Lithium Batteries

At the eleventh hour I have found an affordable source for Lithium-Ion batteries. Everspring Global – a chinese company – has Li-Ion batteries that I need for about $10,000.00 It sounds like a lot but it just makes my budget and so I’ve ordered a bank of these last week. The delivery time is about a 1 month, and I hope to be sailing north just after that so the timing is barely achievable but I think I can do it. Not much time for installation and sea trials – but hey – life’s like that.

I’ll be getting 16 batteries each of 200 Ah, and each battery is 3.2 volts, so that will give me about 50 volts. The total weight of these is about 120kg and they can can be discharged to 80% which means I have 160 Ah available for use. To get this much power from lead-acid batteries, which can only be discharged to 60%, I’d need 12 batteries of about 120 Ah each. And these weight in about 35kg – which is a total of 420 kg – nearly half a ton.

You can see the huge weight advantage of Li-Ions – especially important on a lithe thoroughbred like Current Sunshine.

So, fingers crossed that they arrive in time…

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