Reliability and performance of primary lithium batteries for ultrasonic gas meters

BG Technology is evaluating primary batteries for battery powered electronic domestic gas meters. Two meter designs have been developed to date and are in production with over 1 million already installed. Only commercially available batteries have been considered for the application, and the meters have been designed to accommodate either one R20 or two R14 sized cells. This paper looks at the meter/battery specification and its implications for battery design, the available technologies and their basic characteristics, methods of evaluating performance and reliability together with a test programme.