Aclara Hexagram Battery – 25 years and counting
From google alert
Extracts from article at Design News
Twenty-five years ago, Aclara™ (formerly Hexagram Inc.) pioneered the development of networked wireless sensors by installing hundreds of thousands of battery-powered automatic meter-reading (AMR) devices for the utility market. Miraculously, virtually all of these decades-old wireless devices are still going strong on their original Tadiran TL-2100 AA-size lithium thionyl chloride battery, with laboratory tests confirming that they have retained nearly 25 percent of their original capacity.
The life cycle savings attainable with a 20-plus year AMR unit are substantial compared to a unit with an expected service life of seven to 10 years, as cost savings begin to accrue in year seven and continue throughout the 20-year product life cycle. For example, a utility with 5,000 service connections could realize up to $200,000 in total cost savings over a 10-year period by eliminating all battery changeouts during that 10-year period, assuming that the cost of each battery changeout is approximately $40 per site. If a second round of battery changeouts was eliminated over a 20-year period, the potential $400,000 in savings could be achieved for every 5,000 service connections. These savings are on top of the labor savings achieved by eliminating visual meter reading.
