Dielectric grease and battery temp Q's

Grease, battery terminal "paint", etc. all seem to help. Just keep the connections clean and tight. Ventilating, especially during charging/EQ charging helps keep the electrolyte "mist" from the terminals and wiring--Probably where most of the corrosion issues start. And there are battery caps designed to reduce misting and electrolyte losses:

https://www.flowsystemsusa.com/

I lived near the coast for years, and salt fog was a killer for anything metal/electrical--Phone lines were poor, electrical panels rusted quickly.

The standard engineering rule of thumb for "life" (of almost anything) vs temperature is--For every 10C (18F) rise over "room temperature" (25C/77F "typical") is "the thing" will age 2x faster. For 20C over (45F), the "thing" will age 4x faster.

Conversely, for every 10C drop, the thing will age at 1/2 as fast or last 2x longer.

This rule of thumb also applies to storage--Say you have a standard deep cycle battery that needs charging every 30 days (if not kept on float charger). If stored at 95F, they need recharging every 15 days. Similar for AGM batteries which need recharging every 6 months of storage, but need recharging every 3 months at 95% storage.

Need thing with this rule of thumb... You can compare the cost of A/C (installation, power, maintenance) vs the cost of battery bank replacement if operated at 77F vs 95F (I.e., 1/2 life of bank).

Obviously there are lots of variables that affect battery life (cycle life, charging and depth of discharge, temperature, using plain water vs distilled, battery design and construction, etc.) too.

Batteries used for UPS systems are generally designed for "float service" (kept charged, rarely discharge). They will last many years with proper servicing. Cycle them deeply (such as 85% state of charge, or deeper), and they will usually need replacement "soon".

Deep Cycle batteries (I am only talking about lead acid) are designed to discharge to below 50% SoC. And Deep Cycle batteries--Some folks will discharge them below 75% SoC once and recharge or twice a year to help extend their "float life".

Try to never take almost any rechargeable battery dead, and avoid reverse charging--Where some cell voltages go "negative".

Monitoring Specific Gravity levels (for Flooded Cell Lead Acid or FLA batteries), keeping cells "balanced" with Equalize Charging (as needed, some are once a month EQ recommended), don't over charge/over heat batteries, etc. all can help.

And there are times when Battery Mfg's screw up and turn out a Lot of batteries that just fail early. Or truckers mishandle pallets and dump out electrolyte/expose plates to air. Batteries sit on the warehouse floor for months without charging and sulfate, etc... Lots of possible mistakes out there.

-Bill