Hello,
I have an existing FLA house battery bank (4x 12v 115Ah) charged by alternator and solar on narrowboat. The starter circuit is separate with dedicated battery and alternator.
I would like to add a lithium to increase capacity to the house bank.
I have seen people just adding a smart Lithium to FLA in parallel relying on Lithium BMS, which I am not that happy with - or will this work?
I have also read on this forum of an idea using two Orion TR Smart 12/12-30A in opposite directions with a manual switch to control direction on charge, either to charge lithium or discharging lithium to lead when not charging - which sounds like it does what I want, apart from the manual switch - this surely can be done automatically.
I have also seen the BOS LE300, which appears to do what I want, but very expensively.
I would like to add my own 100Ah Lithium, and have a module that manages the charging and discharging the Lithium correctly.
Would this be equivalent to a bi-directional Orion TR Smart?
Does this exist?
Alternatively - could I just move all the load to come off the Lithium and use a Orion TR Smart to charge Lithium from Lead/Alternator, so removing the need to be bi-directional. Can a Lead charge a Lithium without the alternator or solar putting in charge? I don't think I could do the opposite way around and charge the Lithium side from the alternator due to overheating and BMS shutoff potentially killing the alternator?
Or any other suggestions?
Thank you
