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Before answering this question, we are going to give some brief technical notes: Every battery has two main characteristics: Voltage (V) and Capacity (Ah). Voltage of a battery (V)The voltage of a battery is the difference in potential or voltage that exists between its poles. If we consider Ohm's Law: Voltage = Intensity * Resistance we have: Resistance: It is the resistance offered by what we connect to the battery. If we connected a direct cable from one terminal to another, the battery would give its maximum current intensity. For this reason, it is very dangerous to connect any current conducting element between the two battery terminals. Be careful, therefore, with connecting a direct cable, putting something metallic between the two terminals, or even spilling water on the battery.Intensity: It is the force that the battery can provide at all times.Voltage: As the resistance of what we have connected to the battery is fixed, the higher voltage we have, the more current we can provide. Or put another way, the voltage will determine the current intensity and the higher the voltage, the more intensity we will give. Some conclusions can be drawn from all this: - If a battery is discharged, it will give less intensity of current. - If we increase the voltage, the current intensity will automatically increase. In a car, everything that is connected to the battery is prepared to operate at a voltage of 12V. What would happen, therefore, if we could connect a 24V battery or 2 12V batteries in series? After all that has been seen, the answer is simple: if we double the voltage, the current intensity would also increase twice and we would run the risk of burning or damaging everything that is connected to the battery. Likewise, if the battery were to discharge, the current intensity would decrease and the engine would not be able to start, some circuits would not receive enough energy to function correctly, etc ... Important: Never connect a higher voltage battery to the vehicle Capacity of a battery (Ah)On the other hand, the capacity of a battery, which is measured in Ah, represents the amount of electricity that a battery can provide. The more capacity (Ah) a battery has, the more electricity it can provide. In theory, a battery that has 100Ah could give a current intensity of 100 Amps for 1 hour, an intensity of 1 Ampere for 100 hours, or 2 Amps for 50 hours. However, this is not always the case, as the faster a battery discharges, the more power it loses. Therefore, it is common to find batteries that have the following capacity:
That is, the same battery could give 4.75A for 20 hours (4.75A x 20 hours = 95Ah c20), 9A for 10 hours (90Ah c10) or 17A for 5 hours. If we did not have the power losses, the battery should have been able to provide 19A for 5 hours (95Ah) or 9.5A for 10 hours (95Ah). Summarizing:
Therefore, answering the initial question, if we replace a car battery with a higher capacity one, we will be able to leave the elements that depend on the battery in operation for a longer time. In addition, with the same consumption the higher capacity battery will discharge less, which in the long run will result in a longer battery life. Is there a problem if we install a higher capacity battery?Although this is not always the case, because the battery design can be different, a battery with a higher capacity will also have a higher CCA, which could be said to be the maximum intensity it can provide in an instant. That does not mean that he is able to provide it in all situations, only when the team needs it. And this is where we can find the problem: if the equipment is faulty, has a ground problem or a short (connection of positive and negative), the battery with greater capacity will provide more intensity than a normal one and could damage part of the electronics ( although electronic systems are usually protected by fuses, precisely to avoid these situations). But this effect will only be very apparent if the difference in CCA is considerable. For example, taking it to an extreme, the problem could occur if we try to start a motorcycle with a truck battery and we have some kind of ground or connection problem. Under normal circumstances, there should be no problem installing a larger capacity battery. On the one hand, there is usually not enough space to install a battery with a large starting difference (CCA) and, on the other, by starting with a greater capacity (Ah) and starting force (CCA), we will increase the battery's durability. , since both parameters degrade over time. In short, if we install a higher capacity battery, we will increase battery life, improve starting and, in addition, we will be able to use the electronic equipment of our vehicle for a longer time. However, what happens if we don't have a space to install a larger battery?For these cases, manufacturers usually manufacture batteries of different benefits for the same size. The most basic range usually has less ah and the highest range contains the highest performance, both in amp hours and starting capacity. For example, Varta for the same size has a battery of 70Ah, another of 74Ah and another of 77Ah. The lowest range is the 70Ah and the highest range is the 77Ah. In these cases, the manufacturer always recommends installing the highest-end (77Ah), especially if the car has a large number of electronic components.
Have you ever wondered what does ‘Ah’ rating of Car batteries mean? Here is something I want you to know about ‘Ah’ mentioned on car batteries. ‘Ah’ doesn’t mean the peak current battery can draw in one hour. But it is completely different from what most of the public think about the ‘Ah’ Rating. In this blog, I will clear your lots of doubt about the rating of car batteries and all the information I embedded in this blog will make you an expert in front of your family and friend. Related Posts:
What does Ah stand for on a Car battery?The full form of ‘Ah’ mentioned on the battery is Ampere-hour and this refers to the capacity of a battery to provide continuous current over a specified period of time (that is 10 hours for class C10 battery and 20 Hours for class C20 battery) to a specific End of discharge Voltage (10.2V to 10.8V) at specific temperature before failing. Whereas the End of discharge Voltage is the level to which the cell voltage is allowed to fall to before affecting the load. As the battery starts discharging, the voltage across its terminals starts reducing too but the rate of voltage drop throughout the discharging period is not too high. The voltage battery provides before it fails is called End of discharge Voltage. Specification of [65Ah] car battery.As per the industrial standard, Car batteries are generally 12V with a Class of C20. This means that the battery terminal voltage will be 12V and it will be guaranteed to provide continuous current equal to the ‘Ah’ rating of the battery divided by 20 over the discharge period of 20 hours. As shown in the above specification a 12V, 65Ah Class 20 battery is guaranteed to provide a continuous current of 3.25 Ampere over the discharge period of 20 hours (that is 3.25Ampere x 20Hour=65Ah) and the end of discharge voltage of the battery will be 10.2V at 27 Degree Celsius. From the above specification of the 65 Ah car battery, it is also clear that if we completely discharge the battery over the time period of 10 hours, instead of 6.5 Ampere (65/10 = 6.5) of continuous current we will get only 5.59 Ampere of continuous current. And if we compare the discharge current of the 65Ah battery for different discharge periods, we will find that the faster we discharge the battery the lesser backup we will get. The same rule applies to all sizes and types of batteries. Related Post: Car Battery Vs UPS Battery How much is the backup of the car battery?The formula of electrical power stored in a battery is equal to the multiplication of its terminal voltage with its ampere-hour. A 12V, 65Ah car battery can provide a continuous current of 3.25 Ampere for 20 hours. Hence it can provide backup for 20 hours for a constant load of 3.25 x 12 = 39 Watt. Also from the specification of the 65Ah battery, we can see that for a discharge period of 10 hours, it will provide a maximum continuous current of 5.9A. Hence it can provide backup for 10 hours for a constant load of 5.9 x 12 = 70.8 Watt. Now if we compare the backup of 65 Ah battery we will find that the maximum load for the backup of 10 hours [that is 70.8 Watt] is not equal to twice the maximum load for the backup of 20 hours [that is 39 Watt] Similarly, we can calculate the maximum current as well as backup time for different Ah ratings [33Ah, 55Ah, 65Ah, 60Ah and 85Ah] of car batteries of class 20. A 12V 33Ah Car battery is guaranteed to provide 1.65A [33/20=1.65A] of current for a discharge period of 20 Hours. And it can provide 20 hours of backup for a maximum load of 19.8 Watt [1.65x12=19.8]. A 12V 55Ah Car battery is guaranteed to provide 2.75A [55/20=2.75A] of current for a discharge period of 20 Hours. And it can provide 20 hours of backup for a maximum load of 33 Watt [2.75x12=33]. A 12V 65Ah Car battery is guaranteed to provide 3.25A [65/20=3.25A] of current for a discharge period of 20 Hours. And it can provide 20 hours of backup for a maximum load of 39 Watt [3.25x12=39]. A 12V 60Ah Car battery is guaranteed to provide 3A [60/20=3A] of current for a discharge period of 20 Hours. And it can provide 20 hours of backup for a maximum load of 36 Watt [3x12=36]. A 12V 85Ah Car battery is guaranteed to provide 4.25A [85/20=4.25A] of current for a discharge period of 20 Hours. And it can provide 20 hours of backup for a maximum load of 51 Watt [4.25x12=51]. |