Lithium Battery Storage For Colder Climates

[connor77]

Looking to get some guidance on possibly removing my batteries for the winter or what my options might be if they are left in the trailer.  I live in central Maine and our temps can get quite cold for prolonged periods of time. 
I've read the storage literature from Lithionics but I'd like to hear from people who have lithium batteries that live in cold climates and how you store them.  Do you remove them?  Leave them in the trailer and charge them from time to time?  Or something else?  I'm aware that they should be at 13.2v or 50% SOC for storage.                                      For reference, I do not have convenient shore power at my house (yet) and probably won't until the middle of next year.  I have researched battery blankets but from what I've read they are not to be used for lithium batteries.  I also plan to cover our trailer soon but I'm sure that if I needed to, I could access the batteries if I had to.

Advice appreciated...

[NCeagle]

I don't have the experience and I don't live up North in a cold climate, but I thought about what I'd do given your circumstances...

Without a doubt, I'd take them out and store them in the house / garage with a proper charge and reasonable temps.  I think in Maine you might see some nights at or below 0F and I think they are pretty expensive to risk. 

That's my .02.  🙂

[dewdev]

Kevin:

In addition to input from this forum, I would call the battery manufacture and ask them your questions, as they carry your battery warranty.

(Don't put your batteries directly on a concrete floor, use wood in between.)

[Fritz]

To me, the Lithionics storage requirements are a bit ambiguous, in that the duration of extreme temperatures isn't addressed.  For example, the batteries have a 130°F maximum operating range; does this mean that temperatures during storage cannot exceed ~95°F at all, or for most of the time, or?  Similarly, short-term low temperature limit is -4°F, but longer term short-term limit is 14°F.  So for how long can short-term storage can batteries be less than, say, 14°F -- a month, or?  

Here in southern Idaho temperatures can be lower than 0°F for a few days (or nights), but not generally very long. But nighttime temperatures can be less than 14°F for several weeks at a time, with daytime temps above 14°F.  To be safe, I'll be removing the batteries for the winter, storing them at about 50% SOC.  I haven't done so yet, because daytime temperatures here are still in the mid 50s -- and it's December!  

There are also relative humidity (RH) criteria for storage.  I have no idea how to address these here in a relatively dry climate, especially indoors in the winter (the batteries will be stored in a heated shop/garage).

Recognize that the SOC values under load (or while charging) can be substantially different than those when the batteries are at rest, at least in my experience.  So, I plan on discharging for a while, stop the load, look at the resting SOC, repeat as necessary.  

Next, for those that haven't seen earlier Lithionics-related posts, the SOC is unreliable if the battery firmware has not been upgraded to the current version.  See:

Finally, note that the manual suggests that you record SOCs and voltages when storing the batteries for warranty purposes.  See https://lithionicsbattery.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/12V130-G31LRBM8-Battery-User-Guide-R1.pdf.