In an earlier posting (Sept 2019...... https://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/forum/threads/campscout……-first-10-weeks-plus-recent-lifos-inverter-addition.203904/ ) I reported on my first 10 weeks of owning our new Globecar Campscout and the addition of a pair of Lifos batteries and an inverter.
I had intended to update my earlier posting on this sooner, but the problems I experienced got bogged down because of ongoing issues with the pair of lithium leisure batteries and a delay of more than 4 months because of the Covid lockdown etc.
The problems with the 2 Lifos batteries was finally resolved a couple of months ago by the importer (Solar Technology) and was a consequence of the dealers supplying them not having sufficient knowledge/experience for what they were doing. The original pair supplied were regularly going out of sync resulting in one going into protect mode and shutting down. These were replaced FOC by another dealer, which had been agreed with Solar Technology, but the same problem kept recurring. Solar Technology offered to sort this out for me in February if I took the MoHo to their base at Tewksbury. I readily agreed to this, but then this was put on hold because of the lockdown. I finally got to visit them around 8 weeks ago. They immediately diagnosed the problem as the 2 batteries supplied by the dealer not being a matched pair. They had supplied 2 from their stock without checking that the batch numbers were the same. Apparently this is critical to remain synchronised. They supplied FOC a matched pair of new batteries and I have had no problems since, including a recent 2 week trip to France.
I was aware that that when Lithium batteries are being manufactured care is taken to ensure near identical performance from each of the cells. However, I had not previously read anywhere of the need to have "matched" batteries when installing a bank of 2 or more. I do not know if this is a peculiarity of Lifos, with each battery having its own internal battery management system. The first supplying dealer advised that it was only necessary to charge each battery separately so that the charge difference was not more than 1% (as measured on the smartphone App which links by Bluetooth to each battery management system) before installation. This was incorrect and may well have exacerbated my initial problems. The correct installation procedure should be to charge each battery separately to 100%, leave to rest for 12 hours or so, then check both are still at 100% and not more than 0.01 volt difference measured with a meter across the terminals of each battery, before connecting them together in parallel.
All of this delayed sorting out the installation of the Schaudt B2B unit. It was fitted last December by the dealer from whom we bought the MoHo. They had installed it according to the wiring diagram supplied from Schaudt and connected to the Electroblock, from which heavy duty supplementary cabling had been taken from the engine battery and to the to the Lifos batteries. During a 5 week trip to Spain from mid-January this year, because of the Lifos battery sync problem, I was effectively only running on one leisure battery as the battery management system on one had locked out. The B2B unit was not supplying sufficient current to maintain the charge level needed to run our compressor-only fridge and I had to seek out campsites with EHU every third day or so. (We normally prefer to "wild" camp.}
After getting back home I had a very helpful exchange of emails with Schaudt in Germany. They suggested that if all else failed there would be no problem connecting the output from the B2B (via a suitably high-rated fuse) directly to the leisure battery bank rather than via the Electroblock. Rather than go back to the supplying dealer, I did this myself before our recent trip to France. Even on engine tick-over, the leisure batteries are now being supplied with 20-25 amps.
For our recent 2 week France trip (only 5 more days in quarantine!!) with around 30-60 min drive every other day or so, we did not need to use EHU at all. Although I have 250 watts of solar panel, the weather/sun at this time of the year gave only a modest daytime input in northern France. We had the the Truma heating on overnight and together with the compressor fridge consumption, recharging laptops, phones etc, I found that the charge level by the following morning had dropped by around 20-25%. With lithium being able to go down to 10% or so without problem, this would allow me 3 or 4 days/nights supply and obviously considerably more with better solar gain weather conditions. The brief drives we were making every other day or so whilst touring was bringing the charge back to 100%.
So, I am finally happy with the installation of the 2 lithium batteries remaining in sync and the B2B unit meeting our power needs. Also, no problems with my Wife being able to use her hair dryer and hair tongs with the inverter, as well as modest use for recharging the cordless vacuum cleaner and the electric toaster.
As mentioned above, the Schaudt B2B unit works well when wired directly to the leisure batteries (and on the Lithium output setting). I went for this Schaudt unit because of the Schaudt Electrobloc fitted to our German PVC and thinking this would be fully compatible and not risk invalidating the warranty on the other electrical installation . Having wired it directly there would appear to be no particular benefit over another brand of B2B. Other Funsters speak highly of Stirling B2B's, which you may have been a little cheaper than the Schaudt version.
Fingers remain crossed that all continues well. It has taken longer than I would have wished to sort everything out, but I must commend Solar Technology on their willingness to sort things out and to readily supply replacement batteries. This gives me confidence that, should the need arise, the 5-year warranty will be honoured.
I had intended to update my earlier posting on this sooner, but the problems I experienced got bogged down because of ongoing issues with the pair of lithium leisure batteries and a delay of more than 4 months because of the Covid lockdown etc.
The problems with the 2 Lifos batteries was finally resolved a couple of months ago by the importer (Solar Technology) and was a consequence of the dealers supplying them not having sufficient knowledge/experience for what they were doing. The original pair supplied were regularly going out of sync resulting in one going into protect mode and shutting down. These were replaced FOC by another dealer, which had been agreed with Solar Technology, but the same problem kept recurring. Solar Technology offered to sort this out for me in February if I took the MoHo to their base at Tewksbury. I readily agreed to this, but then this was put on hold because of the lockdown. I finally got to visit them around 8 weeks ago. They immediately diagnosed the problem as the 2 batteries supplied by the dealer not being a matched pair. They had supplied 2 from their stock without checking that the batch numbers were the same. Apparently this is critical to remain synchronised. They supplied FOC a matched pair of new batteries and I have had no problems since, including a recent 2 week trip to France.
I was aware that that when Lithium batteries are being manufactured care is taken to ensure near identical performance from each of the cells. However, I had not previously read anywhere of the need to have "matched" batteries when installing a bank of 2 or more. I do not know if this is a peculiarity of Lifos, with each battery having its own internal battery management system. The first supplying dealer advised that it was only necessary to charge each battery separately so that the charge difference was not more than 1% (as measured on the smartphone App which links by Bluetooth to each battery management system) before installation. This was incorrect and may well have exacerbated my initial problems. The correct installation procedure should be to charge each battery separately to 100%, leave to rest for 12 hours or so, then check both are still at 100% and not more than 0.01 volt difference measured with a meter across the terminals of each battery, before connecting them together in parallel.
All of this delayed sorting out the installation of the Schaudt B2B unit. It was fitted last December by the dealer from whom we bought the MoHo. They had installed it according to the wiring diagram supplied from Schaudt and connected to the Electroblock, from which heavy duty supplementary cabling had been taken from the engine battery and to the to the Lifos batteries. During a 5 week trip to Spain from mid-January this year, because of the Lifos battery sync problem, I was effectively only running on one leisure battery as the battery management system on one had locked out. The B2B unit was not supplying sufficient current to maintain the charge level needed to run our compressor-only fridge and I had to seek out campsites with EHU every third day or so. (We normally prefer to "wild" camp.}
After getting back home I had a very helpful exchange of emails with Schaudt in Germany. They suggested that if all else failed there would be no problem connecting the output from the B2B (via a suitably high-rated fuse) directly to the leisure battery bank rather than via the Electroblock. Rather than go back to the supplying dealer, I did this myself before our recent trip to France. Even on engine tick-over, the leisure batteries are now being supplied with 20-25 amps.
For our recent 2 week France trip (only 5 more days in quarantine!!) with around 30-60 min drive every other day or so, we did not need to use EHU at all. Although I have 250 watts of solar panel, the weather/sun at this time of the year gave only a modest daytime input in northern France. We had the the Truma heating on overnight and together with the compressor fridge consumption, recharging laptops, phones etc, I found that the charge level by the following morning had dropped by around 20-25%. With lithium being able to go down to 10% or so without problem, this would allow me 3 or 4 days/nights supply and obviously considerably more with better solar gain weather conditions. The brief drives we were making every other day or so whilst touring was bringing the charge back to 100%.
So, I am finally happy with the installation of the 2 lithium batteries remaining in sync and the B2B unit meeting our power needs. Also, no problems with my Wife being able to use her hair dryer and hair tongs with the inverter, as well as modest use for recharging the cordless vacuum cleaner and the electric toaster.
As mentioned above, the Schaudt B2B unit works well when wired directly to the leisure batteries (and on the Lithium output setting). I went for this Schaudt unit because of the Schaudt Electrobloc fitted to our German PVC and thinking this would be fully compatible and not risk invalidating the warranty on the other electrical installation . Having wired it directly there would appear to be no particular benefit over another brand of B2B. Other Funsters speak highly of Stirling B2B's, which you may have been a little cheaper than the Schaudt version.
Fingers remain crossed that all continues well. It has taken longer than I would have wished to sort everything out, but I must commend Solar Technology on their willingness to sort things out and to readily supply replacement batteries. This gives me confidence that, should the need arise, the 5-year warranty will be honoured.
