All good solar batteries (Note that all references to solar products in this article are assumed to be of the best quality, as poor quality products would alter the accuracy of our analysis). All batteries have their lifecycle dependent on the battery type, brand and capacity. We will be back to the analysis of battery lifecycle and lifespan later in this article. But first, we need to know how batteries are configured and how they dispense energy.
SOLAR BATTERY CONFIGURATION
Batteries come in different capacities, like 100ah, 150ah, 200ah, 250ah, 600ah, 1000ah, etc. Batteries are measured in Ampere x Hour (AH). These are in turn used to calculate the load consumption on the battery to give the exact hours batteries are expected to last. Calculations shorty…
Before the calculation, you need to understand that all house gadgets have the amount of energy they consume per second, even as low as a touch light connected to electricity to charge. Hence, it is important to know your house gadgets’ energy consumption rate, to be able to calculate how long your battery would last.
Take for instance, you have an LED smart TV (usually 85watts on average depending on the size of the TV), with a ceiling fan of 70watts, Electric bulbs of 10watts each (let’s imagine there are 10 pieces, making 100watts in total), a laptop charging (65watts) and phone charging (12watts). The total wattage specified here amounts to 332 watts.
Now that we have determined the energy consumption rate for our basic home gadgets, we can determine the type of inverter needed. Loads below 500 watts will be required to work with at least a 1kva 12volt inverter system.
Having explained house gadgets’ energy consumption rate, and the type of inverter needed, we can now efficiently do the calculation that determines how long a fully charged battery can work before it’s completely drained.
(Battery x inverter voltage x DoD) / load consumption rate
(DoD means Depth of Discharge of the battery: DoD varies in batteries, for Lithium batteries >90%; for Tubular and Dry cell batteries <70%)
That is, (200ah x 12v x 70%)/ 332watts
= 5.06 hours
This implies your gadgets if used solely on battery without sunshine or any charging source, will run for 5 hours before the battery is drained.
If these loads are further reduced by half, your battery runs for 10 hours.
Therefore, it’s important to use lower-energy gadgets more than high-energy ones to enjoy longer usage.
For example, you use gadgets that are very necessary over the ones that are not.
The same process can be used to calculate a system designed to power an Air Conditioner, Deep Freezer, Water heater, and other inductive gadgets. Simply know each gadget’s consumption rate in watts, then the voltage of the inverter used, and with that, the calculation is done.
For instance, Air Conditioner, a 1 horsepower AC consumes 750 watts per hour, and the kind of inverter recommended for such a load is 5kva 48volt system.
(Battery x inverter voltage x DoD) / load consumption rate
(DoD means Depth of Discharge of the battery: DoD varies in batteries, for Lithium batteries >90%; for Tubular and Dry cell batteries <70%)
(200ah x 48v x 70%) / 750watts
= 8.96 hours
This implies that if the Air Conditioner is used solely on battery without sunshine or any charging source, will run for approximately 9 hours before the battery is drained.
The same calculation goes for other gadgets, just know their energy consumption rate, then inverter voltage.
UNDERSTANDING BATTERY LIFE CYCLE AND LIFESPAN
As stated in the first paragraph of this article, all batteries have lifecycles, battery capacity, and lifespan, the lifespan is dependent on how they dispense energy for utility. A cycle of a battery simply means when you charge your battery full, then you use the whole energy preserved in the batteries, that is one complete cycle used.
Now imagine a battery has 1,500 cycles (which is common to Dry cell batteries), if you use a cycle a day, it means your battery can last you for 1,500 days, that is 4 years. When you use a cycle for 2 days, that is double the lifespan to 8 years, likewise, when you consume more than a cycle in a day, it means lesser years for the battery. This is why we usually give an average of 4 to 6 years for Tubular battery lifespan under healthy conditions.
This understanding will help you maximize your battery usage, where only you can determine its longevity or otherwise. It might be wrong for a solar engineer to be specific in telling a client how many years a particular battery can last… this can only be determined by the battery usage and maintenance.
TIPS FOR A LASTING SOLAR INVERTER SYSTEM
Tip 1. Know your gadgets’ energy consumption in watts… all gadgets have their energy consumption written in watts or amps at the back of the gadgets. The bigger the watts, the more energy is taken from your battery, that is, it’s better to use gadgets with more consumption during sunshine.
Tip 2. Never leave unused gadgets on. Every gadget switched on takes charges away from the batteries every second.
Let’s use the analogy of a water tank filled to the brim to serve you for 3days. When you fetch water it reduces, but if the water fetched is used properly, it serves its utility purpose. Now imagine there is a leakage on the tap or pipe, or leaving the tap open even when the water is no longer necessary, the tank will be emptied faster than hoped for.
The same goes for energy consumption in the battery… the battery stores Energy, it gives out each energy every second your leave gadgets are switched on. It makes sense when you use the gadgets, as the energy released becomes a utility… but gadgets left on when not needed become a waste of energy that could have been conserved.
Tip 3. Whenever you have drained your batteries completely, always recharge them to full state before reuse. This helps to put all the battery cells in a healthy state. Hence ensuring a longer lifespan.
Tip 4. Know your battery type and have a good understanding of how to maintain them, for instance, Tubular Batteries require the user to refill battery water whenever the water level is low. poor maintenance will damage the battery faster.
Tip 5. When Battery begins to drain faster than expected, Request a Battery Health Test from your Engineer to know the current health status of the battery or batteries.
Again, note that all references to solar batteries, inverters, charge controllers, cables, and solar panels are for quality products only; as poor products will give only false and inaccurate energy calculations.
A good write-up to help to help improve my solar-inverter usage.