Battery Management Systems

Battery management systems (BMS) monitor and regulate a LiFePO4 battery pack. It prevents overcharge and over-discharge, protects the batteries from operating outside their limits, and prevents operation during extreme temperatures that may damage the batteries or make them dangerous. A BMS is critical to the longevity and safety of a battery pack.

All the listed LiFePO4 Battery Packs have a BMS, but if you wish to build your own battery pack, you should use a BMS to manage the system. Below are a few highly-rated BMSs that have essential features, such as high and low temperature protection, low voltage disconnect, and more.

There are several aspects to consider when designing your own battery system, including cost, size, weight, charging capacity, device load, and inverting efficiency, to name a few. Lower voltage battery packs are often smaller, less expensive, and safer than larger, heaver, and higher voltage packs. If you’re predominantly using a 12 volt DC battery pack to power 12 volt DC devices, such as those found in a vehicle, it may be more desirable to build a 12 volt pack. However, if you are using many 120 VAC devices, then a 48 volt system may be more efficient, since there’s higher electrical efficiency when inverting from higher voltages (such as 48 volts DC) to 120 volts AC, than from a lower voltage, such as 12 volts DC.

Overkill Solar

Overkill Solar makes battery management systems for 4-cell (12 volt), 8-cell (24 volt), and 16-cell (48 volt) battery configurations. Read their BMS Manual for more information.