A commonly used term in the battery industry is Ah and mAh, below is a description of what these terms mean.
What is ampere-hour (Ah)?
An ampere hour is one ampere per hour, or 10 amperes for 1/10 of an hour and so on. It is amperes x hours. If an application consumes 20 amperes used for 20 minutes, the number of amp-hours consumed is 20 (amperes) x 0.333 (hours), or 6.67 Ah. The accepted number of Ah used in solar panels and backup systems (and for virtually all cyclic AGM batteries) is the “20 hours. This calculates the total discharge to 10.5 volts over a 20-hour period while measuring the total amp-hours delivered. Sometimes 6 hours and 100 hours are also used for industrial batteries because that is a typical daily cycle. Sometimes 100 hours is used to make the battery look better than it actually is, but it is especially useful for calculating battery capacity for long-term amp-hour requirements.
What is milliampere-hour (mAh)?
Milliamp-hour calculates how much a battery discharges in the span of one hour. Higher numbers here show higher battery life or higher storage capacity. High mAh ratings don’t necessarily show speed, but mostly battery life. For example, a 2000 mAh battery retains 2000 milliamps (2 amps) for one hour before it discharges to a voltage level that can be considered discharged. 1700 mAh (1.7 amps) retains 1700 mAh for one rental. 1000 mAh equals 1 ampere hour (aH).
