This is to do with runtime. I'm talking what is the maximum load you can use to remain in spec.
No, I know what you meant.
Lets take a 200Ah C20
If the load is 500W, that means it is delivering 500 /12 or 42A
This means it can only work for 200 / 42 = 4.8h but this is assuming a perfect battery. By that i mean if you pull more than the spec amount of 10A then the battery capacity to deliver decreases......
So you can expect 20%+ longer run time with a C10.
A C 20 at 500W is good for 2.5h and 5h with two batteries. If power out is 2h on average then only 50% DOD. The cycle count doubles as a result so 2000+ cycles. If its an average of 1h so 25% DOD, then cycles will cross 4000+
That's the thing, 90% of the time I don't consume more then 500w load (after making sure most of the electrical appliances are the highest efficiency devices at the time of purchase), yet I bought a 5000w inverter for that 10% of the time, so I am going for 150AH x 4 C10, so that's 720w continuous and the remaining 10% of the time I would probably consume like about 3500w when the water heater is switched On for a max of 1hr or microwave.
It will further be assisted in the morning by solar hopefully in a year I would probably able to run AC in summer day time, so minimal draw from batteries, not the case for night time.
One thing I noticed is that all the battery manufactures seem to give a higher warranty or say it will easily last alteast 5 years + when used for solar, even c20 ones.
The only difference between a inverter/ups use and solar is that, in the later the battery is charged and discharged daily.
A single inverter which can say give 1000w on a single 12v battery vs say a 24v inverter of similar capacity or 48v of similar capacity. The 12v inverter will weighs more, is of lower efficiency, develops lots of heat which is a killer for electronics. So for that alone I do not recommend single battery inverters and its best left for 500w load or less, that doesn't mean that you use the full 500w capacity of the UPS, which will toast the batteries quickly.
Assuming you get a battery within 3 months of manufacture date. Only the manufacturer and service guy know that date. The seller does too but won't disclose unless you check serial# with the manufacturer at the time of purchase. Older batteries will be discounted. A 6 or 9 month old battery that hasn't had a top up charge will sulphate and be less than the stated capacity so that means still more minus-ing from total run time.
Most dealers don't stock C10 batteries, so it fresh within a month manufacturing date. When I checked Exide C10 batteries at a dealer, the box did have stickers of the manufacturing date. Typically dealers throw away the box and get only the battery to the customer premises which is probably because they deliver single battery via scooter ( majority of the users buy single battery), so you can insist on the box.
This is the thing, the pertinent derating & dry weight info was available in catalogs from 2010 era but missing in current catalogs. Nobody can tell you what the dry weight of an exide C10 tubular solar What to make of it ?
That Excel battery that you said about a couple of months back, I was told that the dry weights are now lower and the one in their website is inaccurate. But they also told me that the weight reduction was achieved by reducing the interconnecting plates/conductor of each cell, a 12v battery has 6 cells inside. But what made me skeptical was Exide who is the oldest manufacturer in India should have done this a long time, the fact that Exide batteries are used in submarines and for defense application, I believe their ratings and specs are truer and are still better then all other batteries in India. Which is why I would still by their batteries.
When i looked up the info for exides gel battery it was a complete joke. 100% marketing, zero technical info. Fit it and forget it, sellers were saying. So tempting.
Today only the exide powersafes have this info, powersafe is used in a corporate setting with temperature control and not stuck out in the balcony. So a more controlled environment is assumed and the warranty demands it than in the home. I have no idea how they even honour warranty in a home setting. People usually go for lowest cost, so older battery, right sized as well so back up time low to meet budget. The quality of distilled water can vary widely. It may not even be distilled but through some other process. That will definitely affect battery longevity.
How do you ensure water quality ?
Exide own powersafe papers tell us that gel batteries can loose as much as 50% of their capacity, by just discharging to 100% just for a few cycles or for that matter APC white papers tells us that a sealed Gel battery can loose it capacity by a similar amount if the ambient temperature is 30 degree Celsius.
Water quality that you get in petrol bunks, is also pathetic. I check the distill water bottles for visible impurities and when I do find them, the reply by the petrol bunk or sellers is that those are additives added that are floating inside. So what I did do last time was, bought two bottles with the least or nil impurities, I then filter the water again and before I did that I first took a water reading of dissolved particles aka TDS and made sure it was close to zero.
Earlier Shell pumps used to sell distilled waters which was clean and I also bought the 4liter can version, they stopped selling them now.
But do NOT buy 4 liter can version now, which uses a non transparent plastic, by only the 1 liter ones which are in a transparent plastic bottle.
A lithium battery removes a lot of headaches. The battery going by regalia is in reality a computer attached to a battery.
Also an APC smart ups like you have costs more than consumer ups. 30k? vs 6-7k for a zelio
Given the flexibility of setting charging voltage this is the reason you managed almost 9yr with your exide EL.
Those additional charging circuitry, the BMS is nowadays really cheap. It's the dreaded import duties and lots of middle men that makes lithium batteries so much more expensive. If one needs to buy a 18650 type cells from a manufacturer you will need to order 1lakh cells minimum. If you go via middle men/ suppliers the market is filled with fake cells minmum order is around 1000 cells, so the trusted suppliers charge more because of the authenticity, which alone doubles the price, it further doubles up after Indian middle men or companies are involved not to mention the 40% duties and taxes.
That 1000va, 800w apc smart ups costed around 14k or something back then. I also didn't consume more then 100w continuously with 2x 40AH C10 batteries, that and periodic water and voltage monitoring, made it last that long. I had first hand witness the C5 draw of 20amps and knew back then that at 20amp draw on a 40ah C10 battery, didn't last 2hrs it dropped to 10.5v each much before that and that, the dealer and APC dealer couldn't understand why, but Schneider something manager for bangalore was what made me download and reading all those exide/apc whitepapers, which made me limit my amp draw to as close as possible to c10 or lower.
If you weigh the batteries on a weighing scale on delivery you will know how reality matches up with their catalog.
Any wheels underneath ? Makes things easier for maintenance
Few weeks back when I talked to a battery dealer via phone about the weight of EL 150( 4 year, c10 rated 150ah battery) not their in any catalog or website, the dealer said it was 70kg something, which was higher then the C10 solar battery but was cheaper. I was skeptical, so I wento go to the store (1hr traffic) to physically ask for the catalog, he just took a random brochure of EL+ (5 year, c10) and tried to fool me and then when I asked for the actual battery catalog he then showed a Invatubular(3 year c20) and said it will be similar, I was pissed off that he lied, he said no one asks weight of batteries, the conversation turned south quickly, he however said that you can get your own weight scale to check the wet weight as the batteries are now factory filled.
I've given up on the POS app and Luminous for now. I will wait to see if any updates come out that fix the app (most likely will make things worse). Looks like I am not the only one irritated with this company, going by other people's reviews and complaints all over the place.
