I came across this strange $700 battery. Anyone know what this gigantic 2 volt battery is for? I did some googling but didn't come up with anything.

https://www.solar-electric.com/suca2k.html

 

I came across this strange $700 battery. Anyone know what this gigantic 2 volt battery is for? I did some googling but didn't come up with anything.

Rolls makes all sorts of batteries, this one gets even bigger: https://www.rollsbattery.com/battery/2-ys-62p/

This sort is used to store solar and wind output for later use.

 

Rolls makes all sorts of batteries, this one gets even bigger: https://www.rollsbattery.com/battery/2-ys-62p/

This sort is used to store solar and wind output for later use.

Yes, the website it's on should have clued me into it being solar related.

Still boggles my mind, that's a very low voltage to have to convert to 12v or even 120v, would take some gigantic cables to handle the current.

 

Yes, the website it's on should have clued me into it being solar related.

Still boggles my mind, that's a very low voltage to have to convert to 12v or even 120v, would take some gigantic cables to handle the current.

It is a single flooded lead acid cell. It would be put in series with others to raise the voltage.

 

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for the explanation.

 

I used to work with Ni-Cad batteries; single cell. 1.2V nominal per cell at 100AH. They were used in emergency lighting equipment. Easy to build for a 12 volt system. More often than not they were in (if memory serves) 34 volt systems. Schools, stores and court houses are places I've serviced such banks. Whenever we'd change out batteries I'd bring a bunch home and mess with them. Big and heavy. That was back in 1982.

And if memory serves, when they wouldn't take a charge I'd reverse charge them. Don't know why, but they seemed to take and hold a reversed charge. I can't swear to that, but I believe I've reverse charged batteries before. Deliberately. I came across a couple mercury cells. Accidentally shorted one and geez did it get hot fast. And that was an old battery.

The reason for the high amp hour rating isn't to give that much amperage all at once but to supply power over a longer period of time. With a 100AH battery you could draw 50 amps for two hours. That was in some older K-Mart stores. They switched to individual units. Last time I serviced a K-Mart it was to install wet lead acid batteries (12V) in single head units mounted on walls or on poles throughout the store. Nominal voltage was 12.6 volts and float charge was 13.8 volts. Little bigger than motorcycle batteries. They're probably using smaller units with Li-Po or Li-Ion batteries nowadays.

 

All large lead-acid batteries are made of individual cells - whether they are used for forklifts, or solar, or industrial power. If they were in 12V blocks how would you lift them? A 48V 840Ah battery weighs more than a tonne and a half. Each cell can be replaced if it fails. When you buy it, you buy 24 cells and a tank, and the supplier puts the tank in place and puts each cell in the tank, then connects them up. Each cell is 60kg.

 

Telecom comes to mind. Don't know if the rules have changed with the decline of landline use, but back in the day a phone company central office had a ventilated, fireproof battery room with beasts like that strapped together for 48 V. The batteries could run thousands of phones and the switching gear for xxx minutes or hours, until the generator got fired up.

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