A comparison of batteries for the MECS project

Three different batteries of different chemistries and different design have been purchased and tested for use with efficient electric cooking appliances. These are: 1. Lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4, also known as LFP). 2. Valve-Regulated Lead Acid (VRLA). These units were manufactured by Yuasa. 3. Lead-Carbon, which is like lead-acid but with reported higher tolerance to deep cycling. These units were manufactured by Leoch. In the context of the MECS project, the batteries are required to operate cooking appliances. In off-grid applications they are needed to store solar PV electricity. In weak-grid or mini-grid applications, batteries are needed to store electricity for later use, when grid electricity is more expensive, insufficiently powerful, or unavailable. All the batteries tested have a nominal capacity of 100Ah and a nominal voltage of 12V. In the case of lead-carbon, a single 100Ah battery was used. In the case of VRLA and LiFePO4, two 50Ah batteries of each were used to make a total of 100Ah when connected in parallel. See Appendix for details of specific batteries.