light weight batteries
 

I have a catamaran, and all cats have a general rule, the lighter the
better. Batteries are one of the heaviest components on the boat and
I was doing some research and noticed that evercel had a NiZn battery.
Marine grade, can run through far more cycles (around 50% more) than
flooded or AGM, and it's energy density was 2-4x AGM or Flooded deep
cycles. It handles high Amp draws well.
They sold their batteries for electric cars, wheelchairs, electric
trolling motors...

Their 90 AH battery weighed 26 lbs. That's fantastic. Now the bad
news, they are out of business. Too bad really, because it sounds
like they simply didn't know how to market their product as it was only
slightly more expensive than AGMs and it would have been a dream for
full fledged racing boats where every once counts.

That long story said, does anyone know of anyone else making something
similar?

Doug

I wasn't aware of this battery, but you could save some weight in your start
batt w/ an Odyssey batt, which I've seen on ebay. Large quantities of amps
in/out.
Used to read about a "plastic", as in internal, battery that would be real
light, but not recently.

"boatgeek" wrote in message
oups.com...
I have a catamaran, and all cats have a general rule, the lighter the
better. Batteries are one of the heaviest components on the boat and
I was doing some research and noticed that evercel had a NiZn battery.
Marine grade, can run through far more cycles (around 50% more) than
flooded or AGM, and it's energy density was 2-4x AGM or Flooded deep
cycles. It handles high Amp draws well.
They sold their batteries for electric cars, wheelchairs, electric
trolling motors...

Their 90 AH battery weighed 26 lbs. That's fantastic. Now the bad
news, they are out of business. Too bad really, because it sounds
like they simply didn't know how to market their product as it was only
slightly more expensive than AGMs and it would have been a dream for
full fledged racing boats where every once counts.

That long story said, does anyone know of anyone else making something
similar?

Doug

boatgeek wrote:
I have a catamaran, and all cats have a general rule, the lighter the
better. Batteries are one of the heaviest components on the boat and
I was doing some research and noticed that evercel had a NiZn battery.
Marine grade, can run through far more cycles (around 50% more) than
flooded or AGM, and it's energy density was 2-4x AGM or Flooded deep
cycles. It handles high Amp draws well.
They sold their batteries for electric cars, wheelchairs, electric
trolling motors...

Their 90 AH battery weighed 26 lbs. That's fantastic. Now the bad
news, they are out of business. Too bad really, because it sounds
like they simply didn't know how to market their product as it was only
slightly more expensive than AGMs and it would have been a dream for
full fledged racing boats where every once counts.

Reading evercel's web site, their 85 AH battery is/was 47.4
lbs or about the same energy density as lead / acid.

I'd love to find a lighter weight battery too but so far I
haven't seen one.

Evan

These AGMs are lighter and smaller than standard bats. Suppossed to be 40%
smaller and 25% lighter for the same AHs.
http://www.boatelectric.com/Meridian...0batteries.htm

Paul

"boatgeek" wrote in message
oups.com...
I have a catamaran, and all cats have a general rule, the lighter the
better. Batteries are one of the heaviest components on the boat and
I was doing some research and noticed that evercel had a NiZn battery.
Marine grade, can run through far more cycles (around 50% more) than
flooded or AGM, and it's energy density was 2-4x AGM or Flooded deep
cycles. It handles high Amp draws well.
They sold their batteries for electric cars, wheelchairs, electric
trolling motors...

Their 90 AH battery weighed 26 lbs. That's fantastic. Now the bad
news, they are out of business. Too bad really, because it sounds
like they simply didn't know how to market their product as it was only
slightly more expensive than AGMs and it would have been a dream for
full fledged racing boats where every once counts.

That long story said, does anyone know of anyone else making something
similar?

Doug

Lead/Acid are typically around 1.23 lbs to 1Amp, the Meridian AGMs
listed by Paul are around 1.23 or so, which is around the same as the
Optima batteries I saw also highly recommended. The evercel would
have been around 1.79 for the typical
golf cart batteries and I think their marine batteries were higher, but
you can't find them on their website anymore....

Meridian Group 27 73AH 59lbs

NiMH, LiPO, NiZn are all potentials in the running. Fortunately, we
have someone even more interested then catamaran sailors looking into
this, the electric car and hybrid car industry. It's on those
websites I really find the most information.

The odyssey battery is interesting, but I don't know really how to
deduce the AHs of the battery based on the CCA, etc. Anyone know how
many AHs we'd be looking at for this?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tego ry=33574

CCA is a rating of a starting battery. AH is a rating of a deep cycle
battery. Not real valid comparison since that targeted for different
applications.

Doug

"boatgeek" wrote in message
oups.com...
The odyssey battery is interesting, but I don't know really how to
deduce the AHs of the battery based on the CCA, etc. Anyone know how
many AHs we'd be looking at for this?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tego ry=33574

You picked an awfully small battery to compare. The 112AH bat is 73lbs, or
1.53AH/lb. The 209AH works out to 1.63 with dimensions of 11.3x4.25x15.6
inches. I have nothing to do with meridian bats, I am just thinking about
using them.

Paul
"boatgeek" wrote in message
ups.com...
Lead/Acid are typically around 1.23 lbs to 1Amp, the Meridian AGMs
listed by Paul are around 1.23 or so, which is around the same as the
Optima batteries I saw also highly recommended. The evercel would
have been around 1.79 for the typical
golf cart batteries and I think their marine batteries were higher, but
you can't find them on their website anymore....

Meridian Group 27 73AH 59lbs

NiMH, LiPO, NiZn are all potentials in the running. Fortunately, we
have someone even more interested then catamaran sailors looking into
this, the electric car and hybrid car industry. It's on those
websites I really find the most information.