And yet affordable LiFePO4 power stations are everywhere. Am I missing something?
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Vertiv has multiple ranges of Lithium UPS products. They have a small 400VA unit that can be found for about $180.
https://www.vertiv.com/en-us/solutions/learn-about/vertiv-lithium-ion-ups/
I’m using a UPS that is plugged into a EcoFlow power station which uses LiFoPO4 battery
Lead acid is very cheap, electrically very easy to charge, safe and actually very recyclable.
That said, yes LiFePO4 is really coming down in price. In telecom DC power systems, I’ve been using 48V packs in some situations because the cost difference between lead acid and lithium is only about 20-30% more.
The big benefit of lithium is the weight and amount of cycles you can get out of them. The longer service life is also a factor, but they’re most useful in situations where you are cycling a lot (EVs, solar power systems) but UPSes aren’t really taking advantage of that unless you live in a particularly bad area for power, the UPS’s poor quality charging will likely damage the battery more than the cycling. It’s also nice that lead acid is so common that you can often just walk into most battery / auto parts stores with the cell and they’ll have something that will fit.
EDIT: I forgot to mention! There are some cheap 12V lithium UPSes out there for powering things like modems and WiFi routers. These are often a lot smaller than traditional UPSes, but since they’re keeping everything on DC power can mean you still have a decent amount of runtime.
I had one of these that was pretty nifty — you could pull the battery and take it with you as a power pack. Unfortunately like many cheap lithium implementations, running the battery all the way out came with a chance that it would refuse to charge again. Not ideal for a UPS…
Probably in a dumpster fire somewhere
There’s also the fact that Lead Acid don’t catch on fire when they go bad like the Lithium based cells do.
Cheap and lithium do not go together. Have you seen what happens when lithium batteries fail?
I have a regular UPS for my server+NAS, and a small lithium one (pocket sized) for my low voltage things (basically all my network gear, sans POE). It was inexpensive and works fantastically. The best part was erasing 4 power brick transformers from my network closet and replacing them with just a 5V barrel cable directly to the UPS. I think it’s highest output is 12V which runs my 24-port switch (I think, maybe my router).
The answer comes down to cost. LiFePO4 batteries have enough capacity that they can be held at 80% and still beat SLA on capacity. The problem is that LFP wins on gravimetric and volumetric energy density; two metrics that aren’t particularly important in the context of a UPS. It’s a large brick that sits on the floor.
There is an issue with using lithium battery in UPS. AFAIK all types of lithium batteries on the market now, They don’t like to be staying fully charged all the time. That’s why lead acid batteries and Ni-Cd batteries are still used for providing emergency power
Most lithium battery ate not full lith It lithium poly etc type. Most none car battery are lead calcium
Was asking myself the same question.
Another annoyance is that all products on the market are labelled in VA and not Wh, which makes it very difficult to compare and understand how long they’ll last at a 20W draw of the standard networking equipment.
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APC used to sell a consumer lithium UPS: here’s the price history. $270 for something about the capacity of the $50 lead acid equivalent. Looks discontinued now. They sell a lot of rackmounted options but they are all expensive.
I’m just re-using my APC Smart-UPS 750 and a pair of batteries like these. Allegedly the BMS / charging circuits in them are designed to work with charging systems that generally charge up 12v lead acid batteries. The pair of batteries I ordered have the exact same dimensions as the lead acid batteries they’re going to replace, and the same connectors in exactly the same location.
I’ve watched a number of videos on YouTube with folks that have done such conversions (using a wide array of UPS models). Even watched a video where a guy did a short circuit test (the battery he used failed miserably, but didn’t catch fire). The cable on my UPS has a built in (and replaceable) fuse, so I’m not worried about an issue with the UPS pulling far more amperage than it should be. Of course, that fuse won’t do much good if something inside the battery itself fails, but I suppose that’s what home owners insurance is for. :)
Simultaneous charge and supply circuits cost a fair bit to design and implement.
It’s a lot cheaper and profitable to build a basic ‘brick’ that can be sold to hundreds of thousands of 'phone users rather than a premium product for a few computer folk.