Battery

[Jazlovesaproject]

Hiya, just set up my solar system, about to start boxing in and wondering what I should do thinking ahead to winter. Currently my battery (100AH lithium) is outside, in a insulated box, but it's only 25mm of celotex and some ply. I'm hoping to generate a bit during the winter and continue to use my new set up, I'm only running 12v lighting. But I've read online batteries shouldn't be charged below zero degrees. Presumably as my insulated box isn't heated and my battery won't produce any heat then this is a big no when the temp drops below zero. Is their a practical solution, like a very low wattage heat mat, or should I be trying to get my batteries inside the house?
Thanks guys

 

[Jazlovesaproject]

 

[kommando]

12V light bulb or reptile heating mat with a thermostat. It may get below zero in Devon but not long enough to need to over engineer it.

 

[mikefitz]

read online batteries shouldn't be charged below zero degrees

I believe you have the victron shunt with temperature sensor. Using the VE bus built into Victron products, you can set up low temperature limit in the MPPT controller. The battery temperature is measured by the smart shunt, is transfered over the VE Bluetooth to be used by the MPPT controller.
Heating is possible but you may use more energy than solar is able to produce.
Not the battery can still discharge safely to -20C.

 

[Jazlovesaproject]

12V light bulb or reptile heating mat with a thermostat. It may get below zero in Devon but not long enough to need to over engineer it.

That's the kind of answer one wants to hear thank you! Ok, I will look into heat mat but also I will limit the controller as per Mike's suggestion. Thanks for your response!

 

[Jazlovesaproject]

I believe you have the victron shunt with temperature sensor. Using the VE bus built into Victron products, you can set up low temperature limit in the MPPT controller. The battery temperature is measured by the smart shunt, is transfered over the VE Bluetooth to be used by the MPPT controller.
Heating is possible but you may use more energy than solar is able to produce.
Not the battery can still discharge safely to -20C.

Thanks Mike. Yes I was worried it would take more energy than I would produce. But that's great to know about the limit capability. I looked on shunt settings for that but I will look at controller settings instead. That's also great that I can discharge in the minus's, likely to only go below zero over night here so hopefully will be above zero for generating and recharging during the day. I plan to put the panels in parallel after your previous suggestion regarding VOC and I'm just waiting on delivery of the mrbf fuse. I have replaced all the CB's with link fuses too and upped my battery cable size.
Loving having the shunt. Only discharging battery 5% each 24 hours at the moment, and charging back up before I have any direct sun on panels, so I have no idea how much potential there is from the panels that I'm not using. Guess I just need to keep adding to my loads..
Thanks for your help