|
Greetings solar siblings
I posted a question about finding used batteries a few months
ago and I wanted to thank all those who responded and ask for some follow-up
advice.
I located through a friend a 3yr. old set of AGM
batteries. They were unused and sat uncharged on some distributor's
shelf.
They were charged and load tested by my friend with state of
the art equipment - he is an engineer with a battery manufacturer-and they
tested out at 100% capacity.
Now for my ? The battery is 410 amp hrs. at 24volts .
Problem is my load calculation for my system is approx. 133 amp
hours/day
which makes this battery a wee bit small for my needs. My
friend assures me that these are great deep cycle batteries and they can take
the abuse. They were originally designed for deep cycle use but they worked so
well for float use that most of these batteries were sold to telecoms and we
know telecoms aren't buying much of anything these days.Anyway my investment in
these batteries so far is goodwill and a little bit of sweat so I am not out if
they quickly die.
Other relevant info. I am planning on 12 SP-75
Siemen panels (900 watts) to charge this battery. I haven't decided on an
inverter yet. I really like the Exeltech XP -1100 it is
clean and big enough to power everything I have except a piggish air compressor
I have-but the downside for it is the lack of sleep-mode and the 10watt constant
draw.I am also considering the Statpower Prosine 1800 which is big enough even
for my energy hog, sleep mode, etc. but I have a bit of an anti-Xantrex
bias.
Back to the battery conundrum. one idea I had was to set
up a small 12volt system to power things like answering machine, cordless phone
charger, and a few lights. this could take some pressure of my 24v AGM batt. and
provide some redundancy. On the other had do I really want 2
systems?
Thanks to anyone who makes it thru this long saga and
can laugh, cry or advise
Chris
| 
