Fogstar lithium charge (7 Viewers)

[Flairy]

I’m glad you got in touch with OffGrid ,it’s the best way.

 

[cyberyacht]

I've got a Victron 30A B2B. Didn't realise how much the fridge was going to gobble of that (10A give or take). Wish I'd gone for the 50A B2B now.

 

[ChrisL]

I've got a Victron 30A B2B. Didn't realise how much the fridge was going to gobble of that (10A give or take). Wish I'd gone for the 50A B2B now.

I have a Victron 30A B2B the shunt shows it charging the Fogstar Drift 230ah at 28 amps when the battery is a bit discharged, I do have a 200ah alternator though.

 

[autorouter]

I've got a Victron 30A B2B. Didn't realise how much the fridge was going to gobble of that (10A give or take). Wish I'd gone for the 50A B2B now.

The fridge will work perfectly well from the alternator output, same as the vehicle lights, wipers etc work. You could use a simple fridge relay, powered from the starter battery/alternator, triggered by the D+ signal when the engine starts. If it's only 10A to 15A, a standard 30A relay is fine. There is no need to use the boosted output from the B2B to run the fridge, it's a waste, better to reserve all that boosted power for charging the leisure battery.

 

[MichaelT]

I've got a Victron 30A B2B. Didn't realise how much the fridge was going to gobble of that (10A give or take). Wish I'd gone for the 50A B2B now.

Don't you have a Shaudt battery booster on your compactline like I do which should run the fridge? We have a 50A plus the Shaudt unit which adds about 10-15A to the Victron B2B (which only came out this year).

The 30A one does get hot and will cut out whjen it does whereas the 50A one runs a lot cooler and will deliver more amps without cutting out.

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[cyberyacht]

Above my pay grade this stuff. The guy that fitted the B2B couldn't find the charging relay to disconnect, so disconnected one of the leads on the Circuit board to disable it. Whether that has also stopped the alternator feeding the fridge, I've no idea but presume so. This stuff is a mystery to me.

 

[offagen]

Thanks offagen, just been in touch with offgrid and it's all working, just didn't understand how it all worked. You are correct though, when I started the engine the Orion XS came to life, and started charging the batteries.
After having about 90amp total usage in our previous Hymer, this is a revelation having 111amps spare in morning ! And batteries were only charged to 125amps yesterday.

Glad you’ve got it sorted. It takes a while to get familiar with the new system but you will find it a HUGE improvement over your previous setup. Happy journeys

 

[barryd]

Lithium is capable of being charged much faster than any equivalent lead-acid-based battery. That means it's OK to fit a more powerful charger. But if you stick with the same charger it will charge at the same rate as before.

If you don't have a B2B, and are charging from an alternator via a split charge relay, the alternator doesn't control the amps like a B2B does, so the charging amps might be higher in that case. If the battery is very flat then the amps might be excessive, causing overheating of the alternator.

Thanks. It will likely be Off Grid solutions that will be doing mine. I have a quote for all the various bits. Ill mainly be off grid for long periods of time without moving the van though so the important charging will be the solar charging. Hoping for at least 300w on the roof with a single 300ah Fogstar. Initially we wont be big users of power so it shouldnt be an issue but its the long periods of dull weather which might be. I was just hoping that if we went a week without much sun then the charging would be quick once it comes out. We lasted four weeks mid summer with our current set up without moving though with a single lead acid 120ah battery and 120w panel.

 

[ChrisL]

Thanks. It will likely be Off Grid solutions that will be doing mine. I have a quote for all the various bits. Ill mainly be off grid for long periods of time without moving the van though so the important charging will be the solar charging. Hoping for at least 300w on the roof with a single 300ah Fogstar. Initially we wont be big users of power so it shouldnt be an issue but its the long periods of dull weather which might be. I was just hoping that if we went a week without much sun then the charging would be quick once it comes out. We lasted four weeks mid summer with our current set up without moving though with a single lead acid 120ah battery and 120w panel.

If it's any help, I have 250w solar and one 230ah Fogstar drift, I did two weeks off hookup in June and three weeks off hookup in August, no driving at all, I was using between 30 and 35 ahs a night and was fully recharged by around 14:00 hrs, there were a couple of days in August when it didn't get back to 100% due to it being overcast but when the sun came out it was soon fully charged again.