Leisure Fayre of Lyndhurst

LEISURE BATTERIES

A word of advice!

Take care to calculate all your 12 volt items and their requirements before the initial purchase as a lightly used battery will eventually be the most economic.

Leisure batteries are designed to give a steady low amp discharge rather than meet the sudden demand required from a car battery to start an engine.

The life of a leisure battery is largely determined by the depth of the discharge cycle. We will say as an example that a leisure battery that is discharged each time by 15% of it's capacity may last for ten years. The same battery discharged by 30% of it's capacity will last for 8 years, 50% for 5 years, 75% for 3 years and possibly being discharged by 100% lasting only 1 year.

A 100 amp hour battery delivers 100 amps for 1 hour. Or 10 amps for 10 hours etc.

Power is amp x volts, so 100amps at 12v = 1200 watts, or 1,2kW 1.2kW for 1 hour is 1.2kWh.

Any form of heating element will cause a rapid drain on a battery, an electric kettle for example, also remember that a non compressor type refridgerator relies on a heating element to function.

All batteries self discharge when not in use and leisure batteries will self discharge 7 to 10% monthly.

How to kill your battery dead!

1/. Uncontrolled Charging causes overheating and gassing.

2/. Used too little (memory effects, so cycle every 2 months)

3/. Stored discharged (sulphating, a flat battery will die in 3 months)

4/. Do not store on a cold surface as this rapidly increases the self discharge rate.

5/. Too much deep cycling

For further help and advice contact us!