Battery banks are a collection of lead-acid batteries that, when connected together, allow for storage of significant amounts of energy for home, industrial, or recreational use. Battery banks are typically used to store power generated by wind and solar energy sources.
A deep-cycle lead-acid battery is designed to deliver a consistent voltage as the battery discharges. In contrast, starter batteries (e.g., most automotive batteries) are designed to deliver sporadic voltage spikes. Battery-driven vehicles, such as golf carts, forklifts, and floor sweepers, commonly use deep-cycle batteries. While a deep-cycle battery can be used as a starting battery (and may work better than a traditional starting battery with the myriad of electronic components attached to most modern vehicles), the lower "cranking amps" imply that an oversized battery may need to be used in an older vehicle that lacks fuel injection. Deep cycle batteries can be charged with lower amps than regular batteries.
A lead-acid gel battery
The key structural difference between deep cycle batteries and cranking batteries is the lead plates, which are solid in deep-cycle batteries and composed of porous sponge-like plates in starting batteries. Some batteries that are labeled "deep-cycle" do not possess these solid lead plates, however, and are actually "hybrid" batteries. While a deep-cycle battery is designed to discharge down to as much as 20% of its charge capacity over several cycles, companies recommend that a hybrid battery not be discharged beyond 50% of its capacity.
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "
Deep cycle battery."
