I've made this video to address the
misunderstandings concerning batteries
used in the sailing community though
this will obviously be relevant to
anyone looking to install an energy
storage solution. I'm specifically making
this video as a result of watching a
recent video by the Wynns on their
channel Gone with the Wynns where they
did an excellent job of presenting the
benefits of lithium-ion batteries but
underrepresented the cost-benefit of
lead acid; and this is not to say that I
disagree with their decision, in fact for
their boat and their lifestyle I think
they made the right call, but for the
vast majority of us on the water today
I think lead-acid are the way to go, and
I'll attempt to so why by accurately
presenting the cost of lead acid and
lithium ion, and I'll go one further by
presenting the numbers for aquion
batteries as well since they have
recently become a hot topic of
discussion. I've had this video in the
works for nearly a month now but I fear
my procrastination has already cost good
people hard-earned money as Sailing Starlike
recently purchased lithium ion and
I'm not convinced it was the best
decision for them. Aquion batteries are
a relative newcomer to the battery
market made of a manganese oxide cathode
and a titanium phosphate anode the
electrolyte is sodium perchlorate, a
common salt. Since it is free of the
toxic substances normally found in
batteries it is the only battery which
has received cradle-to-cradle
certification, meaning that at no point
in its lifecycle from the very beginning
of its manufacturing to the very end of
its recycling, is it ever a threat to the
environment. But potato batteries are
non-toxic too it doesn't necessarily
mean that they are a good energy storage
solution. Aquion batteries are further
complicated by the fact that at the
beginning of March, Aquion Energy filed
for voluntary bankruptcy. But I'll cover
them nonetheless for two reasons they
are currently still available from
select online retailers, and, if the
technology is solid then someone is sure
to pick it up and restart production
again. They wouldn't be the first company
to rise from the ashes of bankruptcy.
The numbers I'm using today come directly
from the manufacturers I've chosen
Trojan and Relion to represent their
respective technologies because they
both come highly recommended for quality
and customer service. The Wynns recommend
Region lithium-ion batteries, and Andrew
Evans, writer of thoughts tips techniques
and tactics for single-handed sailing
recommends Trojan lead acid batteries
which he uses on his Olson 30 named
Foolish Muse. Flooded lead-acid batteries
are a decade's old technology having
reached their technological peak years
ago. As such they do require some very
basic maintenance, which is really no
harder than checking the engine oil but
for some owners it's an issue, so I'll
grudgingly mention it. All one needs to
do is open the caps, and if the cells
have off gassed some of the water, top it
up. However if your charger is adjusted
properly for your specific batteries,
there should not be a significant amount
of off gassing. On the right you can see
lead acid batteries live longest when
only discharged slightly down to about
ten percent but at the same time this is
a very inefficient use. Applications
where you might use them this way,
efficiency be damned, is in a computer
ups (or uninterruptible power supply)
where it is only required to cover for
brief periods of instability in the
power distribution grid, brown outs, spikes,
saving your work and shutting down
during a blackout, OR on a sailboat that
is sailed for a couple hours a day
during daylight but otherwise spends it's
life plugged in at the dock. To this list
I would add live aboard motor sailors
including catamarans, since the engines
are turning often enough to basically
make them equivalent to a grid-tied
system. On the other extreme, on the left
is a battery that is charged to 100%
after every use but fully discharged
during every use. This is how my family
used batteries in our camper every
summer growing up, during the day running
radio, fans, pumps; at night running the
lights until they died, then waking up
the next morning starting the car
clipping the battery to the alternator
and charging it full again for another
day of use and abuse. Still even abusing
a battery in this way you can see by
looking at the left side of the chart
that it should still last you several
years of use. It's generally accepted
that the greatest cost benefit for lead
acid is achieved around 50% depth of
discharge but to see these benefits to
your batteries
you must religiously avoid
discharging deeper as killing your
batteries even once will
disproportionately push you to the left
side of this graph and killing them even
three or four times will permanently and
irreparably push you to the left side.
Still I'll reiterate that even abusing
them like this they should still last
you several years on a high-quality
deep-cycle battery killing it as far
from the instant death that it would be
on a high amp automotive battery.
The biggest concern concerning a lead acid
battery is returning it back to 100%
state of charge this is critical to
prevent sulfation which will drastically
reduce a lead acid battery's ability
to take and deliver a charge. This can be
difficult or even impossible with your
solar wind installation especially when
under sized
if a battery is stored below 100% state
of charge then sulfation will buildup on
the plates and though this can be
partially repaired with a maintenance
cycle which basically is just a charge
cycle that includes periods of much
higher voltage to knock the sulfate off
the plates it is never fully repairable
furthermore this type of maintenance
cycle promotes grid corrosion on the
plate so it is also damaging to the
overall health of the battery and should
therefore be avoided. Of immediate
urgency however is the fact that a
maintenance cycle will cause off gassing
as a result of over voltage condition so
it is vitally important to check in add
water when necessary afterwards and with
something like Trojans Hydra link water
system it really is not as difficult as
people make it out to be over volting a
lithium ion on the other hand will
destroy it in fact where you must return
a LED acid to 100% state of charge to
revenge sulfation a lithium ion battery
performs best when held at about 90%
This is excellent for efficiency as
batteries generally resist being charged
to 100%. Though I couldn't find numbers
it's widely accepted that lead acid
batteries greatly suffer in terms of
charging efficiency as a result of their
needing to be charged to 100% if anyone
has these numbers I'd love to see them
down below in the comments. On the bottom
end lithium ion batteries tolerate much
lower depths of discharge as well with
their greatest cost benefit down
around 20% state-of-charge Aquion are
even better
taking all safe of charge from 100% down
to dead without suffering any
significant effects to lifespan so with
lead-acid obviously being the least
technologically advanced why are they
still on the table? Cost the first row
here is the initial cost which is
shockingly high for lithium ion.
SHOCKINGLY HIGH. This is especially true
for boat owners on a fixed income and is
the most often quoted reason for going
with lead acid but simultaneously it
insinuates that though the initial cost
is higher for lithium ion the overall
cost is actually lower and this is not
necessarily or even generally the case
we'll get to that in a bit also a note
about this graphic the lead acid
solution and the lithium ion solution
are nominally three kilowatt hours where
the Aquion is only two and a half so
the price to price comparison in this
graphic begins to break down a little
here. Back to the spreadsheet the second
and third rows are weight and volume
which only suggest ease of handling.
I always cringe when I see people
manhandling a 75 kilogram battery (that's
150 odd pounds) awkwardly into position
on their boat. You slip a disk at the
dock and your sailing adventure is over
before it begins. Because of its size the
Aquion on will be limited mostly to
land-based installations or very
specialized boat installations. For
lithium ion if you look carefully each
lithium ion battery comes equipped with
a charge controller on the top which
adds to their efficiency and safety, but
also adds to their bulk so we'll give
lead-acid the win in both of these rows
as well for the time being, with the
caveat that more lead acid batteries
will need to be installed to give us the
same kilowatt hours. The fourth and fifth
rows are the accepted depth of discharge
for best cost benefit and the life
expectancy when used in this way. With
Aquion batteries there is no need to
stress the battery management so a win
here for them and lithium ion with a
life span over 10 years takes the win
for this line. Note that the Aquion is
a 48 volt battery and the trojan is a
6 volt battery
so we won't be able to compare amp-hours
directly. Also I'll take a moment now to
mention that depending how your system
is currently rigged you may need to
change out some equipment to 48 volt
equipment which will be an additional
cost of installation for the Aquion
battery though many large boats are
already 48 volt standard so you may not
have to these 7 rows allow us to
calculate the following four rows the
most important rows: cost per kilowatt
hour per year weight per kilowatt hour
weight per kilowatt hour per year and
volume per kilowatt hour. Aquion is in
fact the cheapest option per kilowatt
hour not including any necessary
modifications to the hall or electrical
system you have to make to make it
happen. Interestingly
lead-acid is actually still cheaper year
over year than lithium-ion. Not what you
were expecting if you've been listening
to the lithium ion zealots. To put it
bluntly at the end of the life cycle of
that lithium ion battery, the person who
went with lead acid still has 9
Benjamins for every three kilowatt hours
installed in their pocket to blow
whatever way they wish. And should you
have a catastrophic failure for example
your charger fails and boils your
batteries or your boat takes a lightning
strike then instead of being out only
eight Benji's you're now out of 35
Benji's if you went with Lithium Ion
I included weight per kilowatt hour per
years so you can calculate the amount
you need to budget for shipping but
for the vast majority of us who keep our
boats at a major center like Vancouver
or Toronto or New York or Galveston or
Miami etc etc where the vast vast vast
majority of us keep our boats this will
simply not even be a consideration even
if you are in the South Pacific most
countries use six volt lead acid
batteries in their scooters and electric
cars so shipping should really never be
a problem except maybe in the Caribbean
If you are in a location where shipping
costs are a concern for you then the
Aquion rather than lithium-ion is in
fact the cheapest battery in terms of
weight per kilowatt hour per year. Weight
per kilowatt hour
will not be a huge concern on a boat
weight is a concern for things like
drones and perhaps racing boats but for
the rest of us weight is just added
stability when you put it in the right
place more or less ditto for volume per
kilowatt hours it's a concern for
cellular phone makers and perhaps
cruisers who have their boats filled to
the gunnels with stores and gear but for
the vast majority of us it's just not an
issue. And lead-acid will be completely
satisfactory. Further with the lithium
ion batteries taking up nearly three
times the volume individually it's much
more difficult to find discreet
locations to tuck them. I will concede
here that the Wynns' is a rather
specialized installation having 1,200
amp hours of lithium ion which enables
them to run their air conditioning off
of their solar very few of us have this
requirement and to do so with lead acid
would be prohibitive
I've used four lead acid batteries per
Lithium Ion in my on in my calculations today
to ensure apples-to-apples as much as
possible which would mean 16 lead acid
batteries to roughly match the Wynns'
power storage with their with you my own
but in truth Andrew Evans has raised the
single hand of Transpac using only two
of these lead acids running all radios
and steering gear with no outages even
with consecutive overcast lasting
multiple days. Jamie and Liz have follow
the boat use for lead acid batteries and
charge all of their cameras computers
drones and if I recall even music
equipment. If you cruise around the world
for five years and then decide to sell
your boat for whatever reason remember
that no one cares that your lithium ions
theoretically still have nearly six
years left in them its lost value to you
probably around $5000 worth
of lost value. And though lithium ion
will get cheaper in the coming years
with lithium ion becoming more and more
popular it's very likely the price of
LED acid will also continue to drop as
legacy factories attempt to stay
relevant in the modern battery market
Aquion batteries likewise shouldn't be
immediately written off for applications
in remote locations where removal is
prohibitive due to these batteries
non-toxic nature it may be possible to
get permission to
dispose of these batteries on-site which
would certainly add significant value to
the cost-benefit analysis. Further
especially because of their
environmentally friendly image anyone
who needs to market themselves as
environmentally conscious: charities like
Sea Shepherd or EcoSwiss sailing
expeditions who market their
environmentally conscious image to win
charitable donations especially as these
types of outfits usually use bigger boats
which would more easily accommodate the
bulky nature of these large batteries or
businesses like Ekati diamond mine
which must continually present an
environmentally conscious image to be
allowed to continue operation in an
environmentally sensitive area: these
batteries could certainly be used to
bolster that image. So in summary if
you're building an off-grid solution for
your cabin I'd snap off the remaining
eight we own batteries on the market as
they are in fact the cheapest per
kilowatt hour per year and the lightest
per kilowatt-hour per year to ship. If
you are the average voter whose boat
lives in a marina or a tanker but turns
engines a couple times a week or have a
boat on a mooring ball that you use only
a few times a month with a small solar
panel charging it back up to 100%
saturation in any application where you
can bring those batteries back to 100%
state of charge go lead acid. But if
you're cruising in the tropics and find
you aren't able to live or more
importantly sleep without air
conditioning then you will either have
to find a home for 16 little lead acid
batteries or drop those Benjamin's an
upgrade to lithium ion. Thanks for watching.
Take care.
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