Upgrade for Wheelchair

Better but unrelated news on the wheelchair front this time.

After dozens of emails between myself, my nephew and his brother-in-law Raphaël in Quebec we came up with a plan to replace the standard lead acid batteries with lithium ion batteries. Yesterday, my nephew, with the assistance of his wife Gabie spent twelve hours wiring up and installing the new system consisting of 16 72ah cells.

Although expensive, approximately $4000 Canadian, it should be worth it. Most importantly, I will get a minimum of 3.6 times the range or 40-50 km (30 miles) which means I can wheel around the city all day if I like and not have to worry about draining the batteries.   Secondly, I will get a minimum of 15 years out of them.  I expect they will outlive me in fact so I'll never have to buy batteries again. Finally, they are virtually carefree and give better results in cold temperatures and are environmentally friendly.

I put 8 km (5 miles) on them today and the battery gauge is still showing a full charge - there is a possibility that the gauge may not be accurate with this system but only time will tell.

Life is good.

Update:
Based on the first two days of use results are better than expected. I should easily get 64 km/40 miles per charge. Pretty amazing. That means charging will be necessary only one or two times per week, even less in the winter so these things will definitely outlast me. The manufacturer suggests that they are good for 2000 cycles so at once a week they'll last in excess of thirty years. Wow.
The only negative is that the battery guaage is definitely not working. I have ordered on to wire in at a cost of $13 so it's not a big deal. In the mean time I'll use the odometer to estimate battery charge.
 July 26 update:

Three weeks yesterday since battery installation and I've put 121 miles (193km) on the chair. Have charged the chair 4 times, the moat mileage on one charge being 38 miles. All's well and no complaints.