AC to DC Lithium Battery Charger where to place.

[manicism]

Hi

I am just installing 20A Renogy lithium battery charger.

Reading the manual it says to place well away from the batteries.

I was planning to have it butting up to my batteries. Is this a bad idea? Has anyone done this? I was sure most of the seat base I stalls I have seen, have it touching the batts.

Also does anyone know if orientation of the charger makes a difference, was hopefully to install on its side.

Thoughts appreciated?

 

[Stay Frosty]

Mine's on the side of the fridge housing fixed vertically just behind the drivers seat by the side of the 2kw inverter... yes the seat's rammed up against the steering wheel.
To be honest I've only used the charger once to put the initial full charge into the seatbase lifepo4 battery, since then it has always charged via the b2b charger and solar so could be on a plug and lead arrangement really.

 

[Dellmassive]

that charger is it? - got a pic or link?

 

[manicism]

that charger is it? - got a pic or link?

Hi @Dellmassive it’s the renogy 20A 240V AC to DC Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery Charger

20A 240V AC to DC Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery Charger

The Renogy UK 20A AC-to-DC Charger is an automatic and portable charger intended for 12V Lithium-iron phosphate batteries.

uk.renogy.com

 

[Dellmassive]

ah that one. . .

i think they say that as they can get fairly hot under full load - which it will be as its only 20A.

so mount it so it can have some air all around, and dont mount it direct on the battery - leave a small gap.

and if you are hard wiring it and cutting off the croc clips - make sure you use a fuse on the connection point, prob a 30A ATC as a 20A ATC will get too hot and melt.


got a few pics of the mounting area?



see it in opo here:

.

 

[manicism]

Thanks @Dellmassive

I have changed where I was going mounted it anyway. I have mounted it vertically as @Stay Frosty has done in a cupboard next to where my batteries, inverter, mppt and controls are to keep as much air movement as possible aground all and “as far away as dc cables allow” as per manual.

It is in area behind a drawer beside my water pump. So such have plenty of air space to distribute heat into. Not sure how often it will get used as the Renogy 50A DC-DC MPPT is excellent!

This is not where it was originally and you would not believe how they converties had installed it, they had used ring terminal but mounted both +ve and -ve to the same negative post in the CPE distribution box. No wonder it never worked! Surprised it has shorted and blown.

Now corrected.

 

[meza]

Good work, how are you getting on with it?

Did you wire the 20A charger to your EHU so that it starts charging as soon as ehu is connected?

I’m considering a similar setup.
100ah lithium, Renogy 30a DC-DC mppt, and some kind of inverter (1500w?) that will run a nespresso (1200w).

Vs an ecoflow or Anker power pack that can just be chucked in!

A lot of cabling, fuses and faff involved in wiring the individual components together.

What was your experience?

 

[Stay Frosty]

@meza Bunging in a portable power station really depends on how you want to run your van electrics, really how you use your van.
If you want a mains supply for camping then it depends how long you're going off grid for, if you're always going to be in a regular site on hook up then apart from a fridge or more accurately the fridge contents you can probably get away with no leisure battery.
If you want a fridge and to camp off grid for more than a day or two then recharging a portable power station is no different to recharging a leisure battery as you'll need solar and wiring from the vehicle battery.
I've got the setup you're considering compared to the power station option but that's where I've gone a bit power mad with a system that translates to one of the larger genuinely 2kw at 230V power stations and comes in under that price range including the solar panels and the 230Ah battery which would be an add on for the more usual 100 odd Ah battery of the 2kw power station.
Worth considering too that any unit that fails can be replaced individually within a setup you've built yourself rather than the returns route of a borked power station where you haven't got a clue which part of the unit has died.