Lithium heating pads
Has anyone added heat pads to your lithium batteries so you can charge below freezing. If you did what did you use and how did it work
Forum Discussion
dennych1 wrote:
My battery is 10.5x20 you think I can stick the pad right to the bottom and do you think I would have to enclose battery. It’s great to converse with someone that has done this
I think if you centered it you'd be fine. My footprint is considerably wider and it does fine with the aluminum sheet. As far as enclosing the battery, it depends on where it is located and to what temp you expect to use it. The heating mat can reliably keep the battery temp a minimum of 10C above ambient (at least from what I've observed in limited testing so far). I use foam insulation because they're located in the front storage compartment that has openings for the landing gear and gets quite cold. The batteries have considerable thermal mass, so it shouldn't take much to keep them in the acceptable temp zone with the heated pad. I'm probably veering on the other extreme of precautions, but I want to protect my investment.
I think a good temperature sensor on the batteries is a must for this.
