Home Modular Upgrade 102 AH Watt Inverter Deep Cycle

Modular

SUNBOX was designed to be durable, easy to maintain and expand.

Most UPS systems use integrated electronic component boards (ICB). These systems are not upgradeable and it is not unknown for the failure of a single small component to render the whole system unusable.
The cost of replacing these component boards out of warranty can be prohibitive.

The main electronic components used in SUNBOX are completely integrated but separate modules.

Failure of one component will require replacement of that component and not the whole electronic system.
This model also allows for some components to be easily upgraded.

Upgradeable

The modular design of the SUNBOX range allows some flexibility in upgrading and enhancing your base system.

By adding the BATBOX, battery storage are increased by 204AH (i.e. doubling the usage time of the Basic SPARKBOX)
Upgrading the build in AC chargers will reduce recharge times.
Upgrading the inverter allows more appliances to be used at the same time.
Adding more solar panels will reduce recharge times as well as dependence on mains power.

There are however limits and cost consequences related to some upgrades.

  • Upgrading from a Modular Wave to a Pure Wave Inverter, while possible, will require rewiring of the system. (minimal service fee)
  • Upgrading the inverter to a more powerful version will reduce the run time of the system unless additional battery storage are added. (Cost of BATBOX)
  • Adding more solar panels might require more solar controllers and some rewiring (depending on the configuration of the base unit)

Back to top

Lead Acid Battery Amp Hours (AH) Specification Defined

The Amp Hour (AH) specification provides a measurement of battery capacity.  In other words, it is an indication of how much energy can be stored by the battery.

A typical Amp Hour specification might read, “102 AH @ 20HR”.

The specification is saying that the battery will provide 5 amps of current at a usable voltage continuously for 20 hours.  The “5 amps” was calculated by dividing 100 by 20.

Similarly, a battery with a specification that reads “150 AH @ 15 hours” will provide 10 amps of current at a usable voltage continuously for 15 hours.

It should be noted that a usable voltage is considered to about 10.5 volts and above on a battery that is under load (or has devices connected).

IMPORTANT! Having defined the AH specification, it is important to understand what the Battery Specification does not say.

A Common Misunderstanding Associated with Amp Hours

Consider the 100 Amp Hour battery. As indicated above, it will provide 5 amps of current for twenty hours while maintaining a voltage above 10.5 volts.

A common mistake is made when it is assumed that the 100 AH battery will also provide 100 amps for 1 Hour.  It won’t.  In fact, a battery of this type may only provide about 40 minutes of continuous 100 amp service at best.
This is due to a well known characteristic associated with lead acid batteries. Specifically the capacity will decrease as the rate of discharge increases.
In other words the relationship between battery capacity (how much energy is available) and the rate of discharge is not a linear one.

The phenomenon being described here is known as Peukert’s law.

Back to top

Power Terminology

Watts

The poor watt is often misunderstood. Watts are basically just a measure of how much power a device uses when turned on, or can supply. A watt is a watt - there is no such thing as "watts per hour", or "watts per day". If a something uses 100 watts, that is simply the voltage times the amps. If it pulls 10 amps at 12 volts, or 1 amp at 120 volts, it is still 120 watts. A watt is defined as a bunch of Joules per second, so saying watts per hour is like saying "miles per hour per day".

Watt-Hour

A watt-hour (or kilowatt hour, KWH) is simply how many watts times how many hours that is used for. This is what most people mean when they say "watts per day". If a light uses 100 watts, and it is on for 9 hours, that is 900 watt-hours. If a microwave uses 1500 watts, and runs for 10 minutes, that is 1/6th of an hour x 1500, or 250 WH. When you buy power from your friendly utility (look at your last bill), they sell it to you at so much per KWH. A kWh is a "kilowatt hour", or 1000 watts for one hour (or 1 watt for 1000 hours).

Amps

An amp is a measure of electrical CURRENT at the moment. (Amps do not come in "amps per hour" or "amps per day" either). Amps are important because it determines what wire size you need, especially on the DC (low voltage) side of an inverter. All wire has resistance, and amps flowing through a wire makes heat. If your wire is too small for the amps, you get hot wires. You can also get voltage drops in the wire if it is too small. This is not usually a good thing. (An amp is defined as so many electrons per second).


Amp-Hours

Amp-hours (usually abbreviated as AH) are what most people mean when they say "amps per hour" etc. Amps x time = AH. AH are very important, as it is the main measure of battery capacity. Since most inverters run from batteries, the AH capacity determines how long you can run.

 

Inverter Terminology

Pure Sine Wave

Pure Sine wave is the same as the power you have in your home. It is very clean and is the optimum for performance. Please take look at the graph below. You will notice the wave is very smooth. This smooth pure sine wave is most efficient. Therefore, appliances such as TVs, computers and stereos run cleaner and easier. Also, Pure Sine wave generates less heat than other waveforms.

Modified Sine wave or Square wave inverters

Modified Sine wave is an output that tries to imitate pure sine waves but comes up a little short. Nevertheless, modified sine wave inverters have their advantages. Modified sine wave inverters are great to run appliances and equipment such as power tools, non-digital microwave oven, lights, and other motor driven loads.

The main downside to modified sine wave output is slight interference. This interference can be seen on some televisions and computers. It will not cause any damage, but can be a little annoying. The upside to modified sine wave inverters is they will run most appliances, and are very affordable.

Sine Wave Modified Sine Wave Square Wave
Sine Wave Modified (Quasi) Sine wave Square Wave

Back to top

Deep Cycle

Deep cycle batteries are designed to be discharged down as much as 80% time after time, and have much thicker plates. The major difference between a true deep cycle battery and others is that the plates are SOLID Lead plates - not sponge. This gives less surface area, thus less "instant" power like starting batteries need. Although these can be cycled down to 20% charge, the best lifespan vs cost method is to keep the average cycle at about 50% discharge.

vs.

Starting (sometimes called SLI, for starting, lighting, ignition) batteries are commonly used to start and run engines. Engine starters need a very large starting current for a very short time. Starting batteries have a large number of thin plates for maximum surface area. The plates are composed of a Lead "sponge", similar in appearance to a very fine foam sponge. This gives a very large surface area, but if deep cycled, this sponge will quickly be consumed and fall to the bottom of the cells. Automotive batteries will generally fail after 30-150 deep cycles if deep cycled, while they may last for thousands of cycles in normal starting use (2-5% discharge).