Fan on Freedom XC 1000

[vinthewrench]

Hello all;

I am trying to build a system to keep my home running during power fail without having to start
up the generator constantly. My strategy is keep up most critical loads on battery/inverter and
run the generator periodically to recharge.

My first attempt at using modern charger inverters combo as a UPS to power my internet setup
( Starlink, Unifi, a bunch of cameras and Raspberry Pi projects) independently from the rest of the home.

I have a pretty simple setup here, a Xantrax Freedom XC 1000 hooked up to a BattleBorn BB10012 100 A LiFePO4 battery,
I am also using a Victron Smartshunt to track how well the battery is doing.

The Starlink dishy uses a ton of power(150W) , when the entire network is running including the POE cameras I have seen it go
between 160 to 260W. Given the current setup the smartshunt quotes me about 6 - 8 hours of backup.
Not bad, but I might add an other battery. This is OK for a first try, On retrospect I probably should
have used AGM batteries instead.

For those who know the Xantrax I have set the following parameters on the config.

02 LBCO voltage (11.5)
13 Shutdown recovery (Auto)
20 Battery Type USE - custom
22 Absobtion V 14.4
23 Float Voltage 13.4

The one quirk is that even though the battery is at full charge and the I am running on utility/shore power,
that the fan comes on from time to time. I have mounted the Xantrax where it is well ventilated.

I suspect what is going on is the Xantrax charger is trying to keep the float voltage up?
Is it possible that the smartshunt is what causes the battery to keep toping off?
I wrote Xantrax customer service (i'll post a reply)

If I want to keep this quieter or maybe have the fan run less often can I simply lower the float voltage?

any ideas?

 

[vinthewrench]

some more feedback -- I really dont like the Xantrax LCD and user setup. If I can find info about the protocol that goes out to the remote port. i will write some opensource code to display something better.

 

[vinthewrench]

Well i haven't heard a peep from Xantrax

I notice though that even though the battery is at full charge and the unit is on
shore power that the fan comes on approximately every 30 minutes for 2 minutes duration.

I posted some photos of the settings

there a reason why the fan goes on so often? I suspect that this is because
unit is trying to keep the float voltage up?

Any suggestion on what can I do to limit the times that the fan cycles? What causes it to do so?

I am considering returning it and replacing it with something that is not so noisy

 

[vinthewrench]

Not getting the best help out of tech support - they suggested that the transfer relay is what might be heating up.

to recap- I basically have a UPS setup to drive some computer/sat gear, running somewhere between 100 - 300W, sitting in my living room. The battery is at full charge and the unit is on shore power that the fan comes on
approximately every 30 minutes for 2 minutes duration. Fan is quite loud. too loud for home use.

At present I would not recommend this for home use.

I am considering replacing it with something quieter.

 

[vinthewrench]

One more problem, is that you really need the remote and bluetooth to do proper setup. The built in UI is difficult. The bluetooth has to be set each time you want to run the app. maybe they could have done a better job here..

The Victron folks who make the smartshunt seems to have gotten it right.

 

[John Frum]

If the fan noise corresponds to periodic float maintenance your battery monitor should show current flow into the battery that corresponds to the fan noise.
lifepo4 batteries like to cycle so it would be good to set the float a bit lower.
I have a similar setup and I allow my batteries to cycle between 90% full and 50% full.

 

[vinthewrench]

If the fan noise corresponds to periodic float maintenance your battery monitor should show current flow into the battery that corresponds to the fan noise.
lifepo4 batteries like to cycle so it would be good to set the float a bit lower.
I have a similar setup and I allow my batteries to cycle between 90% full and 50% full.

It's hard to say. I have the smart-shunt setup, and I have seen it run the fan with no current flow to the battery, I have the float set at 13.5v. and have tried it lower, How low would you suggest?

 

[John Frum]

It's hard to say. I have the smart-shunt setup, and I have seen it run the fan with no current flow to the battery, I have the float set at 13.5v. and have tried it lower, How low would you suggest?

Try 13.1volts.
The shunt will show you how much energy it takes to fully re-charge the battery.
Coulumbic efficiency is nearly 100% with lifepo4 batteries so 50ah ~= 50% depth of discharge.

Can you characterize how loud the fans are?
I realize that is a hard to do .

 

[vinthewrench]

Try 13.1volts.
The shunt will show you how much energy it takes to fully re-charge the battery.
Coulumbic efficiency is nearly 100% with lifepo4 batteries so 50ah ~= 50% depth of discharge.

Can you characterize how loud the fans are?
I realize that is a hard to do .

 

[vinthewrench]

Many thanks,
I shut it down for the moment.. i bet I can get a reading of db from my iphone.. I will try to that later today. i have some photos above showing the setup.

 

[John Frum]

For my setup which is in the living room below the entertainment center.
When my IOTA converter fan is on its not detectable when the window shaker air conditioner is running.
Its detectable when we are watching tv but not obtrusive.
I used to have a Powermax converter and that thing howled.
You could here it over the window shaker.
It was both loud and qualitatively annoying.

 

[vinthewrench]

I finally gave up on their tech support - damm the warranty for something that is an engineering mistake. I replaced their crappy fan (DWPH EFC-06E12D DC 12V 0.60A 60x60x25mm Server Cooling Fan) with a nice quiet Noctua NF-A6x25 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009NQMESS.

so much better now.

 

[steve500]

I finally gave up on their tech support - damm the warranty for something that is an engineering mistake. I replaced their crappy fan (DWPH EFC-06E12D DC 12V 0.60A 60x60x25mm Server Cooling Fan) with a nice quiet Noctua NF-A6x25 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009NQMESS.

so much better now.

I have an xc2000 and I am also annoyed by the fan cooling noise and odd run times when it seems unnecessary. I said to myself “wonder what a noctua would sound like in there?” Googling, I find this thread and it made me chuckle. Thank you for this.