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Hi,
I was thinking of getting some low power (14W) vivarium heating pads and putting them under my Smart Lithium Batteries then using a thermostat to control them (set at say 10°C) to prevent them getting lower than 5°C over the winter.
Anyone have any experience or comments?
I am making a small (closable) additional outlet on my Webasto heater to the battery bay and I can switch the powersource of the battery from housebank to bowthruster bank (which a tradditional battery bank). The last is being trickle charged from a multiplus.
I have done just this. I have four batteries and 4 x 15W Silicone Rubber Heat Mats.
There was a good article linked from a Victron Blog entry earlier this year that is worth a read.
@Bathnm,
Would you mind to share the brand of rubber heat mats and possibly a few images how you wrap them around the SmartLithium?
Are the heat pads thermo controlled in any way, internally or externally?
@Stefanie, I used these https://www.thermosensedirect.com/acatalog/silicone_rubber_mat_heaters.html
I basically put them under the batteries, so that heat can rise up around the batteries. I also installed some aluminium faced bulb wrap between the bottom of the cupboard to act as an insulator from below and an aluminium plate on top to spread the heat. So I have a bulb wrap, heat pad, aluminium plate sandwidch.
The black circles are the locations of the heat mats and the batteries then stand off the floor so there is a small air gap under neath the batteries.
I need to work out how I shall control these. I may write some code for the Cerbo to control relay 2 based on a temperature probe value, or purchase a small dedicated control board
