Boating is one of the most enjoyable activities imaginable. There’s a wonderful sense of relaxation when you get away from the daily grind and enjoy the peaceful, serene atmosphere when you’re on a boat. When you’re at sea or on a lake, nothing else seems to matter. It’s you and the water, and you’ve got the tranquility you were looking for.
If you love boating and exploring the waterways, you probably know there’s one thing you always want on board with you.
Having a durable and reliable power source is what makes the difference between getting back to land safely or finding yourself stuck out at sea.
When you know you’ve got a good power source, issues like that don’t enter your mind. Instead, you can focus on your love for being on the water.
One of the surest ways of getting that peace of mind is by upgrading to LiFePO4 batteries before you set sail. A lot of boat owners, and a growing number of manufacturers as well, have already made that switch.
Anyone who’s been out boating knows that having dependable power is about more than making it back to the dock. Your oven, refrigerator, lights and controls are crucial for your comfort during the trip.
If you have made the switch to lithium batteries, you probably know that they maintain voltage for longer periods of time. But if you’re also wondering what kind of maintenance they require, here are some useful tips on ways to monitor your batteries.
How long can my GreenLiFE battery last?
A GreenLiFE battery offers the highest standards in energy and efficiency, and the life expectancy on these batteries is 10 years or more. These batteries can be used for 3,000-5,000 life cycles, compared to the 300-500 life cycle of lead acid batteries.
And you can use GreenLiFE batteries for all common uses, including boating, RVs, solar power, golf carts and custom applications. These batteries work great on all current external chargers.
Now, if you want to determine the available charge in your battery, there are some simple and effective methods for monitoring them.
There are also right, and wrong, ways of testing lithium ion batteries. And if you’re not sure how to test lithium ion battery capacity or to do lithium ion battery testing, here’s a quick guide for you.
What are the most effective testing methods?
While these batteries are built to consume little energy, in theory you should be able to deduce the charge level from battery voltage. But you won’t want to do that, because you can get an unreliable result, since there are no clear correlations between voltage and the available charge on your battery.
And since battery voltage also depends on temperature, a charge-level accuracy using voltage-based monitoring is no better than 25 percent.
It’s far more cost-effective to have an idea of your total power usage, and how much energy you’re using. Measured in amp hours, you can get an idea about your total usage and calculate how long you can last on battery power.
Think of it this way: you’re relaxing in your living room, and your television set, several lights, and an overhead fan are on. This might pull 7-10 amps per hour. If you know the power in your battery bank is about 200-amp hours, that’s about 20 hours of run time on the batteries.
But you can also take advantage of products that measure voltage and what you have left in terms of battery capacity. Xantrex Technology manufactures advanced power electronic products, including reliable power products used when people are on the move that can provide auxiliary or emergency power.
Their mobile product line includes inverters which, combined with a built-in battery source, are designed to work with an external power source such as a car battery or generator.
Xantrex makes a great battery level gauge for lithium systems. Think of it as being similar to the gas gauge on your car. You can use their products to see what the current voltage is and get a more accurate estimate of how much battery power you have left. At a moment’s notice, you’ll know how much battery you have left.
This process is known as fuel-gauge learning. Using the Xantrex product is well worth the investment, because it allows you to achieve sufficient accuracy while your battery is in use. Done in conjunction with the coulomb counting method, which can accurately estimate the state-of-charge of lithium-ion batteries, this approach will yield fuel gauge accuracy to within a few percentage points.
That’s why you don’t want to rely on simple methods of measurement, since there are a lot of interdependent parameters that can influence the cell capacity, and that could lead to inaccurate results.
A far more reliable fuel gauge is provided through off-the-shelf fuel-gauge ICs.
Feel secure using GreenLiFE batteries
Today, there’s a large number of lithium-ion batteries being used, and it helps to have a functional rapid-testing method for them. This provides quality control for your batteries, knowing you don’t have a low capacity battery.
If you love boating, traveling in your RV or want the safest, most efficient power source to keep your car in the best condition possible, you know batteries are indispensable energy storage systems.
GreenLiFE batteries are superior products that surpass industry standards and far exceed customer and client expectations. They’re also designed with an explosion proof stainless steel casing, flame retardant electrolyte and a thermal fuse. Each battery also has a patented internal Battery Management System that prevents over/under charging and shorting out.
GreenLiFE also offers a 5 Year Warranty on most GLi batteries, one of the best warranties on the market.
To learn more, contact GreenLiFE Battery at 888-522-2883 or by email at sales@greenlifebattery.com.