HOW DOES A LEAD ACID UPS BACKUP BATTERY WORK AND IS YOUR UPS SYSTEM BATTERY REALLY A GREEN SOLUTION FOR AFRICA?

The theory behind any battery is that if you put two types of metals into a transferring medium there will be a power flow available which is called DC power.

?The DC power is created due to a chemical reaction that takes place which is what happens in all batteries, no matter what type, technology or claim to fame the basic working of all batteries is all the same and follows the same process.

In the case of a Lemon battery, the citric acid (lemon juice which is acidic) is the battery water also called the electrolyte. Electrolyte in a battery is never pure acid but rather a mixture between acid and water. The acid inside will never go away but only become stronger when the lemon looses water when it dries out.

?When you insert two metal probes into a battery that are dislike in their chemical makeup, the lemons acid inside it causes a chemical change whereby there is a transfer of electrons (part of an atom) which occurs between the two dislike metal probes whereby one metal will attract the electrons and the other metal will give off the electrons. When this flow of electrons occurs it creates a power circuit or battery.

?The most common UPS backup battery used is a lead acid backup battery. A lead acid technology battery consists of a negative plate composed of one type of lead metal and a positive plate composed of another type of lead metal.

When you charge the lead acid backup battery there is a transfer of electrons from one plate to the other plate via the transferring medium, which is as discussed earlier called the electrolyte. The electrolyte in a lead acid battery is acidic by nature and is a weakfish form of Sulphuric acid.

?Any battery electrolyte, can never be 100% pure or it would corrode any metal you put inside it. This is a big sacrifice made in any battery. The stronger the acid content in electrolyte the better the battery will work, but also the stronger the electrolyte the more the battery dislike metals also called plates, will corrode away and eventually the battery will not work as it will have no metals present.

?So, with lead acid batteries there is always a sacrifice between the battery performance and the battery service life. This is why two batteries of the same rating also known as the ampere hour or AH, with the same size and weight, can vary greatly in performance and service life.

?So you will get say a 7AH battery used commonly all over for backup power for alarms systems, electric gates, UPS units etc., where initially one product line will give you 10 minutes backup and another product will give you 20 minutes backup. This is mostly because the 20 minute product will have much more acid inside than the 10 minute product, so it will perform better. This higher acid percentage is also referred to as the Specific Gravity or SG as it is known.

Although the 20 minute higher performing 7AH looks to be the best choice, the higher SG will mean that the battery plates will be corroded more quickly and thus the battery will not last as long in its life, so instead of the battery giving you say 5 years you may only get 2 or 3 years before it needs replacement.

?On the other side of the scale, the battery with the lower SG, which performs worse for backup power, will last much longer.

?But this is not the whole story yet. When a battery manufacturer produces a high rate battery i.e. high performance, they also do another trick and that is to put thinner plates inside the same physical size plastic battery box, but because the positive and negative battery plates are now thinner, they can fit more of them inside. By having more plates inside, they make a bigger surface area of dislike metals to react with the electrolyte and thus the same size battery performs better.

So with a stronger acid Percentage or SG and more plates making more surface area, the battery performance and backup is massively improved. But this performance is done at the sacrifice of actual battery service life achieved, because the thinner the plates the quicker the acid can eat them away.

?A lower performing battery will have a lower acid percentage or SG and it will have less plates, but it will have thicker plates, that don’t corrode away as easily as the thinner ones in a higher performing battery product, which will mean it will last much longer in service.

?Another factor is that some battery manufacturers cheat in that they put less lead inside but the same number of plates. Lead is the key component in a battery and responsible for a majority of the batteries manufacturing costs. So by reducing lead content there is a big saving on manufacture costs, resulting in a cheap battery product.

?It is very important to look at the actual weight of a battery and compare it to other similar battery products before buying the cheapest battery. If the cheapest battery is the heaviest, then usually its got more lead in it and will be a better product overall. But it is recommended that you look to buy well known UPS battery make brand such as Enersys, ELITE, CSB, Vision, Chloride and Excide from FNB etc.

Recyclability of different battery technologies in Africa:

?In Africa there are very few battery recycling facilities. All the current recycling facilities that do exist in Africa, are designed for 100% lead acid battery technology product recycling.

?There are now days and mainly to blame on the rolling blackout threat offered in South Africa by the ailing ESKOM infrastructure, an ever-growing list of battery design technologies for use in Standby power backup systems, like a UPS or home inverter system.

?More common technologies include:

?1.????VRLA sealed 3 to 5 or 10 year design life backup battery

2.????Lithium Ion sealed maintenance free backup battery

3.????Lithium Iron Phosphate also called Lithium Ferro or LiPHO4 sealed maintenance free backup battery

4.????Lead crystal backup battery

?As well as the highly poisonous Nickel Cadmium battery?

All these standby battery technologies claim to be recyclable, but few say what percentage with many battery manufacturers worldwide claiming 100% recyclability but never stating where.

As a citizen of the African continent, any UPS or standby power user, should

only use lead acid technology batteries

to prevent the further pollution and dumping in Africa, of battery products, that must be shipped back overseas, at huge cost, at end of useable life, for “recycling.

?This means high costs to the user, at the end of a batteries life and use, meaning no green alternatives for batteries in Africa other than the lead Acid battery.

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