Keeping the battery toasty

Just thought I would update for those of you that have your batteries outside. We had another spell of cold weather here -5 at night. So I've made my battery a removable cosy polystyrene jacket and now it's nice and warm at night. I used a 5cm sheet of insulating polystyrene from Wickes for £20 (other suppliers are available!) and cut it to size and glued and gaffer taped it in place. I have an indentation cut in the polystyrene over the on/off button, and there is a separate piece around the cables so I can take that off and then just slide the cover off when the weather gets warmer. I don't have the TCP monitoring, but if I look at the battery tab on the inverter card it was going down to 3-4'C on the subzero nights, now it's a toasty 6-7'C. I'm still doing the long slow timed charge overnight as well, but this combination seems to be doing the business

I built like a bin shed round mine. Just used some fencing feather boards, 2 posts, left 1 inch spaces between the boards. I leave it on all year round. Also stops anyone grabbing anything they shouldn't. Turning the isolator switches etc. Mine is on the front of my house......

Mine is tucked up in a couple of blankets and a rather fetching tartan travel rug. 😄
Luckily in the garage so wet is not a problem.

How much of a difference does temperature make to battery performance?

alphabeta77

It's a well know fact no battery likes it cold, To cold and it can discharge the battery x amount %

It's best to try keep the battery snug not crazy warn if you get me

lifco
Just read very clear chart from @TheDragon (GivEnergy) in another post that shows how capacity gets reduced.

Relatively minor at these ranges (eg in garage), but might build an insulated cabinet for it at some point to save a few kWh.

Obviously if it's outside and you live in northern spots that hit -10-15C in winter, then it'd be more worth it....!

alphabeta77 indeed. The rated capacity is at 25C lab conditions.
Real world at 4°C I'm a good 10% down. Blaming partly on the new firmware. Summer will tell, if capacity returns to normal

Red hot water cylinder coat around mine. It's a bit thin, but the lowest its been to us 12 degrees C. But it's in a garage.