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Depth of discharge

Depth-of-discharge (DoD or DOD) refers to how much low a deep cycle battery is taken before recharging. DoD is the inverse of State of Charge (SoC). Example: a battery at 30% DoD is at 70% SoC.

For solar powered systems the greatest DoD (and therefore lowest SoC) will be in early morning just before the panels start creating power again.

DoD has a significant impact on longevity of deep cycle batteries. For this reason Inverters and other high-load devices may have a low voltage cutoff.

The most common discharge limit for deep cycle batteries is 50% DoD. This gives a good balance between usability and longevity. The lowest cost per Ah occurs around 20% DoD although this requires buying, installing, and moving dead lead or unusable battery capacity.¹⁾ The cost per Ah increases significantly after 50% DoD due to battery replacement.

One can choose to run the batteries quite hard in emergency or temporary conditions with the understanding that it will likely “hurt” the batteries to some degree. Consistently going past 50% DoD will greatly reduce the battery's usable cycles. Some studies suggest discharging to 80% yields 1/10th the number of cycles available at 20%.

The voltage level associated with 50% DoD is widely discussed. 12.1v rested is generally used as 50% State of Charge (SoC). A more conservative approach uses 12.2vdc rested.

Since resting is rare in most practical scenarios stopping at 12.2vdc under light loads would be a practical approach. DC expert SternWake²⁾ says:

“…those who are loading their battery and stop at 12.2v are treating their battery better, just not using all the capacity they could and perhaps seriously inconveniencing themselves by thinking they need to stop at this point, especially if the loads are fairly large, like while running a laptop and watching tv and while their fridge compressor is running.”³⁾

By this yardstick both of these uses should keep DoD from going beyond 50%: