diy solar

diy solar

Battery capacity after 2 years

patRF

New Member
Joined
May 8, 2024
Messages
2
Location
Puerto Rico
Generally, is there a formula for estimating the Ah of sealed lead acid batteries after 2 years of 40% usage? My Rolls 6volts are barely getting through the night, though they recharge completely every day. The load is below 40% of original capacity of 235ah.
 
Need more data on that.

How many AMp Hours do you use overnight and as compared to two years ago. Also, going once below 50% will harm them.

There are plenty of charts that show how long batteries will last based off how deep they are discharged each night.
 
Thank you for your reply, I'm doing assessments of current consumption. I have not yet found a chart as you describe- maybe I'm using incorrect terms- any hints on what the chart would be called or where to look would be greatly appreciated.
 
As @MiSh says, the battery charts look like this:

1715285411718.png235*.6

I don't think you'll find an actual formula that at 700 cycles and half way through the 1400 cycle lifecycle, at 40% DOD, how many amp hours are left at that 700 th cycle.

I do think that 40% loss f battery capacity is a bit unusual, but perhaps on the low end of a margin of error.


With that, a 235 ah lead acid batteries like to get charged at 25-30 amps, and if its much lower than that, that will shorten the life. Also if its higher than 30 amps, that could exceed the max xharge rate of the batteries. Without any guidance, they should not be charged at more than 10% of amp hour rating. My FLA Trojan's had a 13% of the 20 hour rate to charge. I've seen AGMs anywhere form 10% to 30% the 20 hour charge rate.


I upgraded from Lead Acid to Lithium in part because I found the sun light was not regular enough to charge at the 13% rate of my battery. I found myself at the point where I could exceed that 13%, which in my case was 60 amps. My batteries would be charged before the sun was up high enough to put 60 amps into them, but then a cloudy day could happen and the clouds would break at lunch, and my MPPTs could push more than 60 amps into the batteries, or after charge was complete, I could turn on a high power load, and for couple of minutes, the panels could push 72 amps back into the batteries.

I got the lithoums right after I starte to get the capacity to overcharge the batteries.
 
The surest way to know for you're situation is to do a discharge test on the battery(s). Charge them up, put on a known load and/or measuring device - maybe use a kilowatt meter if 120v load - and discharge to 40% and see what you get. If inverter -> 120v -> kilowatt meter then add about ~15% extra for the DC -> AC conversion loss.

Let's say you get 400wh on the kilowatt meter from full charge to 40% depth of discharge.
400wh + 15% = 460wh total drawn from the battery.
460wh / 12v = 38.3ah used from the battery.

38.3ah / 100ah battery = 38.3% was delivered of a 100ah battery for 40% DOD - e.g. hardly any degradation.
 
Last edited:
The surest way to know for you're situation is to do a discharge test on the battery(s). Charge them up, put on a known load (maybe use a kilowatt meter) and discharge 40% and see what you get.
If you pull out 40%, how much do you know that's left? The sealed can't have a hydrometer, and voltage may not be the most reliable for determining what's left.

I'm against capacity testing lead acid batteries, because their life can easily be cut by discharging too deep.
 
If you pull out 40%, how much do you know that's left? The sealed can't have a hydrometer, and voltage may not be the most reliable for determining what's left.

I'm against capacity testing lead acid batteries, because their life can easily be cut by discharging too deep.
The OP is drawing down to 40% so I presume they have a voltage in mind that is 40% in their view. There's no reason the OP can't measure what 40% is giving him as a baseline on this battery or even a new one. Future tests to 40% will show less capacity, giving info on degradation - no damage to the battery.

If the 40% is accurate, then it's close enough to estimate 100% for this purpose in my mind. I agree, I wouldn't test lead-acid to 100% DOD.
 
If the 40% is accurate, then it's close enough to estimate 100% for this purpose in my mind. I agree, I wouldn't test lead-acid to 100% DOD.

IMHO...

When it comes to quality FLA/AGM/GEL batteries, all have a 100% DoD cycle life in the 100s of cycles, AND they're not that fragile. I generally don't do C20 100% DoD, but I will do higher C rates, but my favorite is to test Reserve Capacity (minutes to 10.5V @ 25A - obviously not testing 500Ah batteries... :p ). A Reserve Capacity (RC) test gives you a value to compare against, and at the end of the discharge, you know you have at least a smidge of capacity remaining at C20, but you know how you compare to a rated value. Some batteries give Ah at higher than C20 rates. I'll test those if they're practical.

I used RC tests to establish the effectiveness of EQ cycles on Trojan T-1275. The start and finish States of Heath as received and after EQ:

73% 96%
95% 95%
85% 91%
79% 91%

ONE of the batteries had been recently replaced under warranty. The others underwent 4-8 hours of EQ in 1-2 sessions. I was very pleased with the results.

If you want to kill a battery good, you draw it down slowly and keep going after its empty. In a healthy operational system, I would choose to run right the heck down to 0% (on occasion) if it meant not freezing my butt off. :)
 
Back
Top