12 volt battery. Small and necessary?
About a12-volt battery, what it can do and what it is needed for at home
First, a 12-volt battery for UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) is inexpensive and can be used in everyday life for literally everything that is needed. Backup power or lighting. And another big plus is that it is all just a consumable, and it is easy to replace it with another one of the same type.
For example, if you bought a charging station, the resource of the battery installed in it is approximately the same as that of these batteries. The only difference is, because looking for a replacement battery for a charging station will be more difficult than buying one. An ideal choice for those who do not want to buy and install a 100-ampere battery in their apartment. And even more so from a car. Anyone can use such a battery, no knowledge is required. There are a lot of accessories for these batteries on sale that just need to be connected to it without soldering. Or, if there is a desire and some skills. You can solder and assemble some devices yourself.
12 volt battery – How long do such batteries work and live
With more or less moderate use, it can be 2–3 years. With active use, this is 1 year +- this is what I am saying from my experience of use. I have already had about 10 of these. Regarding safety, nothing dangerous has been observed in my use, they can be used at home. The power of such batteries is not so great as to cause any disaster. It is really unnecessary to bother with a hammer to connect to incomprehensible chargers. Throw and do something extreme with any battery, even the one you have in your smartphone.
To use it correctly, you only need to understand where it is plus and where it is minus. Usually red is a plus, black is a minus. It is impossible to close the contacts, these batteries, like all, are afraid of a very large discharge and recharging.
No need to solder anything – here is a list of accessories that can be used with such batteries. First, these are 12 volt bulbs. On sale, there are even buttons and crocodiles for connecting to the battery. Such lamps shine very well and can completely replace the stationary lighting of the room for a while. How much lighting is enough depends on the power. The standard normal power is 5–10 watts, and the capacity in watts, for example, a 7.5 amp battery is 90 watts. Taking into account the fact that we cannot completely discharge it to 0 because it will fail. The effective glow will be about 5–10 hours +- depending on the lamp.
There are very powerful 15-watt lamps that will light for about 3–4 hours. More than that can be risky for the battery. I had one that failed like that – the lamp was turned on at night accidentally. And it completely discharged the battery. You can make light bulbs yourself from old broken 220 volt ones or those that are not used, the LEDs in them work very well from 12 volts.
You can also buy a socket with crocodiles as in a 12-volt car
And this outlet gives you the opportunity to connect probably hundreds of devices that are used and sold for the car to this battery. This is also charging for smartphones, additional power for almost every laptop. When using and charging a smartphone, take into account the fact that the voltage is not multiplied here, as in a power bank, but on the contrary, the voltage decreases from 12 to 5 – in this way, you will be able to charge all your smartphones and tablets thanks to one such battery. For a laptop, such a battery will give from 2 to 6–10 hours of operation, depending on the power of the laptop and the battery. It gives my old laptop 4–6 hours of work and a fully charged battery that still gives an hour and a half of work.
There are a lot of accessories that can be connected in this way and that may be needed in the car in the future, that is, it is not just a waste of money, you may need all these devices in the future
How to charge such a battery, I use such a cheap device, but there is a nuance when using and charging such a battery. It is necessary to follow it, after all, if the charger will be expensive and technically better. With more detailed monitoring of the charge and automatic reduction of the charge current. It is possible not to monitor the charge, but to entrust everything to automation.
My device shows only the charging mode is red and the charge level mode. When it is green or almost green, the battery is sufficiently charged. And here I advise you not to leave your battery overnight or at all without care to charge your battery with such a charger. When the indicator is green, the charger does not turn off the current and continues to charge your battery. This can lead to the fact that the liquid with which the battery is filled will boil (bubble) for a very long time and completely come out of your battery as air.
If the battery gurgles during the charging process, then this is a normal phenomenon, but if this process starts already when it is sufficiently charged, then the battery resource is wasted. Therefore, as soon as you see that the battery is sufficiently charged. You should turn off the charger. Sometimes, when I can’t monitor charging. I charge several times. If you do not monitor the charge when using such chargers. The battery can fail very quickly, as well as when it is fully discharged.
What to do when a 12-volt battery fails
Often failure is a loss of capacity, power, and a decrease in operating voltage. In mine, for example, this battery heats up when charging and shows only 10 volts. That is, some of its parts have fallen, and it is no longer suitable for normal use. I think this is due to overcharging because I left it overnight. But I was already thinking of giving up when the idea came to mind to connect two 5 Volt lamps to it and turn them on. For example, in the corridor, when necessary. With such use, such a battery will last for a long time, in my opinion.
I don’t advise (and you can’t) throw away such batteries, you can still hand them in and even get money for it. Can be sold at a very low price on bulletin boards. Well, if it is absolutely necessary to get rid of it. Then do not throw it directly into the garbage can. Just put it somewhere nearby separately – it will be taken away very quickly.
What capacity should I buy such a battery and use?
Usually, the standard capacity is 7 amperes, there are smaller and larger ones. The capacity is more than 9 amperes, it may already have slightly different dimensions and weight. It seems that the more, the better. Take into account the fact that the time to charge a battery with a higher capacity will be many times longer than that of a weaker one. It is enough to look at the charger that you will use. A battery with a capacity of more than 9 ampere hours can be charged for almost a day if it is sufficiently discharged. On the other hand, a more powerful battery, on the contrary. Makes it possible not to completely discharge it with each use, because it is powerful enough. In this case, it will probably take the same amount of time to charge as a less powerful one. But which was more discharged.
Depending on which devices you will use it with, you can independently calculate the required capacity, also taking into account the price.
You can watch similar information in the form of a video here – https://youtu.be/x1iJSvMrJmQ?si=i6BbzrP0VQ1Ay5IA