How long does a battery-powered LGF-PA66 last at off-grid sites? How to choose a low-power metering solution?

At metering sites without mains power — agricultural irrigation, distributed abstraction points — the LGF-PA66 can be ordered with a battery-powered low-consumption transmitter using a lithium thionyl chloride battery pack. Typical service life is 3 to 6 years; the main variables are sampling interval and excitation mode.

The low-power version uses intermittent excitation instead of continuous excitation: outside of a measurement the magnetic excitation circuit sleeps entirely, keeping average consumption very low. With a 1-minute sampling interval battery life is around 4 years; shortening the interval to 10-second class noticeably reduces it. For irrigation metering and abstraction supervision, a 1-minute interval is entirely sufficient.

Two selection points:

• Size and velocity: battery-powered models cover DN15 to DN300. For low-flow duties check the measurement lower limit of the chosen size — stepping one size down at the same flow rate makes accuracy easier to guarantee.
• RTU pairing: for remote reporting, connect the LGF-PA66 via 4-20mA or RS485 to a low-power EC32 RTU that wakes on schedule and uploads over 4G/NB-IoT. The whole system can run on solar — a 20W panel with a 12V/7Ah battery covers most sites.

If sunlight is poor on site or battery replacement labour is expensive, specify one battery capacity step larger and keep the solar interface as an expansion option.

For more information, please visit our product pages or contact our technical team.