24/09/2019

Posted on 24/09/201904/04/2025 by Bruce Loxton

Benefits of Lithium Batteries

SAFIERY UNIVERSITY

LITHIUM BATTERIES BENEFITS FOR INVESTMENT.

This technical article is designed to give value to the reader through more knowledge onLithium Batteries.

Weight Savings

SAFIERY LITHIUM batteries weigh half the weight of AGM batteries:

SAFIERY LITHIUM 125Ahr Lithium battery is 15.5kgs.
TYPICAL 120AH AGM battery is about 32 kgs.

Long Life

SAFIERY LITHIUM batteries are designed for much longer life than regular lithium.

SAFIERY LITHIUM 125Ahr batteries are designed for 8 year + life. Based on less then 80% DOD and regular periodic charging when not being actively used.

Depth of Discharge and Cycle Life

The cycle life of all battery types is dependent on the DOD (depth of discharge).

SAFIERY LITHIUM batteries have a life of 3,000+ cycles at 80% depth of discharge.
Deep cycle AGM batteries may have a life of 500 cycles at 80% depth of discharge.

By reducing the discharge depth to 50%, both battery types can produce significantly more cycles.

Charge efficiency

SAFIERY LITHIUM batteries are 99.9% efficient. That means you have to put in 101Ahr for every 100Ahrs that is used.
Typical AGM Batteries are around 75% efficient. That means you have to put in 127Ahr for every 100Ahrs that is used.

Charge time is significantly less

SAFIERY LITHIUM Batteries will charge at 100A per battery. For 125Ahr Battery, they can be full charged in just over 1.25 hours.
Typical AGM Batteries will charge at 30-40A. The final 20% of charging is based on time, not current, and that takes 3-5 hours for any AGM battery. For a 100Ahr AGM charge time to absolutely full is >5-6 hours.

High Consistent Voltage

SAFIERY LITHIUM batteries maintain a very consistent and high voltage throughout the discharge cycle. This results in lower current and longer life for electronics. It also means lights are brighter and pumps/motors operate more efficiently.
Deep cycle AGM batteries have a drop in voltage through the discharge cycle.

More Efficient Charging before the Sun goes Down

SAFIERY LITHIUM charging efficiency of nearly 100% is valuable with storing solar power. When you are racing against the clock to get maximum energy into your battery before the sun goes down, Lithium is the answer.

Fewer Maintenance Requirements

AGM batteries need care and maintenance to minimise sulphation. AGM batteries have the following upkeep requirements:

Avoid charging at less than the bulk startup rate
Operate at mild temperatures
Avoid deep discharges.
Routinely apply charges lasting longer than 12 hours for full top up
Charge frequently

SAFIERY LITHIUM batteries typically require no maintenance.

Longer Shelf Life

You may not travel all year and only do 60 nights a year.

AGM batteries deteriorate quickly when they’re not recharged every day.
SAFIERY LITHIUM batteries have a much longer shelf life.

High Effective Energy

SAFIERY LITHIUM batteries have a high energy density which means you can pack more battery capacity in a given space than if you used lead batteries. In an RV or boat, this can be significant savings.

Posted on 24/09/2019 by Bruce Loxton

Extending Battery Life

SAFIERY UNIVERSITY
BATTERY OPTIMISATION
GETTNG BEST COST OVER LIFE

This series of technical articles is designed to give value to the reader through more knowledge on battery management. For battery basics refer to the Battery University. Main link for AGM click here.

Extending battery life has these main parameters:

Average Depth of Discharge of the battery
Extreme deep discharge
Shelf temperature in storage
% charge in storage

1. Average Depth of Discharge of the battery

The relationship between depth of discharge of a battery (called DOD) and battery life in cycles is not linear. The cycle life is a logarithmic change to the amount of depth of discharge. This means the number of cycles you can expect at 50% depth of discharge will be proportionately much more than the change in depth of discharge.
Buying a second battery and running it in parallel will extend the cycle life considerably. The DOD will be half what it would have been otherwise. As a rule of thumb, operating two Lithium Batteries at 30% DOD instead of 60% DOD will extend the number of cycles by 300-400%
This significantly improves the economics in the long term… providing the battery shelf life is sustained.

2. Extreme deep discharges have a significant detrimental effect on the cycle life. This is the main reason to have a smart battery monitor.
It can pay for itself on the first trip.

3. Storage temperature is important for battery shelf life. For Lithium batteries, keep them below 30 degrees C for best results. If the storage temperature rises to 60 degrees c, the life will be significantly reduced.

4. The % State of charge when stored is also a factor but a less significant one. For AGM batteries, storing at 100% is ideal. For Lithium batteries, storing at 50% will extend the storage life.

Here lies the management challenge:

Keep the DOD of your batteries as small as possible while the battery is cycling;
Arrive home with 50% SOC in the Lithium battery for best storage life.

To manage this you will need an advanced battery monitor…. with artificial intelligence.

You need to know two important items:

State of charge (called SOC)
Time to go (called TTG)

Simple Clean Colour Display with high contrast Gorilla Glass.

Displays the State of Charge (SOC) as a percent with a coloured circle indicating the battery health (blue for healthy, orange for unhealthy, red for alarm)
The “lightning” icon and blue “up-arrow” indicate 100% SOC is expected in 9.5 hours

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

PICO is constantly monitoring battery current, voltage, (temperature). Parameters are constantly being adjusted using AI.

You can set the averaging interval for calculating TTG (time-to-go) from “short” to “long”.
You can tweak the target State of Charge (SOC) threshold for the time to go. A “pre-alert’ to a low battery state.

Touch this display once and see…

SIMPLE CLARITY

Big clean clear display on PICO and smartphone.
No small LED lights or buttons to push.
Easy to read Total with multiple devices installed.
All the device currents on the battery screen.

EASY TO SET ALERTS

To read the difference with Lithium Batteries click here.

Change alerts based on the camping or boating conditions.
Do on the smartphone with a simple select and slide.
Set alerts to visible, audible or both.
Set ALARM DELAY
Set an OUTPUT on ALARM

Posted on 24/09/201904/04/2025 by Bruce Loxton

Measuring Voltage on Lithium Batteries

SAFIERY UNIVERSITY

LITHIUM BATTERIES BATTERY VOLTAGE MAY NOT BE WHAT IS SEEMS…

This technical article is designed to give value to the reader through more knowledge on Lithium Batteries.

Lithium Batteries consist of 4 sets of Lithium cells connected in series and make up the bulk of the Lithium Battery casing. The cells run in vertical layers longitudinally following the long side of the battery.

Just below the top of the battery casing are the management units.

Right on top of the battery casing are the battery terminals… well, this is the part which is not quite correct and the purpose of this article.

The actual lithium battery cells have a nominal 3.2V each and are joined in series to give a total of 12.8V nominal. This can be measured at the inner battery terminals marked V+ and V-.

In normal operation, it is not possible to measure this voltage. The voltage that can be measured is at the battery terminals on top of the battery casing and is marked as B+ and B-.

The positive V+ and B+ are directly connected (fused only).

The negative V- and B- are not directly connected. The connection between these two passes through a Dual Mosfet Charge/ Discharge Controller and a Current Sense Ratio (CSR) device. The Dual Mosfet Controller is core to battery protection for over-charging current and high or low voltage cut-out. The protection unit will open and close the connection between B- and V- depending on the command of the Battery management Unit. There are several other sensor and measurement points involved.

When the protection unit opens this V- B- circuit, even though the lithium battery may be fully charged, battery terminals B+ and B- may show only 2-3 V or even nil on a multi-meter. (capacitors hold small voltage).

How could this occur you may ask?

It is not uncommon to see a lithium battery “over charged”. I have seen this with the more aggressive DC to DC chargers pumping in 14.6V at full power with a delay in turning off after the battery is full. The battery management unit will “turn off” the voltage to the terminals B+ and B- to protect the battery. Provided there hasn’t been a spike of power, the battery should not be damaged at all. Give it a good rest and it will come back to full voltage on the terminals B+ and B- after some natural decay.

However, with the battery going “dead’, some users will put the multi-meter accross the battery terminals B+ and B- and read near nil voltage. they may announce that the battery is stuffed! That would be an expensive and false call.

Throughout this overcharging, the actual cell voltage at V+ and V- are showing the real lithium battery voltage. How does the user read this?

Open up the Safiery lithium app as shown in the picture above. At the bottom of the app are 4 cells with voltages shown in mv. This is “milli-volt”. 1,000 mV to a volt. So the 3568mV is 3.568V. Add the four together and you arrive at the V+ and V- voltage. You will see the individual cell voltages fluctuating in mV between the cells. It is perfectly normal to see minor fluctuations.

You can now understand why it is difficult if not impossible to do an electronic test for capacity of a lithium battery. Ask the auto-electrician not to use their standard AGM battery tester please.

In a future blog, I’ll step through the proven way to test for battery capacity. However, the sum of the mV will give a good idea of the available voltage.

Here is a picture of the Battery Management Unit showing the multiple cables on the negative side going to the two rows of Mosfets. The cables are in pairs for capacity reasons. Each one is rated at 50A continuous to give a 100A continuous rating per battery. The avid electrical engineer reading this blog may enjoy a “where’s wally” for the CSR, Vdd and Vss points!

There is an article going around the traps that quotes a learned research paper on the challenges with cell balancing in Lithium Batteries. Be rest assured we comply with this article and the Cell Balancing Management does exactly what it is supposed to do. However, the author of the social media article either doesn’t understand the difference between cells and batteries or doesn’t have the right product to market.

Safiery Lithium Batteries are fitted with not just a Cell Balancing Management Unit but an additional Battery Management Unit which allows these batteries to be installed in parallel or series connection.

Maximum Capacity of Multiple Safiery Lithium Batteries:

In Parallel Sets

In Series Set

In Series and Parallel

Combined Voltage and Ahrs of

Multiple 125 ahr

Safiery lithium

6 x 125 ahr

Safiery lithium

12.8V
(12V Nominal)

700Ahrs

4 x 125 ahr

Safiery lithium

51.2 V
(48V nominal)

125 Ahrs

6 x 125 ahr

Safiery lithium

25.6 V

(24V nominal)

375 Ahrs

Battery Management Unit maps to Safiery App so the user can see the exact value of the Lithium cells.

Posted on 24/09/201904/04/2025 by Bruce Loxton

Prolong Lithium Battery Life in Storage

SAFIERY UNIVERSITY

PROLONG LITHIUM BATTERY LIFE BY STORING AT AROUND 50% STATE OF CHARGE

This technical article is designed to give value to the reader through more knowledge on storage of Lithium batteries.

Guidelines for Storage of Lithium Batteries

Lithium batteries suffer from stress when keeping a cell at a high charge voltage.

Exposing the battery to a full state-of-charge for an extended time can be more stressful than cycling.

Table above demonstrates capacity loss as a function of temperature and SoC.

Safiery has an automated solution to this with our Lithium Storage Protection Module.

This module automatically reduces the SOC during storage to the optimum band of 40-60%.

We asked one of CSIRO’s battery experts, Dr Adam Best, to bust some myths about lithium battery care and recommend the best ways of extending lithium battery life in our electronic devices.

1. Fully charging my lithium-ion battery regularly will improve its overall life span.

Answer: False

A lithium battery is in its most “stressed” state when fully charged. It is also the most unstable state for a battery to be in so you really should try to avoid fully charging your devices as much as possible.

2. My lithium battery is at its most stable when half charged.

Answer: True.

The battery is at its most stable between 50 – 75 % charged. It’s clearly impractical in real terms for a handheld device – watching your battery charge to 50% is about as exciting as watching paint dry.

3. Allowing my lithium battery to go completely flat each cycle is good for it.

Answer: False.

This is what we in the battery industry call a “deep discharge” and it can eventually wear down your battery. Try and avoid this where you can.

4. Frequent short charging of my lithium battery should be avoided.

Answer: False.

Batteries love being topped up so this won’t cause any harm at all.

Take our battery advice to avoid having to throw your phone away.

5. Fast charging is great and won’t hurt my battery’s life.

Answer: False.

Depending on the battery’s health, charging at high rates or currents can cause heating (due to resistive effects) and lead to faster loss of battery capacity. Short top-up charging is best. Only buy fast chargers recommended by the device supplier.

Read the original Article here: https://blog.csiro.au/power-up-our-battery-advice-free-of-charge/

Posted on 24/09/201904/04/2025 by Bruce Loxton

COMPARISON VALUE AND TECHNICAL LITHIUM AGM STAND ALONE

SAFIERY UNIVERSITY

LITHIUM & AGM BATTERIES COMPARISON AS STAND ALONE

This technical article is designed to give value to the reader through more knowledge on the cost, value and technical differences between using a stand alone Lithium or an AGM battery for camping. 4WD or Boating.

Watch the Video here or view the video pages below:

VIDEO CONTENT AS PICTURES

Posted on 24/09/201904/04/2025 by Bruce Loxton

VICTRON SMART NETWORK SOLAR CHARGER SETUP

SAFIERY UNIVERSITY

VICTRON SMART NETWORK SOLAR AND CHARGER SETUP

Victron Smart Solar and Smart Charger Installation Instructions

Fit the “Smart Battery Sense” to the Lithium Battery terminals. +ve and -ve have to be correct.
Wire the Battery terminal connections on the Smart Solar Controller to the Battery. Do this before connecting the Solar Panel. +ve and -ve have to be correct.
Then connect the solar panel. +ve and -ve have to be correct.

Open Smartphone and Download the “Victron Connect” app

Open the “Victron Connect App” on your smartphone.
Hit the “connect “circle in (bottom right on Apple) and the Victron devices should all appear , including any chargers and smart Battery Protect devices.
Pair to each device. There is no passcode to start with. When it asks you for one, just select “pair”

Open the Smart Battery Sense device first.

Go to Setup which is the “cog” in top right hand corner.
Select “VE Smart Networking”
Select “Create Network
Give it a name you recognise. No spaces or special characters limit is 8 characters
Select OK

Open the Smart Solar device.

Open Smart Solar device in VE Connect
Go to Setup which is the “cog” in top right hand corner.
Select “VE Smart Networking” (last item on list)
Select “Join Existing” and then select your network you have named.

Now the Smart Solar is connected to the Battery by Bluetooth

Then in the Smart Solar Setup, select “Battery” (top line)
Check it is on 12V
Select Charger Settings as “user defined”
Select Absorbtion Voltage as 14.58V
Select max absorbtion time as 6 hours
Select Float voltage as 13.80
Set Equalisation voltage as 14.58V
Automatic equalisation is to be disabled.
Select Low temp cut off as disabled.

This is now done.

Once Running Take a screen shot of first page with settings and then email page with history to our email address (not listed here for anti-spame reasons) for checking.

Now the Smart Battery ChargerM

Go to Setup which is the “cog” in top right hand corner.
Select Li-ion
Select 30A

It is now ready

“Night mode” reduces the current and the noise for a quiet nights sleep!

You are all set

Posted on 24/09/201904/04/2025 by Bruce Loxton

NEW STORAGE MODE IN SMART BATTERY CHARGERS EXTENDS LITHIUM BATTERY LIFE

SAFIERY UNIVERSITY

ARE YOU LOSING 10% CAPACITY FROM YOUR LITHIUM BATTERY EVERY SIX MONTHS?

Lithium batteries installed in RV’s and 4WD’s fall into 2 groups: Those RV’s that are used 2-5 times a year and stored the rest of the time; and those 4WD’s and RV’s that are used evey day. This article relates to the first group that have long storage periods of a month or more.

Leaving a Lithium battery on 100% charge while your RV or Boat is in storage will reduce its capacity. It can be as much at 10% capacity loss in a 6 month storage period. That makes for very expensive storage!

Here’s how to avoid this and prolong Lithium battery life.

Lithium batteries suffer from stress when kept at a high charge voltage. Keeping a Lithium battery at 100% state-of-charge for an extended time can be more stressful than cycling.

Storage Temperature	Charged to 40% – capacity loss after a year	Charged to 100% – capacity loss after a year
0 °C	2%	6%
25 °C	4%	20%
40 °C	15%	35%
60 °C	25%	40%

Table above demonstrates capacity loss as a function of temperature and SoC.

Here is an excerpt from the University paper published in October 2018 in Sweden.

“The result showed that, when only considering ageing from different types of driving in small Depth of Discharges (DODs), using a reduced charge level of 50% SOC increased the lifetime expectancy of the vehicle battery by 44–130%.”

There is an easy solution with the new Victron Smart Battery charger.

This new Charger (just released in May 2019) has an Smart Storage Mode.

Storage Mode starts Automatically

Whenever the battery has not been subjected to discharge during the prior 24 hours, the battery charger switches to storage mode. In Storage Mode float voltage is reduced to a user defined level depending on the battery technology. For Lithium batteries 13V is recommended. This will keep the battery between 40-70% SOC depending on what devices are running.

Storage Mode Voltage set on Smartphone app

You can easily adjust the storage mode voltage depending on your particular application. There is no problem leaving a fridge on while in storage mode.

Other New Features in this New Battery Charger that prolong Lithium battery Life

Recover from a deep discharge at a low trickle current.

In the unlikely event that you suffer a deep discharge with your Lithium batteries, this smart charger can be switched on a Smartphone to recovery mode at a low trickle current. A low recovery current is absolutely essential as the internal resistance of a Lithium battery goes very low and an in-rush of a high current can cause damage. With this new charger, its easy to control this in the palm of your hand.

Restore to Bulk Mode Quickly if required.

Lithium batteries are reknown for holding a flat voltage level. At these consistent voltages, some chargers will go to sleep in float mode and may not full recover the Lithium battery to 100% after it has done some mild work.

This new battery charger has a “re-bulk” voltage set point that is user defined. When the battery measurement reaches this voltage, the charger will restore to full bulk charge mode.

Automatic voltage compensation

The charger compensates for voltage drop over the DC cabling by slightly increasing output voltage when the DC current increases.

Impact on Cycle Life?

If you are in the RV group of long storage periods, then cycle life should be of little concern to you. Lets assume you use your RV for 100 nights a year. Lets assume you run your Lithium batteries to 20% of capacity; in other words you use 80% of the capacity each day. Then you are operating at 100 x 80% = 80 full cycles a year. In 10 years, you will have “consumed” only 800 cycles. Your battery life is far more affected by the stored SOC than the dept of discharge.

If you are skeptical of overseas research and reports on this then conside the Q&A by CSIRO’s Guru on Lithium batteries. His comments are answers relating to smartphone batteries, but the replies are consistent for Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries in RV’s.

We asked one of CSIRO’s battery experts, Dr Adam Best, to bust some myths about lithium battery care and recommend the best ways of extending lithium battery life in our electronic devices.

1. Fully charging my lithium-ion battery regularly will improve its overall life span.
Answer: False
A lithium battery is in its most “stressed” state when fully charged. It is also the most unstable state for a battery to be in so you really should try to avoid fully charging your devices as much as possible.
2. My lithium battery is at its most stable when half charged.
Answer: True.
The battery is at its most stable between 50 – 75 % charged. It’s clearly impractical in real terms for a handheld device – watching your battery charge to 50% is about as exciting as watching paint dry.
3. Allowing my lithium battery to go completely flat each cycle is good for it.
Answer: False.
This is what we in the battery industry call a “deep discharge” and it can eventually wear down your battery. Try and avoid this where you can.
4. Frequent short charging of my lithium battery should be avoided.
Answer: False.
Batteries love being topped up so this won’t cause any harm at all.
Take our battery advice to avoid having to throw your phone away.
5. Fast charging is great and won’t hurt my battery’s life.
Answer: False.
Depending on the battery’s health, charging at high rates or currents can cause heating (due to resistive effects) and lead to faster loss of battery capacity. Short top-up charging is best. Only buy fast chargers recommended by the device supplier.

Read the original Article here: https://blog.csiro.au/power-up-our-battery-advice-free-of-charge/