Well it snowing a bit and shoveling was done yesterday so I got to looking long range at new batterys - of course LiFePO4 I looked in the modification thread and search here, but not much popped up.
Now they come in all brands/sizes with Bluetooth and built in heaters. However the (Bluetooth and especially heaters) seem to be trouble spots, sometimes totally draining the batterys - even among the good brands. So I got thinking build my own that I can control. Am I nuts
During the winter my trailer sits in the cold and I know I cant charge LiFePo4 batterys below 32F .This got me to thinking I could build my own heaters that I could manually activate so I can charge while traveling. I can kill my solar and adjust the battery temp switch in the Multiplus to prevent accidental charging. I have it currently set to flooded - if I remember right, or maybe all it does is read the temp and not control the charge - need to read up on that.
For those batterys that have the built in heaters I don't see a way to manually de-activate that feature, but maybe I did not dig deep enough into the brand information. My plan is to pull the batterys during winter storage and put in the house, or garage (unheated), but I am wondering if the heater will auto come on even when the batterys are not hooked up?
So has anyone built thier own heaters and how did you wire them up and components used. I see battery dedicated heaters and some have used RV water tank heater that turn on at about 40 and off at about 60 which I think is too high, but what do I know. There are a few YouTube vids, but non really helpful so far.
Thanks for any thoughts
Keith
On edit I just ran across this https://dcguy.co.uk/diy-battery-heating
Now they come in all brands/sizes with Bluetooth and built in heaters. However the (Bluetooth and especially heaters) seem to be trouble spots, sometimes totally draining the batterys - even among the good brands. So I got thinking build my own that I can control. Am I nuts
During the winter my trailer sits in the cold and I know I cant charge LiFePo4 batterys below 32F .This got me to thinking I could build my own heaters that I could manually activate so I can charge while traveling. I can kill my solar and adjust the battery temp switch in the Multiplus to prevent accidental charging. I have it currently set to flooded - if I remember right, or maybe all it does is read the temp and not control the charge - need to read up on that.
For those batterys that have the built in heaters I don't see a way to manually de-activate that feature, but maybe I did not dig deep enough into the brand information. My plan is to pull the batterys during winter storage and put in the house, or garage (unheated), but I am wondering if the heater will auto come on even when the batterys are not hooked up?
So has anyone built thier own heaters and how did you wire them up and components used. I see battery dedicated heaters and some have used RV water tank heater that turn on at about 40 and off at about 60 which I think is too high, but what do I know. There are a few YouTube vids, but non really helpful so far.
Thanks for any thoughts
Keith
On edit I just ran across this https://dcguy.co.uk/diy-battery-heating
Comment