So, the background here is that The Jacekry, which has been working out quite well, has a hiccup – because of the type of battery it uses, charging it when the temp is below freezing will damage the battery. The battery will output power below freezing, but it will not recharge since the battery management system in the Jackery will disable the charging circuit when the temp is too low.

Now, the obvious solution is to keep the unit someplace where it will be warm. However, no such option is available at the moment. Even if I put the Jackery in the conex, it is still just in a large unheated box. It will get just as cold in there as it will outside. No help there.

But…it occurred to me that the Jackery, as it is running, has a cooling fan running. Why does it need a cooling fan? Because it generates some degree of heat. Hmmm. So, hear me out, what if the Jackery was placed in an insulated box that retained that heat to keep the unit above freezing? The type of battery used by the Jackery does not off-gas like other batteries, so thats not an issue. And, any container wouldnt necessarily be airtight anyway….think something like a styrofoam cooler with a couple small holes punched though for the cables.

This is something I need to experiment with while the weather is still reasonable. There is, of course, a couple risks here. One risk would be that, on a particularly unseasonable day, temps could get high enough that there might be a risk of overheating. I believe I can mitigate this by setting the Jackery to shut itself off and then restart in several hours (the app gives you the option of setting times for it to run). The problem with that is it would mean that when the Jackery restarts Starlink would re-boot and while I admire what Elon has created, theres no guarantee the reboot wouldnt require me to be there hands-on for a problem.

The Jacekry app indicates the  temperature at the unit. So, on my next trip up there, drop it in an insulated container and track the temperature for a few hours while Im up there and see what happens.

And speaking of, local Costco has the same package I have of Jackery back in stock. However, it is not on sale as it was when I bought. Still though, I’ve been pleased with it so far and even at ‘full price’ I’m tempted top get another.

Anyway, I’ll let you know how this experiment goes.