question

electricjimbob avatar image
electricjimbob asked

Do you need a BMS for a single Lithium Smart battery?

Fair warning: I'm a pure novice, zero practical experience.

I'll just be having one battery, my needs are modest and the single 12.8V/160Ah should easily cover them.

I think I should be able to use it without a BMS since it has it's own internal BMS.

The data sheet and manual are making me doubt that but that might be because they're written as if you'd never use a single battery. There isn't an installation guide for just using a single battery it's all multi-battery situations where you'd need a BMS to balance the different batteries with one another.

Have I got this right or do you need an external BMS with a single Victron Lithium Smart battery?

Lithium Battery
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3 Answers
Paul B avatar image
Paul B answered ·

These batteries have built in Cell balancing, but do require also there to be an external BMS, to control the chargers and loads:

https://www.victronenergy.com/batteries/lithium-battery-12-8v

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electricjimbob avatar image
electricjimbob answered ·

Well damn. Which new model has the full function BMS in built?

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John Rushworth avatar image John Rushworth ♦♦ commented ·

And my blog about the SuperPack batteries:

https://www.victronenergy.com/blog/2019/02/26/lithium-superpack-batteries-an-all-in-one-solution/

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mvader (Victron Energy) avatar image mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ commented ·

SuperPacks have all built-in; no thing external required.

Smart Lithiums have something built-in, but still -always- require an external BMS as well.

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electricjimbob avatar image
electricjimbob answered ·

Cool.

I probably can't wait for them to be available near me (Australia). So I'll have to go with all the bits and bobs instead. Darn.

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