[RE-wrenches] New Lithium Batteries on Sunny Island System

[William Miller]

I just left the temp sensor dangling in mid air. This way the Sunny Island
at least could react to ambient temperature.


William Miller
Miller Solar.com
805-438-5600
www.millersolar.com


On Tue, Nov 25, 2025 at 6:10 PM Jerry Shafer <jerrysgarage01 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> William, Wrenches,
> I have done several over the past couple years, the only issue I had, I
> needed to build a resister that mimiced the BTSas 75 degrees, because the
> SI.s will brop and raise max voltage according to the temp, this must be
> changed to prevent this as the battery BMS will or at least should do that
> anyway. Now I dont know about your batteries and I would suggest that you
> look at the battery cables sizes, I looked at a system that had these so
> called hight output batteries with # 8 plug in cables, worked very poorly
> just a FYI
> Fun times
>
> On Tue, Nov 25, 2025 at 9:42 AM William Miller via RE-wrenches <
> re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>
>> Jim:
>>
>> I haven’t tried lithium batteries with a traditional charge controller
>> yet.  All of the equipment you list was designed for lead acid.  The
>> narrower voltage range of the lithium may confuse the charge controller.
>> Same with the AGS triggering.
>>
>> I know if you call SMA for tech support they may hang up on you when you
>> tell them there are lithium batteries.
>>
>> It may work right away or you may spend a lot of time making it kind of
>> work. I hope you can make the client understand this is an experiment. Tech
>> support from the battery manufacturer may not be great being a Chinese
>> company.
>>
>> These days I pair lithium only with inverters designed for them.
>>
>> Good luck.
>>
>> William Miller
>> Miller Solar.com
>> 805-438-5600
>> www.millersolar.com
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Nov 25, 2025 at 7:33 AM Jim Gowdy via RE-wrenches <
>> re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>>
>>> Hello All,
>>>      I have a client that just got some lithium batteries and they have
>>> a sunny island inverter with a Midnight Charge controller.  I've heard and
>>> experienced integrating Lithium batteries into a Sunny Island inverter is
>>> challenging and could create problems.  Has anyone had experience with
>>> these batteries or installing lithium batteries with these components?
>>> Below are some details about the system so far.....
>>>
>>> System:
>>> 48v
>>>
>>> NEW BATTERY:
>>> China Aviation Lithium Battery CO.
>>> model: CA180F
>>> nominal voltage: 3.2v
>>> rated capacity: 180Ah
>>> rated energy: 576Wh
>>>
>>> Inverter:
>>> Sunny Island
>>> model: SI 4548-US-10
>>>
>>> CHARGE CONTROLLER:
>>> Midnight Solar Classic 150
>>>
>>> SOLAR ARRAY:
>>> N/A....it was dark when I was at the site so I couldn't take any notes
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Jim with Gowdy Electric
>>> Cambria, Ca 93428
>>> business  805 927 2630
>>> cell  805 975 5279
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