July 21, 2020
The long summer days are teasing us to get away, dreaming about blue skies and white sands. With the ever-changing travelling advice and hassle, holidaying on home soil is suddenly becoming quite attractive - it's looking like the year of 'staycation'! With campsites reopening, there’s no better way to get away safely than exploring nature with your own leisure vehicle. If you’re lucky enough to own a motorhome, or even a converted van, you should be familiar with batteries for auxiliary power. So, if you have an Essential battery or any other lithium-ion battery installed, this article will outline the best charging practices for optimum battery care.
We asked our customers what they wanted to know about battery charging. Take a look at our answers to the most frequently asked questions.
In general, you should make sure your lithium battery remains 50% charged. If batteries are not in use, they should be shelf-stored in a dry cool environment - typically, the battery compartment within your leisure vehicle is an ideal location to keep your battery. Before you are ready to use the battery, you can use a trickle charger to ensure the battery is 100% charged. A simple 1A trickle charger is sufficient to safely keep an Aceleron Essential battery topped-up when in storage.
If you have already invested in equipment but are thinking of making the switch to lithium-ion, you’ll be happy to know, Aceleron’s batteries are compatible with lead-acid chargers. We do recommend that you select a charger designed for the chemistry of your battery, so you can enjoy benefits such as faster charging.
How often you charge your lithium-ion battery depends on how it's used. If it is used heavily and fully discharged often, it will need to be recharged often. If it is used sparingly, it can be charged at a similar rate. It’s a bit of a balancing act as typically, batteries should not be left fully discharged or fully charged.
Battery longevity, much like people, is all about moderation; excessive high-power operation (charge or discharge) or frequent exposure to extreme temperatures are key examples of behaviour that will reduce the battery lifespan.
The Essential battery can connect directly to any 12V charger. It is compatible with a lead-acid charger but will charge faster with a recommended lithium charger. Standard alligator clips can be attached across the terminals or M8 lugs can be bolted down on the battery for more permanent configurations. A typical charger connects to the battery via the grid.
Lead-acid batteries self-discharge at 4-5% a week when they are disconnected from charging. Lithium-ion leisure batteries discharge around 3-5% per month. If you want to disconnect a lead-acid leisure battery, we recommend getting a small solar car battery charger (5-15 watts), that should trickle-charge it if it’s sunny. If you have a lithium-ion battery, you could leave it disconnected for 3-5 months without any issue.
In short, with a lithium battery you should be able to get away with minimal maintenance charging. See our lithium battery in use in a motorhome.
For a lithium battery the structure of the positive terminal is variable when it is depleted of electrons for long periods of time, which can lead to permanent capacity loss. However, lithium’s low self-discharge rate means, that it does not need to be stored at 100% state of charge (SoC). In fact, a lithium battery should be stored near 50% state of charge – which equally distributes the electrons on the positive and negative terminals.
Or more simply, lithium battery chemistry is a bit like a hydro dam’s reservoir. In an ideal world, it would be best to keep the reservoir half full. An empty reservoir, and you have no power; but an overfilled dam can cause issues that damage the dam (overflow etc).
October 12, 2022
Thanks to the current energy crisis, interest in harnessing renewable energy is unsurprisingly on the rise. Our co-founder and CTO explains how energy storage works to increase our access to renewable energy.
August 22, 2022
The transition to clean energy is well underway and it is widely accepted that battery based energy storage has a major part to play. We therefore have a duty to build energy storage that will leave a positive legacy, and this is why a full understanding of the materials we use and how we can use them is so important.
July 25, 2022
Now is unquestionably the time to consider investing in a long term supply of clean energy that will give us independence from geopolitical influences whilst also contributing towards reaching net zero. With prices as high as they are, the initial cost outlay could be recouped in as little as five years which is all the more reason to seriously consider switching to a clean energy source.
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Aceleron has been shortlisted for the 2023 Ashden Award for Integrated Energy Africa in recognition of their innovative work in sustainable battery solutions. The Ashden Awards are a globally recognised platform that acknowledges and supports impactful climate solutions from around the world.
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