ALL ABOUT
LITHIUM
LITHIUM BATTERIES
PART 1
David Bayliss of BMPRO.
IN CONJUNCTION WITH BMPRO, GORV IS KICKING OFF A SIX-
PART VIDEO SERIES THIS MONTH IN WHICH WE PRESENT THE
FACTS BEHIND THE HYPE OVER LITHIUM BATTERIES TO HELP YOU
MAKE THE RIGHT DECISIONS FOR YOUR RV AND TRAVEL NEEDS.
Lithium batteries have been around for a long time,
especially in smaller cell type batteries, which
many people would recognise in AA and AAA for
toys and in more recent times in a different form
in mobile phones.
This technology offers many benefits and, in
these examples, it is obviously weight and energy
density that are the main benefits. These batteries
are now expanding their capabilities, with RVers
the latest beneficiary of this technology.
It is important to point out that there is a difference
in lithium technologies. For example, the batteries
used in mobile phones are a lithium-cobalt oxide
whereas the chemistry used in RVs is a lithium
iron phosphate (LiFEPO4).
There are several other types of lithium batteries
and they all have slightly different properties
in specific energy and power, cost, lifespan,
performance and safety.
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Generally, though, they are lumped together as
lithium batteries. The LiFEPO4 batteries are the
most suitable to replace deep-cycle 12V batteries
as we know them in RVing and have even been
configured to be close, in some case identical, in
shape and size.
Internally, a lead acid battery is quite crude.
Most testing will prove that a 100Ah lead acid
battery rarely provides this capacity. It is a
sealed black box that obviously no-one can see
into, and involves a primitive chemical reaction
that has been used to create energy effectively
for decades.
Effectively, lead acid batteries generate energy
by creating a chemical reaction between the
cathode and anode, whereas lithium batteries
are about the movement of the lithium ions
stored in the separator from the positive (anode)
to the negative (cathode).