I'm from Philippines. We are a tropical country. Can somebody help me? Can outdoor conditions like varying temperature, humidity, etc. have effects on the lifespan and performance of our 125 vdc station battery? It's gel type maintenance free power plus brand.

 

Anonymous,
temperature greatly affects chemical and electrochemical reactions. And, in a battery designed for a -40 to +40ºC operating range higher temperature operation has deleterious effects! But, for the usual lead-acid battery, higher temperature has one positive outcome... its capacity is increased! That is, the number of charge-discharge cycles increases for temperature above 40ºC. Unfortunately, however, other factors reduce the battery's life-expectancy.

They are:
o An increase in sludge formation.
o The end-of-discharge voltage is reached sooner.
o There is a change in the depth of discharge.

Anonymous, the above discussion covers lead-acid batteries, and not lead-calcium batteries. The latter is the maintenance-free type you referenced. While not absolutely certain, I believe the negative aspects associated with higher temperature operation of the lead-acid battery are also applicable to the lead-calcium one!

Regards,
Phil Corso, PE ([email protected])

 

We are in Port Hedland in West Australia where we can experience temperatures >40 Deg C for long periods in the summertime. Our turbine batteries are in a non-airconditioned battery room adjacent to the local control rooms. The batteries are Ni-Cads and are approximately ten years old. We have recently done a re-evaluation of the battery condition and have decided to replace them as the capacity has dropped by 30-50% over the eleven sets of batteries that we have. In other locations, I have seen similiar battery banks lasting for twenty years if they are properly maintained. Talking to some of the local battery suppliers, they all pretty well agree that air conditioning the battery rooms would extend the life of the batteries. I guess, from this, the answer is yes, higher operating environment temperatures will reduce the life of your batteries no matter how well you maintain them.