Jan 04, 2021 Pageview:943
Anybody who plans to buy a battery must have seen the ‘Ah’ specification on the battery or its container. If you are conversant with batteries, then you must be wondering right now what that term means, and how it can be of help to you. The true meaning of Ah may have eluded you for a long time, but today, you would know everything you need to know.
If you are hoping to buy a battery that would serve you accordingly, you need to know about these battery specifications. And one of the most important specifications is the Ah rating.
Ah is known as ampere hour. It is part of what is used to assess the capacity of any battery. In other words, if you are going to buy a battery, the only way the seller can tell you about the serving capacity of their battery is by disclosing it to you in ampere hour.
Ampere hour simply refers to the maximum amount of current that can be supplied by the battery in one hour. In the case of 3Ah, it means that the battery is capable of supplying 3 amperes worth of current for a period of one hour, assuming every other condition is ideal.
This knowledge and information is very important because it saves you the headache of using your device or whatever with a battery that cannot serve it optimally. For instance, if a device requires more than 3A for it to function, then you cannot buy a battery that delivers 3 amperes in an hour.
The ampere hour specification is done for both small and big batteries. For small batteries, they are calibrated to function with milli-ampere ratings. That is they are one-thousandth of an ampere. A 3mA battery is the same thing as 0.003A. The big batteries, however, work with the normal ampere ratings.
So, for instance, if you have a number of devices that would work with a sum of 3A, you can purchase a 3Ah or higher battery and it would be a good fit. What you should never do in such a scenario is to purchase a battery that will supply you with less amount of current. Your devices are going to underperform in such cases and may even get damaged in the process.
By looking at the ampere hour rating of a battery, you can easily tell if that battery can work as long as you expect or even power your device. So, people often ask, when going to buy a battery - are they supposed to go for something with lower ampere hour rating or for the one with a higher ampere hour rating?
If you are buying a battery for your device, go for the one that has a higher ampere hour rating. Batteries with a higher ampere hour rating will power your device more efficiently than a lower ampere hour rated battery. That is not all, with higher ampere hours rating, you can expect a higher performance.
Higher ampere hour rated batteries also ensure for the supply of full current all through the working of the device. You would not have any need to be afraid of the possibility of your battery functioning beneath the required value.
These higher ampere hour batteries also have a higher energy density in them. That is, they are the best option when it comes to high powered applications. But when using such high ampere hours rating, you have to consider the amount of heat that will be produced by the battery. That is because anywhere there is current, the next thing you need to consider is heat. A higher ampere hour battery will generate more heat than the one that has a low ampere hour rating.
Thus, if you have a reliable way of managing the heat, you should always go for higher ampere hour batteries because of their longevity in service-hours and higher efficiency.
If you have been following this post, you shouldn’t have any trouble differentiating between a 2.0Ah and a 4.0Ah. But if you don’t understand yet, please don’t press the panic button. You will understand everything if you follow my explanation below;
A 2.0 ampere hour battery is only capable of delivering a maximum current value of 2A for one hour. That said, a 4.0 ampere hour battery can supply a maximum current value of 4A for one hour, all things being equal. A device combination that requires a current value of 2A will work with a 2.0 Ah battery and also work with a 4.0 Ah battery.
But the same cannot be applied when you switch the batteries. That is, if you have something that needs to work with 4A, it will work with a 4.0 Ah battery but it will not function with anything that is lower than that rating.
Another thing is that if you use a higher ampere hour rating battery on something that requires lesser current, which means it will power the device for a longer time. For instance, when you compare a 2.0Ah battery and a 4.0Ah battery, there is a difference of 2.0Ah. That excess will account for more power, which means you would be supplied power for a longer period.
Ampere hour rating for batteries is very important in determining how long and well the battery will serve the device or whatever is using it. Ampere hour is a unit that indicates how many ampere you can get for an hour. This article has done what it could to break the whole thing for you. I am sure you should know how to do your own power calculations by now. If you are still confused, you can take a second look at the article when you are much relaxed and I’m optimistic you will get it then.
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