Solar Panel Nicad Battery System

One Long NiCd 12V 5000mAh Battery Pack for Solar Panel / Emergence Light

Features and Benefits

- Powerful 12.0 V 5000 mAh NiCd long battery pack

- Made with 10 x D 5000mAh TENERGY high capacity NiCd Batteries

- Delivery 8 - 9 hours of run time with typical emergence light (500mA discahrge current)

- Low self-discharge rate, good for solar panel for storage battery

- Also can be a DC 12V power back up

- Quick charge, long cycle life (up to 500 times) and rapid charge up

- You can use our 7.2V-12V smart charger to charger this battery pack.

- Over 80% off the price you would pay at retial store

Technical Specifications - Voltage: 6V

- Battery: NiCd

- Connector Type: Standard Tamiya

- Dimensions: 12" Long x 2 5/8" Wide x 1 1/8" Thick

- Weight: 3 Lbs Oz.

Price: $49.95

Solar Panel Nicad Battery Recommendations

Nicad batteries are fairly well suited to solar power charging, and I've made several adjustments to reduce to the minimum the possibility of overcharging. First, by using 12 cells, I have fairly nearly matched the voltage of the panel to the voltage of the battery.

The panel is supposed to produce 16.5 volts (I've measured up to 20.5 volts at no load), and 12 cells, when fully charged, should reach a maximum of 17 volts, although the normal peak voltage will be somewhat less. I never saw the nicads reach a voltage above 16.58 (in 2003, the batteries never reached above 16.10). Second, by using 5.7 amp hour cells, I have matched them to the maximum output of the panel, which is .6 amps. Charging at a rate of 1/10 or less is supposed to be a very safe way of charging a battery. The other technique I used to avoid overcharging was to disconnect the panel from the battery if the battery was fully charged but not used.

NiCad batteries have an OCV of 1.25 V per cell. Ten cells make up a 12 volt battery. The voltage of a NiCad battery rises higher when approaching 100% charge than a lead-acid battery. For this reason it is recommended to use a 36 cell solar panel and not a panel with less cells. Even a 33 cell solar panel behaves like a self regulating panel with a 12v Nicad battery bank.

For battery charging applications, the operating voltage of the module should be at least as high as the charging voltage of the battery. This is higher than the battery's output voltage. A single NiCd battery has a typical output voltage of 1.2 volts, but requires 1.4 Volts for charging purposes. A 12 Volt lead acid battery needs a charging voltage from 14 to 15 Volts. In cases where a blocking diode is required to prevent the battery from discharging through the solar module when the module is in the dark, an additional 0.6 V is required. As an example, a battery pack with 3 NiCd batteries, which operates at 3.6 Volts, needs a module with either 4.2 or 4.8 V depending on whether a blocking diode is used.