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Jonathan avatar image
Jonathan asked

Winter Battery Heater

Hello All. I’ve been running an all Victron system with 2x200ah batteries in my van for a couple years now. And with great success once properly configured:). I use the van periodically in colder US winter climate and when not in use, potentially up to several weeks, it is parked outside uncovered and connected to shore power. Shore power keeps the batteries charged and powering a few small loads and a space heater to keep the batteries happy and above freezing temperatures to allow charging. In lieu of operating an ambient space heater, I am looking for cost/energy efficient 12V heating pad/blanket options to install to keep the batteries at a healthy and happy temperature (say 50F?). Perhaps something like Battleborn’s heater kit but not as expensive. Ideally a Victron solution would be preferred but I don’t see that they have anything nor have I seen this Q&A in this forum. Any recommended suggestions? Thanks!

battery chargingLithium Batterybatterylife
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2 Answers
sharpener avatar image
sharpener answered ·

Is there something like this in the US market? If 16W is too much you could run it half-wave at 8W via a diode. Not 12V but you have shore power. Or tracer tape like this?

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cross-entropy avatar image
cross-entropy answered ·

A shelly with timed on/off or schedule, and an RV tank heating pad, with batteries inside some insulated container should work. I use a setup for my greenhouse like that

screenshot-from-2023-05-07-23-30-44.png

Takes a bit of tweaking to find the right schedule and it changes based on weather - alternatively hook up a Raspberry PI Zero and a thermal probe to switch the Shelly, since it has a local http server, you can just POST to it via CURL.


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pwfarnell avatar image pwfarnell commented ·
You can add a temperature probe directly to some Shelly devices or with an add on module to get easy thermostatic control. I have a heated cupboard in my garage to keep my radio control aeroplane lithium batteries warm using a Shelly like this.
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