Reserve capacity (RC) is a important industry rating for a battery. The rating signifies the number of minutes it will take a fully charged battery at 80 ° F to discharge at 25 ampere and maintain a voltage of 10.5 volt for a 12 volt battery. The higher the reserve capacity rating, the longer your battery will perform to run the electronic appliances or devices, before recharging is required.
Some of the batteries are rated in ampere-hours. One should not get confused between ampere-hours and reserve capacity. Reserve capacity rating is more realistic than amp-hour as a measurement of rating.
For example, let’s that a battery have 160 minutes reserve capacity at 25 amps. A common understanding is that, if we draw the current at 50 amp, the battery will last for 80 minutes. However, as the battery draw of current increases, the reserve capacity of the battery decreases, which indicates a non-linear relationship. This phenomena is known as Peukert’s law. When a current of 50 amp is drawn, the battery will last less than 80 minutes, due to decreased capacity.
Most of the batteries which come on the market are rated on high CCA (Cold Cranking Rating, the ability of battery to start and perform in cold temperatures) which is easy and inexpensive to build. However, those batteries’ life-cycle, service life and reserve capacity are very poor. Reserve capacity rating is difficult and expensive to achieve; it also requires high quality battery material.
Related Posts:
What is an Ampere Hour Rating (Amp Hour or Ah) of A Battery?
Puekert’s Law: How Long Will My Battery Last?
