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Observe
how
the
charge
and
discharge
rates
are
scaled
and
why
it
matters.
Charge and discharge rates of a battery are governed by C-rates. The capacity of a battery is commonly
rated at 1C, meaning that a fully charged battery rated at 1Ah should provide 1A for one hour. The same
battery discharging at 0.5C should provide 500mA for two hours, and at 2C it delivers 2A for 30 minutes.
Losses at fast discharges reduce the discharge time and these losses also affect charge times.
A C-rate of 1C is also known as a one-hour discharge; 0.5C or C/2 is a two-hour discharge and 0.2C or C/5
is a 5-hour discharge. Some high-performance batteries can be charged and discharged above 1C with
moderate
stress.
Table
illustrates
typical
times
at
various
C-rates.
charging
and
discharging
batteries.
C-rate
Time
5C
12 min
2C
30 min
1C
1h
0.5C or C/2
2h
0.2C or C/5
5h
0.1C or C/10
10h
0.05C or C/20
20h
current while measuring the time until the end-ofdischarge voltage is reached. For lead acid, the end-
more than 100 percent capacity; others are underrated and never reach 100 percent, even after priming.
When discharging a battery with a battery analyzer capable of applying different C rates, a higher C rate
will produce a lower capacity reading and vice versa. By discharging the 1Ah battery at the faster 2C-rate,
or 2A, the battery should ideally deliver the full capacity in 30 minutes. The sum should be the same since
the identical amount of energy is dispensed over a shorter time. In reality, internal losses turn some of the
energy into heat and lower the resulting capacity to about 95 percent or less. Discharging the same battery
at 0.5C, or 500mA over 2 hours, will likely increase the capacity to above 100 percent.
To obtain a reasonably good capacity reading, manufacturers commonly rate alkaline and lead acid
batteries at a very low 0.05C, or a 20-hour discharge. Even at this slow discharge rate, lead acid seldom
attains a 100 percent capacity as the batteries are overrated. Manufacturers provide capacity offsets to
adjust for the discrepancies if discharged at a higher C rate than specified. (See also BU-503: How to
Calculate Battery Runtime.) Figure 2 illustrates the discharge times of a lead acid battery at various loads
expressed in C-rate.
Figure
2:
Typical
discharge
curves
of
lead
acid
as
function
of
C-rate.
Smaller batteries are rated at a 1C discharge rate. Due to sluggish behavior, lead acid is rated at 0.2C (5h)
and 0.05C (20h).
While lead- and nickel-based batteries can be discharged at a high rate, the protection circuit prevents the
Li-ion Energy Cell from discharging above 1C. The Power Cell with nickel, manganese and/or phosphate
active material can tolerate discharge rates of up to 10C and the current threshold is set higher accordingly.