Sizing a Battery Bank - Part 1
The easiest way to size a battery bank is to begin by calculating how much electricity you use in a day. Because electrical consumption varies from month to month, your best bet is to determine monthly consumption and then determine the daily rate during the month of greatest consumption.
Once you determine how many killowatt-hours of electricity you will consume per day during your most energy-intensive month, you must make an educated guess as to the number of windless days that occur in that time. That's how long your renewable energy system will be sidelined by a lack of wind.
In most cases, renewable energy designers plan for three days of no wind. Battery banks are then sized to meet one's electrical needs for three days. Longer reserve periods - five days or more - may be required in some areas.
Note: backup fossil-fuel generators are often included in off-grid systems, since they can reduce the need for a large battery bank.
Let's now look at an example to see how this works. Let's suppose that you, your business or your farm consume four kilowatt-hours (4,000 watt-hours) of electricity a day on average during the most energy-intensive month. If you need five days of battery backup, you will need 20 kilowatt-hours of storage capacity (5 days x 4 kilowatt-hours).
by Daniel Coelho
Marketing and Sales Manager at SILENTWIND
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.silentwindgenerator.com












