Blog Archives
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Battery Myth No. 4
By Todd Allen - Tuesday May 7, 2013
True or False: You don’t have to charge at night. False: Most GSE chargers are “opportunity” chargers. This means that it’s safe to charge a battery for short periods of time, when there’s an opportunity. By plugging in periodically during the day, the state of charge of the battery remains relatively high and reduces or eliminates the need to get the battery to 100 percent at night. But in opportunity charge mode, the battery’s state of charge doesn’t get above 80 percent. Then two bad things happen: First, the electrolyte begins to “stratify.” The acid sinks to the bottom and the water rises to the top. Second, the battery begins to sulphate. The acid that went into the plates during discharge... -
Battery Myth No. 3
By Todd Allen - Monday March 25, 2013
TRUE OR FALSE: Electric vehicles just transfer emissions from the vehicle to the power plant generating the electricity used to recharge the batteries. FALSE: While there's some truth to this trade-off, electric GSE represents a really good trade! Electric vehicles still have a carbon footprint, meaning that carbon dioxide is produced in the total operation of the vehicle. It takes a lot of electricity to recharge batteries, and most of that electricity is generated by a power plant burning fossil fuels. Using the U.S. average, approximately 10,000 pounds of carbon dioxide is generated every year to operate a single bag tractor. That sounds like a lot, and it is. But a comparable diesel tractor generates approximately 75,000... -
Battery Myth No. 2
By Todd Allen - Tuesday February 26, 2013
TRUE OR FALSE : Cold weather is bad for batteries. FALSE : Batteries like the cold. Lower average battery temperature means longer life expectancy. A typical baggage tractor battery weighs well over 3,000 pounds, which is too much mass to lower the internal temperature over the course of a day or two. Hopefully, the battery is being used and charged, which generates heat and maintains temperature. And even if the internal temperature drops, the electrolyte in a charged battery will not freeze. So in most cases, even freezing temperatures don’t make any difference at all, and possibly they even help. There is some bad news, however: Lower internal battery temperature means lower capacity : A cold battery could deliver as... -
Battery Myth No. 1
By Todd Allen - Monday January 28, 2013
(EDITOR's NOTE: Ground Support Worldwide welcomes back Todd Allen, Allen Energy, who returns to write a monthly blog on electric ground support equipment.) TRUE OR FALSE: You must fully discharge a battery or it will develop a “memory.” FALSE : Industrial lead-acid batteries found in electric ground support equipment do not develop a memory. Many people believe that if you only partially discharge a battery, it will “remember” a typical discharge level. And then it will not go past that level when you need more power. I believe this myth originated during a period of time when Nickel-Cadmium and Nickel Metal Hydride batteries were popular in consumer electronics. People would charge their devices after a short period of...
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