One Year After Lionhead Golf Switched from Lead Acid to Lithium Batteries
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Geoffrey Ellis, Head of Maintenance at Lionhead Golf and Country Club with a lithium battery charger
The global trend toward rechargeable lithium battery systems has reached golf course operators in Ontario as whole fleets of electric vehicles are now being upgraded.
Voltloop Canada is a leader in online battery sales Canada wide and the head of sales, Darko Poznanovic reports that lithium Golf Cart Batteries are now as popular as lead acid batteries. His best-selling lithium golf cart battery is the Trojan TR GC2-48-G 48V Lithium Battery, and EZGO cart owners also frequently purchase the Lester Electrical 48 Volt EZGO golf cart battery chargers.
“The demand for lithium batteries has increased dramatically over the past three years,” Darko says, and he reminds our readers that it’s not just golf businesses making the switch, but also maintenance crews for public parks, forestry, and all manner of agricultural operations. Anyone using an electric golf cart to manage property or feed livestock will be advantaged. Lithium batteries yield lighter vehicles with shorter battery recharge times, less maintenance, and lower battery replacement costs because each unit lasts longer.
Gone are the weighty lead acid batteries with their long charge times, short warranties, and short lifespans. The average 6-volt lead acid golf cart battery requires six to eight hours to recharge and only has about 200 cycles before expiration. Lithium batteries on the other hand, need just two or three hours to recharge and have much longer lifespans of about 4000 charge cycles.
Golf carts in storage at lionhead golf course
To reach the required 48 volts, golf cart owners had previously wired 6 eight-volt lead acid batteries in series (or eight 6-volt batteries) and this adds up to over three hundred and fifty pounds of weight. This makes a very heavy golf cart that will damage the delicate greens and crease the turf. The golf carts at Lionhead now have two 48-volt lithium units wired together and these batteries weigh about 37.5 lbs. each, which means, added together, that’s less than a third of the weight of the lead acid batteries.
Lots of industry people are watching the transformation at Lionhead Golf with their own outdoor enterprises in mind.
‘Lithium golf cart batteries will soon be as ubiquitous as L.E.D. lightbulbs,” says Geoffrey Ellis, Head of Maintenance at Lionhead Golf and Country Club.
Geoffrey Ellis is the Battery Tech at Lionhead
Geoffrey Ellis is the maintenance technician and small engine mechanic who keeps the carts running at Lionhead. He’s also a Hamilton-based paralegal who defends Canadian drivers against unjust traffic tickets.
As the foremost electric vehicle maintenance technician at Lionhead, Mr. Ellis is responsible for maintaining the battery health of one-hundred and sixty-eight golf carts, four beverage carts, two carryalls, and two people movers. The two-seater carts at Lionhead are only four years old and most are even younger. The bulk of the fleet are 2021 model EZGO RXVs Golf Carts.
Lithium batteries under the seat of an EZGO golf cart at Lionhead Golf on Mississauga road
In the spring of 2022, Geoffrey Ellis oversaw the conversion of this entire fleet to RoyPow lithium batteries powered by Lester Electrical chargers and Delta-Q QuiQ chargers. RoyPow S-series lithium-ion battery packs are specifically designed to replace the lead-acid units in Club Car and EZGO golf carts. In addition to the new 48-volt batteries, other hardware needed to be installed including sensor chips and a busbar to connect the batteries which will ensure they recharge each other and are used equally.
As part of the swap-over, Geoffrey spent another two weeks making Lionhead’s maintenance facilities more amenable to the new battery regime. The new chargers were installed on overhead pipes as part of a more efficient recharging protocol. The new batteries can be recharged in about three hours, while the older lead acid batteries had typically remained hooked-up all night.
In November, when the Pro Shop is empty and the on-site restaurant is closed, Mr. Ellis enters his busy season. He has to put the whole fleet into winter storage before the snow flies, and that means removing and storing hundreds of lithium batteries in a warm, safe, and secure room on site. This area is specially shelved to keep the batteries safe overwinter and that means they’re not stored on the cold cement floor which would put them at risk of water damage in the event of a burst pipe or a spring flood. Readers can learn more about how Lionhead overwinters lithium cart batteries on Voltloop’s blog.
Most of the lithium batteries for sale on Voltloop have sales pages with slogans like Hassle-free: No watering maintenance required. But instead, they could report how water is a hassle.
Mr. Ellis recalled an incident at the golf course where lithium batteries became flooded, meaning they were submerged in water. He detailed two occasions where the vehicles were driven off-road into water obstacles. In both situations there were no criminal charges, or even extra monetary charges (as they were weather related accidents covered by insurance), but the damage was greater than the guests probably realized. The golf carts were fished out of the creeks successfully but were not allowed back into circulation for some time. Their batteries had to be removed and thoroughly dried, outside the building. Mr. Ellis will not allow them to be stored inside and they remain specially marked today. Lithium batteries and pond water don’t mix. If water infiltrates lithium systems, it will reduce performance and increase the risk of fire.
Every season, thousands of golfers rely on Lionhead’s fleet of one-hundred and sixty-eight golf carts to move about the course and finish their games more quickly. Time is money and the faster golfers can cycle through the links, the more players can use the course. Throughout the summer, especially on weekends, Lionhead is at capacity, and so having better batteries could mean more players can use the property each day which yields more revenue. Lionhead Golf and Country Club was the first in southern Ontario to make the switch to Lithium, and their success is a clear and definitive harbinger of things to come.
