Lead Acid Battery Fundamentals

Lead acid cells have been around for a really long time. The science around them is very developed and the industrial capabilities surrounding this science have produced a workhorse.

Lead acid batteries are robust and have been powering everything from cars to emergency back up power to submarines.

The Basics – How These Types of Batteries Work

How a Lead Acid Cell Works largely depends on whether its in a charge cycle or a discharge cycle. Find out what these cycles are.
Putting batteries in series is a way to increase both voltage and power. Read on to see how this works.
Putting batteries in parallel is a way to increase both current capacity (amps) and power. Find out how.

The Specification – What They Mean

Amp Hours is perhaps the most fundamental specification for determining how much energy the battery stores. Read this article to get a better understanding of what amp hours means.
Cold Cranking Amps is basically a specification that tells us how much instantaneous energy the battery can safely supply. Cold cranking amps are something that we are concerned about for starting a vehicle. Read this article to know what CCA means.
Like Amp Hours, Reserve Capacity (RC) can also give us a sense for how long a battery might last. Read on to see how it can help.
Amp Hours and Kilowatt Hours are different, but related measurements. See how the two relate and see how you can use watt hours to determine if you have enough battery capacity to do the work you want to do.
State of Charge and Depth of Discharge are two related terms and can often be found in battery manufacture literature that dictates how a battery should be used. This article demystify these terms.
What Does Battery C-Rate Mean? is another helpful article. C-Rate is often a term that is used to help us understand how a battery will perform under certain charge and discharge rates.

 Advanced and Miscellaneous Topics

Peukert’s Law basically shows us that if we increase the rate of discharge, we will also decrease the amount of useable energy. Walking through this explanation will give you sense for how increasing the discharge rate makes less energy available to you.