Tips to Extend Life Of Solar SMF Battery

Off-grid photo voltaic solar power equipment require a battery to store the energy accumulated during sunny hours for use at night. In most applications lead acid batteries are proffered as these are maintenance-free and do not emitany harmful gas while charging.

When fresh charging fails due to successive cloudy days, you may end up discharging your solar smf battery deeply and thus drastically reducing its life. This can be avoided if the battery has automatic protection agains deep discharge.

The life of a lead acid battery depends on, and is directly related to how deeply the battery is discharged. For instance, a 12V, 40ah battery can ideally store 12*40=480 Wh of energy, but to avoid damaging the battery or drastically reducing its life, you should not extract all its stored energy.

When the battery is discharged, its terminal voltage starts falling. You should stop discharging the battery when the terminal voltage reaches  10.5V minimum. The battery will certainly be damaged irreversibly if it is discharged any further.

Some batteries come with automatic protection against deep discharging. In these batteries discharging beyond a limit is prevented unless battery is recharged. This feature is especially useful for solar use at home since home users cannot detect whether they are discharging the SMF battery too deeply. 

The charge-discharge cycle life of a sealed lead-acid battery is also directly related to its repetitive discharge rate. In solar applications, the battery is charged onceevery sunny day. So one day is one charge discharge cycle and the battery will provide good service for:

1. 200 to 220 days (one year) with 100 percent depth of discharge (full discharge)
2. 400 to 450 days (two years) with 50 percent depth of discharge (partial discharge)
3. 1000 days (four years) with 30 percent depth of  of discharge (shallow discharge)
4. 1500 days (six years) with 15 percent depth of  of discharge (rated discharge)

There are SMF batteries available for solar use which come with integral protection to assure four to five years of minimum battery life.

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