Victron Lithium Smart Battery - Spacing in Battery Box

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miya asked Mar 23, '21

Victron Lithium Smart Battery - Spacing in Battery Box

Hi All

I am in the process of installing 4x 200Ah Smart Lithium (in parallel). I don't have much space in the battery box - in fact it is very tight indeed. Ideally the batteries would be against each other with no space.

I have read in the lithium manual - about the recommended spacing between each battery. I have also aware the batteries will generate heat when being discharged or charged. It is my understanding the amount of heat produced is linked to the level fi charge / discharge.

My total capacity is 800Ah - and the maximum load will only ever be 125A (about 31A per battery)- for very short periods (3 or minutes) - and the maximum charge current will only ever peak at 70A (about 17A per battery). These seem, to me, to be very very low loads / charge currents for each battery to cope with compared to what they are capable of. And, as a result, the batteries will not heat up - and spacing in the box will not be a big issue.

Nearly every installation I see of Lithium, on boats, the batteries are all against each other. I have never seen anyone space them by the recommended space in the manual. I even see this on installations by Victron approved suppliers. It may be that every install I have seen is 'bad' - but no one seems to have any problems.

What do you think ? Must I space them - given the low discharge / charge currents ?

Thanks

Tim

Lithium Battery

2 |3000

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Modifications Space

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Answer 1 · 2021-03-23T10:52:03Z

Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff) answered · Mar 23, 2021 at 10:52 AM

Hi @Miya,

I have basically the same installation, but with 4x100Ah Smart Lithiums in a very tight space. I was able to leave at least a gap of a few millimetres in between them. Sub optimal, but enough to let warm air convect instead of transfer it to the next battery. With max. discharge rates of like 200A I never encountered a serious heat problem. According to the built-in temperature sensors they are more or less the same like environment temperature.

Make sure the area is well ventilated either by venting slots which allow for natural convection or with a ventilator that transfers possible heat out of the battery compartment.

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Answer 2 · 2021-03-23T11:27:09Z

miya answered · Mar 23, 2021 at 11:27 AM

Thanks for sharing your experience Stefanie. I can and will put a fan on the battery box - to pull any warm air out - and will set it to trigger 'on' when the temp in the box get above a certain threshold.

Thanks again.

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