Lithium with a Heart Freedom Charger?

[Tim Good]

I have a Heart Freedom 20 inverter charger. Installed original in the 90s. Anyone with one will know it by the adage “oldie but a goodie”

I want to keep it as it is wired in very well and fuels all my 240v sockets and inverts 2kw.

Im currently using Trojan 6v paired to 12v and I want to switch to Victron lithium batteries.

I know I’ll need to get a DC charger to ensure the alternated doesn’t overload. But what about the charge profiles on the Heart? Will they work? Attached are the charge profiles.





What other considerations? My basically understanding is that lithium batteries like to be charged at half its capacity per hour. So 50amps for a 100ah battery. So I’d need to ensure the current output is manageable.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Victron batteries are insanely expensive ; Victron Energy LiFePO4 Battery 12,8V 330Ah Smart - BAT512132410

You could put a 314ah pack together, using quality cells and BMS for for about £360 You could spend the difference on a new Multiplus-II 3000w sine wave inverter/charger (£1075) and still have £50 change.

To answer your question about the existing charger, depending on temperatures, those charging profiles don't look ideal, especially is temps get down to the lower end, unless the charger has temperature compensation.

 

[Tim Good]

Victron batteries are insanely expensive ; Victron Energy LiFePO4 Battery 12,8V 330Ah Smart - BAT512132410

You could put a 314ah pack together, using quality cells and BMS for for about £360 You could spend the difference on a new Multiplus-II 3000w sine wave inverter/charger (£1075) and still have £50 change.

To answer your question about the existing charger, depending on temperatures, those charging profiles don't look ideal, especially is temps get down to the lower end, unless the charger has temperature compensation.

All those points are valid if I was you Paul. The learning curve, uninstallation and re installation of battery cells, a new changer and all the other complexities of when you change systems in a major way… is a lot of my time. That value is significant given all the other jobs I need to complete.

 

[PaulRainbow]

All those points are valid if I was you Paul. The learning curve, uninstallation and re installation of battery cells, a new changer and all the other complexities of when you change systems in a major way… is a lot of my time. That value is significant given all the other jobs I need to complete.

Understood. If you need/want to fit drop in batteries i'd still avoid Victron prices. I like Victron stuff in general, but i wouldn't pay their prices for batteries, they are nothing special, just vastly over priced.

For instance, you could almost buy 3 of these for the price of one Victron Lithium Leisure Battery - Fogstar Drift 12v 300Ah

 

[Tim Good]

Understood. If you need/want to fit drop in batteries i'd still avoid Victron prices. I like Victron stuff in general, but i wouldn't pay their prices for batteries, they are nothing special, just vastly over priced.

For instance, you could almost buy 3 of these for the price of one Victron Lithium Leisure Battery - Fogstar Drift 12v 300Ah

Ok thanks. I just kind of assumed they’d be the safest bet and manufactured to the highest standard possible with the best BMS.

With regard the charging profiles of the Freedom, I can either manually select an ambient temperature or activate the automatic temp compensation. So presumably I’d turn that off and just select a profile which was best suited and on the safe side. So perhaps AGM at a temp of 16. This would fix the charge at 14.4 and float of 13.4.

In reality the charger would rarely be used since we’d be using solar and rarely ever hook up anyway.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Ok thanks. I just kind of assumed they’d be the safest bet and manufactured to the highest standard possible with the best BMS.

With regard the charging profiles of the Freedom, I can either manually select an ambient temperature or activate the automatic temp compensation. So presumably I’d turn that off and just select a profile which was best suited and on the safe side. So perhaps AGM at a temp of 16. This would fix the charge at 14.4 and float of 13.4.

In reality the charger would rarely be used since we’d be using solar and rarely ever hook up anyway.

I'd go for slightly lower voltages, the one at 14v and 13.1 would be OK.

 

[Tim Good]

I'd go for slightly lower voltages, the one at 14v and 13.1 would be OK.

Thanks.

Given me circumstances, would you personally think using this old Heart Freedom as a bit of a liability in conjunction with lithium, or do you think using it is perfectly acceptable given that we’d be relying almost entirely on the solar doing the charging.

We would of course be relying on the inverter however to power things like kettle, toaster and air fryer. Non of which require our sine wave. We don’t have any other appliances that do need a pure wave.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Thanks.

Given me circumstances, would you personally think using this old Heart Freedom as a bit of a liability in conjunction with lithium, or do you think using it is perfectly acceptable given that we’d be relying almost entirely on the solar doing the charging.

We would of course be relying on the inverter however to power things like kettle, toaster and air fryer. Non of which require our sine wave. We don’t have any other appliances that do need a pure wave.

If you use the voltages above and disable temperature compensation it should be OK Tim.