How do you charge your LiFePo4 Batterybanks?

[andre26]

Hey Everyone, I was wondering if you have any advice for me.
I am looking for a charger to charge my future LFP batterybank, which will be 560 Ah at 24v for a whopping 13.440w, without waiting days for them to be charged.
I am going to equip my boat with a Northern Lights generator 7/9kw, the current one is 7kw, I am looking for something like 150Ah charge speed, so that in more or less 3.5h I can fully charge my battery bank (either from the generator or the shore power).
And the cheapest but reliable the better
Thanks in advance!

[hjohnson]

Originally Posted by andre26

Hey Everyone, I was wondering if you have any advice for me.
I am looking for a charger to charge my future LFP batterybank, which will be 560 Ah at 24v for a whopping 13.440w, without waiting days for them to be charged.
I am going to equip my boat with a Northern Lights generator 7/9kw, the current one is 7kw, I am looking for something like 150Ah charge speed, so that in more or less 3.5h I can fully charge my battery bank (either from the generator or the shore power).
And the cheapest but reliable the better
Thanks in advance!

Power electronics of that calibre and cheap are pretty much mutually exclusive. That kind of power presents a very real fire risk, and is not a place to go cheap.

I run a 460Ah 12v bank, and I charge it with my victron inverter/charger (about 70A at my dock) and will soon charge it with the 85A alternator on my engine (probably closer to 45A realistic output).

The 24V victron 3000A unit will also pump in about 70A, which is pretty decent. The quattros have dual inputs (I believe) to easily switch between generator and shore power.

Either way, this is not something to go cheap on if you value your boat and safety.

[Simi 60]

5000/120 multiplus
I reckon $3k for what they do is cheap

[ttex]

I wouldn't cheap out on the battery charger. I use the Mastervolt Combimaster. Mine is rated at 100 amps charge rate you can get bigger ones. It was about $1,200.

Battery charger cost about as much as my 300 ah lifepo4 battery from China. I feel like it's better to have a better battery charger and cheap out on the battery if anything. It's probably best not to cheap out on anything but until I win the lottery compromises must be made.

[jimp1234]

You might want to look at multiple Victron Skylla chargers. I have a 12V system, with 2 Skyllas which charge at 60a each for a total of 120a in parellel powered by an Onan genset. The other benefit is multiple charging sources should one charger fail. Could you add a 3rd for 180a charging, not sure. Not cheap of course. And I'll hope you're not thinking about getting the cheapest "drop-in" LFP batteries with an internal BMS which only support a single combined load/charge bus.

[andre26]

Thank you guys, for the quick replies and for your consideration.
I think that given how cheap the batteries are I can invest a bit more in the charger.
I will now have a look at the ones that you mentioned.
p.s. I don't know if it was relevant to mention that I'm in Europe so I run a 220v circuit shore/generator.

p.s.(2) any advice on an external alternator regulator? that I still don't know if my alternator will melt, so better to start already looking for something, I heard great things about the Balmars but they are expensive and hard to find in EU

@jimp1234 I plan on using the EVE 280 Ah, and as BMS a Daly 8s, I heard many different opinions on this BMS but seems to be reliable enough and at least not dangerous, I was initially planning to use the BMS from overkill but are sold out and difficult to get here in Europe sadly

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by andre26

, I was initially planning to use the BMS from overkill but are sold out and difficult to get here in Europe sadly

It's a JBD widely available on Alibaba
If you buy from one of the most reputable sellers, Amy Wan , she sells them as well as A grade matched and batched eve 280k
Details here.

https://diysolarforum.com/threads/ev...7/#post-216338

[andre26]

Originally Posted by Simi 60

It's a JBD widely available on Alibaba
If you buy from one of the most reputable sellers, Amy Wan , she sells them as well as A grade matched and batched eve 280k
Details here.

https://diysolarforum.com/threads/ev...7/#post-216338

I see, really thanks for the head up!
In your opinion are they better the JBDs (Overkill) or the Daly?

[coriobay]

We have 3 x 330w 40v open circuit solar panels in series running victron 150/70 mptt controller, when we are docked we use Victron 2000/80 amp inverter charger, should have got the 3000 w inverter.
600 amps of 12v lithium batteries that can charge and discharge at 200amp per battery.
We kept our original alternators and start batteries and use victron DC-DC 30 amp charger when traveling. Check your BMS and cells can handle the high amp chargers, most cheap lithium's can only handle low amp chargers to prevent overload the circuitry

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by andre26

I see, really thanks for the head up!
In your opinion are they better the JBDs (Overkill) or the Daly?

On that same forum JBD/overkill are one of the better and high up the list and Daly are down the list.
But, do your own research

[Delfin]

Originally Posted by andre26

Hey Everyone, I was wondering if you have any advice for me.
I am looking for a charger to charge my future LFP batterybank, which will be 560 Ah at 24v for a whopping 13.440w, without waiting days for them to be charged.
I am going to equip my boat with a Northern Lights generator 7/9kw, the current one is 7kw, I am looking for something like 150Ah charge speed, so that in more or less 3.5h I can fully charge my battery bank (either from the generator or the shore power).
And the cheapest but reliable the better
Thanks in advance!

Perhaps check out Sterling Power's chargers. I daisy chained 3 30 amp, 24vdc to supplement 100 amp output from the charger inverter for my 600 Ah LFP bank. We use around 300 Ah per day, and 90 minutes daily when at anchor does the job.


https://www.sterling-power-usa.com/

[hjohnson]

Originally Posted by andre26

Thank you guys, for the quick replies and for your consideration.
I think that given how cheap the batteries are I can invest a bit more in the charger.
I will now have a look at the ones that you mentioned.
p.s. I don't know if it was relevant to mention that I'm in Europe so I run a 220v circuit shore/generator.

p.s.(2) any advice on an external alternator regulator? that I still don't know if my alternator will melt, so better to start already looking for something, I heard great things about the Balmars but they are expensive and hard to find in EU

@jimp1234 I plan on using the EVE 280 Ah, and as BMS a Daly 8s, I heard many different opinions on this BMS but seems to be reliable enough and at least not dangerous, I was initially planning to use the BMS from overkill but are sold out and difficult to get here in Europe sadly

So I’ve gone for a full integrated system based on the Victron ecosystem and this far have been very happy with the results. They’re not the cheapest, but it works together beautifully. For a BMS, I would look at one that will talk to the victron setup. There are a number of them out there, I went with a REC ABMS, but there are other options out there. This allows your BMS to drive and manage the entire charging process (no matter the charging source).

For the alternator regulator, I went with the Wakespeed WS500. It communicates with the BMS (and son with Victron) to ensure proper charging, without burning out the alternator. Because it’s current aware (using either the data from your BMS or from its own shunt) it can also nicely ramp down to do zero amps into the battery and otherwise power your DC system. It also has a bunch of other nice little tricks that allow me to run a big alternator (80A in my case) on my little engine (Yanmar 1Gm10). I’ve got a geriatric squirrel under the hood, but the Wakespeed will let me make that work.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by hjohnson

So I’ve gone for a full integrated system based on the Victron ecosystem and this far have been very happy with the results. They’re not the cheapest, but it works together beautifully. For a BMS, I would look at one that will talk to the victron setup. There are a number of them out there, I went with a REC ABMS, but there are other options out there. This allows your BMS to drive and manage the entire charging process (no matter the charging source).
.

Why?

I simply had a couple of settings changed on the Victron multiplus and the midnite classic mppt so the charge stops at the required voltage.
Took minutes.
BMS doesn't even come into play unless the above fails.
Doesn't need to talk to anything.

[hjohnson]

Originally Posted by Simi 60

Why?

I simply had a couple of settings changed on the Victron multiplus and the midnite classic mppt so the charge stops at the required voltage.
Took minutes.
BMS doesn't even come into play unless the above fails.
Doesn't need to talk to anything.

Because Voltage is a lousy way to try and figure out what's going on with a battery, and if the multiplus is operating solo, that's all it has knowledge of. The BMS knows what the current is doing in and out of the battery, what the battery temperature is, has a decent idea of the State of Charge, etc...



I don't have to tweak anything with my system, the BMS drives everything, and does it perfectly. Doesn't matter if it's the Multiplus, my MPPTs, or my alternator.

[goboatingnow]

Yes in general it’s better to have the charging control centred in the bms rather then distributed and independent amongst all the charging sources.