LiFePO4 batteries

How to use this table

This table holds 21 lifepo4 batteries normalized onto the same columns, so that units described differently by their manufacturers can be compared directly. Every row carries a confidence flag and a link to the datasheet or retailer page the figures came from, and every product has its own page with the numbers worked through for an off-grid build.

What is in here right now

The lifepo4 batteries listed run from 1.28 to 16.07 kWh, with a median of 4.80 kWh. The median price works out at about $286 /kWh per unit, which is the figure worth comparing against rather than the sticker price.

Sort on any column by clicking its header. The comparison that usually settles a decision is not the biggest number but the price per unit alongside the specification that constrains your design, because that is where a cheaper product either is or is not a false economy.

What each column means

V

Nominal battery voltage. This has to match the rest of the system, and the choice between 12, 24, and 48 V decides cable size and fusing everywhere else.

Ah

Amp hours at the nominal voltage. Useful for comparing like with like, but energy in kilowatt hours is the figure to design with.

kWh

Stored energy at nameplate. Multiply by the depth of discharge you intend to use routinely to get what you can actually count on.

Max discharge A

The most current the pack will deliver continuously. Multiplied by voltage, it caps the inverter a single unit can feed.

Max charge A

The most current the pack will accept. It sets how fast a bank can recover and how large an array or charger can usefully be pointed at it.

Cycles

Rated cycle life, which is only meaningful alongside the depth of discharge and temperature it was measured at.

at DoD

The depth of discharge the cycle rating was measured at. A number quoted at 80 percent is not comparable with one quoted at 100 percent.

Min charge °F

The lowest temperature at which the pack may be charged. Charging lithium below freezing causes permanent damage, so in a cold climate this figure decides where the bank can live.

Heated

Whether the pack can warm itself before accepting charge, which is what makes an unheated location workable in winter.

Comms

Which communication protocols the battery speaks. A supported protocol lets the battery manage its own charge profile and report real state of charge to the inverter.

lb

Weight, which decides how it is handled and mounted.

Listings

Safety listings and certifications, which insurers and inspectors may ask about.

Warranty yr

Warranty length. How a claim is actually handled matters more off grid than how long the term is.

Price

List or recorded retail price at the date noted. Prices move constantly.

$/kWh

Price normalized to the unit that allows fair comparison across different sizes.

A workable way to shortlist

Start from your daily energy figure and the days of autonomy you want, which gives usable kilowatt hours; convert that to nameplate by dividing by the depth of discharge you intend to use routinely. Then check that the units you are considering can deliver enough current for your inverter and accept enough current to recharge in a winter day. Only then compare price per kilowatt-hour, and read the cold-charging figure before you decide where the bank will live.

Then read the individual product pages, which work each unit's published numbers through for an off-grid build and list the nearest alternatives in this table. The system planner sizes array, controller, battery, and inverter against each other rather than one at a time, which is how these choices actually interact.

Five ways people get this purchase wrong

1. Buying capacity and ignoring current. A bank sized correctly in kilowatt hours can still be unable to feed the inverter, because continuous discharge current is a separate specification. Check both.
2. Treating nameplate as usable. Designing to the full figure means routinely discharging deeper than the warranty assumes, and the bank ages accordingly.
3. Siting the bank where it will be cold. Charging below freezing damages lithium permanently, and an unheated shed in a northern winter is below freezing for months.
4. Leaving the controller on lead-acid defaults. Absorption and float voltages written for lead acid are quietly wrong for lithium, and nothing warns you.
5. Adding new packs to an old bank. Mixed ages tend to be dragged toward the weakest unit, which is an expensive way to spoil a new purchase.

Every one of those is cheaper to avoid than to fix, and most of them are decided before anything is bought. That is the argument for building the load list and the system design first and shopping second, which is what the planner and the course are for.

Where these numbers come from

Figures are transcribed from manufacturer datasheets or primary retailer specification pages, recorded with a date and a confidence flag, and linked back to the source on each product page. Where a manufacturer publishes a figure without its test conditions, it is recorded as published and treated with the skepticism it deserves rather than quietly normalized.

Prices are list or observed retail at the date noted and move constantly, so they are here for the ratio rather than for the last dollar. The price index tracks market ranges over time, the open data page publishes these tables as CSV and JSON, and the methodology page sets out how the research is done. If a figure here no longer matches its source, the corrections page is how to say so; corrections are logged publicly rather than edited away.

Missing a product you are comparing? Tell us and it goes on the list. The tables grow from what readers are actually shopping for rather than from what is easiest to transcribe.

Common questions about lifepo4 batteries

How many batteries do I actually need?
Work from daily energy use and days of autonomy. Multiply your daily kilowatt hours by the days you want to run without meaningful sun, then divide by the depth of discharge you intend to use routinely to get nameplate capacity. Then check the resulting bank can supply your inverter's continuous current and accept enough charge current to recover in a winter day.

Is lithium worth the extra money over lead acid?
Compare cost per usable kilowatt-hour cycled rather than sticker price. Lithium iron phosphate delivers far more of its nameplate usefully, tolerates deeper cycling, needs no watering or equalization, and generally lasts more cycles. On that basis it is usually cheaper over the life of the bank, and the exception is a small, lightly used system in a cold place with no way to keep cells above freezing.

Can I put the bank in an unheated shed?
Only if it is heated or protected. Charging lithium below freezing causes permanent damage, so cells need conditioned space, an insulated enclosure with a heat source, integral heating, or a management system that refuses charge until they warm. Check the design low for your location before deciding, since a shed in a northern winter sits below freezing for months.

Can I add more batteries later?
Sometimes, and carefully. Mixing packs of different ages and states of health tends to drag the bank toward the weakest unit, which can spoil a new purchase. Some manufacturers support adding modules within stated limits on age and firmware. Plan capacity for where you expect to be in a few years, or plan to replace the bank as a set.

What actually kills a battery bank early?
Heat, cold charging, being left part-charged for long periods, and chronic under-recharging because the array cannot refill it in winter. Most of those are design and siting problems rather than product problems, which is why the same model gives one owner ten years and another four.

Listings, inspection, and insurance

Safety listings are easy to skip past on a spec sheet and hard to add afterwards. Where a jurisdiction inspects an off-grid installation, unlisted equipment can fail the inspection outright. Where nobody inspects, insurers may still ask, and an appliance or a system component without a recognized listing is a reason some carriers give for declining a rural policy or a claim.

That matters more off grid than on, because rural policies are already a narrower market. Insurers commonly ask what the structure is, how it is heated, how far it is from a responding fire station, and whether the installation was permitted and inspected. Deciding to buy listed equipment and to hold the installation to code standards, even where nobody will check, is the cheapest form of that conversation going well.

Keep the paperwork with the systems binder: model and serial numbers, the datasheet as it read on the day you bought, the installation photographs before anything was closed up, and the receipts. Proving what you had is your job in a claim, and it is also what makes a sale straightforward years later. Lesson eleven covers the insurance and financing side, and the printable binder has a place for all of it.

This category inside a whole system

No component in an off-grid power or water system is chosen alone. The battery constrains the inverter, the inverter constrains the cable and the fusing, the controller constrains the array, the array is constrained by the worst month at your location, and the whole thing is constrained by the load list you started with. Choosing any one part in isolation is how people end up buying twice.

The order that works is: honest load list, then location data, then system voltage, then the components against each other, then the wiring and protection that make it safe. Lesson four covers the load list, the site report gives the location numbers for any address, the planner sizes the components as a set, and lesson six covers the part where mistakes start fires rather than merely costing money.

The other tables are next door: batteries, panels, inverters, controllers, generators, and pumps. For prices rather than specifications, the price index; for what to keep on the shelf, the spares reference; for the terms used here, the glossary.