I have over 1300 Radionics (purchased by Bosch quite a while back) combo fire/burglar alarm systems installed. They are mostly 9112 and 9412 systems with max of 250 zones and in very high end residential settings. I’m just not capable of replacing the SLA lead acid batteries every 2-3 years. Most of the systems have 2x 12v 7 or 9 Ah batteries connected in parallel w/ their listed “dual battery harness”. But.. quite a few a,so have 1 or 2 additional 12v 33ah SLA batteries installed in a separate housing with a separate AC power supply/charger. We used these mainly for peripherals and for system keypads/annunciators in systems with more than 6 hardwired keypads. I’d LOVE to be able to switch out to a “drop-in” lithium LifePo4 solution. It’s definitely going to void the UL / FM / NFPA listings and ratings BUT, with a disclaimer, should be fine if the homeowner opts to change. Even if I can’t find a drop in solution for the control/communicator, I’d love to simply add a single 50 or 100ah LifePo4 battery with charger and fused (or self resetting electronic fuses?) power distribution for the peripherals and extra keypads. The Radionics keypads have vacuum tube fluorescent displays and use 170ma idle and up to 320ma in alarm. (sounders in each keypad draw considerably more power when the system is in “alarm”. The less expensive LifePo4 lithium batteries have been very reliable for me in public safety radio primary power in some of my fire dept vehicles/trailers. We use the Li-Time 50 and 100ah 12v batteries. They are approx $180 for the 50ah and $260 for the 100ah. We use AC to DC 60a chargers from the diesel power3d generators we have on the vehicles to recharge during or after use.. The gensets provide very noisy (EMI/RFI) power out, so we use the 12vdc(actually higher , which helps transmit power) from the batteries to power the radio gear. After 16 months of use, they haven’t experienced a single issue or problem. They replaced a very large and heavy array of deep-cycle AGM lead acid batteries that could only be depleted to 50§ SOC. Lithium sure seems like a game changer for many applications. Anyone have additional info?
I don't have information for you as I've never done it or seen it done for those reasons of not being listed for that purpose from the alarm panel specs. however I'll pin your comment in case someone else does have some information.
I found that age and heat are the most common factors for replacement. They're already sealed in an unvented or poorly vented enclosure so they tend to dry out faster when they're in a hot electrical room than in a conditioned space. Same goes for most consumer/small business UPSes which use the same types of batteries. I tend to replace them every 3 years in hot environments, 4 years in conditioned spaces and 5 years in conditioned spaces where the load is small. (That's for burgs; for fire systems I would generally replace every 3 years just out of an abundance of caution.)
I would agree heat is definitely an issue from what I've seen some in fire alarm and intrusion alarm panels where they don't get that much heat I've seen go for eight years or more but then in small self-contained emergency lights right beside a hot transformer I've seen them fail before two years
Home Depot has that same brand batteries for good prices (about $20 for a 12V 7Ah). I used to order Power Sonic off of eBay but I had a few fail unexpectedly in a few weeks to months, probably because they were shipped with minimal padding and I think something internal got damaged. Home Depot seems to pad them better and I have them shipped to store so they never fall into USPS' hands.
fun fact my HS wasnt always on top of their battery changes so i would often see the fire panel giving battery voltage faults..once the batterioes got so low that the CPU must of glitched out as it kept firing the relays on the address bus (which did the bells/doors) so youd just have a random blast of "brring" or youd find the blast doors not latching open as they think its a fire
There are lifep04 batteries available that can directly directly replace lead acid types as they have an internal BMS (battery management system). Longer life and a lot lighter. There's a maximum string voltage but fine for 24V systems.
That might work well for non-life safety equipment but the charger in them is meant for sealed lead acid batteries and it's what you are required to use you don't have a choice with it
I haven't been trained on it much and they just changed the way you have to do it here I don't like to speak on things I'm not super confident on. I'd totally like to someday though.
Lead acid battery’s are my favorite I love them so much that I bought a 12v 12ah battery for my testing and use😂 edit I have the same company mighty max is a really good battery
I just two old batteries out wothiut taking a picture and i went to put it bwck together and the black with black red with red on one battery that leaves 2 blacks remaining it spark in me what am I doing wrong? Any help is much appreciated
The jumper wire between goes from one positive to the other battery's negative to put the batteries in series then the wires to the panel will go on red for positive black for negative
Because they are brand new... and I don't have a load tester. And the ULC requirements have been changed for what's required for a load test made it more of a pain not that I'm required to anyway.
Average age for batteries to get changed is 3 to 5 years so this was pretty normal I wouldn't consider them anything that old I've seen batteries more than 10 years old in fire alarm systems before lol.
