Tuesday, 24 January 2017

Day 15: BATTERIES





Day 15 of #100daysofsolarNuggets



      Today we will be discussing about Batteries

                           Introduction
   Batteries are very important in a solar system set up, they simply store energy for use in the Night when the sun is down. There are various kinds of batteries as we will soon out, some batteries are also more suited for some specific situations than the others. In general batteries cover up for the Solar Panel's inherent inability to produce energy when there is no  sunlight by reserving energy for later use.

Safety
.a) they can cause electric shock.
.b) some of them when faulty can release gases that can prove fatal.
.c) in some cases batteries can blow up.

On a side note always double check the polarities of batteries before connecting and also avoid wearing chains or any metal while working with batteries
This is not to scare anyone, but rather to encourage everyone to be safety conscious.





.1) DEEP CYCLE BATTERIES
These type of batteries are commonly used for solar installations because they are uniquely designed to undergo regular charging and discharging.
They are made of lead acid similar to car batteries (starter batteries).


There are basically two (2) types of Lead acid batteries and these are
.1) Starter Batteries
.2) Deep cycle batteries


Why you should not use starter batteries for your solar installations
     Starter batteries which are mostly used in automobiles are designed to give high starting current but they won’t survive the regular charging and discharging that occurs in a solar energy set-up. They may seem like a cheaper alternative at first but in the long run it would cost you a lot more because you would have to replace them a lot more frequently compared to deep cycle batteries.


There are three subgroups of lead acid batteries
.1) Flooded (wet) lead acid batteries
.2) Gel                                         
.3) AGM (Absorbed glass mat)


Note
Both the Gel and the AGM are called Valve regulated (Sealed) lead acid batteries

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