Monitoring LiFePO4 Lithium Batteries

[SnowT]

Hi Sparrow..

Everything that you need to know about Monitoring the Lithiums has been talked about in nearly every Lithium topic..

It just a matter of reading them all..

So the information is there..


Juergen

[sparrowhawk1]

You're a real winner. 3000 on one thread or is it up to 4000. And about 5 other threads on the same subject. Read the original post. And please stop adding to my thread if you can't give any helpful information

[SnowT]

Originally Posted by sparrowhawk1

Thanks GordMay for the quick response. It seems to be the consensus that an automatic battery balancer is not required and maybe an extra unnecessary expense[Correct]. I'm basically looking for monitoring my amp hours and protecting my batteries. But I bookmarked the site.

The Way that your going is all Wrong... Forget about anything Associated with Old School Batteries[LA's, Gel etc].. Lithium's Don't work like that...

Forget about monitoring AH's that is not important..
-- Voltage


Also I'm not sure if you looked thru that 3600+ long Post but I had a Look at the first few page's to refresh my mind on the topic.. and Damn if I did not see the Zinger's.....
- I personally spent over a month reading everything Lithium.. and the information is out there to get you going.... yes it's like hitting your head on the wall.. but its all out there..

I hate People that are not will to do the reading and Want everything handed to them on a Platter..

The fine tuning I doubt that will be handed out as there are Multinational's Waiting for the information that they are TO LAZY to workout themselves...

[sparrowhawk1]

Troll filter ENGAGE

[Highland Fling]

Well I have been looking at this for three years now.

I have recently installed three (with one to go) WTS 200AH LIFEPO4 batteries with the EV BMS and EV cell modules and with a 200A breaker on the positive line between battery and the input side of the EV BMS HVC/LVC relay.

I have only one buss bar no separate charge and load buss bar.

I am using the EV BMS triple breaker (three times 80 A) with twin buss bars one on each side of the three relays to give me a 240 A cut off relay.

I am ONLY worrying about a LVC and I think that is highly unlikely and cant see that happening at all really. I have RC cell monitoring a bit like the Cell8 product but with a much bigger display.

I am NOT worried about an HVC in any way shape or form as I cant see how that can happen....

I have tweaked my Blue Sky 2000 solar boost controller to cut off at 14.7 volts.

We have a TSW Xantrex 2000W inverter

WE ARE cooking with these cells / batteries and are drawing up to 170A at times when cooking and we hit 100A for 3 mins to boil the kettle on an induction hob.

Battery one and two (both installed together) are a bit of a mess with sense wires all over the place and I have not as yet found a good location for my cell/battery monitoring display modules.

But by battery three we have a nice professional looking installation battery four will be another good install and then we can tidy up battery one and two's sense wiring.

So far I am over the moon and very very pleased - they are performing like advertised. They are amazing LEAD IS DEAD

I need MORE solar and another BS 2000 SB controller.

My Delco Remy internally regulated alternator is happy, it was putting out many more amps than it is listed for AND after 45 minutes it was the same temperature as the engine (I have a laser thermometer).

I have reprogrammed the Victron energy BMV 602 monitor, Pukert and all other changes and it is working fine.

I set up a HV and LV audio alarms but had to lift the HV one when we had a very sunny day and the BS 2000 SB was tripping out at 14.7 and I had set the BMV to alarm at 14.5. The admiral was a bit upset at the noise.

Typically in the morning we are 100/150AH down I need a WG to charge the batteries at night BUT today there is little wind, sods law suggests as soon as I put on a WG the Christmas winds will vanish (it has been blowing 20+ knots since November here in St Martin).

Pictures soon maybe :-)

[Highland Fling]

OOOPS for Cell8 read CellLog8

soon with pictures in my album

[Maine Sail]

14.7V....?

[CarstenWL]

I have RC cell monitoring a bit like the Cell8 product but with a much bigger display

@Highland Fling: What monitoring device do you use. I also want one with a bigger display (or get new glasses for the CellLog8 ;-))

Thanks,

Carsten

[Highland Fling]

Originally Posted by Maine Sail

14.7V....?

YES that equates to a MAXMUM cell voltage of 3.675 I am happy with that and the cells should be too.

Why do you see that as a problem and an issue.......

BUT please understand one thing I am not seeking is a YOU ARE DOING THIS ALL WRONG thread highjack.

LIFEPO4 seems to be an easy route to real battery performance if you are in any way technical with some intelligence and thought and can understand the issues AND the Risks both real and imagined.

IT really is quite simple. So many people seem to want to complicate what really is just ANOTHER Battery BUT one where you can actually do some serious cell monitoring and avoid all the problems that LA have.

I have a simple set up and after three years of pondering this I don't see the need for any further complication. YMMV but you are promoting yourself as a marine professional so you have different rules and constraints to follow. We have been living on LIFEPO4 for a month now with 400Ah installed now we have 600Ah and soon another 200Ah to bring us up to 800Ah installed. With say a 60% DoD we have almost 500Ah usable that is awesome and for the price we paid for the cells (bought off a liquidator) AMAZING. A VERY VERY HAPPY BUNNY is me.

Also it is only on the very sunniest of days that the SB 2000E will trip out at 14.7V but Yes when we get more solar another 420W and another SB 2000E I expect that trip out with the batteries fully charged to be around 13.00 or earlier.

[Highland Fling]

Originally Posted by CarstenWL

@Highland Fling: What monitoring device do you use. I also want one with a bigger display (or get new glasses for the CellLog8 ;-))

Thanks,

Carsten

look at my album :-)

[gael]

Originally Posted by Highland Fling

Well I have been looking at this for three years now.

I have recently installed three (with one to go) WTS 200AH LIFEPO4 batteries with the EV BMS and EV cell modules and with a 200A breaker on the positive line between battery and the input side of the EV BMS HVC/LVC relay.

I have only one buss bar no separate charge and load buss bar.

I am using the EV BMS triple breaker (three times 80 A) with twin buss bars one on each side of the three relays to give me a 240 A cut off relay.

I am ONLY worrying about a LVC and I think that is highly unlikely and cant see that happening at all really. I have RC cell monitoring a bit like the Cell8 product but with a much bigger display.

I am NOT worried about an HVC in any way shape or form as I cant see how that can happen....

I have tweaked my Blue Sky 2000 solar boost controller to cut off at 14.7 volts.

We have a TSW Xantrex 2000W inverter

WE ARE cooking with these cells / batteries and are drawing up to 170A at times when cooking and we hit 100A for 3 mins to boil the kettle on an induction hob.

Battery one and two (both installed together) are a bit of a mess with sense wires all over the place and I have not as yet found a good location for my cell/battery monitoring display modules.

But by battery three we have a nice professional looking installation battery four will be another good install and then we can tidy up battery one and two's sense wiring.

So far I am over the moon and very very pleased - they are performing like advertised. They are amazing LEAD IS DEAD

I need MORE solar and another BS 2000 SB controller.

My Delco Remy internally regulated alternator is happy, it was putting out many more amps than it is listed for AND after 45 minutes it was the same temperature as the engine (I have a laser thermometer).

I have reprogrammed the Victron energy BMV 602 monitor, Pukert and all other changes and it is working fine.

I set up a HV and LV audio alarms but had to lift the HV one when we had a very sunny day and the BS 2000 SB was tripping out at 14.7 and I had set the BMV to alarm at 14.5. The admiral was a bit upset at the noise.

Typically in the morning we are 100/150AH down I need a WG to charge the batteries at night BUT today there is little wind, sods law suggests as soon as I put on a WG the Christmas winds will vanish (it has been blowing 20+ knots since November here in St Martin).

Pictures soon maybe :-)

Hi David
Couldnt be the rigth thread but...
I'm leaving on board with 2 * 24V /130Ah CALB based cell batteries since 2010. So far so good.
I understand you are also cooking using your LiPoFe bat'. I'm also considering to move away from my propane setup and move to full electric galley. (50kg of propane stuff, plus the gaz transfer gears bla bla bla...)
Could you elaboarate a bit on your galley setup and inverter? here or on a separated thread.
Thanks for this real live report.
regards

Gael s/v Camao

[Highland Fling]

no problems

Xantrex 2000W True Sine Wave Inverter

TWO induction hobs Mr Induction brand 1300W variable 100/1300W induction cook top (around $50 on EBAY)

ONE rice cooker for rice and pasta was a freebee from a friend

ONE BIG Microwave too big for the galley a TFU I measured the space wrongly Stainless Steel Cuisinart 1000W

ONE Instant Pot IP-DUO60 7-in-1 Programmable Pressure Cooker, 6Qt/1000W, Stainless Steel Cooking Pot (EBAY Amazon around $150)

With the LIFEPO4 batteries we are cooking NOT with Gas

[gael]

Originally Posted by Highland Fling

no problems

Xantrex 2000W True Sine Wave Inverter

TWO induction hobs Mr Induction brand 1300W variable 100/1300W induction cook top (around $50 on EBAY)

ONE rice cooker for rice and pasta was a freebee from a friend

ONE BIG Microwave too big for the galley a TFU I measured the space wrongly Stainless Steel Cuisinart 1000W

ONE Instant Pot IP-DUO60 7-in-1 Programmable Pressure Cooker, 6Qt/1000W, Stainless Steel Cooking Pot (EBAY Amazon around $150)

With the LIFEPO4 batteries we are cooking NOT with Gas


We have a TSW Xantrex 2000W inverter

WE ARE cooking with these cells / batteries and are drawing up to 170A at times when cooking and we hit 100A for 3 mins to boil the kettle on an induction hob.

Battery one and two (both installed together) are a bit of a mess with sense wires all over the place and I have not as yet found a good location for my cell/battery monitoring display modules.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks David,
Ok for the 2KW Xantrex.
I understand you had you have 2 separated banks. Are you coupling two bat's for cooking; so 400Ah @12V. I'm a bit far with 130Ah@24V and I dnt want to couple two banks in parallel.
You dnt have any oven, right?
Any corrosion issue with the galley gears you have?

From my side, I'm looking to 2 other topics:
-Hot water generation, to get rid of the studip 50kg hot water tanks
-Cranking the diesel from the Lithium house bank and remove the existing 12V LA battery ( an other 25kg)
Anyone with idea / suggestion/ experience welcome!

regards
gael

[Highland Fling]

THREE separate batteries permanently connected giving me a 600Ah bank


I saw three or four 200Ah Batteries as a much better solution that ONE 600Ah or 800Ah battery and even two 400Ah batteries as the BMS I chose comes with a cut off relay capable of handling 240A plus IF I did ever get a HVC or LVC (something I cant ever see happening) and lost one battery I have two or three others in circuit so nothing to panic about.


I am soon adding a fourth 200Ah Battery so we will have 800Ah nominal with around 600Ah available with a 75% DoD should we ever need that. I recon we could sit at anchor for the whole of our six month visit to Highland Fling with our present set up and never need to start the engine or the generator to bring the batteries back up to a full charge nor worry about hitting a greater than 50% DoD level for a day or two if it was very cloudy. We are now power rich and it feels very good. We had two extra cells and found another two from a.n.other from the same batch who had also two extra, they will be with me in a week.

NO problems with any corrosion on our hob or microwave but we will replace the MW with a physically smaller one probably next time we come to HF

We have a Force 10 propane stove and use the broiler for toasted cheese but the oven almost never.

The BMS will take a bit longer to arrive coming from ausieland and we are off back home in a four weeks and leave HF on the hard in St Martin

I have a 4D AGM for engine start that will be most likely be dumped and we will have only the LIFEPO4 House bank. I already have a switch to connect house to engine start.

We had a wee issue the other day trying to lift the anchor, the windless would not work....it needs the engine running - and the way it knows that is, it sees or saw the alternator charging. The LFP Bats were sitting with a full charge so the alternator was not outputting any V/A. That relay is now not in circuit and I 'might' add another 200Ah LFP battery located in the fore cabin yet still on the house bank to drive the windless. But with 13+V/14V available at the batteries the windlass has a bit more grunt even with what must be a serious voltage drop.. I must go measure that sometime when I have absolutely nothing else to do...........code for never, as this is a boat out cruising.

[Highland Fling]

MORE Tinkering.

Today I reprogrammed my Heart Interface Freedom 25 Inverter/Battery charger.

I set it to cool gel cell which sets the Bulk /Acceptance charge voltage to 14.4V.

Sadly I cant reset the float charge voltage of 13.8V but I have also got the equalizing charge voltage at 14.4V.

I also set the remote to be the controlling device so by switching off the inverter/charger at the remote that resets the timer clocks for the three stages...three hours for B/A stage, Float is indefinite and Equalising is manually switched and lasts for eight hours.

So that is mostly all good, shame I cant just have single stage 14.4V or more charger.

I cant see me getting a single stage voltage adjustable charger with a 130A charge capability at sensible prices.

IF you know of one please advise me.

thanks