RV lifepo4 install... Location question (off grid)

[ericfx1984]

So my current lead acid battery is installed in a hatch that is underneath the fifth wheel hitch

This is super convenient as I'm able to have my inverter and battery Bank within 2 ft of each other not only does it help with the cost wire, but it definitely helps out with loss

But that hatch is exposed to the outside air and as such will likely experience freezing temperatures so it's kind of a no-go

However only a couple feet away from there is the foot of the queen size bed which has a cavity underneath it about 18 in tall and otherwise the size of the queen size bed less a few inches

Now this is inside the heated and cooled area but doesn't have any ventilation to connect it to the heated and cooled area so what I was thinking about doing was adding a couple vents and that would allow me to locate the battery there 5 foot or so of cabling is not really a big deal

The other option would be to locate the batteries in the closet of the main bedroom.. but these are on either side of the nose which works out to about 13 ft of cabling and takes away valuable closet space

Of course another option is to move them in the storage underbelly.. the big problem I see with this is that the storage underbelly isn't really heated but it does have two vents and a t running through there so it should stay above freezing one would think

And yet another option, which I really would rather not do would be to locate the batteries in one closet and then on the other side of the bed where the other closet is to locate the inverter this would make the cabling probably somewhere between 5 and 8 ft...

I'm leaning more to locating underneath the bed as it is around 5 to 8 ft of cabling and I don't have to move the inverter and rewire anything on the RV

But I guess my real question is if I have a bed where the bottom of the frame is closed off and I add vents to either side will the battery stay cool enough? Or will I need to do some type of fan that kicks on if it gets too hot?

 

[100 Proof]

My 2P4S 460 amp hour battery sits under my bed. It never experiences any overheating there, but I never exceed a .3C charge or discharge rate. If your charge or discharge rates are much higher than that, it's possible it could be an issue. My advice would be to try it and monitor the temperatures for a while to see how it behaves. If you experience high temperatures, you can always back fill with a vent or a fan.

 

[Sojourner1]

Plenty of folks have put them under the bed and add a vent hole to exhaust some of the heat generated from the inverter while in use.

 

[K8MEJ]

4 x 280Ah 12v batteries + inverter + two MPPTs under the bed. I do have active cooling fans running off a temperature controller in case it gets too warm under there.