The lead-acid battery capacity rating describes the number of hours at a given current, which is best described as what?

The lead-acid battery capacity rating describes the number of hours at a given current, which is best described as what?

• A. Voltage Rating
• B. Capacity Rating
• C. Current Rating
• D. Energy Rating

Answer: (B)

The main idea is what the rating tells you about how long a battery can run at a certain draw. A lead-acid battery’s capacity rating expresses how much charge it holds, usually shown as ampere-hours (Ah). If you pull a steady current I, the time you can keep delivering that current is roughly t = Ah / I. So describing “the number of hours at a given current” is exactly what capacity measures. This isn’t about voltage, which is the potential difference the cells provide, nor about how much current you can draw at once (that’s a current rating). It’s also not an energy rating, which would be watt-hours and combine voltage and capacity into total energy. An example helps: a 100 Ah battery delivering 5 A would last about 20 hours (100 Ah ÷ 5 A).

The main idea is what the rating tells you about how long a battery can run at a certain draw. A lead-acid battery’s capacity rating expresses how much charge it holds, usually shown as ampere-hours (Ah). If you pull a steady current I, the time you can keep delivering that current is roughly t = Ah / I. So describing “the number of hours at a given current” is exactly what capacity measures.

This isn’t about voltage, which is the potential difference the cells provide, nor about how much current you can draw at once (that’s a current rating). It’s also not an energy rating, which would be watt-hours and combine voltage and capacity into total energy. An example helps: a 100 Ah battery delivering 5 A would last about 20 hours (100 Ah ÷ 5 A).