[RE-wrenches] lithium in cold weather/heating

Jay jay.peltz at gmail.com
Fri Jul 22 05:39:28 PDT 2022


Hi Michael 

Do you know if Discover is coming out with larger Helios batteries?  30 amp hrs is pretty small. 

And thanks everyone for the answers. 


As to the blue planet, I don’t think they need heaters. I was working on a system with one and the battery housing was darn warm, much warmer than anything else in the inverter room. Surprising actually. 

Jay



> On Jul 21, 2022, at 10:18 PM, Michael Morningstar via RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> 1st line of defense: Agricultural seed tray heat mats w/ integral T-stat
> 2nd  LOD: Empire wall heater (no electronics) w/ industrial temperature controlled relay (TCR) (similar to a thermostat) set to 38 degrees
> 3rd LOD: Battery side of charge controller circuits have TCR controlled contactors to break circuit if 1 and 2 fail
> 
> Redundancy is key here. We learned the hard way when a system we designed relied on a common battery powered T-stat that controlled a propane wall heater. Brand new Energizer Lithium AA didn't last a winter. Ouch
> 
> All of this will be moot soon. We are about to build a half dozen systems with Discover's Helios in the next few months. Internal heaters like Battleborns but with Discover's superior architecture and components. This is the future.
> 
> This is for NorCal >6K elevation installations. In colder climates I'd insist on conditioned and supervised spaces
> 
> 
> 
> 
>> On Thu, Jul 21, 2022 at 8:56 PM frenergy via RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>> Jay,
>> 
>>              With the SimpliPhi's we've been installing we require a 
>> shed on slab, walls R-21, roof, R-38 and then the smallest propane wall 
>> heater (they use zero power to operate) we can find and set it at 55
>> degrees.  No need for the insulated box or fretting about toasting $20K+ 
>> in batteries.  It would be nice to find one with a thermostat that goes 
>> down to 45 degrees.
>> 
>> Bill
>> 
>> Feather River Solar Electric
>> Bill Battagin, Owner
>> 4291 Nelson St.
>> Taylorsville, CA 95983
>> 530.284.7849
>> CA Lic 874049
>> 
>> On 7/21/2022 2:30 PM, jay via RE-wrenches wrote:
>> > HI All,
>> >
>> > As I get more calls for offgrid designs with lithium batteries I”m wondering what you all are doing to keep the batteries warm when it gets cold.  For some of you 0 F will seem mild, others super cold.
>> >
>> > Doing a battery box and heating that or heating the whole inverter/battery shed?
>> >
>> > I’m definitely not looking at batteries like battle born with the built in heaters.
>> >
>> > Simpliphi, Discover, some of the newer server rack ones ( UL listed), etc.
>> >
>> >
>> > Thanks in advance
>> >
>> > Jay
>> >
>> >
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> -- 
> Michael Morningstar
> 
> Morningstar Electric
> PO Box 1494
> Mount Shasta, CA 96067
> 530-921-0560
> mjmorningstar at gmail.com
> 
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