• RaoulDook@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    My Lithium solar batteries can’t charge today while the sun is out shining brightly, because it’s below freezing and I don’t have battery heaters installed. They’re in an outdoor shed so they can’t burn down my house.

    • Miles O'Brien@startrek.website
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      5 hours ago

      I wonder how difficult it would be to make a heating system directly powered by solar panels. It doesn’t have to be enough heat to make a person comfortable in a t-shirt, but just enough to allow normal battery operation.

      I’m sure that depends on a lot of factors like shed insulation/wall facing direction, etc, and burying the battery bank would probably be more effective.

      • RaoulDook@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        I’ve learned a lot from reading RV forums and stuff like that. It’s common to install DC-powered battery heating pads that run on relatively low watts to keep batteries warm enough to charge. I’ll probably do that too.

        To keep a person warm, you’d probably need more power like at least 250-700 watts to run a heat lamp or small space heater. But that is easily doable with solar and batteries now.