ReLion 
​RB100 Lithium Batteries

Well, where to begin... Your batteries are basically the whole life line of your vessel, therefore you need quality batteries that will stand the test of endurance. The topic of batteries is always an intricate conversation. However, the new technology of Lithium batteries far exceeds its predecessors of AGM or Gel batteries. 

Our old house battery bank consisted of 3xAGM 100 Amp hour batteries. This is a substantial amount of power and it was reliable, however the old technology of batteries, just does not allow for many mistakes in treating them right, as each time you can not replenish the power you use, you hurt the battery a little bit. This is called a cycle in battery terms. Deep cycle batteries are designed to be used to 20%, meaning they can be used and drained to 20% and then recharged fully, this counts for one cycle. There is a limit to the amount of times you can do this, for an AGM battery life cycle is around 500 times. Compare this to a ReLion Lithium battery which has over 5000 life cycles, you can see the clear winner already.

It is not only the life expectancy that makes you favour towards the Lithium battery. What has me excited is how the charge of the battery gives constant power, no matter how much charge the battery has remaining. With an AGM battery, your battery is fully charged and as you use it, it loses less voltage and power through its cycle until you can charge the thing back up again. With a Lithium battery, You have a consistent flow of charge for over 90 % of the time. For example, an AGM battery starts at the bottom of the hill with full intention of reaching the top, but as it gradually makes its ascend up the incline, it slowly wears out of energy. Where as ole mate Lithium battery, climbing the same hill just keeps on keeping on at the same constant power the whole way.

​ The Lithium battery has the added benefit of faster charge rates, requiring less time to replenish the power in the battery. We installed new solar panels on Nandji which allowed us to top up our AGM batteries in the morning sun in a few hours, however if we had the fridge running on a cloudy day, the panels were not sufficient to completely recharge the batteries. As there are three phases to charging a battery, the bulk charge, absorption and float charge.  These three phases are sped up with Lithium as the battery is not damaged when not re charged fully. Meaning the absorption ophase will always be 0 to 15 min with a Lithium battery instead of potentially hours with lead acid batteries! So, instead of needing to get further solar panels, our current system should be more than adequate to cater for the new Lithium batteries as the charging times are significantly reduced. 

Then as a bonus of how much better a Lithium battery is and why make the change, they are half the weight and generally a tad smaller than then the comparison Amp hour AGM type battery. This meaning not lugging and breaking your back trying to install the new system!

Installing Lithium Batteries

Upgrading to Lithium. Is it worth it?