Advice on Lithium Solar setup
Hello, I'm about to move into a conversion van full-time, 80% boondocking, and would like your advice about what I'm planning. My electrical requirements won't be much. I don't expect to use more t...
Forum Discussion
brulaz wrote:
With respect to "drop-in" replacements: it's the built-in BMS that handles the cell-to-cell balancing. If a cell's V gets too high, it gets cutoff by the BMS.
Apparently as long as a charger can bring the whole package up to 14.4-14.6V it's good. The built-in BMS handles everything else ... or so they say. .
BMS does the cell balancing (what Mex said about reaching each cell).
Lifeblue are different from most other LiFe batts in that there are fewer cells to balance - they use bigger jars instead of common AA-size cells.
BMS also takes care of LVD (over-discharging) or overheating/overcharging, this is catastrophic failure protection, you DON'T want to leave it charging or discharging until BMS triggers the shut-down.
LiFePo4 should not be brought all the way up to 100% if you care about cycle life, and should not be discharged below 15-20%, and should not be left in storage with SOC too high or too low, ideally it should be stored at 50-60% SOC.
I haven't seen programmable 40-80A AC chargers, i.e. allowing to shorten or skip the Absorb and terminating at some adjustable max voltage, rather than switching to non-adjustable Float. If anybody saw one, let me know. A good programmable solar controller will do this (or will drop to adjustable Float so low that the charging will stop), but this is not the same as AC charger.
