So now to think about the bank and the choice of BMS.
@Louisvdw - can your driver can handle this as then become a way to add battery capacity from another source (sort of V2G compatibility).
I can picture your golf estates/etc being an option here as well as golf clubs who have huge battery banks (ok not always lithium) sitting in the garages just waiting… golf cart battery designers could also build this into their BMS choices.
It is a 48V DC protected distribution solution that is rack mountable and has multiple fused connectors.
They were mainly used in cellular and micro link setups.
There are many ways to skin this cat.
Do you want onboard PV, or do you want to plug the cart into an existing PV system?
The easiest is to have your PV system as is ( lithium batteries and all) and use a Victron 48V/48V converter charger to plug from the DC busbars to the lead acids in the golf cart.
This can change a Lithium voltage to a LA voltage.
(I don’t think Lithium batteries are the right choice for the golf cart onboard batteries. Stick with LAs in the cart).
Then use the existing PV system like a filling station.
(I have heard that an MPPT direct on the busbars ( instead of the PV) may work, but I have never tried this, and Victron doesn’t support it).
Alternatively:
If you want to exchange the golf cart roof for PV, you need at least two panels in series to use a buck MPPT ( Not all golf carts can fit two panels.)
One panel can work with a boost MPPT. ( There are several youtube clips).
Anecdotally, onboard Lithiums have underwhelming golf cart performance (youtube references that I can no longer recall).
I believe this is because of the nature of their duty cycle vs this application.
LA’s can’t charge as fast as Lithiums, but LA’s seem to be able to deliver more torque amps when asked to.
So, the onboard lithium will have to have a high Ah battery rating, read expensive.
The golf cart’s duty cycle may take its toll on this lithium battery’s longevity, but YMMV.
I don’t think that relationship holds true. I think a new 150ah LA golf cart battery has about 650A cold cranking amps, which exceeds 2C on a 280Ah Lithium battery.
These are LAs that are specifically designed for golf cart duty.
From what I’ve seen anecdotally, Lithium is sluggish in a golf cart.
I don’t know if this statement will hold true if the battery is not designed for this application.
I do know it will be an expensive bet to lose.
Lithium makes a golf cart really fast to be honest. Makes it alot lighter and actually dangerously light. They have way more range and if you run a higher voltage then you can increase speed even more.
Price wise they are almost on par but chargers are expensive and so the “use solar from roof” idea.
I can see how they can be faster at a higher voltage and have more range. That would be in line with a higher-voltage Lithium bank.
By sluggish, I refer to torque and acceleration, not top speed and range.
0-35 in 12 secs is faster but still more sluggish than 0-30 in 5 secs.
This seems to be the outcome of some youtube clips I have seen, but I have no skin in the game. So experiment away.
