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Battery Life
Calculator
Batteries have a limited number of
discharge-charge cycles before they lose capacity and must be
replaced. For this reason, one attempts to minimize the number
of times a battery system is called upon to support a
load.
The problem is that periodic generator tests cause
momentary outages and/or power disturbances that require the battery system to
take over. Few realize that these tests cause such large
reductions in battery life.
What do you do? Stop generator testing? You could, but that is unwise (and
possibly against codes and standards). But without periodic testing you won't
have the assurance that emergency generator power will be
available when needed.
The
solution is to use a special type of transfer
switch called a "Soft-Load Transfer
Switch".
Since Soft-Load transfer switches are more expensive than
conventional open or closed transition switches, we must determine
if their use is justified.
Use this calculator
to determine if a Soft-Load transfer switch is
justified. This calculator computes the relative reduction in
battery system capacity based on how frequently a generator test
is performed. This loss of battery life does not occur
when using a Soft-Load transfer switch. Use this calculator
to see if this recovered money more than pays for the difference in
cost between a conventional transfer switch and a Soft-Load transfer
switch.
 
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