Create Date: October 13, 2024
Last Modified Date: January 30, 2025
To calculate battery capacity, you must know the value of two variables: voltage and stored energy. Then you can use this formula and plug the values into it to get the battery capacity:
After using this tool, you will get a single number as your result that is displayed in ampere hours, by default. This number reflects how long the battery can last when running a single amp current. When using ampere hours, if the current is two amps then the battery capacity would be half that number, three amps would make the battery capacity one third of that number, and so on.
You can change the unit of measurement to milliampere hours, when you do this the number itself changes but it is still equal to the original ampere hours value you initially saw.
If you are trying to find out the battery capacity of something you are in the right place. You can use this tool by following these steps:
You have a battery that is 12 volts. It has a stored energy value of 60 watt-hours. You can plug these numbers into the formula we provided above, or use our calculator to do the math for you.
We enter 12 into the voltage field and then we enter 60 into the stored energy field. After hitting calculate we get our battery capacity answer of 5 ampere hours, or 5,000 milliampere hours.
The first true battery was invented by Alessandro Volta in the year 1800. It was called the voltaic pile and was stacked zinc and copper plates separated by cloth that was soaked in saltwater. In 1836 John Frederic Daniell invented the ext version of a battery and called it the Daniell Cell.
The first lead-acid battery was invented in 1859 by Gaston Plante. This was also the first rechargeable battery. It became very important in society as it would be used in automobiles and power backup systems. Then in 1899 the first nickel-cadmium battery was invented by Waldemar Jungner. This was rechargeable and had a much better capacity than other types of batteries.
There were other forms of batteries created through the years. It wasn't until 1991 when the lithium-based batteries that we know of and use most today were invented. This is the type of battery that was used in many different electronics and has been developed further to this day.
Battery capacity should matter to you, it determines how long you can use something before you need to replace the batteries or charge them. It also dictates how long it may take to charge them back up.
Once a battery is under 20% it is generally considered to be low.
Extreme heat is one of the most common causes of deteriorating battery health.
Amp hours, or ampere hours, is a unit of measurement for a battery's energy capacity. This value tells us how long the battery can last, depending on the amps drawn from it. If you have a battery with 8 amp hours, it can provide 8 amps of current for one hour, 16 amps of current for half an hour, 4 amps of current for 2 hours, and so on.
A 100 amp-hour battery can last for one hour if it is delivering 100 amps of current. If it is only delivering 50 amps, it can last for 2 hours, if it is delivering 200 amps it will only last 30 minutes.
Understanding battery capacity can be difficult if some of the terms and keywords used are not ones you understand. Here we shed some more light on some of these terms.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Voltage | This is the force or pressure pushing electric charges through a circuit. |
| Capacitor | An electrical component that stores electrical charge. |
There are many interesting things that can be shared about batteries. Here are some of our favorites.
The world's largest battery storage system is the Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility in California that holds 3,000 MWh of battery capacity.
A Tesla Model S Plaid has the energy capacity of about 8,000 AA batteries!
A single AAA battery contains about 1.8 Wh of energy. This means that a 12-pack of AAA batteries has almost as much energy as some iPhone batteries.
