Interesting LiFePO4 question/experiment

[Mr Fox]

The BMS in the Relion is catastrophic protection not "battery cycle life management"..

Understood, and thank you. I'm finding the battery companies don't emphasize this enough. They definitely made it seem like the BMS taking it offline has no repercussions and is par for the course. I'll chock that up to ignorance or marketing, or that I am not asking the correct questions.

 

[Mr Fox]

Hamilton Marine just did a video on basic boat wiring which may answer your question. As for the trim look for something heavy for the port side. [anchor, food, drinks, water] I had lead bars that we added once to a smaller boat. Don't know if that made any difference other than the drinks didn't slide off the cockpit table.

Thank you I will watch the video, always good to learn more. The manufacturer has lots of little lead ingots in the ballast boxes so one can balance the boat. Issue is it was not designed to carry so much battery in the original battery compartment, and I have almost all my ingots in the port ballast!

 

[Mr Fox]

Hard wire your alternator (NOT THROUGH THE BATTERY SWITCH) directly to the start bank and keep start bank on SW position #2
Install the Relion as bank 1
Install a Sterling *BB1230 and feed it from start bank to house bank and use the "key on" excite feature. (alt must be able to produce more than 40A when hot)
Set Sterling BB1230 absorption time to ZERO or less than 20 minutes
Set Sterling voltage to 14.0V - 14.2V
DO NOT FLOAT & DO NOT let the battery discharge below 12.0V
DO NOT use the temp sensor, that is for lead acid only
Install an LVD for house load panel set to 12.2V

For more insight into LFP on boats:

LiFePO4 On Boats

.

Maine Sail are you familiar with this product, and if yes do you have any opinion on it's viability in my setup? Seems like it has the LVD built in if I am understanding correctly?

http://www.power-pole.com/charge

 

[Bob S]

I may be wrong but I think he was referring to something like this. https://shop.pkys.com/Blue-Sea-7635-Solenoid-M-65A-12V-Low-Voltage-Disconnect_p_2800.html
A lot less money but he should chime in on this. Fascinating thread!