Lithium-ion battery technology has become more and more popular in recent years. End users are learning that lithium technology increases their applications’ efficiency, reduces charge time, weighs less and most importantly, lasts many years longer compared to lead acid alternatives.
A smaller rechargeable lithium battery works well as a replacement for your product’s large lead acid battery. As with any application, it’s important to properly size your battery.
Lithium Allows For Lower Depth Of Discharge
Depth of discharge (DOD) is a common measurement used to forecast how long a battery will last. To get maximum life out of lead acid batteries, experts recommend maintaining a DOD of 20 to 50 percent every discharge cycle.
However, this is a difficult requirement to meet. More times than not, batteries are discharged to 80 percent DOD or lower. This causes battery failure well before your lead acid battery’s expected end of life.
Lithium-ion batteries are able to withstand 80 to 100 percent DOD per discharge cycle. At this DOD, you don’t waste energy or battery capacity.
However, every battery loses some capacity with each discharge cycle. Lithium technology allows for 5,000 cycles at 100 percent DOD before half of the rated capacity is lost.
Lithium is able to go through 10 times as many discharge cycles at 100 percent DOD as a lead acid batteryis capable of going through at 80 percent DOD.
While a lithium-ion battery withstands 100 percent DOD, it’s wise to maintain a DOD of 80 percent to increase battery life.
Lithium Requires Fewer Amp Hours
If you know your product’s daily Watt-Hour (Wh) usage, you are able to convert it into Amp Hours (Ah) needed for daily operation.
Because lithium technology is 99 percent efficient, the daily consumption calculation is relatively easy to determine. For example, on a 12V system, you would need a 12V 100Ah lithium-ion battery to support a load of 1200Wh.
On the other hand, a lead acid battery would require double the Ah to maintain 50 percent DOD per cycle.
Daily Ah consumption, recharge rate, weight and space requirements are measurements you need to examine closely to choose the right battery for your application. Lithium-ion battery technology surpasses all other alternatives in efficiency, making it the optimal battery solution.
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.