Avoid fully charging backup power batteries

Daniel Puchert

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South Africans making big battery mistakes

South Africans with backup power batteries should avoid keeping them fully charged for long periods as this can degrade their long-term health or cause inaccuracies in battery level readings.

With load-shedding suspended for over half a year, many people with backup power systems might keep their batteries at full charge for prolonged periods.
 
Would it not be better to keep them at 80%?
 
Would it not be better to keep them at 80%?
Actually the 20-80% has nothing to do with storage but is the level at which Lithium batteries undergo the least degradation with usage and charging. This is also why quick charging usually only happens between these levels.

I was researching how people store their camera batteries and while I don't have the graph now there is little degradation keeping batteries stored beyond these levels and they would reach 80% discharge quite quickly, sometimes even after just a few days. Thereafter it's more gradual at 1-2 % of remaining charge (not capacity) per day. There is nothing special about these battery packs that incorporate ordinary cells and telling people to discharge them every few days just introduces extra charge cycles that shorten their lifespan. The biggest mistake people make is to keep batteries on charge so they are always at 100% which commonly results in the swelling effect. They should be topped up every few days to 80% to be in a ready state.
 
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