Vin Posted July 4, 2022 Share Posted July 4, 2022 With the last week of load shedding my backup batteries at home are taking a beating. I have a double 7ah Forbatt gel battery backup system for my alarm panel that I had in place for 2.5 years. Last week was the first time it gave me battery low warning. I have Sherlo 6 amp power supply that I use as a backup for my wifi router and Fibre router. for this I put in a 18ah CSB AGm battery. It is two years old and the battery that used to last 4 hrs plus, now is only lasting an hour before the 10v low voltage cutoff is triggered. Any advice on good brand of battery available locally to use a backup batteries given the repeated load shedding? Would gel battery be better than normal lead acid battery for this purpose? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenFields Posted July 4, 2022 Share Posted July 4, 2022 Personal opinion, with loadshedding being what it is these days, one should not be looking at lead-acid batteries, but lithium versions as drop-in replacements. That should allow deeper discharge and greater cycling life than any lead-acid battery. Not going to comment on the brands. Piper, hoohloc, RhysMcW and 1 other 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vin Posted July 4, 2022 Author Share Posted July 4, 2022 29 minutes ago, GreenFields said: Personal opinion, with loadshedding being what it is these days, one should not be looking at lead-acid batteries, but lithium versions as drop-in replacements. That should allow deeper discharge and greater cycling life than any lead-acid battery. Not going to comment on the brands. Thanks a lot. A lot of alarm panels, gate motors etc are designed to charge lead acid batteries and cannot charge a lithium battery effectively. I agree though lithium should be the way to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scorp007 Posted July 4, 2022 Share Posted July 4, 2022 33 minutes ago, Vin said: Thanks a lot. A lot of alarm panels, gate motors etc are designed to charge lead acid batteries and cannot charge a lithium battery effectively. I agree though lithium should be the way to go. Please explain why they cannot charge lithium? zsde 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAP Posted July 4, 2022 Share Posted July 4, 2022 I replaced my alarm battery and 2 x centurion swing gates, that's 4 motors running off 2 batteries with the blue nova BN13V-8-104Wh's. This was before i had solar. The gates are running of the complex electricity and we have not had a single issue since installation a year ago. They just keep on working, have yet to see one running flat. They are cheaper than replacing with LA every 2 years or so. zsde and Chris Louw 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAP Posted July 4, 2022 Share Posted July 4, 2022 I enquired with Blue Nova before purchase and they confirmed most gate and alarm systems work fine with the BN13V-8-104Wh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zsde Posted July 4, 2022 Share Posted July 4, 2022 Blue Nova states clearly it's a drop in replacement for LA. The charge rates are basically the same as for LA and it has a over and under voltage cut-out. https://bluenova.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/BN13V-8-104Wh.pdf Scorp007, hoohloc and RhysMcW 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scorp007 Posted July 4, 2022 Share Posted July 4, 2022 3 hours ago, zsde said: Blue Nova states clearly it's a drop in replacement for LA. The charge rates are basically the same as for LA and it has a over and under voltage cut-out. https://bluenova.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/BN13V-8-104Wh.pdf AFAIK the only problem one might get is if the higher capacity lithium is discharged for more than a LS session (like power failed to come on) it might charge at a higher rate than what the normal charger was designed for. This could lead to a blown fuse as some power supplies have a 200mA fuse on the AC supply side. It might also lead to higher temps of the voltage regulator heat sink on transformer based PSU's. zsde 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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