Life Expectancy Chart of Aluminum Lithium Batteries
Aluminum Encased Batteries Have TWICE the Life of Plastic Encased Batteries
Measuring the life expectancy of a lithium battery is difficult to pinpoint. So we thought that we would like to expound on the subject to help an anticipated lithium user understand the issue and conclude how to get the maximum life from their battery pack.
Understanding Charge Cycle Life – Lithium vs. Lead Acid
Typically the life of any battery is measured in the number of charges the battery has before it deteriorates to a point where it can only hold 80% of its capacity when it was new. This number is called the batteries ‘Charge Cycle Life’.
As a comparison I would like to start with a lead acid battery. Lead acid batteries have a charge cycle life of between 350 charges all the way up past 600 charges. With the lower charge cycle life usually found in car starter batteries and the higher charge cycle life found in laboratory or solar storage applications. But here is where things can become a little misleading. The honest way of measuring a battery’s life can be manipulated. Because of the Peukert effect which exists on all lead acid batteries you cannot discharge more than about 55% of the batteries new 20 hour capacity rating. A 100 Amp Hour ‘Ah lead acid battery will only yield about 55 Ah before it is considered fully discharged.
Lithium batteries are not affected by Peukert’s Law to the extent that lead acid batteries are so you can discharge a lithium battery down to 20% of its full State of Charge ‘SOC’ before the battery is considered discharged. With many lithium batteries if the discharge is more that 80% DOD it will not hurt the batteries life but is generally accepted that the lithium battery is fully discharged at 80% DOD. To run honest tests to determine the exact life of a lithium battery the battery must be fully charged and then fully discharged to 80% DOD.
Seven Pitfalls to Avoid When Buying Lithium Batteries
Please read before you commit to a purchase.
Lithium is a rare earth metal that is only found in a few countries in the world. The largest concentration is in Bolivia. However, years ago the President of Bolivia made an agreement with the President of Iran, not a friendly country to most of the free non-Muslim world, to sell all of Bolivia’s lithium to Iran. The next biggest commercial deposits come from China. Thus, if you want to purchase anything with lithium in it you will probably have to deal with the Chinese. That is not necessarily a bad thing. I have discovered that there are many good Chinese capitalistic companies that are anxious to sell their products in the free world. However there are some lithium companies in China that are owned by the Chinese Government and have been formed for two purposes: To make money and to give people work. People who work for these Government entities are like civil servants. They know that it is difficult to fire them so, in my opinion; it is human nature that they will not pay as close attention to things as a company whose existence depends on keeping the customers happy.The 7 Pitfalls of Buying Lithium Batteries:
1. Poor Quality
2. Financial Exposure
3. Unforeseen Costs
4. Delayed Delivery
5. Shipping Issues
6. Labeling and Paperwork Mistakes
7. Warranty Replacements