Lithium in cold weather

[iandsm]

I am thinking I might take the plunge to Lithium, Fogstar in fact, and reading about them I found some advice from the website that they should not be stored in very cold condition. If I left it in the camper connected up over the winter month my intelligent charger would keep it topped up so I assume there would be no need to bring it indoors to store in a reasonably warm environment. Do others leave their ;lithium batteries in situ during the winter?

 

[PeterCarole29]

Im wathcing with interest as this will be the winter with mine

 

[KUSKUS]

How do you store lithium batteries when not in use?


In the same way that food can spoil if not stored properly, your lithium battery can be ruined if you store it improperly. Keep it in an open, dry area that gets air regularly and stays within a temperature range of -13°F to 149°F.
from Fogstar website

 

[Dolmen]

Afraid mine will be staying in the van whatever the weather. Only thing I wont be doing is charging it if it is very cold from anything other than EHU where the battery heater will warm it to the required temperature before charging

 

[AdrianChen]

Mine are left on the van over winter - Lowest I saw last year was about -3c battery temp after a long cold spell, so far this year lowest has been 9c. Most (but not all) Lithiums will disable charging below 5c I'm pretty sure that Fogstar do. Charging a LifePo4 below 0c is will damage them irreversibly, below 5c and charge rates should be very small so much so that you may as well not bother, check your battery specs for certainty. Some batteries have built in heaters that will use the charge source to warm the battery prior to charging - these should be fine. Happily in the South I haven't seen temps as low to require indoor storage!

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[Guigsy]

In the UK, storage isn't an issue. It doesn't get cold enough to cause problems.

You can't charge them below freezing. But the FogStar has built in protection so any power you supply when it's too cold goes into heating mats to warm it first... The only issue then being that any external charge monitoring you've got will be well out of sync.

 

[iandsm]

Thanks everyone, that is reassuring

 

[Two on Tour]

My lithium hab battery sits on a thermostatically controlled heat mat to keep it above 6 degrees if the temperature around the battery drops below that.

 

[Dolmen]

My lithium hab battery sits on a thermostatically controlled heat mat to keep it above 6 degrees if the temperature around the battery drops below that.

Can I ask what controls the heat mat, is it permanently on EHU?

 

[Lenny HB]

Where you live the temrature will never get low enough to be a problem.

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[Two on Tour]

Can I ask what controls the heat mat, is it permanently on EHU?

My lithium hab battery is home built and I use a digital thermostat with the temperature probe located between the cells in the middle of the battery.
The digital thermostat switches on and off the heat mat at the setting I have entered.
The digital thermostat and heat mat are powered by the hab battery which is topped up be the solar on the roof, rarely use EHU unless it's included in the pitch price.
Occasionly use EHU when parked up at home if we have had a long spell of no sun.

 

[Billy192]

I am thinking I might take the plunge to Lithium, Fogstar in fact, and reading about them I found some advice from the website that they should not be stored in very cold condition. If I left it in the camper connected up over the winter month my intelligent charger would keep it topped up so I assume there would be no need to bring it indoors to store in a reasonably warm environment. Do others leave their ;lithium batteries in situ during the winter?

fogstar has a built in heater

 

[Dolmen]

My lithium hab battery is home built and I use a digital thermostat with the temperature probe located between the cells in the middle of the battery.
The digital thermostat switches on and off the heat mat at the setting I have entered.
The digital thermostat and heat mat are powered by the hab battery which is topped up be the solar on the roof, rarely use EHU unless it's included in the pitch price.
Occasionly use EHU when parked up at home if we have had a long spell of no sun.

View attachment 835887

Brilliant, thanks for taking time to respond.