Regardless of the industry, every warehouse or manufacturing facility needs its battery-powered vehicles operate safely for as many hours per day as possible. When it comes to recharging industrial lead-acid batteries, opportunity charging is a great way to accomplish this goal.
What is Opportunity Charging?
The concept of opportunity charging revolves around the practice of charging a lead-acid battery any time it isn’t in use, typically for short time intervals during a shift instead of leaving the unit on the charger for long periods of time. Essentially, whenever there is an “opportunity”, a lead-acid battery can be recharged.
Opportunity charging not only keeps a facility’s battery-powered equipment running for long periods of time, but it also reduces the need to buy multiple batteries for every unit.
What Are the Advantages of Opportunity Charging?
There are many benefits to utilizing opportunity charging for your lead-acid batteries:
Increases Productivity
Allows for charging to take place during downtime, such as breaks, lunchtime, and between shifts, rather than cutting into valuable working hours.
Conserves Time
Saves operator time and increases productivity by eliminating the need to swap a battery out with another when the primary one runs down.
Increases Safety
By eliminating the need to have operators regularly remove a rundown battery and replace it with a charged unit, worker safety and productivity is maximized.
Maximizes Storage Space
Having double the number of lead-acid batteries for each piece of equipment in a facility requires twice the amount of needed storage space. Opportunity charging frees up storage space that can be used for other purposes.