Hybrid Battery Bank Idea

[Dockhead]

This is really just a Gedankenexperiment,

But what if you supplemented a lead-acid battery bank with a LiFePo battery of 10% or 20% of the capacity of the lead-acid bank?

You would need some kind of controller which would start charging the LiFePo battery when the charge current to the lead-acid batteries tapers off or whenever there is excess charging capacity in the system.

THEN, when charging stops, the LiFePo battery can be used to finish charge the lead acid bank, taking it from 90% to 100%.

Would greatly increase the efficiency of charging the lead acid bank when off shore power. Would use the high acceptance rate of LiFePo to efficiently soak up available charging capacity when the lead acid bank is not accepting much power.

It's not for me, because I gave up my mooring with no shore power, so now I have shore power whenever I'm not out cruising, and when I am out cruising, I move often enough that I get a full charge often enough from motoring or being in a marina. So for me, it's just an idle thought, but for someone?

It would add enough complexity to question why you would not just go "the whole hog" and change over entirely to LiFePo. But maybe for someone, something like this could be worthwhile.