Ageing in Photovoltaic Lead Acid Batteries and Its Effect on Charge/Discharge Efficiencies, in Relation to the Magnitude of Electric Charging Current Rates

Abstract

Using circuit diagrams presented in literature, two types of Constant Current (CC) charge controllers were built for experimental purposes and used to charge and discharge batteries at different time intervals, at different current rates and their corresponding efficiency values were computed and compared. In separate experiments, batteries were used to store battery capacity at different charge and discharge rates, from which it was confirmed that with 10Ah capacity stored separately in the old Vanbo and the Vanbo at different current rates, the charging efficiency for the older battery was lower than that of the newer battery. The end voltages after charge varied in a non-proportionate manner with the constant charging current rates tested for old batteries. For the new battery, the efficiencies obtained were higher than those of the old battery. It shows then that charge and discharge cycles at different magnitudes of CC can be used to determine the state of health of lead-acid batteries. It was also found that an increase in their aging process doesn’t only lower charge/discharge efficiency, it disrupts end voltage variations after charge, without considerable change in connection with the magnitude of battery capacity tested.