Battery Glossary – mAh / MilliAmpere Hours

mAh (MilliAmp Hours)one method of measuring the total amount of energy a battery can store at one time.  The higher the mAh rating, the longer a battery will last under any given load and the longer the battery needs to be recharged after it has become depleted.  A battery can be replaced with a greater or lesser mAh rated unit as long as it is close.

mAh ratings are generally used for batteries that power smaller applications such as household toys, remote controls and smoke alarms as well as industrial applications such as backups for smaller Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC) or Computer Numerical Controllers (CNC).

For larger applications Ampere Hours (aka Amp Hours and Ah) are used instead.

1000 mAh = 1Ah

A common misunderstanding is that a 500 mAh (0.5 Ah) battery will power a 0.5 amp appliance for an hour but the reality is more complex. Both Ah and mAh ratings are calculated using the same methodology which is explained in Ah, Ampere Hour or Amp Hour.

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