Repair-It

Wow, it's about time we started seeing this kind of thing: http://batterytender.com/battery_info/

Lithium iron phosphate as starting batteries. I guess a bank of these inside my house would make me nervous (justified or not).

But don't they need special charging logic??

From the FAQ:

Q. Can I use a standard Lead Acid charger/maintainer for my Battery Tender® lithium battery?

A. As long as the battery charger does not have a desulfation mode and the peak voltage does not exceed 14.8V during the charge cycle it can be used to charge a Battery Tender® Lithium Battery. Of course the best way to charge and maintain a Battery Tender® Lithium Battery is to use a Battery Tender® Lithium Battery Charger.

Remember, there are different chemistries of Li-ion batteries. Lithium Iron is far less interesting, for example, than the Lithium Polymer cells of Youtube fame..

Which is a good thing, for a lot of purposes.

Li-Fe tends to be a bit heavier than Li-poly, and generally don't support the same ridiculous 14c dischargedischarge rates. Which is why your rc helicopter uses the latter, while electric commuter bicycles tend to use the former.

As i recall, Li-Fe still can cause fires though. Electric bicycle guys have a LOT of info on battery tech. These are a much cheaper way to experiment with EV's than converting a gas car, so there are extensive forums on them. Endless-sphere is an example.