Renewable Energy Questions/Discussion > Solar (heating or electric)
Batteries, help a newbie
jamie aust:
Hello All,
This is my first solar install and I'm looking for some help.
I have 9x 250w panels, 2x pmmt chargers, going into 8kw inverter, input 24v dc out 240 Ac .
I would like to know what brands are good in Australia, I already know what volt / amps hours I need.
I know if a battery has a CCA keep clear of them. A lot of deep cycle batts can be misleading also.
Any thoughts on golf cart batts?
Batt bank will be 24v and as many amps as I can.
Best bang for buck is what I'm after.
Thanks
Jamie
gww:
I am a usa guy but believe some here are from where you are. You might also post on (thebackshed) website. Ask them what they use. I believe some here also frequent that site but it might widen the exposer of you question among those who should know.
Good luck
gww
oztules:
The best bang for buck will come from Trojan T105 series.
They are the "holden car" of batteries... ie common, and probably the best value for money.
The T105-RE are slightly better from a RE perspective, as the plates are even more robust, and they are physically bigger to carry more water.. less maintenance.
The best technology for a newbie is most probably wet batteries ( flooded), as there is far more chance of recovering from over charging and a myriad of other faults that can occur with your own system.
Your solar can charge maybe 3-4 strings of 24v batteries with a c10 charge.. or 80A for a bit of the day anyway.
You will in every likelihood ( like most of us do) , kill your first bank off earlier than you should as you learn to maintain a battery bank and get your system finalized and working the way you anticipated, and thats another reason to not use an expensive fancy technology first off.
So the RE version of the T105 is probably favorite, but any golf cart battery will give excellent service if you find some other brand MUCH cheaper... otherwise a few dollars more for trojan is probably money wisely spent.
In a previous life I bought many hundreds per year for floor scrubbing machines, and in that industry, Trojan seemed to be the battery of choice throughout the industry in Melbourne at least.
......oztules
jamie aust:
I can get my hands on some Rejuvenated 12 volt Deep Cycle Battery Golf Cart batts, (T-1260) 3 month warranty up to 85% of new battery capacity.
My question is, how do I tell when this type of battery is no longer any good and need replacement ? Should I be looking at its fully charged voltage as the key ?
gww:
Just my opinion, I never have luck with warranty new or used. Some of the new if not bought at a close location want you to ship the battery to them. New warranty is usually 80 percent of capacity. That makes 85% close to bad. They would have to be really cheep. I bought 7 batteries for $10 each. Four ended up being good enough to use. One exploded when put under a heavy load. That was pretty dramatic. Just something to think about. No matter what you buy you need to know what to charge it at. Give it a good charge then equalize until sg's quit rising and write the sg's down for every cell then you will know what you started with and when that changes.
gww
PS most don't use 12 volt bats for re, they use 6 volt or 2 volt cells, also a warranty sucks if you have to use it, usually everything has to be disconnected maybe not used then reconnected. If you just want to play, used is fun but if you need to rely on it maybe not so much fun although if cheep enough it is good to test stuff with.
PS PS I can still sell the ten dollar battery that blew for ten bucks even if it cost me 20 bucks in gas to get it to the salvage yard.
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