Battery heating

Battery heating is required for certain battery chemistries, such as LiFePO₄, in order to be charged or to be used (discharged). Some batteries have built-in heaters to keep themselves at a suitable operating temperature. Batteries without self-heating capability must be kept warm enough through other means.

Self-heating batteries are more convenient but more expensive. DIY heating is more work to set up, can work better under certain conditions, and is usually cheaper. In practice, warming is combined with other forms of protection: the battery management system's low temp charging cutoff, solar or DC-DC low temp charging cutoff, etc.

LiFePO₄ batteries cannot be charged when the cells are below freezing temperatures (approximately), so some kind of warming is required when the ambient temperature drops this low.

• sense ~freezing temps
• shut off charging (normal BMS shutoff)
• allow incoming power only to the internal heaters, typically ~60w
• when cell temps are >freezing charging is re-enabled
• optional: heating may continue until some warmer setpoint is reached, typically 40F-50F when this feature is utilized

This means warming only happens when charging is present. This may or may not be what you want.

DIY warming solutions

• use an external temperature controller and temperature probe
• use the lowest-wattage warming mat practical for conditions^[1]
• and turn the mat on/off with the controller

This means warming happens whether or not charging is present. This may or may not be what you want.

With "soft" charging like a small solar setup it's a wash. a matter of preference and cost. But in some specific use cases one approach might work better.

When you want a packaged solution.

If you run your bank very low habitually^[2] and the warming load is enough to trigger BMS discharge shutdown. This problem does not occur with self-heated because heating only runs when charging is present.

When DIY warming might be preferable

robust charging

With robust charging (alternator and/or bigger solar) there can be charging opportunities lost with self-heated batteries in freezing conditions.

Imagine the following scenario

• freezing overnights followed by a half-hour drive in the morning with a 30A DC-DC.
• a battery with warming pad that consumed 60Wh overnight to stay above freezing, vs
• a self-heating battery that is below freezing in the morning

The externally warmed bank accepts current immediately and takes 15Ah of recharge**. So after recouping the 60Wh used overnight it's **net +132Wh.

The self-heated battery shunts 60w to the heater (leaving 10A of charging unused) until the warmth equalizes up to the temp sensors. Let's say this takes 20 minutes. So now we have only 10mins of actual charging and the bank gets 5Ah of recharge**, **net +64Wh.

With 50A charging it's 260Wh net vs 107Wh net. .

If one was charging by alternator only and only driving to/from work while stealthing in freezing weather it's conceivable the self-heated batt would get never get charged at all because it wouldn't have time to get out of the heating phase.

specific configurations

You may want more control over the temperature setpoints.

Note from Secessus: "since reading this cell spec sheet data I keep my bank at toasty 50deg F."

how to think about the decision

There is no one-size-fits-all solution but outside cost considerations, the essential questions are

• how much charging would I miss out on because the bank is taking only 60w to run the heaters instead of taking everything I can throw at it?; and
• how does this compare to the Wh required to keep the bank above freezing when no charging is present?
• do I need greater configurability than the built-in heater allows?
• do I have the interest or ability to DIY?

further reading

• DIY Solar Forum thread on DIY warming