Lead acid battery ?

Question

If a lead acid battery is rated 50Ah, this means that it can provide continuously to a 10A load during 5hrs or full 50A to a load during one hour.But, does that also means that it can provide 100A to a load during 30 minutes?Or 3000A during 1 minute???

Answer 1

Since the battery has internal resistance, heat will be generated inside the battery when current flows. At some current level, the rate at which the surrounding air carries heat away will be slower than the rate of heat generation and the battery will overheat. At some higher current level, the heat will not be able to flow quickly enough from the hot spots inside the battery to the outer surface where the surrounding air can carry it away. That can cause the plates to warp and perhaps touch and short the battery internally. The battery could explode if too high a current is drawn even for a very short time. There are probably other limitations on the current vs. energy capability.

Answer 2

As mentioned above, the internal resistance of the battery and its raising the temperature of the electrolyte is the limit to how quickly you may discharge a lead-acid battery. But in general, one can be discharged at a 1-hour rate, provided it is not already at an elevated temperature, either via the environment or an immediately-preceeding high-current charge. You can actually draw hundreds of amps from a 50Ah battery, if you do so very intermittantly. Just keep the thing under about 125F.

Answer 3

Question seems to be repeated. The self resistance of the battery becomes a limiting factor for the maximum current that can be drawn and even that may be too much if gassing is to be minimised.