LFP vs. Lead Acid: Eight Things Every Sailor Must Know Before Switching

From cell count and internal resistance to wiring reconfigurations and BMS shutdowns, LFP batteries behave nothing like the lead acid batteries sailors have relied on for decades.

By
Stephen Burnage
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The Victron 12.8 V LFP battery's four-cell configuration produces a nominal voltage of 12.8 V—slightly higher than the 12.6 V of a comparable six-cell lead acid battery.

Marketing literature does a good job of promoting the primary advantages of lithium iron phosphate batteries (LFP or LiFePo4), such as life expectancy, weight, usable capacity etc. What is generally under-appreciated, however, is the many other features of LFPs, especially as they differ from lead acid batteries. This article therefore seeks to address that deficiency, by summarizing eight key differences between LFP and lead acid batteries.

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Stephen Burnage
Stephen Burnage is a full-time cruiser, having retired in 2017. He left Vancouver, Canada and headed south for warmer climates, on his 1975 Cal 34 sailboat “Moonrise”, in 2018. Since then, Stephen, Moonrise and occasionally his wife Anita, have cruised the West Coast of North and Central America. They are presently in Boca Chica, Panama. Stephen originally trained in the UK as an Electrical Technician Engineer and then proceeded to have a forty-year career, managing high voltage electrical systems around the world. Career highlights include building new power infrastructure on six continents; writing a comprehensive paper on how the North American Power Grid operates (and needs to be rebuilt) and; later, owning and operating his own renewable energy business. Stephen is a joint Canadian and British national and a resident of Chile, with an extended family across the world.

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