Lithium Batteries

Some of you maybe aware that for quite a while I have been investigating Lithium Leisure Batteries. The main reason has been, that our caravan heating system which is a Truma system, has a power hungry fan which puts quite a drain on the battery when compared to the water circulation fan of an Alde wet system.

Last year we finally purchased a 100Ah Lithium Iron phosphate battery. We chose the 100Ah battery as that is the largest that we could fit into our battery box.

The company who supplied the battery are based in China and have a number of Lithium Leisure Batteries in their range and several associated accessories such as Lithium Battery Chargers, Solar Panels and Solar Controllers compatible with their Lithium Batteries and Solar Panels, Inverters and the like.

For most caravans, the largest of the batteries that will fit in the standard battery box is a 100Ah battery and the company manufacture 3 batteries to suit differing needs and price bands. The lowest priced 100Ah battery which we currently have is a standard battery with blue tooth connectivity enabling certain features of the battery to be monitored using a Smart phone, such as voltage, charge/discharge rate, capacity and percentage charge and temperature. This retails at around £460.00 to £480.00. They have two other batteries in this size, one of which has a self heating function and retails at around £520.00. The third battery which retails at around £500.00 and is suited to parallel connections.

We have been using our battery since early November of last year and when at the EY Centre bonfire rally, operated for 5 days without requiring any charge and with 40% charge left when the rally closed. We used all of the caravan facilities including the heater and television through that period.

The great benefit of these batteries compared with the lead equivalents is that until the battery is around 95% discharged the voltage does not drop appreciably whereas with many lead acid batteries the voltage drops significantly and at around 60% discharge drops to a point when certain facilities in the caravan start to shut down.

One other benefit that we noted is that the battery weighs only 60% of the weight of our down-rated 85Ah lead acid battery which equates to a few more pairs of shoes for guess who!

Regarding the Self-heating function, this was developed as below 6 degrees centigrade it is more difficult to charge a Lithium Iron Phosphate battery and below 0 degrees I understand that they will not charge, so the self heating function enables the battery to be charged at low ambient temperatures. Once charged, the batteries can discharge to the caravan services at sub-zero temperatures.

I am currently in touch with an agent for the company in China and am looking to negotiate discounts if there is sufficient demand. Please contact me if you are interested in a purchase or obtaining more details to allow you to make an informed decision. You may need to consider changing your battery charger or solar regulator, or purchasing a DC to DC Lithium charger.