If you’re in the market for a battery and looking for performance, you need to weigh the costs and benefits of a lithium or lead acid option.
In most cases, a lithium battery is your ideal solution. While commanding a higher cost, lithium batteries give you more performance, life span, reliability, and safety for your dollar than the traditional lead acid battery.
Here are four reasons you should be considering lithium over lead-acid for most applications, including vehicles, watercraft and solar energy storage:
Performance By Weight
A lithium battery provides more power per square inch than a lead-acid counterpart. It also weighs considerably less. A smaller, lighter battery is almost always a smarter choice when integrating with applications where space and weight are critical, including solar grids and watercraft.
Lithium’s compact size and low weight is especially impressive when you consider performance. An average lead-acid battery operating at 10% discharge achieves 1750 cycles, while a cobalt lithium-ion operating at the same discharge rate achieves 4000 or more cycles.
Lithium-ion technology also performs better while deep cycling, meaning it's capable of outputting equal amounts of power at any charge level. When a lead-acid battery’s charge gets low, its performance suffers considerably. The lithium battery’s performance at low charge is critical if you plan on taking an electric vehicle or watercraft out for an extended trip, providing an extra safeguard.
Life Span
Lithium batteries, especially LiFePO4 formulations, blow lead acid out of the water when it comes to life span: five to six years on average, compared to an average of two to three for lead-acid.
The reason for a lithium battery’s superior life span is twofold. First, lithium formulations cause minimal structural damage to the battery itself. Lead acid, as the name implies, erodes battery structure over time.
Second, a lithium battery requires almost no maintenance, whereas a lead acid battery needs to be filled with water periodically or severe damage (and potentially, a safety hazard) could occur.
A lithium battery also performs better than a lead acid battery in extreme temperatures. At 77 degrees, a lead-acid battery’s life span stabilizes at 100%. Raise the temperature to 127 degrees and stabilization drops to 3%. Conversely, lithium’s life span is unaffected by the same temperature.
Charging
Lithium batteries charge quicker than lead acid batteries, and most importantly, charge to full capacity in one session. A lead-acid battery needs to be charged over multiple sessions to achieve capacity. Lithium has the advantage here because for most people, being able to “set it and forget it” is preferable to mandatory check-ins.
Keep in mind that when charging your lithium or lead acid battery, your charger must meet your battery’s specifications. If your battery stores a lot of energy, a charger with a higher rate of charge is worth the investment.
Safety And Toxicity
Lithium batteries are made with more safeguards in place to prevent structural damage, fires and other adverse events. A lead acid battery relies on dated technology, so if the battery is not properly maintained or is subjected to hostile environments, it becomes potentially hazardous.
Additionally, a lead acid battery that hasn’t been properly disposed of poses a serious environmental risk. As lead acid eats away at the battery’s structure, it becomes a source of pollution. A lithium battery contains no acid. If disposed of negligently, it causes far less damage to its surroundings.
No matter what battery you choose, make sure you work with a provider that gives you white-glove service and support, capable of assessing your needs and designing custom, high-ROI solutions.
To learn more about how to calculate your energy needs and find the optimal battery for your application and usage, visit our Lithium Battery Selector Tool.