When you are choosing a battery bank for your solar panel system, in addition to considering the type of solar battery, you also need to pay attention to the battery’s attribute data, such as the capacity of the battery as well as the battery’s cold-start current. These battery-specific attributes will make a big difference when you use it as an energy storage tool within your solar system. As more and more homes begin to use solar panel systems to generate electricity, more and more people are becoming electrically literate about solar battery properties as well. In order to better understand and optimize your solar panel system, this article will provide you with knowledge about battery cold start current as well as ampere hours and how to convert between the two.
1. What is Cold Start Current (CCA)?
Cold Cranking Current (CCA) is a unit used to describe how much power a battery is capable of delivering. Its value is obtained by measuring how much power the battery can output in 15s at -17.8℃. Since it is much easier for the batteries within a solar panel system to start up and generate electricity in a warm environment than in cold conditions, the presence of cold start current is a better measure of a battery’s ability to maintain adequate capacity storage in cold climates.
2. What is an Ampere-hour (Ah)?
Ampere-hour is a unit of battery capacity. It refers to how much power a battery can output in the course of discharging for 1h. The formula for its definition is:
E (Ah) = I (A) x T (h)
3. How to realize the conversion from cold start current to ampere hours?
Based on the study of the two units of measurement above you can clearly understand that both are essentially units of battery discharge. Therefore, these two units of measurement can be converted directly according to the conversion multiples in the International System of Units (SI) with the following formula:
1Ah=1CCA÷7.2
1CCA=1Ah×7.2
According to the above formula, as long as you can know the value of a battery’s cold-start current, divided by 7.2 can calculate its ampere-hour value, on the contrary, as long as you know the value of the battery’s amperage when the child value, multiplied by 7.2 can hit the cold-start current value.
In order to facilitate you to better understand and master the above formula, the following to a piece of ampere-hour value of 200Ah, that is 200Ah × 7.2 = 1440CCA.
4. On the application of cold start current to ampere-hour conversion
4.1 Selection of battery packs within a solar system
In general, there are three main types of battery packs on the market: starter batteries, dual-purpose batteries, and deep cycle batteries. In order to compare which battery is more suitable for your solar system, we can start with the CCA and amp-hour values of each battery to make a judgment on its discharge and cycling performance.
Starter batteries produce a strong starting current to power appliances, but their thin plates and large surface area don’t allow for good deep cycling, making them unsuitable for use in solar systems, but instead are commonly found in automobiles and RVs.
Dual-purpose batteries can be used as a starter battery or to continuously power loads connected to the solar system, but the technology is still not perfect.
Deep cycle batteries do not provide a strong starting current, but they have excellent cycling performance and are more suitable for use as a battery pack in solar systems than starter batteries and dual purpose batteries.
