BMS selection?

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RobOfYork

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I am really confused as to what BMS to get. Here is what I have.

600 watts of solar panels
4 EVE 280Ah LiFepo4 cells
12 volt system
2000 watt inverter

What would be a good BMS to use?
 
crofter said:
BMS is used here for " battery management system"

-crofter
The Overkill is a BMS. I'm assuming that the OP needs it for his 4 EVE 280Ah LiFepo4 cells.
 
You are confusing amps with amp hours. You will not be drawing 280 amps. Figure what your maximum load will be and this will determine what size BMS to purchase. Probably the largest load you would have would be a microwave oven. A large microwave would exceed the 120 amp rating of the Overkill BMS so either use a smaller microwave or buy a BMS that can handle a larger load.
 
chargery bms8t (you can find on ebay for about 120 dollars) is the cheapest one I would recommend for solar. They got a version 4 now, with a better SOC and other updates. You need to buy the contactors seperately, I use 4 dollar 30 amp automotive relays as contactors and they work good for me. You can find relays/solonoids that can handle 200+ amps for 20 to 30 dollars. There are other bms like baltrium etc that also use contactors but those are in the 400 dollar range. I would stay away from the cheaper bms that use mosfets, I tested many of them and they don't work well with solar. The chargery has an LCD screen where you can program all the settings, over/under voltage, 1.2 amp balancing , it has audio/visual alarms, 2 temp sensors. 

With contactors/relays you avoid the problem of voltage surges (since they are mechanical and completely disconnect the battery) that would occur if a bms activates. The mosfet bms when they activate, leak voltage, the charge controller reads this voltage an tries to forcibly charge the battery, but it wont accept amps this causes voltage surges. I lost many 12 volt fans, pumps, lights because of voltage surges.

On my system, I have the relay that stops the charge connected between the solar panel and controller, if the bms decides to stop the charge it basically disconnects the solar panel, this stops power going into the controller. The controller will still be connected to the battery like its suppose to be. 



Picture of chargery, not shown are all the attaching wires, shunt, etc. It takes up alot of space but its worth it.
 

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jonyjoe303 said:
chargery bms8t (you can find on ebay for about 120 dollars) is the cheapest one I would recommend for solar. They got a version 4 now, with a better SOC and other updates. You need to buy the contactors seperately, I use 4 dollar 30 amp automotive relays as contactors and they work good for me. You can find relays/solonoids that can handle 200+ amps for 20 to 30 dollars. There are other bms like baltrium etc that also use contactors but those are in the 400 dollar range. I would stay away from the cheaper bms that use mosfets, I tested many of them and they don't work well with solar. The chargery has an LCD screen where you can program all the settings, over/under voltage, 1.2 amp balancing , it has audio/visual alarms, 2 temp sensors. 

Can the chargery be used on a 12 volt 4 cell system? Or is it only for 24 volt and 48 volt systems?
 
chargery bms8t can be used on any system up to 8s, I use it on my 4s 220ah lifepo4, but it can also be used on li-ion systems. On a 4s lifepo4 system you can program where you want it to activate, at 3.65 per cell or lower.
It requires 2 contactors/relays but I only use 1 for overvoltage protection. For undervoltage protection I just rely on the audio/visual alarms. On my 220ah batterybank, I rarely go under 75 percent, the 1 time I did go below 5 percent the alarms worked as advertised.
 
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