Some Final Thoughts
on Batteries.
Batteries serve two purposes,, as storage to keep the lights and electric blanket on at night;
and as a buffer during the day when the solar panels are providing their peak output, but the microwave, washer, dryer, compressor,,, welder, planer and table saw,, and everything else,,, are absorbing some, none,, or more than the available output of the panels. The battery makes up the difference, and charges if it's less.
Day is when you are using your power,, in big chunks.
Inverter capacity and sizing become critical, as well the the ability of your controller to squeeze every available watt from the panels.
I spent several hours after viewing Will's presentation re-reviewing lithium battery availability and pricing.. There are indeed a lot of people getting into lithium battery storage,
at levels that vary from Will tying 8 x 3.3V x 43 AH cells together to make a 24V battery,, to the massive storage installations going online in Australia.
This is going to put the old time of day metering used by the electric utilities on its head,, where they tried to get you to shift your vacuuming to the evening, away from peak day use. Now,, of course,, the peak power is available during the day,, and the grid is on battery after sundown.
My best efforts found new lithium to be at least 3x, closer to 4x, more expensive than lead acid pricing. I understand that if you take care of your lithium battery, it has almost unlimited life. And,, you can safely discharge lithium deeper,, so you need less of a lithium battery capacity to equal that of LA. And you don't have the weight,, annoying water usage, and some stinky gassing.
Will talked about $600 for 2400 wh of lithium; I buy 11,340 wh of Golf Cart batteries at Costco for $800
I've had very good luck with these,, but I've learned some lessons along the way. One thing,,, keeping the electrolyte level just over the tops of the plates really cuts down on gassing and water usage. I try to maintain a quarter inch cover.
I haven't added water since December,, and my batteries get exercised a lot.
Little things: We used to run the dishwasher when we went to bed. Now, we do it in the morning when the sun shines. I used to crock pot beans overnight,, now I do it in the afternoon when I have too much power. We turn the electric blanket on through the afternoon,, turn it off when we go to bed. If you have a dry bed,, you really don't need an electric blanket at night.
It drops to a bone chilling 62F at night,, pretty consistently. The humidity varies more than the temperature.
I have two banks of 8 x 6v x 225,, and am going to finish with a third. I will be back in the battery market in 2025,, with luck,, and fully expect that Lithium will have taken over the battery world.
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Originally Posted by Daddy-YO
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