500 watts total from the battery. This is including efficiency losses in the inverter itself.
Long story short, it took 5 hours for the fully charged 200ah battery to reach near 12v, pulling over 198 amp hours during the test. This is too close to empty and I prefer not to run LFP batteries down flat dead – it’s not a good idea nor healthy for the battery.
The math is pretty easy – 2.5kW/h divided by 500 watts is, well, 5 hours. If one has a few 100 watt solar panels charging and the AC has a 50% duty cycle, it should be possible to run the AC the entire day. With a larger solar power system, running the AC all day – and part of the night – would be a piece of cake.
Overall Thoughts
As far as the battery itself, the most tedious question to answer was did it really have 200 amp-hours. Some of these drop in lithium ion batteries don’t actually have the advertised capacity – leaving the customer to discover they got ripped off. If they even test a full cycle. In this case, I was relieved to discover the RedODO battery had the advertised capacity. After getting a full charge, it took much of the day to set up the test and find the answer while recording the process on camera.
I was reluctant to test the OVP (over voltage protection) but I did it anyway. Setting the charger to a high overcharge voltage, I let the terminal voltage climb up away from what I was comfortable with. No problem – the terminals of the battery went open circuit pretty quick. That test won’t be repeated.
Normally I prefer to work with raw LiFePo4 prismatic cells, where I avoid using a BMS and carefully hand build and hand match each cell and pack. But admittedly, drop-in style batteries make it easy for anyone to build up a sizable solar power system for off electrical grid / backup power operation. They save a lot of time. All you have to do is wire them up and turn on the charger. This advantage makes them very attractive.
In short, based on my experience with the RedODO 200ah LiFePo4 battery, I can recommend it. If you wish to purchase one, there is a link and discount code below. Again, I don’t receive commissions for sales. Thanks for reading and have a good day.
Dave, SPE
Manufacturer Links and Discount Code
Redodo Official website: http://www.redodopower.com
Manufacturer Provided Discount Link https://bit.ly/4ebeyY7
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