Things You Need to Know About Road Solar Light Battery

Road solar lights have been widely installed to replace traditional street lights in some areas.  The biggest difference between these two type of lighting systems is the power supply. The electricity of road solar light comes from the renewable solar energy. In the day, the photovoltaic panels absorb the solar light, transfer the solar light into electricity and store the electricity in the rechargeable battery. At night, the electricity will be used to power up the street light under the command of controller. Traditional street light use electricity from the power grid. Lifespan of road solar light is taken into consideration by most investers. Among all the key components, rechargeable battery would be the most significant role to affect road solar light lifespan. When using road solar lights, some measures need to be taken to increase the lifespan of rechargeable battery.

1. What factors will affect lifespan of road solar light battery?

Deep discharge

The depth of discharge has a great influence on the cycle life of the battery. If the battery is often deeply discharged, the cycle life will be shortened, which will affect the normal operation of the battery. According to the load power, the less each discharge of the battery accounts for its total power, the longer the battery lifespan will be.

The temperature of the environment

Generally speaking, the battery lifespan of road solar lights will decrease as the ambient temperature rises. Judging from the external parameters of the battery, the voltage has a great relationship with the temperature. When the temperature rises by 1℃, the voltage drop of a single cell drops by 3mV. An increase in ambient temperature can easily cause over-discharge of the battery. High temperature will also bring about the phenomenon of battery loss of water and thermal runaway. The lifespan of batteries with poorer quality will decrease rapidly after the temperature rises, and some will be damaged even after less than a year of use. Under normal circumstances, road solar light manufacturers will bury the battery deep in the soil to ensure a constant temperature of 20 degrees Celsius, and minimize the impact of the environment, which can effectively extend the service life of the battery.

Overcharge

Charging the battery will electrolyze the water into oxygen and hydrogen. If the overcharge is severe, a large amount of oxygen will be released. Since oxygen has a strong oxidizing property, the precipitated oxygen will also corrode the electrode plate, detach the active material of the electrode plate, and affect the service life of the battery.

2. How to Increase Lifespan of Road Solar Light Battery

Control the ambient temperature. In most places where battery packs are used, the ambient temperature is controlled at about 25 degrees. Experiments show that if the ambient temperature increases by 10 degrees without adjusting the charging voltage, the service life of the lithium battery for road solar lamps will be shortened by half.

Replace the faulty battery in time. If the battery is severely corroded and cannot be used, it needs to be replaced so as not to affect the service life of the street light.

Prevent the battery from overcharging or over-discharging. The life and performance of the road solar light battery are closely related to the heat accumulation inside the battery. The phenomenon of thermal runaway is a unique phenomenon caused by the structure of the valve-regulated sealed battery, which will cause the battery to be scrapped in severe cases. To prevent overcharging, it is necessary to provide the charging voltage value strictly according to the manufacturer's instructions. The depth of discharge is closely related to the number of charge and discharge cycles (service life) of the battery design. For example, when the depth of discharge is 5%, the number of cycles is 10,000. When the depth of discharge is 50%, the number of cycles is only 800. Severe over-discharge will cause the battery to be unable to be activated to the best state, or even scrapped.