solar panel charge 12 volt deep cycle battery

So this could mean that the battery can sustain a load of 7A for 10 hours or 70A for one hour, right? For example, a battery can be rated as 70Ah. Usable capacity depends on the loadĪ typical 12-volt battery has a rating stated in ampere hour that tells you the capacity. It's best to immediately charge a lead acid battery after a (partial) discharge to keep them from quickly deteriorating.Ī battery that is in a discharged state for a long time (many months) will probably never recover or ever be usable again even if it was new and/or hasn't been used much. Lead acid batteries should never stay discharged for a long time, ideally not longer than a day. Lead acid batteries hate being in a discharged state It doesn't matter how well you treat them, even with the best care, they need to be replaced eventually. So even if it's kept full charged most of the time, it will wear out and needs to be replaced after a few years. Lead acid batteries eventually die from old ageĪ lead acid battery deteriorates just by ageing. There is no need to add extra battery capacity because the number of charge/discharge cycles is so low that there isn't that much wear on the battery. However, if the battery setup is only meant for emergency power and thus only expected to operate a few times a year, discharging a lead acid battery to 80% of capacity is not a big deal. You even may decide to buy three 100Ah batteries just to assure that they will last for the desired number of cycles. So, for example, if you really need 100Ah of battery capacity, you may need two 100Ah batteries in parallel to assure longevity. So by spending 2 or 3 times the money on batteries, you get 3 to 4 times the lifetime out of your setup. If you add a few extra batteries in parallel, individual batteries may only be used 20% to 30% of capacity, and those same batteries may last 6 - 9 years.

If you cycle a battery (with the characteristics depicted in the chart) every day as part of some kind of off-grid solar setup and you use 80% of it's capacity, you'll probably have to replace it after about two years. It is advised to look up the relevant chart for the particular battery model you may be interested in buying. Image source - Please note that this chart is based on a heavy-duty lead acid battery and doesn't reflect the lifecycle of a regular consumer lead acid battery. If the battery won't last this long, it may not be an economically viable solution. If you buy a lead acid battery for a particular application, you probably expect a certain lifetime from it, probably in years. This is because lead acid batteries age / wear out faster if you deep discharge them.Īlthough a lead acid battery may have a stated capacity of 100Ah, it's practical usable capacity is only 50Ah or even just 30Ah The common rule of thumb is that a lead acid battery should not be discharged below 50% of capacity, or ideally not beyond 70% of capacity. Lead acid batteries hate being deep discharged Personally, I always make sure that anything connected to a lead acid battery is properly fused. Lead acid batteries can be very dangerous, so you have to be very carefull with them. If the wire is too thin, it causes too much resistance and thus may overheat, causing the insulation to catch fire. Whatever object caused the short-circuit, will probably be destroyed.īecause lead acid batteries can supply such high currents, it's important to assure that you use the right wire thickness / diameter. This means that if you (accidentally) short-circuit a lead acid battery, the battery can explode or it can cause a fire.

Lead acid batteries typically don't have any kind of short-circuit protection build-in. You can also find them in more stationary applications such in UPS systems 1 or - of course - solar battery banks. They are also used to power mobility scooters, golf carts, trolly motors, small toy cars for children to ride in, or provide electricity on boats, caravans and in RVs. They are widely used in ICE cars to power the starter motor, which needs hundreds of amps at 12 volt to turn over the engine. Lead acid batteries can put out so much current that you can use them to weld 2. Lead acid batteries can provide a lot of current They don't perform as well in cold weather.It's usable capacity depends on the load.Only use 50% of total capacity if longevity matters (ideally only 30%).It hates to be deep-discharged and will die quickly if done repeatedly.

It can provide a ton of current / power.A high-level overview of the lead acid battery I just scraped some information together in a hopefully useful manner. I have absolutely zero relevant background in battery technology or electronics. We won't address the underlying chemistry, we'll treat them as a black-box and we will discover their characteristics and how to keep them healthy. The goal of this article is to give you a practical understanding Lead Acid batteries.

Solar panel charge 12 volt deep cycle battery