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

[Jerry Shafer]

William, Wrenches
Letting the sensor read whatever it is in will potentually under-charge the
batteries due to temps above 75, Yes it can work but the BMS will do what
it needs to do for temp and dropping the volts down can hinder the BMS from
fully charging the batteries. Now you also don't want to compensate by
bumping up the volts as this is hard on the BMS and I would guess that a
BMS failure due to over volts would not be warranted as the BMS saves Peak
volts.
Fun Times

On Tue, Nov 25, 2025 at 7:05 PM William Miller <william at millersolar.com>
wrote:

> 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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