Want to calculate your own charge time?

Common questions regarding chargers are:

• How long will it take to charge my batteries?
• How long can I keep my batteries in the charger without them overcharging?

There is no single answer to these questions, it all depends what type and size of battery you are charging and what charger you are using.

With regards to the size and type of battery you are charging, it depends on the capacity of the battery, basically the higher the capacity of the battery, the longer it will take to charge.

The type of charger used will have a bearing on the two questions posed above, the main one is the charge current of the charger. This is the amount of current the applied to the batteries in order to recharge them, in general terms, the higher this current, the shorter the charge time. There are a number of reasons why it is not simply a case of increasing the charge voltage in order to reduce charge time, if you would like to find out more information about charging issues please look at our industrial website www.cellacksolutions.co.uk.

There is a general formula when it comes to calculating charge time shown below:

The figure of 1.2 in the numerator (top of the equation) comes from the fact that you need to put 120% energy into the battery to get 100% (full charge) out of the battery. This figure may sometimes be seen as 1.4, this value I generally used when slow charge techniques are used. Slow charge is generally thought of as being when the charge current is less than 10% of the battery capacity. I.e. if the battery has a capacity of 2000mAh, 10% charge current would be 200mA.

This formula is also based on nickel based cells (NiCd or NiMh) which are taken to 0.9V per cell before charging; again it should be stressed that this is an approximation formula and should not be used if you require precise charge times and characteristics.

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