SJC69
Club Member
CCA is just another method used of stating a battery capacity and primarily stated for batteries used on starter duty rather than for storage or back up and other uses. Optimally the design of a battery is determined for it's primary type of use, so on starter duty you expect it to be able to deliver a high capacity output very quickly for a short period of time, rather than a steady discharge for a long period of time.
What this means is if you use a battery designed for a Fire Alarm i.e. back up of the same Amp Hour capacity rather than one designed for starter duty, the ability of it to deliver a high capacity, very quickly will be a lot lower and it will not perform as well and most likely not last as long as that sort of use can damage it.
Starter duty type batteries generally cost more than stand-by batteries!
The CCA, as said will be rated and tested in a specific method and under certain conditions, all batteries will deliver lower outputs at lower temperatures, this is defined by the laws of physics and chemistry.
The stated CCA will have to be met or to a near percentage under the most undesirable parameters of the test, so quite often at normal UK ambient temperatures it will exceed this by some margin.
This can be shown when battery conductance tests are carried out and the results are given as state of health normally in a percentage can be above 100% and the CCA well above the rating of the battery. These of course are not infallible and are an indication as to the expected performance rather than an exact test of performance delivery, but conductance tests have many advantages over the Load Discharge testing.
So back to, the higher the CCA rating the less work the battery has to do rather than a lower rated battery.
This is a result from a very cheap unsophisticated conductance tester with no reference value or temperature adjustment but shows the new battery well over the Rated CCA!
Additional Reference Info:- Conductance FAQ
What this means is if you use a battery designed for a Fire Alarm i.e. back up of the same Amp Hour capacity rather than one designed for starter duty, the ability of it to deliver a high capacity, very quickly will be a lot lower and it will not perform as well and most likely not last as long as that sort of use can damage it.
Starter duty type batteries generally cost more than stand-by batteries!
The CCA, as said will be rated and tested in a specific method and under certain conditions, all batteries will deliver lower outputs at lower temperatures, this is defined by the laws of physics and chemistry.
The stated CCA will have to be met or to a near percentage under the most undesirable parameters of the test, so quite often at normal UK ambient temperatures it will exceed this by some margin.
This can be shown when battery conductance tests are carried out and the results are given as state of health normally in a percentage can be above 100% and the CCA well above the rating of the battery. These of course are not infallible and are an indication as to the expected performance rather than an exact test of performance delivery, but conductance tests have many advantages over the Load Discharge testing.
So back to, the higher the CCA rating the less work the battery has to do rather than a lower rated battery.
This is a result from a very cheap unsophisticated conductance tester with no reference value or temperature adjustment but shows the new battery well over the Rated CCA!
Additional Reference Info:- Conductance FAQ
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