This is simply a battery chemistry limitation.Įxample: 200Ah of lithium batteries will provide roughly 200Ah of usable capacity while 200Ah of lead-acid batteries will only provide 100Ah of usable capacity. Traditional lead-acid batteries will only provide about 50 percent of their rated capacity and degrade faster as you put more load on them. Popular lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries can provide up to 100 percent of their rated capacity. We see a big difference in usable capacity when comparing traditional lead-acid batteries to modern Lithium batteries. Batteries may also degrade over time causing their usable capacity to drop. This can be far less than the combined Amp Hour (Ah) rating of your battery bank especially if you have flooded lead acid or AGM batteries. Usable capacity is the amount of usable energy that can realistically be drawn from your battery bank. A battery bank with 400Ah to 600Ah of usable capacity is a good starting point.Ĭheck out this article for several examples of standard off-grid RV system configurations. Power consumption from personal electronics, TVs, laptops, lights, etc. Installers and DIYers will then select a standard battery system configuration of 200, 400, 600 or more Amp Hours (Ah) and a suitable power inverter to meet the demand of the continuous loads plus smaller on-demand appliances and personal electronics.Įxample: An RV with a residential refrigerator that consumes 130Ah per day will need at least 200Ah of usable battery capacity to keep it running. They are often referred to as continuous loads and will draw more power over time.Įstimating the daily consumption of these large continuous loads is key to developing a realistic power consumption baseline. Most installers these days focus initially on identifying large energy consumers (equipment like residential refrigerators) that will run continuously throughout the day and night. If you don’t have a battery monitor installed then this is pretty tough to accomplish. This is a great strategy if you already have a good battery monitoring system (BMS) installed. Measuring the actual amount of energy used is another technique which requires special battery monitoring equipment. How do you figure this out? Using a detailed spreadsheet to calculate your daily energy usage was the old-school way to figure this out, but few installers do this anymore. How much energy do you consume on a daily basis? How much space do you have for batteries?. ![]()
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