Elddis 255 lithium upgrade

[Beekeeper]

Thanks for all your investigations. The reason I wanted to eliminate the battery charge output was to only have lithium profile charging. I now think it is not necessary. I left the ehu connected and monitored the currents . With the victron and BCA both on I get 35amps charge . Switch off victron and I then get 5amps charge. Overnight this dropped to 0.5 amps at 13.2volts. So not 100% , but do not need it . This is nearly 100% of the 80% the BMS in the battery limits the charge to. If I wanted the full 100% of the 80% , I could switch on victron unit. The important thing is I am not damaging the lithium battery. Could always buy an Apuljack unit for £198 , but don't think it necessary. All good fun though.

 

[The Artilleryman]

Shortap Thank you for this info, it will help me sort a similar problem.
Can't do anything at the moment as the meds. I've been prescribed, affected my vision and get terrible eye strain - looks like I'll have to choose, get 4 times a night or be able to see to drive, chauffer has lost her sense of humour already.

 

[Shortap]

Shortap Thank you for this info, it will help me sort a similar problem.
Can't do anything at the moment as the meds. I've been prescribed, affected my vision and get terrible eye strain - looks like I'll have to choose, get 4 times a night or be able to see to drive, chauffer has lost her sense of humour already.

Glad it was helpful. Sorry to hear about the meds issue and hope you're fully recovered soon.

 

[RichardB]

I have so far fitted the extra two solar panels and Victron mppt. Victron 30amp mains charger and Renogy 2000w

Hi. Can I ask how many batteries have you got and what cable size from battery to the Renogy 2000w inverter

 

[Diabalo]

Hi. Can I ask how many batteries have you got and what cable size from battery to the Renogy 2000w inverter

The cable size is going to depend on the length of run, you want no more that 3-4% voltage drop.

There is a calculator HERE to work it out for you.

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[KLWinton]

I am in the process of doing this upgrade and having read the thread I am still a little confused with the BCA. Can I just disconnect the yellow and black, leaving all the rest connected and add a Victron Blue connected to the Yellow and black wires to give me a lithium profile when I change the batteries?

I have the Victron MTTP solar charger fitted and will change that profile to Lithium.

I also have the Schaudt Booster WA 121525 Battery to Battery unit and it has a lithium profile switch.

 

[Shortap]

I am in the process of doing this upgrade and having read the thread I am still a little confused with the BCA. Can I just disconnect the yellow and black, leaving all the rest connected and add a Victron Blue connected to the Yellow and black wires to give me a lithium profile when I change the batteries?

I have the Victron MTTP solar charger fitted and will change that profile to Lithium.

I also have the Schaudt Booster WA 121525 Battery to Battery unit and it has a lithium profile switch.

Hi KLWinton. I assume you have an Apuljack PS301/306 charger/12v transformer unit in the BCA? If you are going get a Lithium specific charger for the new battery you would probably be better off going to Apuljack and purchasing the AE301/306 ULTRA Lithium, a lithium specific model, priced around £235 maybe a bit more now. It is a plug & play replacement to your existing unit and will keep all the BCA PDU system functions.

I've been trying add in a Victron Multiplus 2 1600 Inverter/charger unit to the system and have had a lot of problems with this as it conflicts with how the BCA based system is set up and caused a number of failures. I won't bore you with it but at one point I just thought I'd've been better off sticking to just changing the Apuljack, as everything worked fine then. Hope this helps.

 

[The Artilleryman]

If your BCA unit is single outlet, it is a straight forward replacement - most fit the IP22 in place of the BCA charger - if it is dual outlet ( power supply and battery charger) it is a little different, leave the unit in place and both outlets connected, disconnect 230v input and wire IP22 output via a pair of bus bars.

 

[KLWinton]

Thanks for the feedback. Nothing is simple these days, well maybe me!!! If I hadn’t already got the Victron Charger I would have gone for the Apuljack replacement but will have to use the Victron or my missus will tear me a new one!

 

[KLWinton]

Just noticed Apuljack will upgrade your existing P306 to lithium for £44. Sound a bargain!

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[The Artilleryman]

@KLWint why spend more money, when the IP22 will charge your battery. If you have a BCA 276 single output, it's a straight swap - you will loose the lost 230v warning, but that's all. I'm fairly sure there is a thread on here that covers doing this.

 

[autorouter]

The problem is, there seem to be two different versions of the mains unit. One version is a simple single-output type just like any other mains charger. Just disconnect its output and connect your new charger to the leisure battery.

The other version is an 'offline' charger. It has a wire from the unit to the leisure battery, and a wire from the unit to the habitation circuits. There are some internal relays that do the switching. When the mains unit is powered. the relays separate the habitation circuits from the battery. The unit charges the battery with a multistage charging profile.That voltage is kept separate from the habitation circuits.

The unit also supplies the habitation circuits with a stabilised voltage. The idea is that the hab circuits get a nice steady voltage, and the varying voltages required to charge a battery don't reach the hab circuits.

When the EHU is disconnected, the relays switch back so that the leisure battery and the hab circuits are connected again. If you are installing another different charger, this is the mode you want the charger to be in. If the existing mains unit is not receiving mains input, it will think it's not on EHU and connect the battery to the hab circuits. Which is exactly what you want when installing a different charger.

If you really want to remove the existing mains unit, you have to find a way to connect the leisure battery and habitation circuits when it is removed. This could be as simple as connecting the two outputs together. But cutting off the mains supply to the mains unit will probably do the same job.

The reason for the off-line charger is to avoid the high battery charging voltages from reaching the devices on the hab circuits. The alternative approach is to only use devices that have been designed to tolerate these high voltages, which is the approach that nearly all motorhome manufacturers use. If you are really worried about this, you could wire a voltage stabiliser that will clamp the hab voltage to say 12.0V, no matter what the voltage from the charger/alternator/solar controller reaches.

 

[KLWinton]

My thinking now is to sell my Victron on eBay and buy the lithium drop in unit from Apuljack. That way it can be put back to standard without much hassle. Increase my solar and hopefully the standard B2B keeps things charged on trips away with the odd site visit to charge up if needed. .

 

[headlight]

My fan-cooled Sterling 60A B2B has performed faultlessly over the past 5 years in the confined area that its mounted.

My Sterling 60 amp B2B is also mounted in a confined area, installed by Vanbitz, and I've never noticed it even being warm when I checked it the first few times I used it.
I don't bother checking now.

 

[The Artilleryman]

Does the Apuljack upgrade give you an option to switch back to lead/acid ? Or is it fixed as LiFePO4 only.
On my Bailey I've left the psu/charger in place but disconnected from the mains. An IP22 single output charger is wired to the hab battery.
All our use is off grid, only time mains is used is to get the fridge down to temperature the day before we go away.

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[KLWinton]

Does the Apuljack upgrade give you an option to switch back to lead/acid ? Or is it fixed as LiFePO4 only.
On my Bailey I've left the psu/charger in place but disconnected from the mains. An IP22 single output charger is wired to the hab battery.
All our use is off grid, only time mains is used is to get the fridge down to temperature the day before we go away.

Don’t know, I have emailed them for details but being the weekend probably won’t hear until Tuesday. They can’t do much to it as it only costs £44 to change. They maybe just drill out the rivets and flick a switch, then rivet it back up again.

 

[cossie303]

My thinking now is to sell my Victron on eBay and buy the lithium drop in unit from Apuljack. That way it can be put back to standard without much hassle. Increase my solar and hopefully the standard B2B keeps things charged on trips away with the odd site visit to charge up if needed. .

I had the same issue as you, disconnected the Victron and Sterling B2B, bought the Apuljack charger, dropped it in and that was it.

 

[cossie303]

Don’t know, I have emailed them for details but being the weekend probably won’t hear until Tuesday. They can’t do much to it as it only costs £44 to change. They maybe just drill out the rivets and flick a switch, then rivet it back up again.

It is fixed for Lithium, you cannot use the Lithium profile on anything else. I bit the bullet and ordered a new one from Apuljack, this way I can keep the original charger if I sell the motorhome and want to stick lead acid batteries back in.

 

[Beekeeper]

I haven't been on here for a while but thought I should report on my Lithium conversion etc. All I can say is it just works. No drama. Off grid for two weeks no bother. Flick switch for inverter, micro wave on. Tassimo coffee machine on. All good. Then off and have to press button on control panel which says I've lost mains. Victron units and battery bms give correct readouts. All good. So next thing to fiddle with is installing a Thetford compressor fridge over winter. Got to have a project !