I have almost no experience whatsoever with the technicals of electronics so this is probably a very easy question for someone who does.

Do you know if a battery with a 200Ah rating can put out 200A for one hour or are there limitations? According to this website's third paragraph ([Battery Ratings - Chapter 11 - Batteries And Power Systems][1]), you can.

> For example, an average automotive battery might have a capacity of about 70 amp-hours, specified at a current of 3.5 amps. This means that the amount of time this battery could continuously supply a current of 3.5 amps to a load would be 20 hours (70 amp-hours / 3.5 amps). But let’s suppose that a lower-resistance load were connected to that battery, drawing 70 amps continuously. Our amp-hour equation tells us that the battery should hold out for exactly 1 hour (70 amp-hours / 70 amps), but this might not be true in real life. With higher currents, the battery will dissipate more heat across its internal resistance, which has the effect of altering the chemical reactions taking place within. Chances are, the battery would fully discharge some time before the calculated time of 1 hour under this greater load.

But wouldn't that mean you could hook up a 200Ah battery and ask it to put out 12000A for one minute or 720000A for a second?  That seems very unrealistic, lol.  I'm trying to find the proper kind of off grid battery that can power a microwave through a 3000 watt power inverter.  The microwave needs 1800 watts and the battery needs to be 12 volts so that would mean I need about 150 amps, I'm wondering if a battery with a 200Ah rating could do it?


  [1]: http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_1/chpt_11/3.html