Estimating Battery Requirements
This example illustrates how quickly your battery needs can escalate. To reduce the required battery size, you can conserve energy by eliminating or reducing the use of some loads or by
When sizing your battery, resist the temptation to skip the last step of this calculation (multiplying by 2). More capacity is better since you will have more reserve capacity, be better able to handle large loads and surge loads, and your battery won't be discharged as deeply. Battery life is directly dependent on how deeply the battery is discharged. The deeper the discharge, the shorter the battery life.
Battery Sizing Worksheet
Use the following worksheet to calculate your battery needs. To ensure sufficient battery capacity, be generous when estimating the operating time per day for each of the loads you will run.
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| (A) Power | (B) Operating | needed for this | |
| Consumption | Time per Day | appliance | |
Appliance | (Watts) | (Hours) | (= A x B) | |
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| W | hours | Wh | |
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| W | hour | Wh | |
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| W | hours | Wh | |
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| W | hours | Wh | |
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| W | hours | Wh | |
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| W | hours | Wh | |
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Total daily |
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x Number of days between charges |
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= Total | Wh | |||
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Battery Ah used between charges (divide by 10) | Ah | |||
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Recommended Battery Bank Size in Ah (multiply by 2) | Ah | |||
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