ericfx1984
Solar Enthusiast
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2021
- Messages
- 1,015
I'm looking for a quick and easy way to add heating pads to my DIY 48 volt, 16S, lithium iron phosphate batteries
Currently I'm heating the 5x8 solar shed, which is well insulated with an oil filled space heater turned on the lowest setting... It's 17° outside this morning and 44° in the solar shed
So it's definitely doing the trick... But it's been about 2 weeks and I've used 25 kilowatt hours of AC power which probably translates into closer to 30 kilowatt hours of battery (that's nearly 2kwh per day)
The heater draws about 750 watts on its lowest setting... Of course that's after the thermostat turns it on... But I imagine as it starts to get colder I'm going to need to turn it from one heating element to two heating elements to keep up... This is going to mean more power consumption...
I can't imagine that the inverters really care how cold it is... I mean they might have problems if the shed were to drop to negative temperatures... But it shouldn't be an issue since they will always be at or above the ambient temperature in the room
The shed has r13 in the walls and two of the four walls are completely covered with concrete board... I imagine that adding concrete board or sheetrock to the other two walls will cut down on heat loss as well. I have also closed up any cracks that I have found with spray foam
The ceiling has Three layers of pink foam insulation on the sides and the top I was only able to do two layers... So it is R15 and r10 respectively... I know there is room for improvement there... But I just don't have the time to correct that
Additionally the sides of the shed ceiling slope down to about four and a half feet whereas it is 6 ft in the center, just enough room to walk... I know that this cuts down on the required energy as well
I definitely have some air leakage through the door... The door is just closed with a padlock... I'm planning to add a T handle and a seal around the door to cut down on air leakage, which I imagine will significantly lower the
I imagine that heating the batteries directly will be a significantly better option... At least when it comes to overall energy consumption
Currently I'm heating the 5x8 solar shed, which is well insulated with an oil filled space heater turned on the lowest setting... It's 17° outside this morning and 44° in the solar shed
So it's definitely doing the trick... But it's been about 2 weeks and I've used 25 kilowatt hours of AC power which probably translates into closer to 30 kilowatt hours of battery (that's nearly 2kwh per day)
The heater draws about 750 watts on its lowest setting... Of course that's after the thermostat turns it on... But I imagine as it starts to get colder I'm going to need to turn it from one heating element to two heating elements to keep up... This is going to mean more power consumption...
I can't imagine that the inverters really care how cold it is... I mean they might have problems if the shed were to drop to negative temperatures... But it shouldn't be an issue since they will always be at or above the ambient temperature in the room
The shed has r13 in the walls and two of the four walls are completely covered with concrete board... I imagine that adding concrete board or sheetrock to the other two walls will cut down on heat loss as well. I have also closed up any cracks that I have found with spray foam
The ceiling has Three layers of pink foam insulation on the sides and the top I was only able to do two layers... So it is R15 and r10 respectively... I know there is room for improvement there... But I just don't have the time to correct that
Additionally the sides of the shed ceiling slope down to about four and a half feet whereas it is 6 ft in the center, just enough room to walk... I know that this cuts down on the required energy as well
I definitely have some air leakage through the door... The door is just closed with a padlock... I'm planning to add a T handle and a seal around the door to cut down on air leakage, which I imagine will significantly lower the
I imagine that heating the batteries directly will be a significantly better option... At least when it comes to overall energy consumption
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