Coronavirus, effects on electricity supply.

For technical discussions about electricity, electrical equipment with particular emphasis on safe and compliant installations.
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vtsnowedin
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Post by vtsnowedin »

My understanding of lead acid batteries is that to make a higher quality longer lasting battery they increase the distance between the bottom of the plates and the bottom of the case. This allows more sediment to build up before it comes in contact with the plates and shorts them out.
I have no problem getting five to six years out of car or tractor batteries that are never in a garage away from winter or summer weather. This of course requires not ever letting them get fully discharged during cold weather as just one instance of that will kill an otherwise new battery.
kenneal - lagger
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Post by kenneal - lagger »

Any decent inverter has a low voltage cut off to prevent over discharging of the batteries. As long as this is set at a high enough voltage you can double or treble the life of your batteries. 50% Depth of Discharge (DOD) is what I have seen recommended or about 11.6 to 11.8 volts if I remember correctly. It's so long since I set my inverter up.

At that DOD you do need twice the battery capacity but if you are trebling battery life you are still winning.
Action is the antidote to despair - Joan Baez
vtsnowedin
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Joined: 07 Jan 2011, 22:14
Location: New England ,Chelsea Vermont

Post by vtsnowedin »

There is also the factor that when designing a Deep cycle battery they use thicker plates then an auto battery which needs to provide a lot of power for just a few seconds. Such a battery has a lot less top power output (in auto batteries measure as cold cranking amps) but can steadily put out a smaller current for a much longer time without damage.
That might come into play if you wanted to charge your EV at night using the power from your roof solar panels stored in lead-acid batteries during the day. A slow all night charge would be better for the battery bank even if the Tesla cyber truck could accept a quicker charge.
Anyone know how Tesla power walls react to fast vs. slow discharges?
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adam2
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Post by adam2 »

I have moved from this thread several posts about compressed or liquified air as an energy store.
This deserves its own thread, as it is more of a long term plan rather than being related to the present pandemic.


http://www.powerswitch.org.uk/forum/vie ... ht=#313257

Link to moved posts.
"Installers and owners of emergency diesels must assume that they will have to run for a week or more"
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