Rednecktek
Solar Wizard
So as a complete newbie to building batteries, as in I haven't even tried building a set yet, I keep seeing all these complications and "Gotcha's" when building a battery bank. I usually use FLA's and AGM's because my primary usage case is a camp that is A)unattended for 6-8 months at a time and B) gets well below freezing for weeks on end and C) I work for a living and don't have a lot of money to spend at once.
So I've read about things that can screw up your bank like:
Compression, what's that about?
Flakey or temperamental BMS's?
Getting the RIGHT BMS and how to spec for that?
Having to reset a battery if it gets below freezing?**
Thermal runaway?
Charge profiles (lots of good guides for that one at least)?
Cells going in and out of balance? Balancers in general?
Specialized battery chargers?
Top and bottom balancing?
If a battery does a low temp cutoff, doesn't that hurt the MPPT controller feeding it?
**The cold one is of particular concern as I worry that WHEN my bank gets below freezing, are the batteries just going to sit there being drained until I can get back and do a reset? Will I have to worry about resetting them every night and just not having power when it gets cold out in the evening because they shut themselves off? It seems like there's a lot of opportunity to kill a very expensive battery there.
So, what are the other "Gotcha's" that come with building LFP packs and outside of quitting my job to become a permanent resident at my camp can they be avoided?
My first project will most likely be a 24v pack for my garden shed as I'm USUALLY home for the few days it gets super cold at the main house, but it still gets below freezing for a week or so even there.
Thanks gang!
Oh, long text answers preferred. I'm out on the ocean and I only get dial-up or slower except for the 1 day every 2 weeks I can get 5Mb internet for a little while. I'd have done more YouTube scrubbing but even the forums take a few tries to load, and video is pretty much a 2x-a-month-thing.
So I've read about things that can screw up your bank like:
Compression, what's that about?
Flakey or temperamental BMS's?
Getting the RIGHT BMS and how to spec for that?
Having to reset a battery if it gets below freezing?**
Thermal runaway?
Charge profiles (lots of good guides for that one at least)?
Cells going in and out of balance? Balancers in general?
Specialized battery chargers?
Top and bottom balancing?
If a battery does a low temp cutoff, doesn't that hurt the MPPT controller feeding it?
**The cold one is of particular concern as I worry that WHEN my bank gets below freezing, are the batteries just going to sit there being drained until I can get back and do a reset? Will I have to worry about resetting them every night and just not having power when it gets cold out in the evening because they shut themselves off? It seems like there's a lot of opportunity to kill a very expensive battery there.
So, what are the other "Gotcha's" that come with building LFP packs and outside of quitting my job to become a permanent resident at my camp can they be avoided?
My first project will most likely be a 24v pack for my garden shed as I'm USUALLY home for the few days it gets super cold at the main house, but it still gets below freezing for a week or so even there.
Thanks gang!
Oh, long text answers preferred. I'm out on the ocean and I only get dial-up or slower except for the 1 day every 2 weeks I can get 5Mb internet for a little while. I'd have done more YouTube scrubbing but even the forums take a few tries to load, and video is pretty much a 2x-a-month-thing.
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