Leisure Batteries: Why Cost Per Cycle Is Important

When choosing a Leisure Battery, always consider the ‘Cost Per Cycle’ as well as the Purchase Price otherwise it could cost you far more in the longer term.

When choosing a Leisure Battery for your Caravan, Motorhome or Van Conversion, your decision should be based on a number of factors including:

• Will your vehicle be on hook up most of the time or will you spend more time off grid or maybe you plan to do both?
• How much equipment will you need to run from your battery and for how long?
• How much space do you have to fit your battery into?

The answers to the questions above will influence your final battery choice, however there will probably be one more important factor to consider which is the cost of the new battery.

When considering the cost of the battery, there are two ways of looking at it, the upfront cost which is paid as the battery is purchased and just as importantly, if not more so, the cost per cycle of the battery or its true cost over its lifetime.

Leisure batteries are different to car batteries as they are designed to cycle. One cycle represents discharging the battery from being fully charged to a level (whether 75%, 50%, 25% etc)  and then charging it back up again. Different battery technologies perform in different ways, some can be cycled more deeply, some can be charged up again more quickly and others have a larger reserve of power that will run more appliances for longer.

For those wishing to spend all or at least some time off-grid it is important to look beyond the purchase price of the battery and consider the cycles (the amount you will need and their cost).

Below we consider 3 options and possible applications based on performance.

Option 1 – Standard Wet Lead Acid Battery

Average Retail Price – £130

Average Cycle Life – 80

Cost Per Cycle = (£130/80) = £1.62

Option 2 – AGM / Gel Deep Cycle Battery

Average Retail Price – £270

Average Cycle Life – 1100

Cost Per Cycle = (£270/1100) = £0.25

Option 3 – Lifos Lithum Iron Phosphate

Average Retail Price – £699

Average Cycle Life – 5000+

Cost Per Cycle = (£699/5000) = £0.14

The above clearly demonstrates the long term cost saving of purchasing the AGM / Gel battery over the Standard Lead Acid Battery, and the further saving again of purchasing the Lithium Iron Phosphate battery.

Based on the average cycles you would need to purchase 14 Standard Lead Acid Batteries to achieve the amount of cycles one AGM / Gel Deep Cycle Battery would give you and 63 Standard Lead Acid Batteries to achieve the amount of cycles one Lifos Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery would give you. Based on this when adjusting the purchase prices to the cyclic performance of the Lifos Lithium Iron Phosphate battery they would look like the following: –

Standard Lead Acid = £8,190

AGM / Gel Deep Cycle Battery = £1,227

Lifos Lithium Iron Phosphate = £699

So not is all what it seems when it comes to pricing!

As well as representing the best value by far compared to the other technologies, the Lifos Lithium Iron Battery has many other benefits including: –

• It is extremely lightweight at only 8KG when compared to it Standard Lead Acid Equivalent, 25KG
• Sulphation will never be an issue and there will never be any gassing
• The warranty is more than double at 5 years!
• There is a free app for smart devices that enables to user to monitor key battery data in real time

 

BBL stock quality Leisure Batteries covering all technologies and sizes. Our battery experts will advise you on which battery will best suit your needs based upon your individual requirements and how you want to use your vehicle. For more information contact the BBL team today! Don’t let battery problems ruin your staycation!