[RE-wrenches] Solark-Fortress Com? (was Fortress Battery Heater)

[Ray Walters]

Hi Chris;

That's not for the eVault.  Other Wrenches have mentioned using a pet 
heating pad with a 120 vac plug in thermostat.  I'm going to try that, 
I'll report back to the list what I find.

Secondly, I am having issues figuring out how to do the closed loop 
coms.  The Fortress instructions contradict themselves on how to even 
make up the proper CANbus cable, as apparently MODbus is not stable 
anymore, after the latest Solark firmware upgrades. I'm about to just 
apply the KISSbus,  which is to blow off the closed loop com all 
together, and /*K*eep *I*t *S*imple *S#@$%*/!, otherwise known as No 
Coms at all.

I've screwed with Com stuff since the 90s, but usually been 
disappointed, to downright horrified with the final results. Somebody 
explain to me like a 2 year old again, why closed loop is so much 
better?  Think off grid, where reliability is 10 times more important 
than squeezing an extra 5% capacity out of the battery.... Notes in the 
online instructions such as "/Failure to properly upgrade the firmware 
may cause the battery to stop working!", / are not making we want to 
push ahead with closed loop either.

Ray

On 2/9/2023 11:01 AM, Chris Schaefer via RE-wrenches wrote:
> Ray,
>
> I'd suggest reaching out to the Fortress techie's as they just 
> introduced a heater product for their enclosure products. While I 
> don't believe they have a unit specif to the eVault but you should be 
> able to make it work.
>
> Christopher
>
> On Wed, Feb 8, 2023 at 6:43 PM Jerry Shafer via RE-wrenches 
> <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>
>     Pet heater have worked for me, I air gap a sealed heater box under
>     the battery, thermostat inside the top of the battery.  It's slow
>     and low power but does the trick
>     Fun times
>
>     On Wed, Feb 8, 2023, 3:05 PM Ray Walters via RE-wrenches
>     <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>
>         Hi All;
>
>         I have a fresh Fortress Evault installation with a Solark
>         inverter.  The
>         batteries are indoors in the center of the house, but the
>         customer is
>         not there full time, so the battery is unfortunately going below
>         freezing.  What are the best options for setting up a heating
>         system for
>         the E Vault?
>
>         Here are ideas that I have not tried, but am considering:
>         1) add a 240 v, 1000 w baseboard heater in the room near the
>         battery
>         that is wired to only run off the generator.  Run the
>         generator until
>         the heat comes up, and then hopefully after 30 minutes, the
>         battery
>         would begin accepting a charge.
>
>         2) Add an 120 vac heating blanket under the evault that would
>         be wired
>         to a thermostat, but also have a relay control from the PV
>         system, so
>         that the heater would only operate when the sun was out, and
>         the battery
>         was below 50F.   I don't quite know how to set this up with
>         the Solark's
>         load controls.
>
>         I've considered some DC options, but they don't make much
>         sense, since
>         the inverter has to be on to charge from PV anyway.
>
>         The long term plan is for the client to finish the insulation,
>         and sheet
>         rock, and add a gas wall heater in there as needed.
>
>         Thanks,
>
>         Ray Walters
>         Remote Solar
>         in the Colorado mountain cold.....
>
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>
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> <http:www.solarandwindfx.com>
> /Tel/Fax 585-229-2083 or Cell 585-748-1870
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