Merged LiFeYPO4 1000Ah Winston prismatic cells and all electric galley...

[Catapault]

Originally Posted by CatNewBee

Just use the Victron gear to initial charge to a safe voltage starting low, like 13.6V, 13.8V, 14.0V, 14.4V, 14.6V and then balance a little over it.. It can be done in 4-6 hours.

Probably will. One MPPT easy to patch over and will do 80-100A with easy config to act as a configurable charger.

Still need a PSU tho for final balance, and need one for other things anyway.

All on hold till back on the boat next week. She's on land this week getting a pedicure... :P

[hjohnson]

Originally Posted by Catapault

Probably will. One MPPT easy to patch over and will do 80-100A with easy config to act as a configurable charger.

Still need a PSU tho for final balance, and need one for other things anyway.

All on hold till back on the boat next week. She's on land this week getting a pedicure... :P

On my case, my BMS has roughly 2A active balancing capability. So I never bothered top balancing and just let the BMS do its thing. No matter the SoC, the biggest voltage difference I’ve seen is about 0.007v. Which OSS pretty good.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by hjohnson

On my case, my BMS has roughly 2A active balancing capability. So I never bothered top balancing and just let the BMS do its thing. No matter the SoC, the biggest voltage difference I’ve seen is about 0.007v. Which OSS pretty good.

Just curious what size is your bank ?

[hjohnson]

Originally Posted by newhaul

Just curious what size is your bank ?

460Ah total. (230Ah cells in a 2p4s configuration) managed by a REC ABMS, which has full control of my charging sources. I had to leave the boat for a week after I finished the assembly, so let the equalization happen over that period. It’s been solid since then.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by hjohnson

460Ah total. (230Ah cells in a 2p4s configuration) managed by a REC ABMS, which has full control of my charging sources. I had to leave the boat for a week after I finished the assembly, so let the equalization happen over that period. It’s been solid since then.

Cool sounds like everything is coming together nicely
Was just wondering and kind of keeping a mental note of where homeported size of boat and size of bank .

I'm 250ah on a 29 columbia defender.

[hjohnson]

Originally Posted by newhaul

Cool sounds like everything is coming together nicely
Was just wondering and kind of keeping a mental note of where homeported size of boat and size of bank .

I'm 250ah on a 29 columbia defender.

This is all on a 1973 Ericson 27. Massive overkill, but it’s also really really nice to be able to spend 3 or 4 days at the dock in Princess Louisa Inlet, using power like we’re at home (including refrigeration) and not have to worry about running the engine to recharge.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by hjohnson

This is all on a 1973 Ericson 27. Massive overkill, but it’s also really really nice to be able to spend 3 or 4 days at the dock in Princess Louisa Inlet, using power like we’re at home (including refrigeration) and not have to worry about running the engine to recharge.

Not really overkill if you have space for it without giving up storage space
Yes it is nice to not run iron wind just to charge . On mine there's 200 watts solar and mppt controller . Haven't needed engine or shore power since capacity test in April. The cold spring did tax me a bit with my furnace needing to run about 4 hours a day .
Switching to lfp was the best decision I made

[miyagimoon]

Slight change of tack. I'm in the process of buying and building my LifePo system.
I've got the MPPT's for some 1000w of solar, a 5kva Quattro, Cerbo GX, 5KW Genny etc. But in a dilemma about battery capacity. Will definitely be using Winston. But do I go for 8 x 400 to give 800AH or 4 x 1000 to give 1000AH. From what I read Winston's seem to be of higher capacity than specified. CatNewBee has stated that his 1000AHA have an actual capacity of 1300AHA. That's some 30% greater than specified by Winston. If the 400 AH batteries have about the same uplift in reality then they will produce some 1100AH and some $700 cheaper than the 1000AH batteries. Oh which way to go. Also found out from Sky Power that the battery terminals are rated at max of 333A. Only one terminal on 400A but 3 terminals on 1000AH. So 400AH limited to max draw of 333A whereas 1000AH can draw 333A, 666A or 999A assuming you link between terminals. At full load the Quattro can draw at 12.8v well over 333A.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by miyagimoon

Slight change of tack. I'm in the process of buying and building my LifePo system.
I've got the MPPT's for some 1000w of solar, a 5kva Quattro, Cerbo GX, 5KW Genny etc. But in a dilemma about battery capacity. Will definitely be using Winston. But do I go for 8 x 400 to give 800AH or 4 x 1000 to give 1000AH. From what I read Winston's seem to be of higher capacity than specified. CatNewBee has stated that his 1000AHA have an actual capacity of 1300AHA. That's some 30% greater than specified by Winston. If the 400 AH batteries have about the same uplift in reality then they will produce some 1100AH and some $700 cheaper than the 1000AH batteries. Oh which way to go. Also found out from Sky Power that the battery terminals are rated at max of 333A. Only one terminal on 400A but 3 terminals on 1000AH. So 400AH limited to max draw of 333A whereas 1000AH can draw 333A, 666A or 999A assuming you link between terminals. At full load the Quattro can draw at 12.8v well over 333A.

So are you looking at a 12V or a 24V battery? The choice is simple: go for 4s when 12V or 8s for 24V. For 12V you should decide between the 700Ah or 1,000Ah cells, for 24V the 400Ah cells are well over 10kWh so okay.

If you can get away with 4x 700Ah cells then you get 9kWh which is the minimum I recommend. I also recommend you build another one just like it a couple years later. See my reference diagram for 12V attached.

[hzcruiser]

Very nice diagram! I wonder what software you used for it?

[miyagimoon]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

So are you looking at a 12V or a 24V battery? The choice is simple: go for 4s when 12V or 8s for 24V. For 12V you should decide between the 700Ah or 1,000Ah cells, for 24V the 400Ah cells are well over 10kWh so okay.

If you can get away with 4x 700Ah cells then you get 9kWh which is the minimum I recommend. I also recommend you build another one just like it a couple years later. See my reference diagram for 12V attached.

The system is 12v. Unfortunately, the space available precludes the use of 700AH. Why do you recommend another one in a couple of years?

[HankOnthewater]

OK, now over a 1000 posts in this thread, I read the lot over the last few months, and slowly coming to the decision to replicate a system as catnewbee has. I better start saving some dough.
I am just installing such (smaller) system in a campervan, just to practice
Thank you to all contributors, and specially Catnewbee.

[goboatingnow]

No doubt the REC new 12v Active BMS , ( active balancing ) with Victron CAN compatibility ( which is effectively NMEA2000) and integration with the wakespeed alternator controller is a standard bearer for mobile LFP systems. And good value to boot.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by hzcruiser

Very nice diagram! I wonder what software you used for it?

I use LucidChart

Originally Posted by miyagimoon

The system is 12v. Unfortunately, the space available precludes the use of 700AH. Why do you recommend another one in a couple of years?

The space you have precludes the use of 700Ah cells but do allow 1,000Ah cells? Then go for 1,000Ah!

I recommend a second battery for:

- extra capacity, you double it during normal operation
- redundancy, you can still work with just one battery
- redundancy, you also double up on the BMS, fuse, switch and battery monitor, all of which can fail
- ease of replacement; when the oldest battery is nearing it’s end of life, you are not forced to replace it early to prevent a power outage because you have a newer battery as well. You can continue using the old battery to get every last bit of life out of it, optimizing return on investment

Hope this helps

[CaptainRivet]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

I use LucidChart



The space you have precludes the use of 700Ah cells but do allow 1,000Ah cells? Then go for 1,000Ah!

I recommend a second battery for:

- extra capacity, you double it during normal operation
- redundancy, you can still work with just one battery
- redundancy, you also double up on the BMS, fuse, switch and battery monitor, all of which can fail
- ease of replacement; when the oldest battery is nearing it’s end of life, you are not forced to replace it early to prevent a power outage because you have a newer battery as well. You can continue using the old battery to get every last bit of life out of it, optimizing return on investment

Hope this helps

or go right away to 8x400AH, gives you the possibility to go 24V and till then in 13V you can have backup as Jedi suggests