# Renewable energy battery blunders



## Falfrenzy (Aug 20, 2018)

I hope linking is allowed. Thought this was a well written article, really opened my eyes to what it takes to have a productive battery bank.

https://www.solarpaneltalk.com/foru...eral-batteries/388601-top-10-battery-blunders


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

That's a good article, and there is a *lot* of interesting reading on that site.


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## JohnP (Sep 1, 2010)

I guess I did pretty well with ours. Golf Cart batteries that everyone says will last 2-3 years with solar newbies but after 6-7 years, they were still kickin. Never did get an accumulative amp meter. Just went by voltage which isn't very accurate but I tried to never let them go below 11.8vdc. Most components have a safety that shuts things down when it gets to 10.8vdc.

The Xantrex C40 charge controller, with it's reputation for being bullet proof, is what went first. Inverter went out last year but I still have the batteries, 10 years later. They get maintained by an RV converter/charger. I need to clean the terminals and check the water. It's been a while. 

It was 4 GC batteries, the C40 and 300 watts of panels, which sit on the roof and do nothing now. I just know if I spend $150-200 or more on another charge controller, the batteries will crap out in no time. I do need to get an inverter though. It would be nice to have our cordless phone and dsl modem/router plugged into one again. We do streaming TV and could sit and watch TV when the power's out. Phone lines are underground and rarely have a problem.


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## Falfrenzy (Aug 20, 2018)

JohnP said:


> I guess I did pretty well with ours. Golf Cart batteries that everyone says will last 2-3 years with solar newbies but after 6-7 years, they were still kickin. Never did get an accumulative amp meter. Just went by voltage which isn't very accurate but I tried to never let them go below 11.8vdc. Most components have a safety that shuts things down when it gets to 10.8vdc.
> 
> The Xantrex C40 charge controller, with it's reputation for being bullet proof, is what went first. Inverter went out last year but I still have the batteries, 10 years later. They get maintained by an RV converter/charger. I need to clean the terminals and check the water. It's been a while.
> 
> It was 4 GC batteries, the C40 and 300 watts of panels, which sit on the roof and do nothing now. I just know if I spend $150-200 or more on another charge controller, the batteries will crap out in no time. I do need to get an inverter though. It would be nice to have our cordless phone and dsl modem/router plugged into one again. We do streaming TV and could sit and watch TV when the power's out. Phone lines are underground and rarely have a problem.


What loads/appliances did you run with the batteries when you were off grid? Lessons learned?

Why did you make the decision to not continue to cycle and maintain the system?


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## Darren (May 10, 2002)

It's a great article. I disagree on sulfation ending the life of the battery. I've been able to reverse that. Lots of car batteries get junked when they can be brought back. I expect lead acid batteries in alternative energy system do the same.


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## Meinecke (Jun 30, 2017)

Article is dead


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## JeepHammer (May 12, 2015)

RIP Home Power Magazine...

My first two years... Learning to make my own battery cables!
My biggest issues were with the cheap "Made In China" junk sold as "Battery Cables".

Bought a 'Bolt Cutter' style terminal crimper, 
Bought welding cable & good terminals,
Used silver bearing electrical solder & industrial grade heat shrink tubing,
And my cable issues went entirely away. (And I was SO HAPPY!  )

I already knew not to use anything but distilled water in batteries, so I didn't kill my batteries that way.

I scrounged around & got steel case fork truck batteries.
While they won't run a fork truck for 8-10 hours, still plenty of life for to run my inverters!
The best score is 'Dead Cells', simply cut the bridge to the dead cell and use a cable to jump right over it.
The good news... While I purchased them for 'Scrap Weight', recycle prices went up and when the batteries finally died I actually made some money!

I started 20 years ago,
So my system is mostly hand built from modular parts.
Each battery string has it's own solar panel string, 
Each string has it's own de-sulfidator & charge controller.

While it's not as 'Easy' as all in one inverter, charger, de-sulfidator, etc...
Having the battery strings isolated allows me to run different age, size, types of batteries.
Say, golf cart batteries in one string, steel case as another string, super caps in another different string, Tesla S or LiFeP04 batteries in yet another string.
Different charging requirements isn't an issue with a modular system vs a combined system.
There is a crap load of redundancy built in with a modular system, one string or inverter fails, you are still up & running.


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